Breakfast with Glenn

In 2005, as the result of exploring what existing international connections our church already had, I ended up leading a student team to serve and work with Glenn McMahan who lived in Londrina Brasil with his family, there to serve and connect with university students. It was a fantastic experience based on the idea of a culture exchange - two cultures sharing around common cultural elements like film, games, food and such. Many elements of that experience are still paramount to us today including the culture exchange [which we just used this summer], persons of peace and hearing about the result of a decades long friendship [who later gave her life to Jesus], and how people can care about their communities despite differences in cultural context.

Glenn and I have kept in touch over the years and I would jump at the chance to work with him again. He's recently engaged in a new leadership role, helping to engage in both medical initiatives as well as business as mission for a global missions organization. I was thrilled to be able to interact with him this past weekend as well as have him meet two of our three current ProtoGuides. Our conversation included ideas such as:

- shipping containers used as medical clinics, like what we saw in Coney Island
- As an American, Glenn won't be the point person for anything but will be helping resource and support local leaders who are. The indigenous who know best are in charge.
- microbusinesses have a good amount of need for people that can come in and help with business plans, strategy and execution.
- Ebola and how that may change things. Liberia has a ratio of 1 doctor for 77000 people right now.
- We grow your kids to love the world and then we are surprised when they want to leave home...

I loved catching up with Glenn as well as having our ProtoGuides in the conversation. Ember thrives on setting up conversations and connections like these - a well experienced, Gospel centered cross cultural leader sharing some wisdom with passionate, interested emerging global student leaders. Sadly, we forgot a picture with Glenn.

Six Years and Counting

GMcM and I have been friends since 2005, when I helped lead a student team to Londrina, Brasil to participate in a week of culture exchange for their Brasilian high school students. Of course, the trip had a longer term focus of helping catalyze some relationships in their high school and college network. We had a little gathering over the weekend together and its a joy to hear that some of our efforts six years ago are still bearing fruit. Amazing how some of key missiological principles are taking place there and we didn't realize it until later. Stuff like:
+ A person of peace [who has pretty much come to faith now.]
+ A multiplication of the movement via house churches/gatherings, not via an attractional, invitational type of gathering.
+ Context matters and that Brasilians best influence Brasilians.

GMcM also talked about:
+ The future missionary probably has a legitimate profession and mission is done via that rather than as a professional missionary. I'm finding this advice more and more common among seasoned cross cultural workers as they advise the emerging generation.
+ The challenges of family dynamics as they seek the best solution for one of their sons who is getting ready for college.
+ Relationships that were started six years ago are still intact and in some cases blossoming. High school kids from then are now university or graduate students that the McMs still have intentional contact with. A few of them have really grown in their journey.
+ So the plants that we planted were stolen. But I'm thinking that they are still growing - just in someone's house. That counts as fruitful.

Congrats to JAB and FZ!

D and I were involved in a wedding bash over the weekend for old friends JAB and FZ. Long time readers will recognize the names from the 2005Brasil team. Some of you may also remember that JAB was in the Dteam that I helped led from 1999-2003.

D and I also had the fun privilege of facilitating their pre-marriage counseling. They were definitely our guinea pigs while we were definitely too young to be at this stage in life. In either case, it was a lot of fun talking about marriage with them because we know them well, they are good friends and I've dragged them around the world with me. Part of the benefit of us being their therapists was that I got to say a blessing and charge to them as part of the ceremony. "Fun" for my nerves but worth it.

Another fun bit from their reception - all the money that would have been spent on wedding favors was instead given to AIDS relief in Africa. They are a couple that knows that their responsibility is to humanity, because of their compassion for the world and their love for the Father.

[Photo stolen from JWhitt]

Three Years and Counting

That is me on the right with the McMs. Long time readers will remember them as our amazing hosts for the 2005 - Brasil team, which was the second ever international SPACE trip, and my first international SPACE team. They are an amazing family and I was lucky enough to have lunch with them last week while they were visiting from Londrina, Brasil. I know that we are going to get to work together again sometime in the next few years.

We always meant for that experience to have long term impact. Our initial goal was to catalyze more relationships with high school students for the McMs to continue on with, which took the form of a culture exchange between American and Brasilian students. We also spent a day together working on a shared project, cleaning and fixing up a community park. That included fixing a cable crossing climbing fixture, and some light landscaping which included planting some new plants.

After three years, the McMs are still having deep relationships with some of those students we all first meet in 2005, including the ones that went off to University and some of the students' parents. That same cable crossing is still there and kids still play on it. Some of those plants have died, some were run over by lawn mowers and some were stolen. But, there are three or four of them that are still alive.

Three years later, we still have some plants and we still have some good friends. We are still tracking the next 497.

Mission Trip Quotes - Ice Age 2

Some quotes from Ice Age The Meltdown and real life scenarios where they could have been used.

[Sid, talking about the vulture who is predicting doomsday.]
"He must have been a real pleasure to have in class."
Me, about TFS, who went on a 15 minute rant about how he hates United Airlines, unbeknownst that two United pilots were sitting behind us on the shuttle bus, Brasil, 2005.

[Manny thinks he might be the last mammoth.]
"Look at the bright side - you have us."
Me to my many teams, many times, referring to the leaders as "us."

[Cholly as he breaks wind on Sid.}
"My stomach hates me," and "Don't that put the stink in extinction."
Me and infectious diarrhea in the Dominican Republic, 1993.

"This is too hot. The ice age is too cold. What will it take to make you happy?"
Multiple scenarios huh?

"There are whole continents moving faster than you."
Our whole team through the palace tour after flying all night to Austria, 2007.

"From now on, land safe, water not safe."
After two hours paddling up a river in a dugout canoe, outside of Kribi, Cameroon, 2006.

"Making friends everywhere you go."
After sharing the Gospel with a Pygmy Indian tribal chief, translating from English to French to a tribal dialect and back, outside of Kribi, Cameroon, 2006.

[Sid, arriving at the Fire King place]
"Who is your decorator, this is nice!"
Arrival at our four star hotel resort in Sopron, Hungary, 2007.

[Sid, after all the little sloths tie him up.]
"This is either really good or really bad."
Finding out our team had been bumped off of our flight to Brasil, 2005. [Turned out to be good.]

And some other gems I'm sure you could work in to your experiences:
[Sid to Manny after Manny makes him stop singing songs about extinction.]
"Ok... someone doesn't like the classics."

[Sid says to Manny, "You might be the only two mammoths left."]
"I'm sorry, when did i join this dating service?"

"Can we slow down a little. I'm dying here. It was just a figure of speech! [after seeing the vultures]"

"One truly is the loneliest number."

The Essential 3 ::: Brasil - 2005

In the summer of 2005, 12 years after the last time I led a student team out of the country, I traveled with a team of 10 students and leaders to serve and assist one of GCC's mission families. The McMs were living in Londrina, Brasil building relationships with university students. Our team came to town to help them catalyze relationships in the medium of a culture exchange between American and Brasilian high school students. The 10 days centered around average teenage life together including meals, music, movies, and bowling with the periodic deep life discussion talks thrown in there for good measure. On to the 3 essential questions.

1. Am I planning to have an impact that lasts for 500 years?
Absolutely, even without knowing it. We had invested in two local connections, two investments that could go on to make significant strides in leadership, relationship and movement. The first, J, was a high school student at the top of his class in academics and athletics, who the McM's had nurtured and catalyzed. J epitomized a local, indigenous leader: a high school student who could reach more high school students than any adult, and a Brasilian who could reach more Brasilians than any American. J was committed to impacting his peers for the Kingdom, and has continued to go on to university, still involved in investing in others. The second was F, a lovely mother and housewife who wasn't a believer at the time but was certainly a connector. F and her family had a deep reach into the community via her husband's job relationships, her friendships with other moms and the group of kids their two sons hung out with. Although F, person of peace and connector, still isn't a believer to my knowledge, she is still deeply connected to the McMs and is still impacting others for Jesus whether she knows it or not.

2. Can both host and teams trust each other because we are partners?
Absolutely. I could [and would, and did...] trust our hosts with our students. Our team was well prepared and lived up to expectations and reputations. Based on the McM's recommendation, we had students live with host families that were not connected to a church. When one of our students there got a stomach bug, I knew he was in the right place when the host mom [F from above] made him soup.

3. How will I engage the culture?
Like mentioned above, we utilized host families and had no regrets. Engagement of the culture via a culture exchange was one of our primary ministry tasks and almost all of our team got to see Brasilian culture up close. This ranged from seemingly innocuous contexts like the mall to Brasilian barbeque [oh my word] to the extreme of Brasilian culture watching - seeing a local soccer game.

Photo: Some of our team at local soccer game.
Related:2005 - Brasil.

Londrina, Brasil religious study

Those of you that know about my trip this summer to Brasil know that my team and I went to a city called Londrina, in the state of Parana. Tonight I somehow I ended up at a site called Brasil 2010.

Project Brazil 2010 is the saturation church planting effort originally associated with the AD2000 Movement. Its goal is to mobilize all the denominations in Brazil to plant churches until there is "a church within easy access of everyone in the nation in this generation".

I stumbled on to this religious presence study in Londrina. Interesting study.

The methodology for the study included:
- dividing up into teams of two people and covering each block and each street of the city to find the churches and sites for religious meetings.
- visiting each Protestant church during its principal weekly meeting and to count to the number of people present.
- verifying, analyzing and double-checking the data with the available demographic and population data in the mayor's office.
- dividing the city into 17 geographic regions and comparing the evangelical presence between the regions to determine which parts of the city had greater or less access to a church.

The summary of the results include:
Population of Londrina: 424,000
Number of Protestant Churches: 353 (of 388 churches found, 35 or 9% of them were closed)
Average of Attendance: 82 people per church
Percentage of the Population in a church on Sunday: 6.8%
Average number of inhabitants per church: 1,201 (one geographic region represented 6,200 inhabitants per church)
Churches with 100 or fewer people at their services: 80%
Churches with more than 250 people at their services: 5%

The study makes me think about the following:
- About 10% of church buildings are closed. What does that infer about the culture?
- Majority of churches are small. Not only in Londrina, but worldwide, right?
- The study focuses on pure quantities, not at all on the quality of faith communities. We don't know anything about the quality of these churches, and of course, this would be a very subjective opinion.
- Less than 7% of the city go to church. From what we saw there, not too surprising.
- That is some serious leg work to get the results of the survey, literally.

What Brasil did to me

I guess I never really wrote about what Brasil did to me.  It was a huge privilege for me to be part of such an experience.  Sure, my passion is leading student teams.  And sure, I've done it for a little while.  But that doesn't mean at all that trips like this one don't make a huge impression on me, because every one of them - seriously - every last one of them, gives me more to observe, a different way to think, and things to improve on.

First, I was forced to increased the level of risk I live with.  The Brasil trip, in combination with my trip to visit and work with PM, forced me to live with a higher tolerance of risk.  Tentative plans, people that we were working with and just plain getting to these localities were mostly up in the air.  But the gist of it was that all of the unknowns were actually *ok*.  It was actually tolerable for me, even more than that, liberating.  Because when details and circumstances are out of your control, you don't bear the responsibility for them anymore.  And even in the midst of no control, you know that Someone has gone before you to pave the way.  Keep in mind that I come from a family that is hugely risk averse.  I'm the only child of a very conservative set of Chinese parents who would rather their only son work his whole life in a very reliable, stable corporate job.  I was brought up in that kind of context.  This summer forced me to just go, even in the midst of many unknowns.

Secondly, it was such a honor to spend time with a GCC family overseas. The Body of Christ literally transcends space and time. What a wild experience to get on a plane and know that someone from GCC would be meeting us on the other end - people that knew many of the same people, and that were impacted by the same community that impacts us. To have a set of guides - physically, culturally and relationally - that knew exactly where we came from was such a tremendous service. Space and time are no matter to hearts that are tied together.

Thirdly, I'm pretty sure SPACE is on the right track.  I spend a lot of time wondering what is wrong with me.  How come I'm not normal.  Why I don't watch a lot of football on TV, why I'm not so enthralled with the corporate ladder, why I'm not like other 35 year old males.  And then, I get to be a part of an experience like this one.  Where a student thinks he ought to learn another language when he gets home.  When a 15 year old leaves his Bible in another country with someone he has only known for 7 days.  Seeing a group of kids fix up a park 5000 miles away, to bless complete strangers they will never meet.  Seeing kids envision that a central core of their future is to bless others because they are blessed.

Three simple things.  God, sometimes I can't believe the life you let me live.

Brazil Various Stories

While on our various travels home, we had a two leg flight from Londrina to Sao Paulo, stopping in Curitiba. (Side note - Flying over Sao Paulo was unbelievable. You seriously cannot believe how big that city is. It makes NYC look like the mall.) We didn't need to get off the plane, we just chilled for 15 minutes or so. On this flight we met a man named Pedro traveling with his family. Pedro was from Sao Paulo, his wife was from Londrina. Pedro and his family were actually flying back to Wilmore, KY, where he is a student at Asbury Seminary. Before he was in seminary, he was a church planter in Paraguay. A Brazilian planting churches in Paraguay. Isn't that cool?
Of course, 10 Americans on his flight caught his attention and we got to tell him a little bit about what we were doing in Londrina. He loved hearing about it. In fact, he basically gave me an open invitation to bring a team to Paraguay. All around the world, cross cultural workers are dying for teams to come to serve with them. Indeed, the workers are few.

Our team was blessed with really good health, until the end. Aside from me, who had a slight stomach thing every 3rd day or so, everyone else was mostly healthy. We landed in the US at Dulles, took the tram from the gate to the main terminal and got in line at customs. All of us made it through customs with no issues. As we walked through the lobby into an annex area, AW puked. I was walking in front of her, and heard it.
One of those sounds that makes your stomach turn, literally. FZ was right behind her, and I distinctly remember her first response, "Oh, honey," said in a way that was so infinitely compassionate and maternal.
Our plan was to take a bus shuttle from the airport to the Metro station and then take the Metro back to Greenbelt where family could easily pick us up. AW was a putrid grey color the whole way. But, it was (almost) the absolute best place to get sick - right when we landed on US soil. Welcome home.

All of us liked Fatima from the very beginning. She didn't speak any English, but her heart overflowed with love every time we saw her. Her two sons would interpret for her when they were around. When they weren't, we kind of knew what she was thinking anyway. She was almost constantly thinking about us.
We had game night at her house and FZ didn't get any cake. After we all left, Fatima made her a whole chocolate cake. When BB was sick, she took his temperature every other hour. She made him drink water every hour, she made him soup and toast, she made a wicked potato salad. If my child had to be sick 5000 miles away, Fatima's apartment would be my top choice.

The soccer game was a lot of fun. We sat in the uncovered section - the people's section. Of course, there were the rowdys, the ones who loved the refs in one minute and had very creative insults about them ("You are a cow!") the next. Every once in a while, from the far corner of the stands, you would hear this single drum, beating at some wild cadence. I couldn't figure it out, and wondered whether there was a marching band or something. GMcM told me that fans organize their own fan clubs, complete with flags and shirts and other stuff like that. They all come to the game together, sit in the same section, and of course, bring their drums. The drum, he said, was indicative of the game. Soccer is not necessarily just a game with its procedures, strategy and rules. Its more of a dance, with its beats, rhythm and spontaneity.

Oh Brazil...

Photos: Sao Paulo, Fatimas family, and sitting at a soccer game.

Brazil - Metapost

Here is a summary post that has links to all the Brazil posts. I did this mostly for organization.

Aug 1:
Delays
Monday
Monday eve
Aug 2:
arrived in Londrina
Aug 3:
Wed am
Wed pm
Aug 4:
Thurs
Aug 5:
Friday
Friday pm
Aug 6:
Sat
Aug 7:
Sunday
Sunday pm
Aug 8:
Monday
Aug 9:
Tuesday
Aug 10:
Home

Reentry
Post trip eval
Trip Financials
My Notes about Brazilian culture
Various stories
GMcMs prayer update snippet
What Brasil did to me

I think its almost time to move on to 2005-2006...

Brazil - tonys notes about culture

These notes are more for me than anyone else...
Notes about Brazilian culture that I learned (maybe not all are totally true all of the time)

- greet friends of the other sex with a kiss on the cheek - always go to the left.
- have lunch as their biggest meal
- shower in the late afternoon evening
- never come to a meal dirty (like after playing soccer or working in the yard)
- eat pizza with a knife and fork
- eat a lot of red meat
- most movies are shown in English with Portuguese subtitles (weird - it should be the other way around)
- they listen to a lot of the same music we listen to
- rice and beans are at almost every meal
- the people are so incredibly warm, inviting and relational
- vestibular (the test to get into college) is a huge deal

I'm sure there is more...

Brazil financials

I'm trying to finish all the financials for the trip this weekend. That should close the whole trip mentally for me. Then I can move on.

In terms of how we dealt with spending money for the individual students -- they gave me a check, I deposited that in my account and then bought whatever they wanted and put it on my credit card. I kept pretty close track of what they spent. I will now go through all the receipts and give them a rebate check as well as a record of what they spent.

And for the overall trip... drumroll please....

Expenses:
flight - $13276.50
transit costs (shuttle, team meals, etc.) - $1642.76
costs in Brazil - $446.98
Total Expenses - $15366.24
(In other words, it costs us almost nothing to live and eat there.)

In terms of financial support, we are $15146.25 as of yesterday's mail. Oh, and this is not counting the $6000 credit we have from United. Oh, and the last Sunday we were in church, a parent of a graduating senior wrote us a check for $1500. Jesus gets it right on the money.

Brazil - More processing

I'm still thinking through the trip, in lots and lots of ways. I spent a lot of time recently just updating my journal. Great to rethink through the trip and remember all the funny and obscure details. All in all, I'm just ecstatic about how it turned out. Everything from the team to what we did to getting to know and serve the McMs, all of it - I'm really proud of it all. It has to rank as being one of the more successful things that I have done of late. So I'm just beaming when I think about it. Like anything similar, there are going to be things that can be improved. So here is my rough list of good and bad.

What We Did Right
- We went and served a GCC family.
Hands down, this is golden. Totally makes the whole thing worthwhile.
- We lived among the culture.
Instead of living all together, in an 'American' compound, we split up and lived with Brazilian families in their homes. It's a balancing act, finding enough time for your team together while also making sure you spend a good bit of time with the host families, because they really want to get to know you and host you.
- We went with the intention to build relationships.
Our team never squandered our time there. Every day had a sense of urgency to it, all opportunities were okay to capitalize on.
- We brought the right leader team.
Like I mentioned in a previous post, the leaders were great. There was never a time when I couldn't trust them. Traveling to another country with leadership issues would have been really bad news.
- Our music policy worked.
In the end, it wasn't so much about the music, but about the team paying attention to the rest of the team.
- A community service project that everyone could get involved in.
Both Americans and Brazilians got involved in the playground work. It was pretty awesome.

For Next Time (didn't I tell myself I was too old for this again?)
- Use more live music.
We didn't do any worship as a team. More live music, especially for worship, would have been pretty cool.
- We were a little short on time.
Probably due to flying out a day late. But time did fly by.
- The point leader should stay with the point host.
In this case, since this whole thing was setup by me and GMcM, it would have been better to stay at his house. It was definitely not a big deal. For both of us, the informal, various time around the house would have surely been filled with great conversation and thinking. I'm lucky, because doing this kind of stuff gives me access to some really quality people.
- Leadership sets the tone.
As the primary shaper of the leader culture, I should have been a bit more careful with my attitude and language when the lead team would discuss issues. It's way too easy to be sarcastic and caustic. Even with leaders (maybe especially with leaders), there are attitudes that are conveyed which have to be in check.
- Plan for a neutral location for reentry.
We didn't do this, there just wasn't enough time. Reentry is really important and should also include a discussion about relationships, not just cultural reentry. Adding a reentry location certainly complicates travel logistics though.
- Kids are not allowed to bring cell phones.
Yup, you can relate.
- A sleep-in day.
I got this idea from my friend, T. During one week long retreat, he grabbed all of us leaders to cook breakfast in bed for all the kids. The idea was just to give them a break, let them sleep in a bit, serve them a bit. Great idea. By the end, we totally could have used one of those days.

Photo: The whole crew that helped fix up the playground.

With Leaders Like These...

I'm in the process of trying to close out the SPACE 2004-2005 school year. Yup, it's kind of a lost cause. 2005-2006 is already brimming with loads of possibilities, and I'm pretty toasty from Brasil. But its okay. In the meantime, I've had a tremendous summer. And most of what has made it for me has been the phenomenal leaders I've had the true privilege of working with.

These guys and gals score every time. They are engaged, they are learners, they take great notes. They live out loud, they know Jesus is worth it, and they see such potential in young people. They serve and serve and serve, without any regard for their own time, ego or well being. They love kids over and over. They stop and listen for what God is saying to them. They know that the next generation must care about the world. What they believe is integrated with how they live. They are ambassadors, hosts, shepherds, mobilizers, counselors, friends. They will do anything, and not only do it, but ask about what needs to be done next. Warm, gentle, well spoken, they all have a great sense of humor (especially to put up with me.) Reliable, dependable, trustworthy. I think enough of them to ask them to travel with me, to herd a group of kids, to teach, model, encourage, inspire. These guys and gals have made my summer. With leaders like these, who needs students...

Photos: The Brasil lead team - FZ, JAB and LB. Three of the CMTS lead team - ELB, NLind and MR.

Brasil reentry

I knew reentry would be tough.  However, its a little tougher than I imagined.  Most of it is your standard stuff.  The team just came from an intense spiritual high experience.  Little things remind them of Brasil.  Friends and family are interested, but don't really quite understand.  You didn't have to think about your daily pressures and responsibilities and now since you are back home, you do. 

During our long layover at the Sao Paulo airport, we had a bit of time to talk about reentry and the experience.  Some of the topics and ideas we covered included:
- Is this what you expected?
- What would you change on this trip?
- What were some of the negatives?
- God will continue the work He and you have started in your new friends.  You were a catalyst.  Our whole goal was for you to start something and then have to leave.
- When people ask about your trip, have two versions ready - one that is 2 minutes long, one that is 20 minutes long. 
- Be sensitive to people at home.  They won't understand, and you shouldn't expect them to.
- Don't go home to live a mediocre existence.

On a related note, I'm always looking for good reentry material.  If you have something you really like, would love to hear about it.

Brazil - safe and sound at home

Well thanks for praying.  We are all safe and sound at home.  AW did get a bit sick at the airport.  But otherwise we are all home.  Great trip.  Definitely more posting after more processing.

So Long Brazil

We are leaving for the airport in 15 minutes.  Last night was definitely pretty difficult - we said goodbye to many of the Brazilian students we had built relationships for.  But in the end, that was our goal - to catalyze relationships so that the McMs can build on them.  Still, very difficult. I think today will be harder.  There is a group of them coming to see us off at the airport.  Very cool.  And of course, having to say goodbye to the McMs.

I'm seeing that this departure process is in three stages.  Us and the students.  Us and our hosts.  And finally, us.  The most difficult will be to depart from the team and family that has become us - both in the past 10 days, but also even way before that, as the team came together, prepped, dreamed and prayed.  To be honest, I'm not sure I'm fully prepared for that.  And I know that I haven't prepared the kids for that either.  Of course, the stronger the team, the harder the process.

Ok, so maybe next post from the US...?

 

Oh- SS has a slight temp, but feels fine.  Our flights from Sao Paulo are confirmed, but no seats yet.  Whatever that means.  First cloudy day here in Londrina.  Like GMcM said, people would pay a lot of money to live in a climate like this.

Brazil - Final night

We had a big party tonight.  Like this week hasn't been a party.  Ha.  Seriously though, the relationships which we built - and the context of them - made for a pretty emotional farewell tonight.  When I consider missional experiences, I always consider debriefing around the idea of culture and culture shock, but not usually around how to deal with relationships that are created in an intense, tight environment, and then are seemingly over.

 

Tonight, it was the pizza man, a talent show and farewells.  Hard to say goodbye, but if we expected to be catalysts for relationships that the McMs can grow, its a very healthy symptom.

 

Pray for our flight from Londrina to Sao Paulo.  Rumor is that if it rains, it gets delayed.  Also pray for our flight on our favorite airline - United - from Sao Paulo to DC.  I really don't want to get bumped, and I seemingly cannot check in online for international flights.  And pray for SS, he had a fever tonight and an upset stomach.  Apparently there is another virus going around Londrina - an intestinal one.

 

Hopefully the next post will be from my house.

More Sunday

Today was even more fun. This morning we worked in a park, planting some long growing vines and fixing a walk across cable thing.

EmGberg, one of our students, has this incredible knack for learning Portueguese. It's pretty wild, she can rattle off probably 20 or 30 phrases and is seemingly able to begin conversations after just having been here for 6 days. GMcM said, "She is really Brazilian..." because she is so warm, outgoing and amicable. It's very true. Quite a blessing to have such an ambassador on the team.

Tonight a bunch of us went out to a small snack place, again with more of the Brazilian students. In all, there was 21 of us, packed into a little cafe place. Very cool, very fun. We are definitely helping the McMs gain some new relationships among high schoolers. They are doing university ministry, but there are loads of high schoolers around.

Photo: EmGberg engaging total strangers in natural conversation, and a few of our students and their plantings in the park.

Brazil Sunday

Quick post right now.

Worked in community park this morning.  Planting some long growing vines, fixing some walk across cable things for little kids.  Some kids came right out when we were done to play on them.  Very cool impact in that the McMs will definitely get a reputation out of it.

 

This afternoon, sent A&F on a mini SPACE international date to see one of the biggest soccer games in Brasil.  Very fun for them.  The rest of us split between the guys and LF going to see a local soccer game (Londrina won 2-0) and the rest of the girls going to see a movie and the mall with some of the Brazilian girls.

 

Tonight is some more hang out time and a Brazilian film.  You can pray for LB, she burned her hand on some hot water.  Pray for healing and relief from the pain.

 

Hard to believe that we have only one full day left.