We have all been thoroughly enjoying being together as a family again, as June and Brian have arrived for their 2 week holiday with us. 'Father Christmas' (aka grandma) managed to get all of the bags through without any problems, and today we are celebrating Christmas again. It is great to be together and to be able to show them our new home. Thankyou to everyone who thoroughly saturated their trip with prayer!!!!!

Just a quick post to direct you to another blog which a friend of ours writes. It contains many photos of the work we do here as well as recent photos of our Christmas time at Luzeiro. See: http://www.laurabookout.blogspot.com If you click on the link it should take you there.

Happy Christmas everybody!!!!!!!!!
We have just had our first Brazilian Christmas, and it's all gone very well. We had 12 of us for lunch, Brazilians, Dutch, American, New Zealander, South African and British. We all brought something traditional from our country, and it was YUMMY (but I felt I needed to make gravy to go with the turkey, very un-Brazilian). Everyone was a bit baffled by the crackers I made (except the girl from New Zealand), we also had to say "BANG" as I didn't have any snaps. It was good fun to share together.
Josiah and Gideon have coped very well with a different Christmas, many thanks to all who have been praying for them.
May God bless you during this Christmas time and in the coming New Year. We are truly blessed to have so many friends being a part of our lives.

You'll be pleased to know that today is much better, we still have rain (but that is to be expected).
Is it really only a week until Christmas?!?! Am I the only one who thinks it can't possibly be that close. It's strange to have not heard 1 carol, seen 1 frost, had any fires or eaten sprouts or mince pies.

We have been living in such glorious weather for so long now that I had forgotten about the 'rainy season'. We have had 2 days and nights of non-stop heavy rain, and it looks like it will rain for the next few weeks, maybe months.......oh dear, even worse than the English summer.
As if all of the wet clothes hanging around and the leaks in the house were not enough to make me miserable, I have just had a RIDICULOUSLY BAD Portuguese lesson. As part of our learning we use an on-line teaching which also uses voice recognition. if when we repeat the phrase we don't get the accent or emphasis correct, it won't let us move on. I must have repeated 1 phrase 20 times, getting no more than 2 words right, at this point Dave came and rescued me. Why is another language SO hard?
Thankfully not every day is like today, Oh well I guess I will try again tomorrow.....

Here are the photos of our very cute new budgies, they look like adult budgies now. They were very ugly, but in 4 weeks they have fluffed up nicely and we have been spending a bit of time hand taming them, we're not sure whether to try to teach them English or Portuguese though!

I am beginning to believe it is December, and that Christmas is just around the corner......it has taken quite a lot to convince me, such as reading a daily advent Bible reading, making homemade mince meat (even though I haven't got the right spices, it still seems pretty good), and decorating a tree. We found a very dusty tree that we were able to use, the Brazilians think we're a little strange, as culturally the Christians don't have trees to celebrate Christmas. We also made lots of origami decorations.
Today we have had our closing off of the year fun event for all of the groups, it went very well as the children were allowed free choice of activities (I hope to post some photos soon). They had a great time and now we spend our time before our holiday doing practical work and helping out at some of the houses that are desperately short staffed.

Well....Josiah is now enrolled in a school. Praise Jesus.

Also, we received a parcel from England today. This may not sound particularly interesting but it was posted nearly 4 months ago....yep, the postmark on it reads 14th August. This is one of many parcels which we assumed was lost so maybe we will yet receive the other ones.

Yesterday, Josiah and I (Dave), along with a friend of ours (to translate) went to the school which we are hoping Josiah will be able to attend next year. We expected that Josiah would have to do a test to ascertain which school year or grade he would be put into. But, to cut a long story short, it ended up that he did not have to do the test and would be put into the correct year according to his age. However, we did not manage to get a discount as we previously thought we could.
So, all we have to do now is sign a few documents and he is in, beginning in Feb 2009.

Today we went to the Federal Police with a lawyer to hand in all of the prepared papers for our visas to be renewed. These documents would then be stamped by the people there and sent to the central government migration office in Brasilia for processing which would take about 1 month. However, it did not all go according to plan as we discovered something which was done by the Brazilian Embassy in London when we originally applied for our visas in Nov 2007. On the official visa forms it states that I have 2 children (dependants) but Beckie is separate so our family just consists of me (Dave), Josiah and Gideon. Strange, huh? The implication of this is that Beckie's application is treated as separate too so it is possible for the outcome of our applications to be different. For example, she could get a 2 year extension and us 3 could only get a 1 year extension! There is no clear or logical explanation for this. Today, it meant that the visa renewal applications were sent off for josiah, Gideon and me but Beckie's has had to be delayed because separate papers now need to be prepared for her, costing us more time and money.
There is something i do want to make clear though....it is this: these things do not fill us full of worry, just drive us closer to God because it is all in his very capable hands. For us, it is another lesson in trusting Him with everything and for the outcome of everything, for we are his. Hallelujah.

Now here's something you do not see every day! A spider eating a rat. The spider actually dragged the rat up the wall, ate some of it then continued to try and drag it into it's hole. It was a big spider but we have seen bigger...I just did not know that they actually caught and ate rats! Here's the proof:

Last Wednesday (19th Nov) I, Dave, gave my first Bible study to my group of 12-14 yr boys in portuguese. Sounds good, doesn't it! However, it went really badly with them not understanding what I was trying to say, me getting confused with words and ended up with a fellow group leader bailing me out with rough translation. All in all it was not enjoyable but looking back was a good experience. I think it will be a while before I attempt it again but I will have another go.

Last night there was a gun battle just up the hill from us but it has not affected us here on the JOCUM base.

For me, it is strange getting reports from friends and family about snow in England and here we are in Brazil feeling rather warm with the days getting longer. It does not 'feel' like November to me and thinking about Christmas seems almost alien at the moment. It is weird how we get used to the hype leading up to Christmas along with the seasonal changes which makes us feel a certain way. I do not know what it will be like for us this year so far away from family and friends but I do know it will not feel the same.

I (Beckie) have been doing home visits today, and it is really interesting. There are many complicated families here, as people change partners and have more children, some of these children are being passed from mother to father and back (or to grandparents and aunties) when having children is inconvenient. It's hard to imagine how the children get used to this, and how they cope with this type of rejection.
We also visited a genuinely happy family, maybe the second that I have seen here. This family was so thankful to God that they had managed to move into a new apartment because their old house was structurally unsound. There are many other families who are still living in dangerous accommodation who are waiting for the government to rehouse them, some have already been waiting for years. At times it's hard to know how we can make a difference, but I know that God wants to show His love to these people, so we wait for Him to show us how we can do this more and more.

One thing Josiah has liked about being in Brazil is that he has had more free time (as homeschooling is more concentrated he gets the work done quicker). This has really helped his drawing ability, as he has been practising how to draw cars. We have one wall that is almost wallpapered with his drawings of cars. This wall often attracts the attention of the boys in the groups, so a few times he has given classes to the groups to teach them how to draw cars. The last class was given 2 days ago, and at the time he was a bit discouraged as they were not listening well, and seemed to be messing around (this is normally quite a challenging group for 'sit down and listen' activities).
However, yesterday one of the boys (who didn't seem to listen) came running up to Josiah and said (full of enthusiasm) how he had managed to draw a car. Josiah was really encouraged and then another boy came running up and told him how he had drawn a car at home and would bring it to show him tomorrow. This has been so encouraging for Josiah, and it also shows me that sometimes (maybe often) what we see is not what is really going on. Many times children are learning far more than we realise.

Just a quick video clip of Gideon and Andreia (his Brazilian sister) having a 'jam'.

I (Dave) have been walking around in the centre of the city quite a lot this last week, having to replace our laptop (twice!) and do various other things. In my wonderings, God often opens my eyes to the homeless and poor who are begging but somehow I never seem to have enough time to stop for them and sit with them, even though I get a conviction to do so. So I just give them some money and move on. But I believe God desires more from me (and maybe you too) than that. Is that what showing God's compassion is about?
Last week, when walking to Gideon's school from the centre, about 25 mins walk, I decided to take a different route which I thought was less hilly. Sometimes walking up and down the steep streets can be exhausting, especially in the heat of the day. I was walking down a road I had not been down before in a 'nice' part of the city when I was approached by a lady who was probably in her early 40s, dressed in fairly revealing clothes...actually more like rags...and looking very thin. She told me that she was hungry and offered me her body in exchange for some food. I told her to come with me and bought her some food from a nearby snack bar but did not take her up on her offer!
For me, it is incredible when people value themselves so little. She thought she was worth a couple of 'salgados' - snack-things - but God's value on her life is so much more than that...so great is his love for her that he paid for her life with his. It was quite a heart-wrenching experience seeing the desperation of someone's heart. It is so easy to get embarassed and walk past people like her or try and make my (our) conscience(s) clear by tossing them some loose change but God's desire is for me (us) to spend ourselves for these people like he did, to value them higher than ourselvesand to actually STOP for them.

This last week I (Beckie) have been challenged about my heart for this community. We have a mango tree right next to our gate, and it is currently growing some mangos. This attracts a lot of attention, particularly from some of the boys who love mangos so much that they will eat them whilst they are small and green. Our house is the only building near this gate. So, this last week every afternoon we have had groups of boys jumping the wall and trying to get mangos. I have been getting so fed up with chasing them out and listening to their many excuses. However, these are some of the children I am here for, yet my heart is annoyed by their behaviour. I was really made aware of it when the gate was banging and I reluctantly answered it. Standing there was a lovely lady who had left her Bible here and wanted to be able to read it again as soon as possible. I was not very keen to help, and then I realised that my heart was cold, I really had to repent. How do I expect the people here to really know who God is when I am so quickly irritated, and lacking in love as I speak to them.
Maybe next week I will have another opportunity to deal with them in a way that allows God to give me His love for them. I am reminded of the Bible verse (Prov 4.23) which says "above all else guard your heart for it is the wellspring of life."

WOW, what a lot has been happening here!!!
Dave has had his birthday, which was a nice relaxing day. We also celebrate birthdays here with all of the team (usually with a special lunch). After the special lunch, Gideon and I had to dash off for his first day at Brazilian school!!! He has now been at school for over a week, and is still loving it. He has 12 in his class, including someone who speaks really good English, for those moments when he really doesn't understand.
We also had a major storm here, and lightning struck a telephone line, just outside 'Luzeiro'. This lightning 'fried' 5 computers, including some parts of ours. So, we were trying to work out how to resolve some of these problems......Dave decided to try to buy another laptop (as shipping in parts can often be heavily taxed), and had a rather strange experience doing a deal in Portuguese. However, this laptop then kept crashing, as it had a hardware fault. So, back to the shop to try to get a refund.....BUT in Brazil they won't give refunds, just an exchange. After a lot of arguing, in Portuguese, without a translator, he came away with a better laptop for the same money. It used a lot of time, was quite an unpleasant experience for all, but Dave says he learnt (and practised) more Portuguese in that hour than in the last few months.

posted by josiah:

After looking around, I realised that the kind of beetle we would probably get would be one like the picture. My parents even think that vw beetles are expensive so we would have to get a cheap one.

Beckie responds:
Don't worry guys, we won't be buying one like this, I'd quite like some seats, and an engine!

Well, we are now in the process of trying to buy a car and sort out Dave's driving license. We will need a car to get Josiah and Gideon to school, otherwise we will spend a fortune on bus fares and use 4 hrs every day!! THIS ISN'T OUR CAR! However, we would like to buy one of these. They were made in Brazil up until 1996, but they don't have the same kind of cult status as England. In fact, the VW Beetle ('fusca' here) is the lowest of the low, no Brazilian would want to own one, the equivalent of a Skoda. Hence, they are cheaper, but cars here are still incredibly expensive, or maybe cars in England are cheap. We'll publish the real photo when we get a car, who knows if it will be a Beetle.

I visited the school's again, to talk through the process of enrolment, and both schools think that it is better for the boys to begin as soon as possible (before this school year ends in December), to help them to adjust. It's a bit of a surprise, but it's ok, the only problem being that we don't have the right documents for Josiah to start. We need certain forms from his school in England, they need to be legalised at a Brazilian embassy and then posted to us, which delays the process. The paperwork feels like it's here just to wear us down, but I'm sure it will be easily resolved (thanks to family living in the UK).

We're still not much further with schooling, but are hoping to arrange more appointments for Tuesday, then maybe we will be closer to a decision.
This afternoon we had 'Sunday with God', it was great that lots of the children (over 100) from the favela came, and even some of the Mum's stayed and heard the message. Some of the children were from the poorest area of this slum (they have never been to things here before), so this was great. These families sort through rubbish, trying to find things they can sell to a recyling plant, they need to collect an awful lot. At times, you can see a child running up the street here and excitedly opening a rubbish bag to get the plastic bottle out. It's times like this that I am made aware of the great needs here.

WOW What a long time has passed!?!?!
Lots of things have been happening here, mainly in our household, with trying to sort out visa renewels and find a school for the boys. We have had so many things to think about, and it seems like we have lots of hurdles to jump. We keep getting only part of the information, which is very confusing, so we are constantly checking the validly of what we hear. For example, we were told that to renew our visas our children HAD to attend a school, which felt like we no longer had any options, however, this is not the case. We do feel it would have long term benefits to send them to a school though. So we have been looking at schools that have been recommended to us. One is a very large Baptist school with one of the best reputations in Brazil. It seems like it will be a great school for Josiah to go to, but since talking more with the year co-ordinator it seems that it wouldn't be good for Gideon. So, we were recommended to look at another school nearby for him, that has only 6 children per class. However, this school says that Brazilian law doesn't recognise homeschooling, so in effect, Gideon would not have completed grade 3 (year4 in England). Which means he would have to be held back a year. Is this the case? Is it also the same for Josiah? One idea that this school suggested was to attend the last 2 months of this year, therefore it could be said he has done grade 3. We really want some clarity on this..... It seems that the transfer from an informal education to a school based one is a very complicated process, made worse by the language barrier (meaning that Josiah and Gideon would be unable to show their ability in a formal written Portuguese test).
Please pray with us over this, it's good to trust in God when it seems that things are all a bit cloudy.

Today I (Dave) went on some family visits. This is often something I do on a Tuesday afternoon with the other leaders of my group if I have nothing to prepare for the next session, like a bible study or similar.
Do you think your house is too small? One of the houses we visited had just one room. In it there was a cooker, fridge, sink, some shelving units and a single bed....as well as a big TV. It measured about 12 feet x 12 feet (not the TV)..really small...and 4 people lived there. There was no bathroom. The boy in my group whose 'family' it was seemed content and is one of those children who is nearly always smiling. Even now I do not really know what to write about this house because thinking about it makes me lost for words...

Today has been a long day for me (Dave). I was up at 6.30am to clean the swimming pool and this can take up to 2 hours. Then, after a quick breakfast, Beckie, Josiah, Gideon and I went out to church. Most of the churches here only have evening services so finding a morning service has been really difficult for us but we did manage to find one! The church is called Igreja Batista Da Lagoinha and has one of the largest congregations in Brazil. At last count, it has a membership in excess of 37,000 people. Anyway, it has 5 services every Sunday and is famous in Brazil. And yeah...it was BIG...like a stadium (see picture). We were a little unsure of exactly how to get there, thankfully the bus driver was helpful and stopped the bus at the right stop for us. We expected to see it when we got off, but couldn't so we asked a man with a Bible where it was, sadly he was deaf and didn't understand, but it turned out it was the church he was going to, so we followed. Beckie really liked the service, it really reminded her of the Portuguese service in Dereham, lots of enthusiasm.
After the service we had a rather long wait at a bus stop, then a very bumpy ride across the city, a winding walk up the hill and were back in time for a late left-over lunch at 1:45.
Afternoon work began at 2pm - cleaning the kitchen and dining area and preparing for our 'Parents service'.
At 3pm the service started with prayer and worship and then I preached on "How to be a Good Parent"...what a huge subject...for about 50 mins. It seemed to go well as I have now been invited to speak at a church in the city about missions. Thankyou all for your prayers about that. In case you were wondering, I preached in English. Everyone was really pleased with the turn-out of parents, because it was more than double the previous numbers. Oh, and no rain!!!

Firstly, the weather (how British are we?)....last weekend we had temperatures of about 39 degrees, this weekend it is 19 degrees and 10 at night!!!!! (BRRRRR!!!), not to mention the giant hail last week. We thought only England had crazy weather.
Onto slightly more important stuff, tomorrow (Sunday 21st) is our parents service, all of the parents of children from the groups have been invited and Dave is going to do the talk, we are praying it won't rain as no-body comes out in the rain. We'll let you know how it goes......

Posted by Josiah:

Yesterday in the afternoon it... well... started hailing. It is probably the closest thing to snow that we will ever see in Brazil.

Me and my brother were sitting, doing our school work when we heard strange noises on our tiles, our reaction was that someone was throwing stones at our roof. Gideon went out to investagate and was hit on the head by a large hailstone. I then picked one from the foor and measured it, it was 1.5cm long!!!

I (Beckie), was very encouraged by my group today. I was giving Bible study, and was really struggling to find the right words in Portuguese. My co-leader was helping me and the boys were listening intently. Towards the end I felt like I muddled things up and wasn't being very clear, so I asked Felipe to explain the bits that weren't clear. One of the boys was obviously aware of what I was saying and he said to me, "but you told everything right." I took this as a big compliment by him.
So, I will plod on learning Portuguese, hopefully learning to use the verb tenses more automatically, and soon I hope to be able to express things better. However, I'm glad to have these opportunities to try with what I know already and have these encouraging words from my group.

Time sure flies!!!!! One of the good things is it won't be long until Grandma and Grandad come and visit. We keep getting excited about different things we want to show them, particularly some great eating places and some of the greasy burger bars.
The DTS teams have left on outreach trips now. One team is travelling to 2 places close by and working with Churches, the other is travelling right up to the Northeast (which is often named 'Brazilian Africa'). The Northeast will be a big challenge, there is a lot of poverty, drought, despair and need. The team have collected a lot of donations (clothes, toys and money to buy foods) and because of transporting the donations they will be travelling 50 hrs by bus, because they cannot take them on a plane. I really admire their desire to bless these people and the sacrifice they are making. Our boys were also blessed, as the team had to sort through all of the donations and check everything was suitable to take (being unable to waste precious space on unsuitable clothing/toys). So, when they decided that the lego bag had pieces that were too small and would probably get lost, and thought it was better to give it to Josiah and Gideon, our boys were thrilled. They were very happy at how God had replaced their stolen lego. It really helps them to see how He is at work in lots of little ways. Josiah and Gideon also wanted to use their tithe (they had been saving it for a while, uncertain as to where it should go) from their pocket money to help fund the transport to the Northeast. They were certain they had done the right thing when they discovered that what they had given was EXACTLY what they were lacking. It all helps to make us sure He will provide everything we need, we don't have to continually make back up plans in case God doesn't deliver.

This week has been busy, we have begun with our new Portuguese tutor, learning about the many different conjugations of verbs is amazingly difficult. We have also been given lots of homework to help us get used to using the totally irregular verbs. At times it begins to make sense, other times we just can't put words together, but I'm sure that it's all going in.
We are beginning to build good relationships with others in our 'discipleship group' (small groups of workers in YWAM who get together each week, to discuss how they are doing, encourage one another, discuss topics and pray together). Our groups has new foreign workers and this week we were able to really encourage one of us who had had a difficult time this week.

Brazilian birthdays are celebrated in a unique way here. At YWAM in Belo Horizonte we have a special meal (it can be any meal of the day) followed by pudding or cake. Before the meal begins we sing "Parabens", a form of portuguese 'happy birthday', and then pray for the person. It's really cool and encouraging. But, there is a further element which only the brave participate in. It is customary in Brazil, so we have been informed, to throw eggs at the person and then cover them with flour.
This week it was the birthday of the house leader and he told Josiah and Gideon that they could throw eggs at him....if they could catch him. Not only did they manage to catch him but also they managed to tie him up before covering him in eggs and flour and then soaking him with water from a syphonning device which Gideon had previously constructed in the tree above where they tied him up. Also you may notice from the photos, Lady, the house dog, 'helped' to tie him up too.

Back to normal, again. It's always a bit strange when you have a different routine for a week or so, but it's nice to be working with the children again. Dave has really noticed an improvement in his understanding of Portuguese when the children shared about their weekend on Monday. He also tried a new technique when it was his turn to share about his weekend, he explained that he didn't know all of the words and asked for their help. This really made a huge amount of difference, instead of laughing at the words he got wrong they were helping him.
We have also started with new discipleship groups, the idea of these is getting to know other workers better, sharing difficulties, praying for one another and generally encouraging one another to grow. We meet every Friday, and are beginning to get to know 2 other Dutch girls who are new workers here, plus we have another guy from this house who we already know quite well.

Dave and I are doing 'new staff worker' training this week. It's great that it is based at this house as we begin at 8.15am, so those coming from the other side of the city have an early start. I have been doing the mornings and Dave the afternoons, then in the evenings we need to feedback to each other what it has been about. We have learnt a lot more about the beginnings and vision of YWAM, how to resolve conflicts and communication (particularly about writing newsletters). Some of it is useful, other things are not quite so useful.
Gideon is currently playing a game with the boys in the favela. He is standing on our grassy area that overlooks their houses, and they are flying their kites, only a fraction out of his reach, and he is running and jumping and trying to catch them. The boys in the favela like it because they can show their expert skill at keeping their kites just out of his reach. Gideon likes the challenge, and we like him burning off a LOT of energy.

The last couple of days with my group (Beckie's) have been quite fun......
I tried to tell my first bible story in Portuguese, I think they understood most of it, but I was very glad to be able to slip back into English for the application. The annoying thing was that the night before this I was unable to sleep because I had this story going round and round my head, in Portuguese.
The next day we did a couple of teamwork activities using rope. I was really impressed at how well they looked after each other and listened to each other. Then we went skating, and all of the boys forgot about teamwork, instead they tried to knock each other over and then give each other a kick!!! Oh well......it seems that boys will be boys, and there is still lots of work to be done socially.

I thought you'd like to see one of the practical tasks we did with the go-team. It was something I (Beckie) really enjoyed, as for once I felt like I was really able to use my abilities (many other times here I feel that because of the language I am unable to do things I could do easily in England). The children were all totally thrilled to see a transformed swimming pool, which made the hard work of painting in full-on sun worthwhile.

We are enjoying the Brazilian 'winter', fresh and breezy at times and coolish at night, but sometimes it's 32 degrees in the daytime!!!!
The go-team who were with us have now left, so it's very quiet here. They were a real blessing to us, helping out with some major practical work, and bringing a youthful energy and enthusiasm to the childrens work here. We have also said goodbye to some volunteers, what is strange in all of this is the temporary-ness of relationships. It's really hard to continue to meet people and spend time with them and then to say goodbye, knowing you will never see them again on this earth. It's not good to not form relationships because of this, yet what kind of relationships are we really able to form? In the last 6.5 months we have met some wonderful people, and many of them are no longer here, we enjoyed the time we spent, but now there are even more people to miss. I don't want to become cold towards new people though, particularly the volunteers who come with such enthusiam to see 'missions' and may only be here for a few weeks.

Today we had a day off and decided to go for a walk (hike) with the dutch team along a high local ridge to a beautiful park. We managed to take a short video clip of Gideon's comments. Sorry about the large file size but I still have not got round to getting some software to make it smaller. Maybe making a cup of tea while the video clip is loading would be wise.
It was hot but there was a fresh breeze for some of the time so it was not unbearable. When we got to the park we had a picnic and Gideon managed to get a monkey to eat out of his hand. We returned to Luzeiro via a different route along the bank of a river (again, very beautiful) and Josiah, Gideon and Beckie got soaked as they played in the water with some of the team from Holland.

The Olympics were really fantastic. All of the children had a wonderful time and particularly enjoyed competing with other teams. On the last day we had a longer worship time and were able to share the reason that we were there, and to tell them about God's love for them. The children waited with anticipation for the results, Dave and Gideon's team came last, and mine was 4th, Josiah's was the best in our family coming 3rd. This photo shows the children very happily receiving their medals for taking part. The other photo shows the winning team (New Zealand) performing their war shout to everybody for the final time. It was a good week, if somewhat tiring and was really good for all of us to build better relationships with the children.

'THE OLYMPICS' in Belo Horizonte...we have been having a great, but exhausting week. It is a 5 day event crammed full of fun physical and mental challenges for 6 teams. The teams are named after the countries represented on the base. Dave is one of the leaders in the 'England' team and Beckie is helping lead 'United States'. Josiah and Gideon are also in teams, participating with the other children from the favela. The teams compete against each other for points and at the end they are awarded medals and other prizes for their achievements. Each team has it's own colour and on the last day, the children get to keep their t-shirts. The children are full of enthusiasm, and continue to shout their teams 'war cry' even on day 4! Lots of the activities have involved team work. One we particularly liked was 'Monkey families', where the team had to retrieve a banana from a tree without touching the ground near the tree. They were given a piece of rope to help them but that was all. It was really interesting to see how the groups reacted to the challenge, especially as only 20% of the points were given for getting the banana and the other 80% was for how the team worked together (or not!). Other events included football (of course), swimming-dressing-up races, obstacle courses, unusual relay races and lateral-thinking challenges.

Today, I had a bit of a scary experience, that actually turned out fine. I needed to go the dentists for root canal treatment. I had no-body to translate for me, but hoped it would all be fine, going alone. However, when I arrived the dentist spoke English, so it was really easy for me, I no longer needed to worry about what was happening. So, I was able to lie back and thank God for looking after me so well. It's great to know that he provides for us in so many ways, sometimes helping us to understand and other times actually providing a translator.

We have had a bit of a change of routine this week. We began with a weekend break at 'Rainbow farm'. It was for all of the workers at Luzeiro and we had a fantastic time, climbing, bonfires, cycling, football and horseriding. It was really good for us to bond more with the team, and the boys particularly liked all of the open space. Then we had some days off (to prepare for very busy times ahead). This time we used to continue making our home more personal and practical (recycling a dogs house into a piece of furniture), it still isn't a palace, but we really like it.
The hardest thing is definitely the language. It makes me feel so incompetent. At the moment, the more I learn, the more I realise I don't know. One day this week Josiah and I went into the centre, I was really thrilled that I managed to ask questions and understand the answers, I even gave a man directions. Then today when I went to the dentists, it was really difficult for me to understand him, but it was made much worse when I went to a huge building to book an appointment and the lady on the desk sent me to the wrong floor. I was so confused , I had to stop myself from crying. Not speaking the language well is incredibly frustrating!!!!!!!!
So now we prepare for a 'GO team' coming from Holland. We are going to be doing a holiday club type thing called 'the olympics' and lots of practical maintenance work.

On Friday we celebrated the 'June Festival' - it is the time of year when the corn harvest is gathered in and when Catholics celebrate Saint John. In the North East of Brazil this festival is more important than Christmas to some. Although we at YWAM do not celebrate the 'Saint' part of the festival we did have a big party with all of the staff and some children from the housesbeing transported to the Lighthouse to have fun together. There were traditional fairground-type games like hoopla and catching fish and many food stalls. The interesting thing about it here though was everything was free....all the traditinonal food and the games. We all had a great time.

It is great when God teaches us through our children. I love it and am often challenged by it. Firstly, during our Thursday evening base service, God gave Josiah a vision which he then nervously shared with everyone. It was so cool to see him telling the Belo Horizonte YWAM base what God wanted to show them.
Another great thing is Gideon. He has got a new friend and as I am typing this Gideon is round his friend's house playing with him. What is so profound about that? Well...this new friend is the child that stole the boys toys while we were away on outreach for 6 weeks. At first, Gideon wanted him dead but now thy are good friends! We never got any of the things back either. God is so good enabling us to bless those who give us a hard time and, in the case of Gideon, has shown him how to love someone who he perceived was his enemy. Fantastic!

This weekend I, Dave, took the boys from my group to a farm 2 hours drive from Belo Horizonte. The environment is completely different from what they are used to with a lot of open space and quiet and they are also able to experience new things like milking a cow, swimming in a river, horse riding and night walking. The most interesting thing for me was the night walks. The boys are 'tough' kids - streetwise, have many scars, are used to fighting and living in a hostile environment. However, during the night walk they were actually scared. In the favela it is never dark (unless there is a power cut) and there are always people and noise around day and night so when the boys were experiencing darkness and quiet they became like 'normal' children. They clung onto our arms and seemed timid. It was really cool to see how much they trusted us in the darkness and, for me, illustrated a little bit of why I was there - to help them in their darkness.
Another group leader took some video footage of the boys during our time there and he's going to make a short film which will be posted on Youtube. When it is done, I will put it on the blog so you can have a clearer idea of what we are doing.

On Thursday we celebrated Josiah's birthday. He found it a bit strange having a birthday here, but there are lots of good things such as 'doce-de-leite'. Also the Brazilians like to make great cakes for birthdays, big and gooey. We also went into the centre and had a good time, buying a few things with his birthday money, and rowing a boat at the park. It's been great that so many people have remembered his birthday. One of his highlights was being able to view a video on u-tube from Y-Friday wishing him a happy birthday.

We're all really enjoying the Brazilian winter here. It's lovely and warm by midday but also cooler in the evenings and mornings. We have been blessed today to have a group come from the "Masterers commission" in America. They have arranged a day of beauty (including inner beauty) for the women from the slum. Everyone was thoroughly blessed.
One of the hardest things at the moment is family birthdays. It makes us very aware of the distance, particularly not being able to see my Mum on her 60th birthday, and Josiah having his 12th birthday in 2 days time. It's only really at these times we are aware of the sacrifice of being here. Josiah is much more positive now though, even telling me all of the things he would miss when we return (this is a really good change).

this is a photo from my new group. It was during a really nice session about Noah, which we finished with origami boats and animals. The children were really focussed on what they were making. The work is really good, although Dave and do have frustrations with the language; my group (who are really little) just assume that I can understand them, and they ramble away. Daves older boys know that he doesn't speak much Portuguese, so unless he speaks to them, they ignore him. This makes us realise just how impatient we are to learn Portuguese. Our new tutor is great, and we are having 2 sessions a week, plus homework. Dave is also enjoying the challenge of maintenance work, including how to creatively mend things with different (or almost no) materials.

This photo shows what it is like to live in a favela house. We've had a really good week, and are enjoying the new routines. I was a bit unsure how it would be to enter into an already established team, but it's great. The team here consists of 4 Brazilians, 4 Dutch, 1 from New Zealand, 1 South African, 1 American and us. So it is a very international team.

This weekend we decided to walk into the city, it's quite a long way, but I (probably the only one) really enjoyed it. Part of the walk takes you down an old road, which is now used as a jogging track, with exercise posts along the way. This is used by the more wealthy Brazilians who like to keep fit, the really strange thing is that this immediately turns into an area where several homeless people live. So, once again you go straight from wealth into poverty and the smell really hits you.

Today, there was a special service here for parents, in celebration of fathers day. It was a lovely service, but sadly there wasn't one father here. This is such a huge problem here. The men just don't stay with their wives or children, these children are used to having men coming (for a short while) and then going. What can be done to reach these men? They seem to be so closed to the gospel. What can be done to encourage the value of family? How can these children really understand that God is a Loving Heavenly Father, when they have no worldy understanding of this?

We have begun our work!!!! Today we chatted through what we'll be doing and it all seems quite manageable. Dave will be with the oldest boys in the afternoons, plus one afternoon for maintenance. I will be with the youngest boys in the mornings. We don't have a totally full program which means that homeschooling will be much easier, and we'll be able to really focus on learning Portuguese. Please continue to pray for our language learning ability, it is coming on, but we'd like it to be much quicker.

Dave experiences being a fire man! Last week we were warned of the dangers of the dry season (it's currently winter which means we have no rain), today, we experienced it. When it's hot and dry, and the favela kids are bored, they decide to set fire to the field at the bottom of the lighthouse grounds. They are kind enough to knock on the door and let us know if we don't notice. Then, whilst we are madly running backwards and forwards with buckets of water, they are sitting on their roofs and watching. It's not done because they don't like this place, but purely for entertainment. Thankfully the fire was under control fairly quickly, and we managed to prevent any trees from catching alight.

We are curently having a weeks holiday, before we start our new work. We looked into going to visit another area of Brazil, but then it seemed a bit scary and quite a bit of hassle (we have only just recovered from the really long travelling from Amambai, and didn't really want to do that again). So, we are spending time at home, and having days out. We visited an amazing place, called 'New Destiny', it's a 'farm', although they don't keep animals. It's a huge area of land, where groups from favelas come, often from non-Christian projects. They stay for weekends and take part in lots of outward bound activities, raft-making and team building. Plus they also hear the gospel and have meetings. Josiah and Gideon had great fun using some of the equipment, particularly the zip-wire over the lake and the raft sailing.

We have officially graduated from our DTS!! The graduation ceremony was very nice, especially when they got Josiah and Gideon to present us with our certificates (we don't have photo's yet, but will post some a bit later). After the service, we went to 'Baby Beef', this is a really nice barbeque 'eat as much as you like' restaurant. We got back at midnight, so the boys were quite whacked. I don't know if they will ever get used to the Brazilian stay up late culture.
Saying goodbye to others has been strange. We have met some fantastic people, and now most of them are returnng to their own countries.
We start our work at the lighthouse on Monday 9th June. It involves working with childrens groups and visiting families. So this next week we are having a rest. Hopefully we will be able to go somewhere else for a few days, but at the moment we haven't been able to arrange this. We also continue to make our place a little more cosy. It's strange for us to have some freetime and not know how to use it, but thats where the lovely hammock comes in, it's perfect for chilling!

Now we know we will be here for a little while we're beginning to make it a bit more like home. After much searching, we found a tool shop, so Dave now feels like a real man, it also means that we can make some of the windows a bit more secure. However, one of the best things we managed to buy was 2 ceramic mugs. It's very strange that something so simple can make you feel like you're home, we were getting fed up with drinking out of plastic camping ones.

We are currently finishing off our DTS, it's a very strange time, as we formed some good relationships with the other students, then we had 6 weeks in 3 different teams. So now, it's really nice to be back together but we all know it's not for long, than maybe we will never see these people again on this earth.
We have heard from the base council that we ahve been accepted to work at the lighthouse. This is really good news for us a family as it gives some stability for a while. This afternoon we will chat with the leader of the lighthouse about which areas we will work in. Thankyou to everyone who has been praying about God guiding our future, it is so good to know that He leads us.

We are now back in Belo Horizonte. We have travelled on 5 buses and for a total of 32hrs. It's great to be back!!!!!! I really liked seeing the view of the big city (even though I don't like big cities) and this morning it was great to look up at the mountainside covered in the favela. We experienced some good things in Amambai, and really learnt a lot about different projects. I think there is still more to learn (by reflecting on the last 6 weeks) about who we are and how we can work in Brazil. We had a team de-briefing today, and it was interesting to hear how the rest of the team viewed our time, feelings were very mixed. Dave and I tended to remember some of the difficulties, so we need to spend a bit more time focussing on the way our eyes have been opened and how we need to respond to the challenges of what we've seen.
The boys were both sad to leave some special friends (Debora and Kelly), but were also looking forward to living back at the lighthouse. We were greeted by a room that had ransacked, as our house had been broken into, probably by a child from the favela. It is very sad that he only wanted the children's toys and Daves phone. Most of our stuff was with us, but the boys have lost some things they really liked. At first they cried and Gideon was particularly upset and didn't want to go to bed, it was very hard for me to tell them to forgive, and that it was only 'stuff', when it wasn't my 'stuff'. We decided not to preach to them, but to pray and let God change their hearts. God is so good! This morning, Gideon prayed that he wouldn't feel angry when he next saw the child, and the way they have been speaking has been so much better. I think they are also more appreciative of everything they have now.

Sorry we've not been able to update recently. The internet here is very irratic, sometimes non-existent, sometimes only loads up half a page and sometimes it is incredibly patience growing.
This last week we have been cultivating a garden for the community to grow their own vegetables. It has been great to do something really physical, which doesn't require much thinking or Portuguese speaking. Some of the children came to help us, they really like getting attention from us, and will come here whenever they are not at school, and we are around. This is good at times, but also has it's difficulties. Do we need our own space away from the children we work with? Does that mean that our hearts are cold to their needs? What is the best way of doing this? Should we be feeding the children that keep coming here? Of course they come more often when we feed them...but, they have far less food than we do, so why are we sometimes so reluctant to share what we have?
I have just begun reading 'there's always enough' (by Heidi and Rolland Baker) again and once again I am challenged by their selfless attitudes. They have been willing to give out everything, and beyond that, giving what God gives to them. I want to utterly depend on God for everything, and I know that lots of you already think we do...but really we don't. We are able to do so much in our own strength....I want to think differently and love differently. This is something I cannot do on my own. When will God totally break away from me all of my worldly attitudes, what do I need to do? I don't want to make excuses. I now that there is so much more that can be done, here and in other places, EVERYWHERE.

Today, is Mothers Day in Brazil. We have helped to celebrate it at 2 services, plus some are going to an extra one tonight. This afternoon, we organised the service for the women in the community. It was a bit disapointing that not many families came, but it was good fun too. We presented a drama about the birth of Moses, and shared hearts of what true love is, and I spoke to the Mum's (very scary, I hate preaching!!!!!). We also gave the Mum's balloon flowers, a photo gift and the children presented a poem. I was also given a gift as a Mum, from YWAM.

Last night we had the youth service, Dave was playing in the worship band and Gideon went with him early to the practice. When Gideon discovered that the normal drummer didn't want to play that night, imagine his delight when the leader asked him to drum. He was absolutely ecstatic, we were also thrilled to see him drumming and hear him on a very good kit.

Some of the things we see here are difficult to describe and putting them on a blog does not really get accross the reality of the experience, but we try. For example, I (David) visited a family about 1/2 mile from the mission base and they lived in a house almost the size of our garden shed in England. The family consisted of 1 woman and 6 children. Her 'house' had many holes in it and outside there were 2 small shelters...a few bricks dry-stacked with a sheet as a roof...and these shelters were roughly the size of a cot and about 2 feet high (floor to roof). These shelters were for 2 of her children to sleep in. There are many examples of such poverty here.
In these situations there is little we can do on our own. We take them some food for their physical feeding and also share some passages from the Bible with them for their spiritual feeding. One thing that really strikes me about this is that there are 'rich' churches around here and they do very little for these people. How can the church demonstrate the love of God to these desperate people if not by actions?
I often find that we get good at talking but not good at doing because it costs us something...it requires us to give up time and resources for the benefit of others. This time could be spent doing leasure activities and these resources could be spent on our own pleasures (hobbies etc) but which is better? If we are to do to others what we want them to do to us, and that is how we love our neighbour, then what would you want someone to do to you if you lived in such poverty? Think about it, pray about it and then DO IT! Jesus spent himself on the cross for our freedom. Surely we can spend ourselves for others so that they too may know the freedom which Christ offers. Hmmm...I can go on for a long time about this but please do not sit any longer watching others suffer. Do something about it. Pray for those that work with people in need. Give to others. Find out what others need and be used by God to meet that need. Anyway...I'll stop for now. God bless you all and thankyou for your coninued prayers and support.

Yesterday we travelled into Paraguay. It seems to be a place of lots of imports, some are genuine and some are fakes. It was a good day shopping with both of the boys, as they both managed to get what they wanted. Josiah now has major knee pads for skating (I think he's planning on learning how to "grind"), and Gideon has cymbol stand. Dave and I also managed to buy some speakers for our computer, so now we can play our music LOUD!!!

It is Sunday today and this morning we did the Sunday school thing for about 70-80 children and we will be doing something similar this evening for the children too, although that is yet to be planned!
Last night we went to the youth service and I (David) was called at 6pm just before the service and was asked if I could play bass with them. I knew 1 song and did not have time to learn any of the other 4. Also, the sound was soo loud that I could not hear what the other musicians were playing apart from the drums so I had to guess. It was very difficult for me. After the service we came back to the mission base (a wooden house with some surrounding land) with about 30 other young people aged 16-30. I was then asked to bring a 'Word' from the Bible, there and then, to encourage them...again, being put on the spot but God is faithful and, actually, I found it easy. The Holy Spirit was bringing scriptures to mind as I was talking. It was really cool. Having a translator also helped because it gave me time to put together the words that were in my head.
Before coming on outeach to Amambai, God asked me a question. It was "Are you ready?" And I didn't know what that really meant...even now I am discovering more about what it means to be ready....that it is not about being physically prepared but about having a heart that is ready for whatever God allows to come accross our path. I do not know what tomorrow will bring, but if I am close enough to my loving Heavenly Father then I need not fear because I can do 'all things through Christ' for he gives me the strength to do just that. Gideon and Josiah are learning that too as they are often faced with situations that they do not like here because they do not understand what is going on or because it is boring or both but they still maintain a continual trust in God and for me as their father it is very encouraging to see.

Things don't always go well....
I just thought I'd let you all know about a disaster. Last night we had a service here at the community center. The kids all came really early (about 1.5hrs early). So by the time our service began they were completely hyped up. The other problem was that we hadn't planned enough activities. Added to that our venue was crazy, a health and safety nightmare. It was pouring with rain, the roof was leaking, the floor was very unlevel, there are windows all the way around, several with no glass in. So when we had to think on our feet, none of us could think of a safe game to play in that space, added to that at times we didn't have a Portuguese speaker.
We were all so glad when the time came to hand out food, at least all of the kids sat down and ate (very happily). We're not too worried about it, at least we learn how to prepare better and take into consideration venue difficulties. We keep learning.

Well, today is our day off, and the internet is working realy well, which is a bit of a rarity. We have been into the city, it is so spread out, and there is very little to do here, but it does make relationships more important.
We're very involved in the children's and youth work that the church does, both at the church and it's community center. Saturday was a fun afternoon with the children from the poor area coming to the community center. We did a presentation, shared a message and then had a treasure hunt and some games, it was great, and really helps us to build up relationships.
Josiah is finding it much easier to have relationships with other kids here, and he's very popular particularly with the girls. Both of the boys love it here, which is strange as there is really very little to do in your freetime (we don't have much freetime so it's not really a problem for us)

Today we have been trying to plan some of our activities for this week.....it has been OK, but difficult at times to overcome cultural differences. I'm realising how I like to be very organised, quite a while in advance (my reason is to collect resources). It isn't really normal to prepare too far in advance here.
Last night we had a fun time with our small groups, we are beginning to get used to some of the Brazilian names. We had great fun running around outside playing "prison break"

Well....It does get more crazy!!!!!!
Today we heard about this coming week. On Tuesday nights we lead the children's bible study (5 groups). Wednesday afternoon we are teaching at the women's group. Thursday night we have a service for the community here (we lead worship, we have 1 children's group, 2 teenage groups, and someone to teach the adults). Friday morning and afternoon we are in a school, not sure if it's 1 school or 2 different schools, we think it's just a short snappy program to invite the children to a Sunday service. Saturday afternoon we have a fun service for the children in the community (a bit like a KidzKlub), and in the evening we go to another city to do street evangelism (dramas, dances, preaching and testimony). Sunday morning we do a special children's service, and maybe preach in the evening. We also get to do home visits to families in the community.
It is actually quite funny that things are this busy, thankfuly we all team together and try to help each other, however we cannot do this without God's help. He definitely likes us to rely on Him.

So...how crazy does it get here? Well, this week we had to plan a 2 1/2 hour session for some children in a school for the Brazilian indiginous people and we were told there would be between 50-100 children. We thought that was quite a lot of children for 2 1/2 hours but proceeded anyway to produce the program. When we got to the school we discovered that we had 600 children instead! So, we prayed! It was fairly chaotic but we all had a lot of peace about it and had to improvise as we went along, because the program we had drawn up was simply not suited to so many children. It was great to see God come through in such a situation...thinking about it I'm not sure how we managed it! Maybe more detail on that another time.
We have also been to some meetings with a pastor who is famous in Brazil for his healing ministry and saw many people healed as well as many recieve Jesus as Lord. But, it was a bit strange due to the pastor's showey style...we found it a bit difficult but do not deny the Lord's anointing on His life. I (David) sometimes find it difficult to understand how such self-promoting people have such a powerful ministry. Yet, I am sure it will all become clear soon.

This is one of those sunsets we told you about, we'll probably be clicking some more soon.

The tea is a really traditional thing here, it's a pot of herbs which they add ice cold water to and then everyone passes the cup around as a social thing, it's very rude not to drink or to not down the whole thing when it's passed to you. Gideon loves the tea, Dave quite likes it, Josiah can just about manage to drink it without pulling too many faces and I really hate it. If you know what henna hair dye smells like then this stuff tastes similar but worse.

Here we are in Amambai. It took 29 hours to get here...that is a long time to spend on a bus! The roads here are mainly mud and dust, although most of the houses are richer-looking than those in Belo Horizonte and there seems to be a lot more affluence here but it is still mixed with poverty which is mainly amongst the Amerindians. The people here look different, the sunsets more spectacular and there are more cows here. It is also noticeably quieter...Mmmmmm....sleep.
On Tuesday we will be putting together a program for the net 6 weeks but until then we can relax.....oops - that is tomorrow!
Shortly, we will post more including pictures to give a larger impression of what it is like here.

We are now preparing for our pratical/outreach phase of the DTS, it'e exciting and daunting all at the same time. A bit like coming here all over again. Once again, we're trying to downsize our stuff, thinking about whether we really need everything for the next 6 weeks. We've had some great team times, they're a really good bunch, I feel a bit sorry for the busdriver on our 26hr trip, as they (we) are also a loud, crazy bunch. We're hoping to have internet in Amambai, but we're also not sure how demanding our days will be, I think they will keep us busy!!!!!!

Hey....check this out. It is the video of "Sunday with God" which we were involved in last weekend (30th March). There's a fair bit of Beckie in it, a snap-shot of Gideon and a second of Dave. Josiah does not feature because he was ill that day and stayed in the 'hut'. It is a large file so may not easily play if you have a slow connection - no discrimination intended.

This is a quick update from the previous blog as to how our day has gone. FANTASTIC!
The journey accross the city took 50 mins by bus - from one favela to another. The children were really open and about 100 turned up. We had to go through the favela with our faces painted inviting the children before the event began and once it started they all seemed very excited. I think the oldest was 13 and the youngest was about 3.
After a drama, we split into 2 groups, divided by age, and presented the Gospel to the children in a way which they would understand. They knew a lot about drugs (not surprisingly) but were hooked by my (Dave's) story, which I did not expect. The other, younger group, got really excited about the puppets telling the story of creation, and managed to make 'themselves' out of a balloon and some wool. After this we met back together as a large group.
We then presented 2 more dramas and after the final drama, called choice, we presented the kids with the choice of following Jesus and 2/3 of the children wanted to! Some people from the church which we were working with then invited those children to their weekly children's activities which they put on.
One thing we noticed about these kids was their openness. They loved being hugged and swung around, wanted to play with us and readily shared their lives with us. They seemed different from English children in this way. It made me think that the whole 'child protection' thing is not always helpful when it comes to sharing the Gospel with children wholeheartedly, like when they want or need a hug, or want to be 'thrown' around. A friend of ours took a video of the whole day and we should be able to put it on this blog in the next week or so, so you can see us in action.
Josiah helped with the puppets and Gideon wondered around soaking up the atmosphere. Both children seemed to enjoy it. Thankyou for your prayers. Much appreciated....they make a huge difference.

Just when we thought we'd be having a quieter week....actually there does not seem to be any such thing here. Tomorrow (Saturday), the group going to Amambai (that's us plus 6 other students) are going accross the city to a church in another favela to run a kids program for them. We knew this on Thursday (yesterday) and we had one afternoon plus any spare time we wanted to give it, like when we should be sleeping, to prepare a 2 hour program which we would deliver to about 100-150 kids aged 2-14! We have been given a theme for this by the church which is 'drug prevention' as they want to run an anti-drugs campaigne in the favela, educationg the children about the dangers of getting involved in them. Ironicaly, it is likely that the young children know a lot more about drugs than any of the team.
So, what are we going to do? Why am I writing this blog and not preparing for it? Actually, I am just having a break. Our conclusion was that if these children had a relationship with Jesus then they would have the strength to say no to being involved with these drug gangs, so we have decided to sock them with the gospel instead as the anti-drugs message. I (Dave) will be giving my testimony which has something to do with how Jesus freed me from drugs, but it is nothing like these children experience every day of their lives in one way or another. Beckie is leading the younger children's work with puppets and will be exploring creation and how God has made them and loves them, therefore they need to honour Him by what they do.
As you can imagine, this is a HUGE challenge for us so please pray that this will be fruitfual and that all will go well. May the author and perfector / finisher of our faith finish and make perfect what we do tomorrow for the glory of God.

We had a good day today, the organising was done well by a dutch guy called Jonathan, he did a really good job, and made it much easier for us all to work in. We had a fun time, the kids were lovely (yes, a bit naughty at times, Dave was in a group where 2 boys had a fight and one ended up with a bleeding head), some of them were incredibly cute. There was about 160 of them. Everything seemed to run very smoothly, I managed to speak enough Portuguese to be understood by the children. Some of the really strange things were.....
a.) the kids not having to be checked out at all, you just have to make sure they all leave and not worry about who they go with.
b.) there's no 'safe to grow ' policy, if you see a child on their own you need to go to them (rather than think 'oh dear I musn't be alone with a child'). The reason for this is that otherwise they might steal things.
c.) there's so much physical touch, lots of hugging and rough and tumble, between children and adults.
It's all very different, but I imagine we can get used to it. It really is in the chatting to children that you start to use the language.
We are hoping to post some photos soon

Things here are a little frustrating, we are working hard (all students are feeling like its a bit much), however, we are having to do extra things that we don't feel very well prepared for. Today we were told about our day on Sunday, it's called a day with God. We didn't realise that it is an open programme for all of the children who live on the favela. We are expecting maybe 250 children (low concentration span and difficult ones), and the DTS students need to organise part of the programme. It sounds like a bit like KidzKlub, so it should be fun, but I'm not looking forward to our 1 afternoon of preparation, where 21 different people (3 nationalities), try to decide what to do together. God will certainly teach us some stuff through it!!!!!!

Easter is a bit different here than in the UK. The Catholic church celebrate it in a very big way with parades and re-enactments of The Passion, stopping at various points along the way to perform certain rituals as part of what they believe. The Evangelicals don't seem to celebrate it at all, but if they do it is in a very quiet way and this is because the Catholics celebrate it! It seems that if it is something that the Catholics do then the Evangelicals don't do it, to set themselves apart from the Catholic church. We saw a Passion re-enactment when we were walking through a favela on Friday lunchtime.
We got sent a photo of the snow in Norfolk, UK and it made us feel very far away from home...

Wow...it has been a week since our last post. I think that this is the longest gap between posts but there may yet be longer ones...
We have continued to have a really busy time here with the heavy workload from the DTS, home schooling and trying to spend time together as a family and as the weeks go on all of these aspects of our lives seem to be working out ok as the Lord allows. Apart from our 1 day off a week, every day begins around 6am and finishes around 9.30-10pm with breaks for breakfast, lunch and evening meal. Both Beckie and I had afternoon naps today as we were so tired (not at the same time)
Last night (Saturday) I went out with a small team to do a presentation in a church 10mins walk from our base here. We did a dance, 2 dramas, a preach and led the worship time and it was a really good evening. There were 7 of us in the team, plus 2 leaders. The church building was large and beautifully presented but the congregation only consisted of about 15 people because of the rain. After the service had finished, we had to wait for a further 45 mins in the building for the rain to die down because it was too dangerous to even drive in as the height of the rushing water in the road was up to the top of the car tyres!
Next weekend we have 3 days off because it is a national holiday here in Brazil. We hope to catch up on all of the e-mails which are awaiting responses as well as post out our next newsletter in its new format, so please be patient with us if we have not repled to your e-mail yet.
God is continuing to speak to us about His plans for us here and it is sounding exciting...but more on that another time.

The trip to the red light district was fascinating. It was a real eye opener to one of the big problems here. We went to an area that was only a 3 minute walk from the main shopping area, there were many roads that joined together, all very busy (mid afternoon). There are cinemas, bars and places where they have shows. Plus there are lots of doorways with stairs going up, sometimes with a man on guard at the bottom. I was amazed at how busy these places were, men were coming and going, up and down the stairs all of the time. I found myself really struggling to evangelise, I couldn't speak the language, and even if I could, what would I really say? I really wanted to speak to some of the women, but our groups went to talk to people in the streets. I found myself praying for one of the team members, who was chatting with and praying for lots of the guys who were sitting on the steps by the streets. I was also observing the guys and praying for God to do something in their hearts, it was strange to actually see the guilt on their faces as they left the buildings.
It is so strange to think that women (and even very young women) are so poor that they are available for the equivalent of £1-£3. It seems to become like leaving the shopping centre and going for a cup of coffee somewhere.

Last night we partied, as everyone had been working hard and it was thought we needed to relax a little. We played some fun games, such as placing a piece of chocolate on your forehead and trying to get it into your mouth only using our facial expressions (no hands allowed). Beckie was thrilled to have succeeded. Dave didn't manage it. This picture is of Josiah having a go (second from right as you look at it)

Squeak piggy squeak was quite fun, for some reason everyone seemed to sit on Gideon's lap. Josiah was chased for a dance by some of the Brazilian ladies, they think he's very beautiful, so he kept running off and hiding.

Beckie has just left to go to the city centre with a group to do some evangelism amongst prostitutes in the red light district of Belo Horizonte. This is an organised activity in conjunction with other YWAM bases in Brazil. I remain here to look after the kids as it is not appropriate for them to go. Next Sunday afternoon we, as a family, along with 6 other DTS students are off to do an afternoon of evangelism with a local church using dance, drama, preaching, street games and music. It should be great fun...tray challenge here we come!

We soon hope to be adding video on to this blog site, so watch out for that.

We are still keeping busy, thankfully Dave and I are both up to date with our assignments, but time flies and there will be more due in soon. It's good to be here, yet we would also like to be with everyone back home, and our thoughts and prayers drift there a lot at the moment.

We have lots of tropical wildlife to observe, if you thought that that spider was big you might not have liked the one that was too big to be trapped by a cut open 2litre bottle, yes it's legs were bigger (and fat and hairy) than the diameter of a 2litre bottle and it was looking at us in our lounge. Dave and Josiah like watching the little lizards gobbling moths and flies, but I don't like it when they walk across the window at night.

We're all getting used to the rice and beans diet (especially when we have a bit of doce de leite (caramel goo) too), but Gideon was thrilled to receive a little parcel from my Mum with stuffing mix in. All of the guys would love a Sunday roast, so, you people who have Sunday roasts, appreciate them!!

On Saturday, our team is going to evangelise in the red light district of Belo Horizonte, as it's a special day for women, and we want to show them how much God loves them. I'm not sure which one of us is going yet, but it sounds quite exciting.

We want to thank you all for your continued prayers and support in our time here. It feels like we have been here a long time now but really it is only about 6 1/2 weeks! Please keep praying.

Last night we saw a spider just outside our house (hut really) and thought it would make a good picture to share. It's difficult to imagine the proportions from the picture, but it was HUGE and hairy - quite beautiful actually. We were told that it was not poisonous but can give a painful bite. OUCH!

Internet working, HURRAY!!!!!
We've had some frustrating internet experiences lately, it's great to be able to get online again.
This week has been another busy one, we have finished teaching on being a worker approved by God (2 Tim 2:15), and now we're onto the divine plumbline. We've also had lots of asignments to do in our evenings, so we've had to be very self-disciplined. Josiah has started helping in one of the groups of boys (6-8 yrs) that comes to the lighthouse. It's really good for him to get to know them, to see some of the reality of life here and to learn Portuguese, he really likes it. Gideon is having lots of fun with Dani, she is very quiet but she's also a bit whacky, and has jumped in the pool fully clothed a few times, much to Gideon's delight. We're all quite excited about going to Amambai, even if it is a long way away. We're now practising dances and dramas in preparation - even Dave!

I'm just having a break from studying...my head hurts! This week we have been looking at 2Timothy 2v15 - being a worker approved by God. There is soo much to take in as well as getting all of our studying done to a high enough standard that sometimes it is really difficult. As well as this we have to make sure we spend enough time together as a family, which is also difficult. Because of this, we have to make sure that both Beckie and I are ahead of our studies enough to have a day off together. Some students study on their day off...not us...it is our icecream day.
We were told on Tuesday to decide where God wanted us to go on outreach (the 2 month practical aspect of the course we are doing) and let the leadership team know by Thursday. They gave us 4 options: 1)Help develop a community project in the Western state of Matto Grosso du Sul, 2)Work in two different cities in Minas Gerias - this state - doing evangelism, house building and other practical work, 3)Go to Chile to work at a YWAM bass, 4)Stay here at The Lighthouse. So, we prayed as a family on 2 different occasions waiting on the Lord for a word and He spoke to the children giving Josiah 2 different pictures, giving Gideon a desire to go where there was 'decorating' to be done and God showed me a vision of a cow! On their own they made little sense but when pieced together they all pointed to the state of Matto Grosso du Sul. When we met again with the leadership about this they said that God had spoken to them about us going there too - cool, huh? If you do not know God's leading in this way maybe you should spend time with your family seeking Him and asking Him what you want to know and then just wait. He may want you to give Him an oportunity to speak to you in that way.
We leave for Western Brazil on the 12th April, we think. The place we are going is called Amambai and is right near the border of Paraguay. It is a 26hour bus ride from here! We have been told that we will spend some time with tribal folk too.
Anyway...must get back to work as there is much to do...

We have just had a most amazing weekend called 'Culture Weekend'. We spent time living and experiencing what it is like in different cultures. We sampled Muslim, Hindu, Chinese and Central African cultures (from specific countries) by watching films about them and having seminars as well as eating the food, wearing the clothes and behaving like they do.

For example, on Saturday we were woken up at 4am to pray and had to face East in a kneeling position - although we prayed to Our Heavenly Father and not Allah! Then, after some sleep, we learnt about the culture before having to act like it - the men bossed the women about, ate first and the women ate afterwards and were generally nasty to the women. We then explored what it was like for both groups afterwards.

To put things right though, the men decorated a room and spent time washing the feet of the women and praying for them...it was a really deep and emotional time as God ministered to the women through the men after they had been so nasty to them.

Today is a much needed day off and we have been doing very little...although the boys have done some school work, writing up their weekend experiences. The Lighthouse opened up its doors to the community today too as it began its programms for the kids and lessons fr the adults from the favela. We'll write more about this stuff in the future though. At the moment we are not involved in any of it, it just goes on around us.

The avacados on the tree near our house are nearly ripe for the picking. We've never had fresh avacados before.

Recently we invested in a blender as there is soooo much fresh fruit here and it is all so cheap. Great for fresh fruit smoothies. The weather is HOT. The people are LOVELY and God is AWESOME

We have been learning about Homiletics (writing sermons). At the end of the lesson we were told that we would each preach a mini sermon, on a subject of our choice the following morning. I had a bit of a panic about this (Dave was fine, he had done plenty of talks before). We only had the minimum of time to prepare, but God gave all of us a word to talk about, and actually it was OK. The worst bit was the Pastor assessing us at the end, on everything from appearance to verse jumping, to talking with an unvaried voice tone and much more. It was rather scary.
Last night we had a service at the base and Gideon played the drums again, he really listened to the other musicians, it was FANTASTIC

Hurray, I´m on the internet. It has been really difficult lately to find the internet working. All over the site it has been bad, but our´s in particular. It´s amazing how much you rely on it to feel part of the rest of the world and for the boys to use it in their schooling. Things are crazily busy here. We´ve had to hand in our biblical analysis´, write our book report, practise dramas, keep up to date with our creative journal, do practical work, meet our counsellors, have lots of teaching (it´s all good stuff) and homeschool the boys. The weekend is going to be fun, although we don´t exactly know what we´re doing, but it´s called a cultural weekend. We´ve heard a few things about what we´re not allowed to take, e.g toothpaste, comb, shampoo...... It´s all very mysterious but I reckon it will be fun. Josiah and Gideon have nearly finished catching pidgeons, although Gideon´s favourite one seems to have adopted him, and keeps coming to our house.