Brazil thurs

We had another good day today, seeing more relationships get built and progressed.  This morning, some of the girls went to a local high school with their new Brazilian friends.  One of the guys went to a local high school early, and then all of us went on a quick tour of the local university.  Pretty interesting.

 

In the afternoon, the girls had a girls only lunch and then went to the mall, again with a bunch of Brazilian girls.  Us guys scoped out a park where we will be doing some replanting and rebuilding.  The park is right in the McMs neighborhood and is a potential trouble spot if the community lets it get run down.  We then drove through some parts of Londrina as well as checking prices at a local hardware store.

 

We met up with the girls at the mall for dinner and then went to G´s house for game night, where they taught us a Brazilian card game, had some music and hung out with more Brazilian students.  One of them was a mad, mad card magician.  A and F also did a little talk about their relationship, who Jesus was in their lives and why that was important.

 

We are continuing to make and build relationships with these students.  In addition, GMcM told me that he felt like we were really helping him make some inroads with their parents as well.  They are building a reputation of creating a safe place for their kids, with good and wholesome activities.  G´s mom mentioned to GMcM how great she thought A&F´s talk was. 

 

The card magician, M, was quite a dude.  Not only was he really good at cards, he was a Rubiks cube whiz, and a violin virtuoso.  Seriously.  Where do kids like that come from?  Those are the types of kids that will engage culture and shape and define the future.  If they aren´t Christ followers, then the future is in jeopardy.

 

A few of our students have commented on how ethnocentric Americans are.  At least two of them have decided that they will learn another language when they get home.  One of the keys for us as a leader team is to make sure experience translates into behavior.  You cannot be the same person as before this experience, your behavior must be different based on the correct principles you experience.  In the movement to build global Jesus followers that care about changing the world, I think learning another language is a great start.