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!