Brazil it was...

Tuesday we awoke to more rain. It rained all night and today the front of the property looked like a river flowing through it. It just seems damp all of the time. Unfortunately, the rain doesn’t cool down the temperature much at all. It is just a warm rain to go with the hot days down here. Not complaining, mind you, just stating the facts. Since we are limited with kitchen utensils and cooking gear, the ladies have to offer the same basic meals. Breakfast was scrambled eggs, cereal, and bread. Morning devo was led by Jorge Del Bosque, the summer intern from Texas. George is a wonderful guy and is a real fireball. He is 42 and has been battling colon cancer. He gave a testimonial of how God is working in his life and how he has been able to use his trials for good. To say he is focused and on fire is an understatement. He is completely fluent in Spanish and is picking up the language here quickly.

Today we had our food give away. We assembled 150 bags of food Monday night and the first give away was at 11:00 at the camp. 50 families came and had a Bible lesson before leaving with the food bags. After lunch the majority of the team loaded the bus to travel to 4 distribution sites to give out the rest of the food. Rain did not stop most of the families from getting out to receive the food. The team was gone for about 5 hours and then went to the mall for dinner at the food court.

A small crew of 7 stayed back to continue the painting and assembling projects. Since the church pews were finished the construction team began building picnic tables for the dinning hall. They build 4 new tables to go with the existing ones. There are now 12 tables in the dinning hall. The paint team continued working on 2 of the murals. The mural of David and Goliath has become a much bigger challenge that we expected. We have limited paints and some a water based and others oil based. Quite a challenge to say the least. We worked until 6:30 and then 4 of the crew went into town to eat while 3 of us decided to stay put. Devotionals tonight were held in our rooms.

Wednesday we saw the sun again. It was really hot and humid today. We had breakfast (we cleaned up all of the left overs) and had morning devotional. Today was a wrap up session and “pep rally” for the team. Some of the team members left today to go on to Salvador where they will continue working for another week. We cleaned camp, gathered linins, returned borrowed mattresses, and swept the place clean. A few of us finished up the murals before loading up the bus. The camp definitely looked a lot different when we left. The dinning hall was completely painted from top to bottom along with the picnic tables. We painted the center part of the outside of the building (all 3 floors) and painted a Torch Missions logo at the entry. The entry was painted along with the stairwell and part of the second floor as well. A flag of Brazil and the camp logo finished out the artwork.

We ate lunch at the School of the Bible ($2 for rice, beans, spaghetti, chicken, and drinks!) and then headed over to a nearby orphanage. Several of the 65 children were still in school but there were still about 30 children there to play with and to give out toys. We stayed there for over an hour before leaving to go to the church building. Tonight we are being fed by the members here and then spending the night. Most of us are leaving before dawn so we decided staying at the hotel was going to be a waste of money.

This is my last entry till we get back to the states. People are flying everywhere in the next few days. It has been a wonderful trip and one that I will not forget. Brazil is a fantastic place to work and visit and I hope several of you out there will consider going next year. Next year’s dates will be May 30 – June 14.

Just a couple of weeks, literally, and the first Honduras team will be leaving for Tegucigalpa. Hope you are excited, I know I am!!! Until later, May God continue to hold us in the palm of His hand.

TR