Last week we had a great team of 23 people from the U.S. (mostly youth- junior and senhor high) with us helping to minister in areas where others don't want to go. They definitely stepped out of their comfort zones! Right from the airport we whisked them off to the favelas in Sao Paulo where we hold Saturday children's classes in the slums (favelas). Walking through smelly, narrow corridors, over sewage drains and setting up "class" in the open air environment everyone pitched in to make sure the kids had a seat, got to participate in the activities and then showered them with candy bags afterwards. Some of the youth even engaged the locals in "break dancing" which opened the door for them to be evangelized afterwards! Others made their way to the local basketball court in the favela to shoot some hoops with the locals.......again, opening many doors for the "Americans" to be allowed to enter there. It's all about building relatonships..
The team was able to bring with them five brand-new sewing machines that someone donated to the ministry! What a huge blessing! We used them in the favela already this week to teach the ladies there how to sew borders on hand painted dishtowels. They were literally drooling when they saw the beautiful machines. The dishtowel painting program, which we started many years ago, is now being started up again. Now that we have the new sewing machines it will make the finish work on each towel much easier and provide for more projects that we can teach the ladies.
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We give thanks to our Lord for the protection and safety of our entire team this week!
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Also , as you may remember, we asked for prayer for two of our Brazilian team members on February 26th. One of those young men, Daniel, will be leaving for his trip to Tennessee this Monday the 5th and will be staying until the 23rd. Please pray for safety on the trip and that the Lord will bless in many ways! Daniel is very excited and we pray that he can learn many things while visiting a church there and that he will be able to perfect his English as well!
Pray also for Anderson as we are in the process of rescheduling his Visa interview in hopes that he will successfully get a visa to visit the U.S. in the very near future. Both of these young men have been so faithful and committed to the ministry work and are so deserving of this cultural experience!
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Pete and Jodi
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