Adopted.

Today was our last day with the kids at the orphanage and therefore was definitely the most emotional day for all of us. Some of us expressed what has been seen/felt/bottled up with tears, others through silence and absorbing the environment, and others playing hard in the last few moments with the kids. Our time at the orphan house was similar to the last two - futebol with the older boys (though some of us are still recovering from injuries in yesterdays game), swimming in the freezing cold pool in our clothes (Coach Ryan even joined in today!) and more fun and games with the other kids. After serving lunch, saying goodbyes and handing out a bunch of candy, we walked down to the main administrative office and the boys' house a few blocks away. The "owner" and Director of the orphanage was there to receive boxes of things we brought from the US for the kids and then gave us a tour of the house with explanation of the program.

Happy Child (the name of the program) began 15 years ago when a girl at YWAM (youth with a mission) was in Brazil and heard of street kids getting arrested and shot just to get them off the streets. She was so moved with compassion and felt she had to do something to stop this from happening again. Throughout a process of connecting with the right people and gaining adequate funds, she was able to start the orphanage on a farm property outside of the city. Throughout the 15 years the program has been running, Happy Child has rescued over 4,000 kids from off the streets. Seventy percent of the funds the program needs for functioning and employees are from the government (ie the government is VERY MUCH on board with the program and brings kids to them frequently) and the other 30% of funding is from people in Brazil who believe in the mission. It usually takes kids about 4 years to get back to "normal" and then the next step is evaluated from there.

This is where our hearts really melted with compassion for these kids. While some are sent back to their families, circumstances permitting, the majority of the kids remain in the house until they are old enough and able to move out and get a stable job with income. The Director said that kids under the age of 10 are more likely to get adopted, though thats not very frequent. Over the age of 10 and you can pretty much count on the kids not being adopted. It breaks my heart/all of our hearts to now know some of these kids personally and think that they will not have a mom or dad to go home to at any point in their days as a child. Praise God that He is the Father to the fatherless and "adopts" us as sons and daughters into His Kingdom through His Son. We wait in hope for that day when we will see Him as our Father - together with all the orphans and those with earthly parents...please pray for these kids, their caretakers and the future homes where some of them will have the opportunity to go.

We finished this afternoon with a trip to an ice cream place for the Brazil famous "Açai Berry Treat" - much like a sorbet with bananas and granola on top...DELICIOUS (though not everyone was a fan, it was SO worth the trip!) Then we had an evening of bowling in Belo...went to two different bowling alleys before we could actually get lanes to play on, but then still had to wait. We divided into 6 teams of 3 - lowest score of the 6 had to jump in the pool tonight (Abbie, Tina, and Brazilian friend Diana) and the top score (Ryan, Shawn and Brazilian friend Guy) gets ice cream tomorrow, purchased by the 5th place team (Anna, Victoria, and Brazilian friend Shuri). Third place team (Elizabeth, Shelbi and Brazilian friend Ailene) dont have anything to "buy"/do, and the 4th place team (Gretchen, Janice Kelly and Brazilian Fabiana) will buy the second place team (Val, Mara and Brazilian Gisele) Guarana (GREAT Brazilian drink here!) at some point tomorrow. Needless to say, we had a competitive night of bowling with some pool excitement to close out the deal :)

The girls and I closed the evening with devotions tonight - we are considering how to take "life in Brazil" back to Birmingham with us. How can we live intentionally where we are in Birmingham, each in our different lives? How can we be radically obedient to care for the physical and spiritual needs of those around us? Please pray that the Lord would continue to work on our hearts in our last day here and that we would return to Birmingham changed for the glory of His Kingdom in, through and around our lives.

V-I-C-T-O-R-Y!!!

VICTORYYYYY!!!!! We beat the Brazilian girls (American School) this afternoon 4-2! Coach Ryan's pregame tactical training with Brazilian oreo cookies laid out in positions on the table proved to be great preparation for us. We played GREAT and definitely held our own out there - it was awesome seeing our Briarwood step up to the challenge and battle it out to the end. Every girl left everything within her on that field, and we even walked away with a few battle wounds that will hopefully heal by the morning ;) It was great to have a 1-1 draw with this team so that we could display Christ in both a loss and a victory. The American School girls came back to the house for dinner (and dancing, of course!) again after tonight's game and relationships that were built Monday were strengthened tonight. And on a personal note, I connected with a girl who plays at State University of West Georgia and rooms with a girl who I played club soccer with in Atlanta - small world!!! Great opportunity to keep up with her being so close to Birmingham!!

We all slept in this morning (and some girls had a really hard time getting up...) then went for a walk across the street to the future site of the 2014 World Cup. Our Brazilian friends Diana, Shuri, Gisele and Ailene tried SO hard to get us into the stadium for one picture...we begged and begged every security guard at every gate but failed each time :( Great pics from the outside but no luck getting in!

Tomorrow we'll go back to the orphanage for our last day with the kids. Pray for continued opportunities to share and that the kids would receive the love of Christ from us first, then see His love and grace in our giving of gifts to them as we part.

Gods grace is blowing us all away here - great day and looking forward to finishing strong this week.

Miss you guys!

Taste and See that the Lord is Good!

And another GREAT day!
We're all worn out tonight, myself included, so here is today summarized in 5 bullets:

- Morning kicked off with a girls Bible study/devotion on loving those we're around and especially in the context of the love of Christ (Ephesians 3:16-21). We charged into the day seeking to "love it all out" in that we wanted to make sure that we walked away from the orphanage today having held nothing back.
- Within the first 30 minutes of arriving at the orphanage, we had three girls from our team in the freezing cold pool water IN THEIR CLOTHES swimming with all the kids. By the end of our time with the kids, we had four members from our team soaking wet and everyone else sweaty from more futebol with the boys and time running around playing with the kids. Games from "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" to hand shakes to silly bands and even nail painting were poured out and participated in from and among our group, and I believe we all walked away from there this afternoon saying we'd left it all there...
- Trip to the Market downtown with our Brazilian friends for more shopping...another cultural experience and opportunity for us to grab some great souvenirs and gifts for our people back home!
- Baby Beef Brazilian Steakhouse...need I say more!?! AMAZING dinner. Ill leave at that ;)
- Finally (last bullet for the night) in a personal/team reflection: God is good and big and real and personal and loving and relational and purposeful and...we are humbled at what we are getting to experience this week. Thank you to all who have helped in any way to get us here. We have been "stripped" from the regular lives we're accustomed to and put into a context that has led us to be spiritually recharged in a way that will produce fruit in the days "post-Brazil"!!

TOMORROW:
Getting some rest for our game at 4pm (REMATCH!!! GO AMERICANAS!!!!)
10:30am, walking across the street to one of the main professional stadiums in Belo Horizonte in hopes to get a tour inside/at least get to see the field!?! The 2014 World Cup opening and finals games will be played in this stadium!!

PRAY:
For the opportunities that were opened from yesterdays game to continue to grow and for relationships to be built between the girls at the school and members/leaders from Comunidade Horizonte.

Game Day!

Our bodies are exhausted but our minds are charged tonight! We played a team from the American School in Brazil (the girls are mostly Brazilian with a few from other countries around the world. The school is just like any other school in Brazil but focuses on English as well). There were a few standout players on the American School team, but for the most part we held our own pretty well!! The score was 6-3, American School, but the last three goals were scored in the last 5 minutes when our Briarwood tanks went empty :( Had we kept the energy level up the game would have been at least a draw and maybe even a win for the Americanas!?!

Best of all from the night was the ministry opportunity that sprung from our game against these girls. We invited them back to our house for dinner and had another evening of great food, dancing and socializing with the girls and their families. Relationships were built after competing against each other and then sharing a meal together - Futebol is truly an international sport and bridges any and all potential cultural gaps. I think we all as a team need to step back after a day and night like today/night and praise God for blessing us with a passion for and ability to play soccer and be Ambassadors for His Kingdom through the sport this week...

The Brazilian leaders from Comunidade Horizonte will be following up with the relationships that were built (and will be built on Wednesday after the rematch :) with the American School girls and their families.

This morning was another "mountaintop experience" for the team - literally! Our Brazilian friends drove us to the opposite side of the city up the mountain to two different lookout areas that overlook the entire city of Belo Horizonte. I dont think any of us had ever seen anything like it; picture a city filled with sky scrapers, tall apartment buildings, houses, office buildings, streets and villas/slums planted in and among rolling hills and tons of greenary...5 million people live in this city and the majority of them do not know Christ. 5 million people without knowledge or acceptance of a Savior. We prayed. We prayed for the city, for Comunidade Horizonte, for laborers to rise up for the harvest, for strength...We prayed in English and in Portuguese. It was a morning of stepping back from the distractions that crowd our hearts and minds and focus on whats in store for eternity..."Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." (John 17:3)

Tomorrow we will go back to the orphanage and play with about 75 kids from 10-3 (same place and mostly same kids from Saturdays experience). Pray that we can again seek to overcome the language barrier and that we would be the hands and feet of Christ to these kids tomorrow. Our team is growing closer and closer by the day, and we are moving forward through this week as one family and the united Body of Christ! Pray for continued unity and relationships built among our group that will further lead us to serving each other and this city we are in!

Belo

Today was a great day of cultural experiences in the city of Belo Horizonte. After a late night last night, we were able to sleep in and head out to the Hippie Fair later in the morning. There were hundreds (actually probably a few thousand) people packed in the streets filled with tents and vendors of all sorts of Brazilian cultural things. Us girls turned our "shopping instincts" on and went from vendor to vendor getting the best deals on jewelry, bags, shoes and dresses. We all left with GREAT deals and awesome cultural souvenirs and gifts! Our Brazilian friends from Comunidade Horizonte (the Church we're working with) took us through the market and then walked us through the streets of downtown Belo to a great cultural buffet eating experience. We were able to try all original Belo dishes, including chicken heart and a full roasted pig!!

This evening we went to the 6pm Comunidade Horizonte service and worshipped with our Brazilian community here. It was great to see faces we met at the Welcome Party last night, and the service was translated for us through personal headsets we were all given at the beginning of the night. Pastor Raoul spoke on Truth (fitting...) He began the sermon with, "Why did Jesus come to earth?" While many answers from the congregation were true regarding redemption, our salvation and showing Gods love, the main message was centered around John 18:37-38 when Jesus says that He came to testify the truth. Pilate then asks Jesus in verse 38, "What is truth?"
We were challenged to ask ourselves this question...do we know the Truth? What is the truth? And if we believe it, how are we living as if we do? A great point that Raoul made was that we dont have to do something so great and elaborate in order to "live our lives for God." Instead, he directed our attention to 1 Corinthians where Paul talks about God using the weak things of the world to shame the strong. We can be "effective" for the Kingdom by being anonymous people who have surrendered their lives for the sake of the Kingdom. All this to say, we were challenged tonight to seek Truth in Christ as the only way, and to realize that giving our lives for the sake of the Gospel is not for our glory but rather for the glory of God and advancement of the Kingdom. Great Word for our lives both here in Brazil and for going back to the States next week.

We've had the opportunity to meditate on truth from the Word and also what the Lord is teaching us individually and as a group while we've been here. God is opening up all of our eyes and minds to the reality of the world around us, and while it is a hard thing to see and feel, we know that we are becoming more like him as we seek to feel the compassion He has for His children in Brazil and around the world.

Tonight closed with the entire teams favorite meal of the trip thus far at Donna Margheritas - an awesome pizza place in Belo. It was "service buffet style" and all you can eat. The pizza was like CPK, but better quality and more flavor/ingredients/types than our American CPK. After all of us had a few quality pieces (including chicken and cheese, anchovie, broccoli, pepperoni, four cheese, mushroom, hawaiian and the list goes on...), they began to bring out some dessert pizzas. These included chocolate and coconut pizza, dulce de leche, chocolate fondue with strawberries, and bananas foster pizza....we all ate as much as we could possibly fit in our stomachs!!! We're definitely not going hungry on this trip... ;)

Tomorrow we will get up early and leave for a morning of touring, lunch at the house and early afternoon of rest before our soccer game against the American School at 4pm. This game will be used as an introductory ministry opportunity for the Church to meet and get acquainted with the parents and girls at the school in hopes to continue these relationships after we leave.

Pray that the families would be open to getting to know the Comunidade Horizonte leadership team and its members during and after the game tomorrow.
Pray also that the Lord would continue to teach and show us more about His children here in Belo and that our eyes would be opened to see what He sees and feel what He feels.
Thanks for your prayers - Bom Noite!

Truth Through Actions

Nearing the completion of our first full day, Im listening to John Mayer's "Free Falling" playing in the main gathering social area of our house. The tempo of tonight's Welcome Party has been one of the best dance parties we've seen with songs progressively moving from Grease Soundtrack to ChaCha Slide to Brazilian rap and Justin Beiber. We've all danced the night away here and just concluded at Futebol game under the lights (only two American bleeding feet...of course the Brazilians either had thier prime party shoes prepared to play if the opportunity came or were able to tough it out without any blood :) The Welcome Party had a dual purpose tonight - 1) to Welcome the Americans to town for their week of missions and 2) to gather the community of the Church and those who are "investigating" in a social setting. Id say based on the past 5 hours, it has beyond served both purposes.

This morning we got up and went about 20 minutes away to an orphanage home where we played Futebol literally all day. We were unable to communicate with most of the kids directly ourselves, however the volunteers from the Church who were fluent in English helped to translate some conversations. One of our girls pulled out some scripture and shared the Gospel through a translater to three girls ages 10, 10 and 12. These girls said they would be interested in talking when we come back on Tuesday, so please pray for another open door to share with them. The boys were AWESOME at soccer - dribbling around us in circles and making us dizzy...however we were able to hold our own at points throughout the day and we actually won the "official timed" match by a golden goal in the last second between us girls and the older boys.

There were about 70-75 kids there today - all have come from at-risk situations in the streets and are now cared for through an orphanage program. The Church does "VBS" style outreach programs with them and we were there to help, dance and give piggy back rides as needed, as well as play a LOT of futebol. Going into the morning, we meditated on 2 Corinthians 2:3-5 that says: "For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified...my message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words but with a demonstration of the Spirits power, so that your faith might not rest on mans wisdom but on Gods power." Also 1 John 3:18 which says: "Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth."

We have a language barrier present here...while we could look at it as something to "overcome", it should be considered as a blessing of opportunity to witness Gods power at work through our actions and love. We are foolish to thiank at any point that OUR words are of value - words and same-languages are definitely a benefit and "pro" to sharing the Gospel, but words or no words, and "fruit" and furtherment of the Kingdom here will be by the Spirit of God alone. We are blessed to be a part of His futhering of His Kingdom and the bringing of Heaven to earth.

Pray that our actions would speak louder and clearer than any words we could ever speak. But pray too that our Portuguese would be sharpened an refined throughout the week to speed the process and aid in relationship building with the kids and Brazilians who we meet!

Tomorrow is the Hippie Fair! We will be going into town to a market where everything is "authentic Brazilian made" and then touring some in the afternoon.

Thanks for your prayers - we are having a blast :) Miss you all!

We Made It!

After nearly 24 hours of travel, we finally made it to our "missionary house" in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. The 7 hour layover in Miami and 8 hour plane flight seemed to go by pretty fast due to the eccentric personalities on the team :) We were the "airport entertainment" for the evening as we played Ninja and made friends with other international travelers. It was Gretchen's first time on an airplane so the two flights were celebrations for the group as well!!

Praise God for safe travels (and that all of us made it here with all our bags!). The place we're staying this week is a home across the street from the UFMG campus in Belo and just a few blocks down from a huge Futebol stadium where some of the 2014 World Cup games will be held! We entered into the home to see balloons and a Welcome sign on the wall and a table full of Brazilian snacks and treats to tie us over before lunch. The Brazilian culture is very relational, so the people here have been so intentional about getting to know all of us and are taking GREAT care of us! We enjoyed a lunch of spaghetti and chicken meat sauce and then passed out for some deep sleeping naps for the afternoon. All of us feel a bit "off" but a good night's sleep tonight will help!

Dinner was cheesy mashed potatoes, beans and rice and chicken fingers. After dinner we had "orientation" and learned about the neighborhood, church who we're working with and the culture of Brazil (as well as some portugese to help us get by...) The girls and I are meeting nightly to go over the devotional that was given to us by the Church leaders. Tonight we read through Philippians 2:1-10 and the humility of Christ. Pray for humility for us tomorrow - that we would become like the children and love them through the challenges of the language and cultural barriers.

Tomorrow we will leave here around 9:30 for Soccer with the Social Project (kids 10-17) from 10am-3pm, then we'll come back to the house to clean up, rest and prepare for the Welcoming Party which will be held here at 7pm (about 70 people coming to our house!!)

Continue to pray for our safety, the team, the kids and community who we're working with and that the Lord would lead us to make the most of every opportunity before us - for His Name's sake among the people of Brazil and also the work He's doing in each of our hearts this week.

WE LOVE YOU FAMILY!!! :)

TOMORROW!

Team Brazil leaves tomorrow and already we've been down on our knees before the trip even began. We had our final "team meeting" yesterday, and the news of the day was that we were still missing 5 visas - 4 of them being the "adult/leader" visas. In order to get them, they would have to be overnighted on Tuesday or picked up in person on Wednesday...through a series of phone calls, connections within the challenging Atlanta Consulate and personal connections in Atlanta, the passports were able to be picked up by my mom (miraculous act, really!!!!) and will meet Ryan half way between ATL and Bham for us to have for the flight tomorrow. Praise God, we are all able to go tomorrow!

Pray for our travels - safe, swift and time for preparation of heart and mind as we enter into a week of a lifetime. May the Gospel go forth from our lips and actions this week!!!