Mission Trip #3 Update

Thank you for praying with us this weekend! Giulian is already feeling better and hopefully will be 100% tomorrow, praise God! Saturday morning the whole team visited an orphanage that none of us had ever been to before and it was awesome! The director began it 12 years ago with one 6 year old boy whose gang-affiliated parents used him to deliver their drug orders until one day he made a wrong turn and was apprehended. Shortly thereafter his parents started visiting him at the orphanage and were both converted to Christ, so he reconciled with them and his father eventually became a pastor. We had the privilege of meeting that boy, who is now an 18 year old man who has graduated high school and consistently comes back to serve at the orphanage. What a pleasure.

Sunday night they participated in the service in Rio das Pedras church. Jay and three of the team members led worship, and Rick, the pastor from Connection Church, shared his testimony and a word for the congregation. The mission team was really wowed by the ardent worship and joy of the people there. Today was an early day but a good one as we again visited somewhere new, a day care/school in a city on the outskirts of Rio called Nova Iguaçu. We really didn't know anything about this place or the people there, but God really used that time of VBS to encourage both the mission team and the leaders at this low-income daycare.

After a long drive and a quick lunch, the day was finished up in Sitio for the first day of VBS which went extremely well (see 2 videos below)! We had approximately 60 excited kids come today, including one little boy that we always see playing naked in the mud who despite many invitations had never been to our church before today. While the mission team played with and loved on the children, Pastor Sergio and missionary Aurora had a sweet opportunity to minister to the 10 or so moms that had also gathered. It was a beautiful picture to see them seated outside the church in a circle studying the Word, while their children were inside laughing and being ministered to.

Please continue to pray for
-The Restore Brazil Meeting tomorrow morning where pastors and church planters from all over the Rio metropolitan area will gather in fellowship, including the three American pastors that are currently on this trip
-The remaining two days of VBS in Sitio and one day of VBS at IPBarra on Wed morning
-Protection and fruitfulness during our time spent in downtown Rio ministering to the homeless congregation tomorrow night

Thanks so much for your prayers. We constantly live and breathe with the beautiful reality as fragile humans in the hands of a Sovereign, Loving God.

"Pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ." (Colossians 4:3)