Wow!! I truly am speechless at this whole experience here in Brazil! My heart is so full to see how our team is coming together and working so hard these last few days. I am more than honored and blessed to be here with WinShape Camps as we show the love of Christ to these Brazilians! I honestly could live here forever ☺. It’s so beautiful and the people here are so amazingly kind and loving!! It’s great!!

Yesterday we had another fun filled day that kept us busy and gave us another great night’s sleep! We had the most delicious lunch prepared by Mr. John and Andre – a Portuguese barbeque. I have never tasted food so good! That’s one thing that we all can’t get enough of around here – FOOD! Everything we have put into our mouths has been delicious! After our feast of yummy food we had some more time to train with our team. We practiced some skits and some more music. We are starting to get the hang of some of the songs….kinda! Portuguese is harder than you think – it’s not like Spanish at all. We were able to hear the testimony of our friend Lina and her team from Giannopoulos (that’s probably not spelled right so don’t go try to look it up- sorry). She has with her a group that has started such an impactful mission for children. It was so uplifting and exciting to hear how God is working through their ministry. After their testimony they gave us some gifts, homemade necklaces and broaches for the girls and key chains for the boys. They were beautiful! They told us that they didn’t have much, but what they had they wanted to share with us. We are so thankful for them and how they help our team with translating and music time and sooo much more!

After the rest of training and getting things ready and packed for camp the next morning, we were treated to some delicious watermelon from Dona Gon Gon (I just love her!). That’s another part of this country that makes me never want to leave it, the fruit! It’s all so fresh and tastes so good! After our watermelon we got showered up and ready for church.

Church was an unbelievable experience! We sometimes forget that God is the God of the WHOLE world and knows all languages. And at church it was so wonderful to see how the Brazilians worshipped. It was a more contemporary church, which is not the typical church here in Brazil, and everyone there was so welcoming and kind. We sang some praise songs in Portuguese that we sing back home, like God of Wonders and Mighty to Save. It was so beautiful to hear them praise the same God that we praise way back home in America. Then the pastor got up to welcome everyone and asked us if we knew the song Mighty to Save, and of course we did and he then asked us to all stand in front and sing that song. OH WOW! We all of sudden got a little nervous, to say the least. But we willingly stood up and all sang Mighty to Save in English for the church and you could definitely feel the Holy Spirit moving in that church. It was all a huge mix of English and Portuguese but God understood every word and I’m sure was dancing in Heaven! Once we sat down the pastor shared a sermon on how to make the church a more welcoming place – this was only understood by the help of Marney! He said he wanted the church to become a place that people could come and feel loved, not be afraid of what people will think of them or what God will think of them. It was a powerful message followed by some more singing. It was incredible!

Then after church, more eating…YES! We headed to a pizza place that was again..delicous! We all had too many slices because they just kept coming and coming. It was not pizza like we have back home. We all loved it! We laughed and shared lots of stories…including some fun ones about team one (Carol Erica…”Hands up?? Baby, hands up??? Haha). And LB, Fufa shared his song with us. Thanks for teaching it to him…we love to hear him sing it.
Then we headed home for the night. It rained really hard on our way home, which made Fufa slow down a bit, believe it or not! Once we got back to the house we had a short pow wow…interrupted by me (Ashley) screaming and jumping because while I was walking in a wasp or something flew up my skirt and bit me when I sat down in the living room. Poor Angela Hubenacker thought I was upset about something she said….but I was just trying to get the wasp out from under my skirt – not my proudest moment to say the least! ha

Then it was time for bed! Praise the Lord for comfortable beds and getting a full nights sleep!

Then it was back up at 5 am to start the day! We all were anxious to be up and ready this morning and get the day started. We all had some quick breakfast and loaded up the van and took about a 45-minute bus ride (sorry team 1) to our church. We arrived this morning at the church we will be working at all week. We all set up and were so excited to get the day started. Kids started showing up and we knew that this was it! Green team, lead by Brittany, is tied with the Blue team, lead by Mallory, with being the biggest group. And then Jacob has a group of four 11-year-old boys, and he loves them! We kicked off the day with our icebreakers, which included our skit (John David, Alison, Mallory and Ashley were the stars today) and our Janie Bird song…the chicken dance! They loved it!! It was funny to see them try to figure out what in the world we were doing at first, but they came around. Then we headed to Grange Grupo (large group time) and kicked it off with Round Up! PHEW- what a way to kick off the morning! We sang some other songs both in Portuguese and in English. These kids love to learn in English and do a way better job at us than learning Portuguese. Then we started our skill times. Each group went to each skill for about 20 minutes or so today. They all went great. Josh did an awesome job showing oobleck, which the loved! Jessica has really been working hard on learning her Portuguese and it has helped during crafts time. And Speedy is just loving being a counselor again showing these kids how to play games. We are absolutely loving every minute of this!

The day ran smoothly and we have all had a ton of fun but are EXHAUSTED. In fact I am the only one awake right now from out team, they are all sleeping around me on the floor/stage/pews. So I think it’s my turn to nap now too.

But before I go, please continue to pray for our team as we give these next few days our all. Pray that barriers would be broken through language and understanding and that the Holy Spirit will be filled in this place, we know He is doing a great work already!
Oh and tomorrow is Alison Nichol’s birthday! WAAHOOO!!!

Mallory has a permanent look of confusion on her face trying to understand Portuguese

Alison gets to sweat like a man four times a day…thank you Round Up!

Brittany’s seven and eight year olds have turned in to four and five year olds…GO VERDE!

Speedy is loving being a camp counselor again

Brenche (or Brent) is thankful that our drive is only 45 minutes every day

Josh is oobleck may cause laughter

John Gigange (the giant) is all round up and wants LB to know that he actually fits in the bed…and wishes to be in it right now

Angela Hubenacker is the lifesaver today with all the water bottles!! Obrigada!

Julie is learning more Portuguese but still using flashcards! Oi, AG and D!

Nicole is fast asleep on stage…dreaming about Keenan I’m sure!

Angela Fielder is learning how to run a Portuguese computer

Jacob is dancing in the aisles with the four awesomest 11 year olds in Brazil

Kaylen’s competitive side still shines through, as she plays clean up my bedroom here in Brazil

Jessica is a creek turned craft leader…Otimo!

Mrs. Trudy is always prepared especially when it comes to nap time with her trusty travel pillow

Mr. John thinks the Brazilians soundboards are crazy!

Ashley (me) is having so much fun loving on all these beautiful Brazilian children (Rafiki I wish you were here to see their precious faces!!)