English Camp; Prayer

Tomorrow starts English Camp and it looks like it will be the biggest one that we have had so far.  The fab four have passed out 3,000 invites and this morning invited about 200 more students to come (of which about 100 said they were coming).  We also have two buses from other cities that we know are coming to English Camp so conservatively we are expecting 200 people minimum, and possibly a higher end of 4-5 hundred.  That's a lot of people!  The format is we get together in a large group and sing a song or two in English and Portuguese to practice.  Play a large group game or do something in large groups to get everyone involved and then share the Gospel or testimony and start learning English.  In English classes we will learn English, talk about America, and then have a Bible lesson where we will talk about Jesus and have conversation.  This whole process we will do this roughly 3 times a day Saturday with game time and hang out in between and once on Sunday morning.  It would be great if everyone would be praying for great conversations and that we would adjust well to the number of people who come to camp as we do not know how many to expect.  We are also asking for prayer that people would feel involved and wisdom to handle unexpected things.  Finally be praying that this is a great opportunity for the church members to get their name out there and that they can reach people's hearts more than the Americans as this is their home.  Thanks for all you prayers.  We love you all.

The pictures are from Happy hour and schools in Taio

Oi!

This is Rachel, Hannah, and Sarah reporting live from the bus. We're on our way to Taio to spend the day sharing the gospel and our testimonies in schools. Then we'll also have happy hour tonight where Brazilians come to just hang out with us.  Last night everyone must have had too much to eat because as one van attempted to chug its way up a mountain the engine decided it needed a nap. Everyone had to walk home through the mountains while fending off bears and vicious flying squirrels... Just kidding :) it was only a thirty minute delay and everyone got back on the van and home safely. Okay now on a more serious note... We've had an awesome trip so far and God has been teaching us and changing the lives of many people. We're excited to see how God will work through us during the English camp. There have been many times where we were nervous or didn't know what to say, but the Holy Spirit has been with us every time. It's an amazing feeling to be used by God. Especially because a lot of the students have never heard the gospel.  Everything has gone well so far and we give all the credit to God because we know that what we're doing isn't through our own power but God's. With that, here are some things you could pray for. :)  -We're all pretty exhausted so pray that we have energy to stay focused and to have a servant's heart for God. -Patience  -Health  -Being able to fight Satan's lies -Staying focused on the purpose of the trip These are a few specifics but please pray for our team in general as well. Missing you all at home! -Rachel, Hannah, and Sarah P.S. from Rachel, I love and miss you mom and dad! Give Bear a nuzzle from me and eat a basket full of breadsticks for me in my name;) P.S.S from Hannah, hey mom and dad! I miss you all so much! Give my love to the boys and Jake and Jersey! Hope you're getting used to me being gone since this could become a regular thing ;) love ya!  P.S.S.S. from Sarah, hi mom and dad!  I miss you and love you and tell everyone hi. Also, I hope you aren't missing me too much because I'm considering staying here forever. ;) love you! TCHAU!! (chow for those of you that don't speak Portuguese, which we are now fluent in.)  :)

Oh, Happy Day! Ricky and J Barr got in last night. Unfortunately, their luggage did not. Although our new team members may start to stink from a lack of change of clothes, it's great to have the whole team together. We went into more schools today. I thought it might get old going into the schools, classroom after classroom, but every time it's amazing to see the Spirit at work. There have been so many opportunities to share the gospel in the classrooms or just when we have free time with the students. It has been so easy to form relationships with the kids at the schools. They're excited to ask us questions and always ready to take us on in soccer. Here's some exciting news: our girls TIED a soccer game at a school last night! Although I'm holding on to the hope of procuring a "W", this might be the most we can boast of this trip. Tonight we are hosting "Happy Hour" at the church. We've invited the classes we've visited to come. It will be a time for them to ask more questions about the gospel and keep forming those relationships. God is definitely at work in this city. With that we ask that you pray against any attacks on the spreading of the gospel and weariness. THANKS! -Samantha 

It ain't Dull in Rio Do Sul

This is a picture of Sam sharing her testimony at a school.  Everyone is really excited about what God has been doing with us in the schools here.

Today we split into four different groups and went to several different schools in the area in and around Rio do Sul. One group of us went to Dalfovo School in Rio do Sul, where we talked to classes of mostly High School aged students. We were able to play games, ask and answer questions, tell testimonies, and even share the gospel here! The students were very receptive and had many captivating questions for us to answer...but the thing that really made the day amazing was this English teacher, Eduardo.   I had the opportunity to go into his English class twice, once in the morning and once at night. He not only allowed us to share our testimonies and share the gospel extensively in his class, but actually elaborated on the importance of faith and encouraged his students to dwell on what they believe about God, Jesus, and their relationship with him. He wrote a wonderful quote on the board (In English since he is an English teacher) that said, "A man without faith is like a classroom students." Needless to say, the Holy Spirit was at work in this school and in Eduardo's classroom. His presence  there was undeniable and could be felt, and seen in the faces of the students who were truly pondering the gospel message that almost all of them had just heard for the first time!   It is clear to me already because of this and other examples that God has put us in this town and in this role as partners with Celivres Church quite specifically. We are opening doors for Eduardo and Brazilians like him who were maybe just waiting for a good opportunity to share their faiths with others. I believe that God will continue to utilize us in this role, because it is exactly what our mission is as a church! We are equipping and helping fellow believers share the gospel with those in their own towns, so that they can continue an effective ministry long after we have gone back to the United States. This is the true power of missions, and we are seeing it being accomplished here in Brazil in full divine force.   All Glory to God,   Hayden Florom  

School Days

What a day! We all woke up this morning to a LOT of rain. It rained all night here and it didn't stop until this afternoon. This morning was the first early morning we had. Last night Nate and I moved into a new host home, because the kids in the house were begging their mom to let us stay so we switched. Turns out the family speaks no English at all, and they can't understand our Spanish.  We rely on hand signals and smiles. At about 8 a.m., me and a team of about 12 departed for a school about 30 minutes outside the city. When we arrived, the kids were very excited and surprised to see us. In groups of about 5 we went into separate classrooms to speak to the kids. One person shared their testimony, and a couple people described the differences between man and God, and how we can have a relationship with God. It was obvious that God was giving us the words to say because they paid attention to everything that we said! Other groups of people went to other schools, and spoke in multiple classrooms at the same school. This morning we spoke to 5 classrooms alone, and this is just day one! The atmosphere here is very alive. Everybody on the team is eager to go out and speak to more people, and we are going to another school this afternoon to speak to even more schools. This is a strong team, and I have a lot of great friends here! Nate and I are crazy roommates, actually he is the crazy one. Sammy had the great idea of keeping a "captains log" or journal that all the boys keep. We are making amazing progress here spreading God's grace and love. Happy late fathers day to my dad! I miss you and love you Mom, Dad, Shannon, and Phil. Keep praying!  ~Sam Potter

Level two team arrived well and it was good to have their energy and see some familiar faces. Today we had Happy English Day at a park in Rio do Sul where we were able to spend time with students from all the different schools that we promoted in. It was really encouraging to see a good turn out and to see everyone be intentional with what they were doing and making sure they included the brazilians and reached out to them to get to know them. It was a good time and then at night we just hung out at the church. Some good stuff today and already seeing God at work on the first day. Pretty cool to see. Thanks for prayers and also be praying for ryan as we took him to the doctor last night and got him meds because we found out he has pneumonia. Pray for quick healing for him so he can rejoin us and also Ben and Jesse arrived safely this night from their long journey. Thanks for the prayers. - Jon

Day 3

Day 3, Captain's log.  After spending our first night here in Brazil we were up early for more fun at the church.  We met there at 9 am for Kevin Rock and Sam Potter to share their devotional and for worship.  For me, this was really cool.  To hear the Brazilians sing along with us to the same songs was pretty moving.  Even though we don't speak the same language, God is listening to all of us.  After that we spent a few hours playing futbol, football, and hacky sack in the back yard of the church.  For lunch we had these sausage  sandwiches which were quite tasty.  Around 2 pm we made our way to a local park where we hung out with a lot of Brazilians and got to know them.  We called it "Happy English Day".  Until the sun went down we enjoyed many people's company while playing a lot of futbol, football, hacky sack, and frisby this time.  It was pretty neat to get to know them and see more of their culture.  We agreed as a group that they saw Christ in us because of how happy and up-beat we were in our conversations and games.  All of us had positive attitudes and had smiles on the whole time.  It was just an awesome experience.  We invited a lot of them to come to church tomorrow at 7.  We're hoping they show up and really get to experience the Holy Spirit working at CELIVRIS.  God has really blessed us and allowed us to connect with these people dispite the language barrier.  Please continue to pray for us.  We all really appreciate it :)  I love you Mom, Dad, Miranda, Max, Katie, Nana, Grandpa, and Grandma Dee!  Miss you all! ~Sammy Zitek 

We made it!

We're in Rio do Sol! After a long day and a half of traveling, we are finally here. It took  a couple tight connections, a ridiculously long flight, and a crazy bus ride, but we are all glad to be here. We met all of our translators. On our way from the airport in Curitiba to Rio do Sol, we stopped at a buffet where the waiters would bring around different meats and offer them to you. There were so many different foods I had never seen before. What an experience! I'm sure the boys will expound when they get home. Last night we met at the church and socialized for a while with the church people. It's a super fun group of people! Then we split up and went with our host families. Bailey and I were lucky enough to have a translator staying with us. I think other groups have been using more charades and google translate than us. My family is so hospitable. We had a great time getting to know them and sharing pictures. They loved the pictures of snow. I'm pretty sure we were all super happy to sleep in a bed (not a plane). Now we are at the church fellowshipping for a while before we start up and I'm listening to people worshipping in Portuguese and English. It is gonna be an awesome time! Love you Mom and Dad!! -- Samantha Timmons

Pure awesomeness

I will say up front if there are any misspellings it is because i am typing on a brazilian keyboard and they list every word as spelled wrong.  Plus i am too lazy to re read or try and capitalize everything because the shift keys are in different places.

Today is going to be pretty exciting.  We get to go and visit almost 250 high school students and invite them to Happy Day and to our English Camp.  And the local university is helping us so that we can hand out over 3,000 invitations to English Camp for every person who attends the University.  That is correct I did say 3,000.  Add that to the 1,000 or so we have already invited and all the students the level 2 team will invite (another 3,000 or so) we are expecting a ton of people to come.  This will easily be our biggest English camp and I have no idea how many people will actually come.  lets just say we are estimating conservatively 200 plus people! Crazy! So we are hoping for a lot of help from the church members and hoping that it is not  too crowded but if it is who cares!

Matthew 9:37-38 Then he said to his disciples, ``The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray eanestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.´´

2 More days of freedom

It is almost time for the level 2 team to get here.  Crazy how fast time goes in this world.

The last few days have been busy and chill at the same time.  During this week we've spent a little bit of time walking around the city to various schools handing out flyers for Happy Day this Saturday with all of the level 2 team at a park.  There are lots of people interested in coming and I think it will be a blast. Saturday we got to hang out at the church all day and it was their celebration of the reopening of the church. It was fun to be around a great bonfire, watch 11 baptisms and then be able to eat and talk with people. There were many there who don't normally attend because of the baptisms and it was a great opportunity to be with new people.

Sunday I taught a lesson on finding your identity in Christ and nothing less and got the chance to speak to the church inviting them and encouraging them to participate and help with english day and english camp. we are expecting a lot of people and because english camp is at the end of the trip this year (previously the beginning) we get to invite every school to the camp and are expecting a lot of people.  Fortunately things have really come together for this and we get to use the space for free and I personally think it will be our largest camp yet.

Tuesday we spent time in another city for "Dia de Namoradoes" (Valentine's Day).  We all went without dates and ate at a nice restaurant, listened to music, and had a good time.

Though as a group we would all ask for prayer for health. Jon and I didn't get great sleep last night and I've had a cough and a running nose for almost two weeks now.  We are hoping to all be 100% healthy by the time the level 2 team arrives so we are not hindered in helping them at all and leading. Love you all.  Thanks for all the prayers.

When in Brasil...

The last few days have not been too busy.  Sunday we spent helping at the church and talking with our host families.  The service was 2.5 hours long, and some people think that Mark goes a long time...don't complain.  It was all about the persecuted church in different countries and we watched about an hour of videos and got to spend time in prayer for the different continents and Christians that face persecution.  It was really good to watch and to think about such things.

Monday was Johnny's day off/day of rest because he works on Sunday.  So Jon and I went and hung out with our host family and then spent the rest of the day with Johnny at his house.  We watched some movies, visited a sick member of the church, and then got to read for a little bit.

Tuesday we went to a school with a member of the church.  It was a very short visit and we are going back this saturday for an english party.  Also Alek and Andrew got tattoos today!

Wed was super cool because we spent it at classrooms.  We visited the same school in the morning and afternoon which was a good time.  We played the kids in soccer which we won in case anyone wanted to know haha but it was fun to build relationships with them and talk with them.  They were very excited to see us there and are looking forward to seeing the level 2 team in a week!  It is crazy to think that the other group will be here in just a few days! Also a God moment was being able to talk with the students (middle school age) about purity in dating and waiting for sex before marriage and the ways that we wait with our girlfriends.  Totally a God moment that they asked that question because having visited hundreds of classes combined we have never answered that question before. Super cool!  Then we went to a BBQ because thursday is a Catholic holiday.  So everyone has the day off and decided to have food, friends, and a beer or two or three.  It ended up being a fun night and we built some more friendships with the people.

Today has been very relaxing because the American consulate emailed Johnny saying that if he can be in Rio de Janerio on Friday they can figure out a problem that they had concerning a visa for someone that was not coming.  So that is a matter for prayer that we can think about.  Johnny will leave tomorrow around 7 or 8 to drive 4 hours, get on a plane, and try to talk with them and a father concerning the visa into America.

Also needing of prayer; Jon and I are living with professor Illson.  Tonight around 5:30 his father passed away. Be in prayer. Thanks everyone. Love you all and really have been appreciating your prayers more than you know!

Why hospitals suck in socialism and the Stairway to heaven

Yesterday we had a lot of plans.  And then they all got changed in about two seconds.  We were messing around and having fun like boys do and decided to climb a tree.  Then we decided to get a little higher and Andrew wanted to jump from branch to branch.  He successfully did it twice and it was a lot of fun to watch.  Then he was coming down, it was a simple climb but the tree was mossy and wet, Andrew lost his grip, and fell about twenty feet onto his back.  He was pretty scraped up and we checked for different things.  So we went to the hospital and it was a wait.  Hospitals are for everyone and you can go there for everything from a cold to and emergency car accident.  He registered and waited 7 hours and did not see a doctor for an X-ray.  We think he is fine, don't worry all you mothers who read this.  The other three of us visited english schools and pitched our "Happy day" and English camp to them so that they will come.  Then all of us went with some brazilians to "men in black 3" in English and portuguese subtitles.

Today was a great day we spent most of the day (9-2) at church where we did a lot of cleaning and prep work for the celebration day of the reopening/christianing of the church.  They are almost finished with the work of redoing the church from the flood damage and it looks great.  Today we cleaned the floors and ripped up all the grass, layed sod down, and put down cement blocks to walk on.  Then Jon and I went to another house around 2 to help a girl and her family move (because Andrew was useless from his fall).  They lived on the third floor and had a spiral staircase.  Jon and i counted 49 stairs up and 49 stairs down.  In a little over 2 hours we made 70ish trips each with loads of stuff.  70 trips X 100 stairs = 7,000 stinking steps.  Needless to say we were exhausted at the end of this.  If you want to have an idea of what happened go to the gym, get on the stair stepper, grab a 25 pound weight and walk for two hours.  You'll get the idea.  Overall the church looks great we got a lot done and we are going to eat tonight, watch a movie at someone's house, and continue to serve in any way that we can.

Right now Alek is at a Portuguese Christian rock concert with a few of the members of the church and he can tell you more about that experience tomorrow.  We will all sleep soundly tonight!!!

Thanks for the comments and prayers.  We love you all very much!

Jefferson Pao

Hello all! It has been a while since our last update mainly because we have been out of town and very busy the last couple days! This week we started going into school in other towns to talk to administration to see if we can come with the level 2 team and do our "culture exchange" and share the gospel. God has blessed our time and every single school we've gone into the last two days has been more than happy to allow us into their schools! Tuesday night we got to all spend the night in a city about 20 Kl away called Lontras. We were with the pastor of the church plant there, his name is Lucas. We spent the night at his house and then went with him to schools on wednesday. Since we don't speak Portuguese fluently yet we let Lucas do most of the talking while we try to make a good impression by talking as much as possible and one time beating some Brazilians in a game of Volleyball. We have been busy with schools and bible studies. We have had a bible study tuesday, wednesday, and thursday night this week. We usually get back to our rooms around 11, take a shower, and then crash after some reading. We have been able to build some awesome relationships and have had great conversations. God is helping us learn Portuguese fast and giving us lots of opportunities to talk with people and also to do some physical labor. We got the opportunity on Monday, which is Johnny's day off, to go help roof a house for a couple that goes to the church. We spent the day putting bricks on the ceiling and running tubing for electrical throughout the house. This was Johnny's "off day". It was good to sweat a little bit, and even though the sun goes down at about 6 the sunsets are absolutely beautiful here! Thanks for the prayers and we will be keeping you all posted! -Andrew Hello folks well the time is midnight and we are very tired, but this is a good kind of tired knowing that God has used us to for his awesome plan here in Rio. Like Andrew said we have been really busy seeing new and old faces, getting opportunities to build new relationships and continue old ones. Today we travelled to a city named Taío, there we spent the day with pastor johnny and we went to three schools who were all very nice and loved the fact that we would be coming back with more americans, and we are excited for what this year is going to have in store for us. We are all growing closer to each other. The late night talks and the laughs are always amazing. Even though i am struggling with TD (travelers diarrhea) for over a week now (at least i hope thats all it is) God is still giving me the strength and the energy to continue on. We love the thoughts and prayers. Much love -Alek About the title... (inside joke) :)

The dog from Hell

On Saturday we went and hung out with the students of the church for a few hours.  We sang songs that we could sing in English and Portuguese at the same time and then played football, soccer, and volleyball for the better part of an hour and a half.  Volleyball turned into a spiking war trying to see if we could hit the brazilians harder or if they could hit us harder.  It was pretty fun and then we went out for pizza with members of the church.  It was pretty cool and we got to bless them by paying for the meal when it was over.  They have been so generous to us all and feeding us their favorite or best meals that we had to pay them back in some way so that was pretty cool for us and lets just say that they were all surprised.

After that we went to the house of one of the church members named Tiago (pronounced chiago).  He will come to New Orleans and Lincoln with us.  There we watched the NBA for a while and then Jon almost died.  They had a dog and it did not like Jon at all.  It barked at him, showed his teeth, and forced him to climb a couch to get away.  Did I mention that I could probably punt this dog twenty yards?  We thought it was better because after a while Jon held it in his hands and then it went bazerk again.  Lets just say it makes for a funny story and everyone laughed.

On a side-note Andrew ripped his skinny jeans in the crotch and it was hilarious.

This morning we went to a park with the church members and got the chance to pray together and sing a song. We also played rugby with them and soccer.  Really fun and tiring but also great for us to be able to have greater relationships with the people and meet some new members of the church.  After that Jon and I went to a friends house for churrasco, Brazilian BBQ.  It was super good and we each ate a steak or two.  Then we had one of our favorite things in Brazil, siesta.  Take a nap, read, relax, shower and then we headed to church.

It was fun to be at church and see what a normal sunday looks like.  No translating, no English, just the people together worshipping God.  That was a new experience for us but pretty cool at the same time.  I can't really tell you what the message was about other than it was about John 3.  Then Jon and I went to get pizza with our host family and we practiced Portuguese and sang Disney channel with our host sisters who are 14 and 7. Fun fun.

Prayer requests for the church (roughly translated);
-For the families, especially for Christ formation
-Pray for Brasil, for more churches to be planted where the word of God is spoken and true
-Pray for the pastors, evangelists, and Christians in general
-Pray for the Haiti project and volunteers to go this year
-Pray for the challenge conference to hep equip Rio do Sul to participate (the group going to New Orleans to be prepared)

God bless. Love you all. Thank you for the prayers

Prayer requests

-To be lead by the Spirit and grow in dependency upon God.
-To be good learners of Portuguese and understand the language quickly.
-Health of the team and people of the church.
-To daily choose God and be open to what He is teaching us everyday.

Thanks for all your work as prayer warriors.  We really appreciate it!

Crazy Black Woman

So they have a cake here that is called "Negra Mercado" and it literally translates to "crazy black woman" so that's what we decided to call our next post! :)

Last night was the first time that we got to go to schools and we went to the school of our host  father professor Illson.  He is an english teacher there and has 6 classes that he teaches English to.  It was a little strange because were unprepared and the professor used the time to push his favorite soccer team on the students which we found to be extremely entertaining.  We played games with the students, talked a little bit about Nebraska and spoke English with them to practice a little bit.  Afterwards we all remembered how draining it is to be in the classrooms and all slept really well.  During the day we had great conversation with one another and spent time in prayer, reading our Bibles, thinking about the Gospel, and talking with our host families.

So far this trip is way more chill than ones in the past.  We get some down time and are looking for different ways to serve our families like dishes and buying our own food to eat.  This next week it looks like we will get more time to hang out with the brazilians in the church and from other cities as well as visit different schools to set up for the level 2 team.

So we were going to build a house this morning and help a family who was moved because of the flood but we showed up and there were no construction workers!  Now we are waiting for lunch and trying to learn Portuguese by watching American TV shows on TV with subtitles because they don't do voice-overs for the best TV shows like Grey's Anatomy, Once Upon a Time, New Girl and others.  Some learn English by watching these shows and trying to hear the language and learn how to pronounce words better too.  It's cool stuff. chao!

7-3, 3-11, 11-7...Shiftwork

This is us doing it big here in Rio do Sul. Yall know what it is. We went for a run last night in the rain and our host mom told us we would get sick...but we did it anyway. She is such a mother, but we love her. She reminds us of our real moms. We are going to be going to a school tonight to promote English Camp and hangout with some students. Were excited! Thanks for all the prayers for health, Johnny is feeling much better this morning and we are planning to get a lot done today. Also, we forgot to talk about our bible study we had on wednesday night. We got to have some great conversation and had a blast! Love you all!

Cafe = Supper

Hi everybody,
Hope all is going well. It is our second day working Celivres and are already having some health issues. We were unable to meet with Johnny today because he is sick and was unable to work with us today. So we started making some hand outs for a night we are inviting the students to hang out with us. We got to hang out with a few students today that we have made relationships with over the past years and we ended up getting cell phones for us while we are here. We fixed a net at the church that was damaged during the flood. It is so crazy to see the damages and after effects of the flood still. They are doing alot of remodeling and painting at the church. It looks way different here. But we also were told to call people to invite them to English camp and thought there would be 100 but they only let us call the english speaking ones which ended up being only 2. We also found out the hard way that when people ask us for coffee they mean a whole meal so we have had "coffee" three times today.

We appreciate yours prayers so much and would really appreciate them for our health and for the health of Johnny and his family.

Love, The Fab Four

Alek's First Day

Today was a very busy day, we got to see a lot of new and old faces and we spent the day planning out the next few weeks and what pastor johnny is expecting out of us. Relationships and preparation are going to be what we will be doing, preparation for when the level 2 team arrives and building stronger relationships with the people in the church. We will also be going out to schools in rio and surrounding cities to meet with teachers and administrators telling them what we have planned for when the level 2 team arrives, also going around and making phone calls inviting people to the english camp. We are having a great time and we miss everyone at home. Keep us in your prayers.

We landed safely in Sao Paulo and went to check in.  A lady picked us out of the crowd and asked if we were in the right line.  Fortunately she was right and we were checking in at the wrong place.  We got in a way shorter line and got through customs, checking-in, and security in less than 20 minutes.  That's what happens when you don't travel with girls.  Awesome.  So we waited and slept in the airport for our flight to Curitiba.  Then we flew safely there and were greeted with a sign that said "Andrew, Alek, Jon, and Roy." We went to a chuhasceria (BBQ/steak place) where we got all you can eat meat for about 7 US dollars.  Let's hear it for Brasil!  We then had a 6 hour bus ride that wouldn't end but we all were off and on sleeping.  We didn't know how to get a hold of Johnny once we reached Rio do Sul but we borrowed someone's phone and made a call or two and are now in our host homes safe and sound.  Thanks for all of the prayer. - The fab four

Its way easier to travel with 4 people

Well, we are off! We left from Lincoln this morning at noon after a prayer and sending off by our parents and church staff. We are sitting herat the Kansas city airport waiting to board our flight to Houston, and then to sao paulo, Brazil. Thank you for all of your prayers and thoughts! We will make sure to keep you all updated on our trek! God Bless! -The Fab Four