Pictures are up!!! Go to the churches flickr site and see some pictures. This is still just a small sampling of the hundreds of pictures that we were taken.

Daniel

Teaser

Here are some pictures to preview.

Safe and Sound

Just a quick update to let everyone know that we arrived safe and sound! Sunday will be the official presentation day, with reports from Aggie, Dale and Debbie coming later when they get back from their (planned) extended stay in Brazil.

To John: Pictures will be arriving shortly. :-)

And we are off!

Momentarily we will be packing up the bus and heading to the airport. This has been a great week but many of us are ready to come home!!!

We will see you in a few hours!

Renae

Another Chapter Closed

It's 4:30 Monday morning. Last night the team officially wrapped up their ministry in the Cariri Valley, and in approximately 30 minutes they will be heading North torwards Fortaleza, and tomorrow towards home.

The last couple of days have been eventful, and so have not allowed us the opportunity to update. Saturday morning we helped run the Awana program at a small "church plant" just outside of Juazeiro. At 7:00am we hit the remote, dirt roads and began going door to door inviting children to come to Awana. The houses we went by were very poor. The house right next door to the church did not even have the customary wall around it, and, as the people we were working with informed us, had actually been robbed about a week before. We were able to minister directly to that family by giving them $160 (reals), the equivelent of at least 3 months salary.

Many children came with us, and by the time the groups returned to the church there were 90 kids in all! The games, songs and story time all went well, and when we left that place we wished we could stay longer.

There's much more to tell about the rest of Saturday and Sunday (including a group of American guys actually scoring a soccer goal on a bunch of Brazilian guys) but the bus awaits, and we must begin our trek north.

Thank you for your continued prayers, comments and emails. We look forward to seeing you soon.

Daniel Comings

A normal day? Could it be?

To my knowledge, nothing broke, nobody was injured, and we went everywhere we needed to be! Wow! Praise the Lord!

This morning we hopped on the bus with Jim Leonard and his two daughters to hike the mountains surrounding the Cariri valley. Jim is the administrator at the Baptist Seminary and one of the missionaries that Andrew and Itacyara work with. Our hike took us to a peak that overlooked the valley. From that vantage point we could literally see almost all of the mission field where Andrew is ministering (as well as all the places in the valley we had been). We got some amazing pictures (which will one day make it to the website), and amazing perspective of God's working in the valley as Jim Leonard explained different churches and works being done in the area.

For lunch we the Leonards graciously hosted the team at their home, and served something that many had been longing for....American food....well....technically Italian food, lasagna and breadsticks. During this time the guys played some carpetball and even got our bus driver in on the action. Some of the girls from the Peace Baptist Church youth group were also there, and we enjoyed the interaction with them and the Leonards.

In the afternoon we toured an area deaf school administrated by John Peterson (a missionary), and ended up doing the skit "Friend of a Wounded Heart." Since we weren't planning on doing this we didn't have the music....but we were at a school for the deaf, so that didn't really matter, and the students really enjoyed it. One of the believers stood up and said that the believers in the group liked it so much that they were going to copy it and use it. The students also gave each of us names in sign language. Very cool.

We wrapped up the afternoon with another session at the American English School. This one didn't have as many students, but we still enjoyed the interaction and continuing the friendships that had been devoloped throughout the week.

The day ended with a social time at the seminary. The brazilian students had put together several games, not dissimilar to awana games that often pitted the Americans against the Brazilians. I must say that the Americans held their own, and Andrew and Daniel even won a match of four-way tug-of-war.

Prayer Requests:

Please pray for Andrew as he has much to prepare for the week-end.
Please pray for the group as they minister to young children tomorrow (Saturday). These children will come from very poor home environments, and may give the group their most challenging but most rewarding ministry yet.
Pray for Andrew's voice, Emily's throught and the overall health of the group.

Thank you for all your prayers!

Daniel Comings

We're up and running

The bus arrived back to the Seminary around 12pm today. It is fixed and ready for more riders. We are VERY excited and very relieved.

This afternoon we will be going to a English school again. Yesterday we were suppose to go shopping with the students, but that will actually happen today. Pastor, most of the money I have to spend is in cash, so I'm still loaded...or as loaded as I can be. And since you asked, no I don't have anything for you yet.

There was a monkey siting this morning, but no carmera was present. Rich has plans to go back with a camera and just wait.

The weather is great again today. This morning there were no clouds and a nice breeze. We just checked on the weather conditions for Tuesday and Wednesday and there is little to no rain forcasted for the cities we will be flying through.