The First Ever Day of WinShape Camps International Project

Wow! How amazing our time in Brazil has been so far! We each feel like we’ve been here for more than a week when it has actually only been two and a half days. All of the Brazilians have been very hospitable and have made us feel at home and we are becoming fast friends with our Brazilian teammates. We have definitely united as one team in Christ.

 

Last night, we had the awesome opportunity to attend a Brazilian church service. Most of us did not understand most of what was happening (at all!), but it was so neat to experience the way they worship the Lord. Angela and Tiffany did great job sharing their testimonies with the congregation and they were both a great encouragement to us all. After church, we headed to a local pizzaria and tasted some of the finest pizza in the world as well as drink our fill of Brazilian soda called “Guarana”.

 

The next day, Monday, we woke up at 5 am to have a quick breakfast and hit the road. It took us about two hours to drive to the church where we would have our first day of camp. We were all full of anticipation, not knowing what to expect when the children arrived. At 8:30, the children started to arrive and we began by singing and dancing to the Janie Bryd song “Hands Up”. The children loved it and soon joined in with the hand motions. Next, Jimmy, Keenan, Melodie and Juliana did a skit for the children introducing the theme for today: “You can have joy only in Jesus!” When we went to have big group time with the children, we sang songs in portuguese and Melodie taught them the song “My God is so Big” in English.  One of our Brazilian teammates told the children the Bible story of the five loaves and two fishes. After the Bible story, we were able to give the children a little mid-morning snack.

 

We then had three different small group activities for the children. The first was art where the kids got to each draw designs on giant fish. This group was headed up by Adrianne. The next group was wacky science where we made the slime like substance “Oblect” or “Masa Magica” and let each of the kids play with some. Next was recreation where the kids really enjoyed playing several different American games.

 

We had one camp for the kids in the morning, and we repeated the program in the afternoon for a different group of kids. For our first group, the children were slow to come and we were sort of dissapointed, but God knew exactly what he was doing. He knew that the 35 kids was all we could handle for the first run though of camp. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise. During the afternoon, we had about 60 children. Today was a whirlwind of new experiences and activities and I cannot wait to see how God is going to display Hid glory this week.

 

That is pretty much the overview of what we did today with the kids, but I cannot even descibe what we experienced while interacting with the children. Being able to see their faces brighten when they found out that we came all the way from America to tell them about God was incredible. I’m pretty sure we have all fallen in love with the kids here and seriously wish we could bring them all back home.

 

John – Helped Keenan with the games.

Trudy – Was the interpreter/sweeper for wacky science.

Carol Erica – Used her Energizer Bunny energy to get the children excited for the day by leading the “Round Up” song.

Lauren – Was the photographer for the day and did an excellent job of capturing every moment.

Kristin – Registered the children and gave them wristbands.

Adrianne – Led the children in an amazing art project.

Savannah – Is excelling in learning Portuguese.

Melodie – “Chocolate cake for breakfast? I LOVE it here!”

Tiffany – Was the team leader for the Blue Team.

Keenan – Headed up the recreation and was brokenhearted because Nicole didn’t answer her phone.

Leslie –  Was in charge of the sound and PowerPoint for the big group time.

Juliana (Me) – Played translator and represented “Joy” in the skit.

Tricia –  Is so excited to see all the preparations come together and become a reality and is thrilled by how well the first day went.

Angela R – Was onstage doing the hand motions for the Brazilian songs.

Jimmy – Was Professor Jimmy in wacky science.

 

Thank you so much for your continued prayed support. It is definitely a great encouragement to know that you all are supporting us in prayer.

 

With love from Brazil,

The WCIP Team

 

 

 

 

 

Posted in: 2009,Brazil,WSCIP