“Surprise! It’s a box!”So the morning of the 20th I get a message that I have a rather large and expensive box waiting at the post office in my name. After the initial shock of, “A box? Really? A box?” I then requested the assistance of two of the older kids I have gotten closest to, Philip and Clara, and we then journeyed to take care of a few things in town; retrieving the box being the main! So, we started our journey by heading out to the main street (about 10 minute walk) to catch a chopa (public transportation). Once on one, we were soon overcome by the entertainment of sudden jerks and slamming of breaks; sending one, like myself, lunging into the seat in front of me for secure leverage. Needless to say I may have missed the Carolina Fair, but there’s a whole new kind of fair they got goin on over here! :)
So, after doing my last grocery shop of the trip, we then headed to get money out of the bank and over to get this mysterious package. When we first got the post office we weren’t sure where exactly to go and ended up getting sent to another location like 4 or 5 times. Phew! Finally though we made it to the right spot and were greeted with a great big smile, and a package! Bingo! We paid for it and then headed to catch ourselves another ride back. This ride was very smooth! I was also in the front seat… :)
As soon as we got back to the orphanage Clara and I went into our house and quickly opened the box! My mouth dropped and my heart leapt with joy when I saw all the love, encouragement, thoughts, and goodies located inside. What a blessing for the kids! They knew they had a church, Oak Brook Community, praying for them, but now to see proof with their own eyes...what a true gift of love!!!! I wasn’t able to show the kids the box right away due to other things in the schedule going on, but knowing about it and the excitement it would bring the children had definitely built up TONS of anticipation within me!
“From one heart to another”(11.26.08)
So after almost a week of not being able to give them the box, I was finally able to today! Oh goodness gracious what blast it was to see the excitement and joy and laughter leaking out of these children; non stop may I add! I started out telling them it was from my church from America. Then I showed them the pictures that the kids from OCC had drawn for them...I wish I would have recorded it..I did not expect them to respond the way they did! They were wide eyed 
with "oo's" and "aah's"; clapping and shouting and jumping around with each one they saw. They loved them all and had a hard time sharing them with each other, aha. :) Next I passed out the books, where they all crowded around each other to look at them. I'm not sure who enjoyed looking at them more, the children or the older youth!! Their favorite furry animal in the animal book, due to one of the movies I showed them last week, is the monkey. They act all crazy and silly when they see it!
with "oo's" and "aah's"; clapping and shouting and jumping around with each one they saw. They loved them all and had a hard time sharing them with each other, aha. :) Next I passed out the books, where they all crowded around each other to look at them. I'm not sure who enjoyed looking at them more, the children or the older youth!! Their favorite furry animal in the animal book, due to one of the movies I showed them last week, is the monkey. They act all crazy and silly when they see it! After the books, I gave them the stickers, puzzle and the ball catcher game. They enjoyed these so much, too! They all took turns trying out the ball catcher one and laughed just as much while watching each other 
do it as they did when they were doing it themselves. It was quite a time of entertainment! (I have a ton of pictures and videos I will show yall when I get home!)
do it as they did when they were doing it themselves. It was quite a time of entertainment! (I have a ton of pictures and videos I will show yall when I get home!) So, then came time to give out the candy. Oh boy, these kids made sure they weren't passed over!! They were all bouncing around with hands open and ready in clear view. Haha it was awesome!
Once all was shown, played with, and passed out, the kids then settled down and drew pictures and wrote letters for everyone at OCC expressing MUCH thanks!! They truly are SO thankful, and it meant so so much to them.
Thank you all again for this awesome gift!
So now for other happenings! I will kind of be going all over the place on dates and things that have gone... hope you can handle it :)
Tuesday 11, 2008
I was finally able to do my first bible study! We have had a difficult time finding a translator to fill this spot, but praise God one of the ladies I met at the women’s luncheon said she would be happy to come and do it for me. She had never done translating before but I think she did great! The girls got the main message of my lesson, which I entitled: “Beauty is fleeting, BUT”. I tried to stress the point across to them that, as we polished each others nails and did skin scrubs, it is OK to get prettied up and enjoy being girls; this is one of Gods unique blessings to us. But when we put that as priority over becoming beautiful in Christ and allowing him to scrub and polish us and our hearts, in order that they may be beautiful and pleasing to Him, then that is where the problem comes in. Our number one goal should be the desire of beauty everlasting: the beauty found only in Christ and His word; not the fading beauty that is only offered by this world which, in fact, is fading away even in this moment. So yeah, this was the basis of it and it went so well! The girls seemed so encouraged, too, which shows me the hand of my Father was present and at work. “Thank You, God!” (I could just kick myself for forgetting to take a picture, too..ugh)
November 16-19th, 2008
One of the girls I have met while being here, Jean Marie-24-from Minnesota, invited me to come stay with her, the 3 kids she home schools, and Allison and Angie-2 missionary girls working with SIL-Wycliffe. I arrive there on the Sunday evening of the 16th and got to stay through till the evening of Wednesday the 19th. It was such an enjoyable and great time of fellowship. I was extremely encouraged and re-energized during this event and felt like, once returning to the orphanage, my eyes were seeing things in a refreshed and new light. God is the most perfect provider of every need. How unfathomable is His character!!!
Tuesday 11, 2008
I was finally able to do my first bible study! We have had a difficult time finding a translator to fill this spot, but praise God one of the ladies I met at the women’s luncheon said she would be happy to come and do it for me. She had never done translating before but I think she did great! The girls got the main message of my lesson, which I entitled: “Beauty is fleeting, BUT”. I tried to stress the point across to them that, as we polished each others nails and did skin scrubs, it is OK to get prettied up and enjoy being girls; this is one of Gods unique blessings to us. But when we put that as priority over becoming beautiful in Christ and allowing him to scrub and polish us and our hearts, in order that they may be beautiful and pleasing to Him, then that is where the problem comes in. Our number one goal should be the desire of beauty everlasting: the beauty found only in Christ and His word; not the fading beauty that is only offered by this world which, in fact, is fading away even in this moment. So yeah, this was the basis of it and it went so well! The girls seemed so encouraged, too, which shows me the hand of my Father was present and at work. “Thank You, God!” (I could just kick myself for forgetting to take a picture, too..ugh)
November 16-19th, 2008One of the girls I have met while being here, Jean Marie-24-from Minnesota, invited me to come stay with her, the 3 kids she home schools, and Allison and Angie-2 missionary girls working with SIL-Wycliffe. I arrive there on the Sunday evening of the 16th and got to stay through till the evening of Wednesday the 19th. It was such an enjoyable and great time of fellowship. I was extremely encouraged and re-energized during this event and felt like, once returning to the orphanage, my eyes were seeing things in a refreshed and new light. God is the most perfect provider of every need. How unfathomable is His character!!!
Friday 21, 2008
Some of the kids from the orphanage, who are all in my music class, were gone to a conference this day, so the music class ended up being very small. When the kids from another part of town came for English and music class they asked if they could watch a movie instead which ended up being just perfect! We ended up watching 2 movies: Sister Act II, (A choir movie) The Fighting Temptations (A choir movie). They really enjoyed them both and on Monday I am going to teach them “O Happy Day” from Sister Act. That should be a lot of fun! :)
After they all left Christina and I experimented with the making of a tomato sauce for our noodles. It started out a little rough, but after adding everything in it it suddenly became not only a meal but a dessert too! (sugar, flour, and lots more) The final result tasted actually quite yummy! We got some bread and butter to go with it and then we cozied down and watched a movie and a half. It was nice girl time with her!
“A few of my favorite things…”One of the things I enjoy most around here is ALL the laughter. It never ceases! It doesn’t matter if the kids have eaten all 3 meals or missed all 3 meals; they laugh and play joyfully just as much as ever. What a joy to be around and what a conviction like no other!!
The other night we were about to watch Superman, which they all loved and who Clara is praying I marry, and they were all gathered around me asking me to sing. If I did anything silly with the sound of my voice in the process, or did a little dance along with it, the kids would laugh SO hard. They made my self esteem boost way high after that! ;)
I also showed them the movie “Dustin Checks In”, which is about a monkey. Oh goodness gracious, if I could just record them all watching a movie then no other/better entertainment would be needed for me! I wish you all could hear it and see it for yourself, but I will try to video and capture as much as I can.
“Did anyone say: Bugs?”
So the rainy season is starting to approach and I have seen in the last 2 weeks more bugs than I have my entire time of being here. The other night I had to “calmly”...yeah right... get one of the guards to come and kill 2 mammoth size spiders for me; and this was AFTER I had already killed one myself. I still don’t know the best Portuguese, but I went out and all I could say was “Grande bisho na minha casa! Eu medo! Fashavor…come!” This translates to: “BIG bug in my house! I scared! Please…come!” The guards found this very funny, oddly enough, and one of them came quickly and smashed the guts right out of them as I cheered him on. Eh. If it were a lizard or roach I would have no problem leaving it! (Never would I have thought I would say that about a roach..) But spiders…the size of your hand…staring at you with their beady ugly little black eyes and holding a sign saying: “I’m gona eat you”…I think not. Their morrer! (Dead)
I also showed them the movie “Dustin Checks In”, which is about a monkey. Oh goodness gracious, if I could just record them all watching a movie then no other/better entertainment would be needed for me! I wish you all could hear it and see it for yourself, but I will try to video and capture as much as I can.
“Did anyone say: Bugs?”So the rainy season is starting to approach and I have seen in the last 2 weeks more bugs than I have my entire time of being here. The other night I had to “calmly”...yeah right... get one of the guards to come and kill 2 mammoth size spiders for me; and this was AFTER I had already killed one myself. I still don’t know the best Portuguese, but I went out and all I could say was “Grande bisho na minha casa! Eu medo! Fashavor…come!” This translates to: “BIG bug in my house! I scared! Please…come!” The guards found this very funny, oddly enough, and one of them came quickly and smashed the guts right out of them as I cheered him on. Eh. If it were a lizard or roach I would have no problem leaving it! (Never would I have thought I would say that about a roach..) But spiders…the size of your hand…staring at you with their beady ugly little black eyes and holding a sign saying: “I’m gona eat you”…I think not. Their morrer! (Dead)
Tuesday 25, 2008
I wasn't going to write anything for this day until the ride of my life took place. Me and 3 of the girls ran into to the city to hang out and run an errand and our ride on the chopa was INSANE!!! The roads were wet and crowded, and our driver was CRAZY. He sped like there was no tomorrow, weaving in and out of traffic.. I was so scared and the girls just laughed at me. If that wasn't bad enough though, at one point we came to a screeching stop and I just prayed as we were inches from hitting a man, who was trying to get his bike full of stuff for whatever work he did, across the street. The chopa guy was so mad that he pulled up next to him after the fact and tried to knock his heavy and full bike over. I felt so bad for him. When we got to our destination I wanted to jump out of the chopa and kiss the ground, but after thinking about the millions of parasites that would soon make home in me if i chose to do so, I decided it was best above all to offer MANY thanks to God instead; oh I did!
Monday 24, 2008 “I’m singin’ in the rain”
So today was the official start of the rainy season! Right after voice class was finished, we were about to pray when the sky all of a sudden opened up and released all its water. We all ran and made way to Christina’s house where those, not from the orphanage, waited and slept for the next 2 hours at least for the rain to stop. I, on the other hand, sat for about 5 minutes and then ended up running outside with Clara to go to our house to make sure there was no leakage. There was, but it was nothing too bad! So, then I grabbed my rain jacket and spent a good while taking pictures, enjoying the rain, and being entertained immensely by the kids enjoyment of the rain. They definitely took advantage of the rain; 
using it the bath, cool off and play in! It was a great add on to the day, though the after effects were not so great for the older boys’ tents. Please pray that as this rainy season comes they can establish some kind of stability for their homes! Not only them, but all their neighbors here; most of them live in mud homes which we all know can not last long in seasons like this.
Monday 24, 2008 “I’m singin’ in the rain”
So today was the official start of the rainy season! Right after voice class was finished, we were about to pray when the sky all of a sudden opened up and released all its water. We all ran and made way to Christina’s house where those, not from the orphanage, waited and slept for the next 2 hours at least for the rain to stop. I, on the other hand, sat for about 5 minutes and then ended up running outside with Clara to go to our house to make sure there was no leakage. There was, but it was nothing too bad! So, then I grabbed my rain jacket and spent a good while taking pictures, enjoying the rain, and being entertained immensely by the kids enjoyment of the rain. They definitely took advantage of the rain; 
using it the bath, cool off and play in! It was a great add on to the day, though the after effects were not so great for the older boys’ tents. Please pray that as this rainy season comes they can establish some kind of stability for their homes! Not only them, but all their neighbors here; most of them live in mud homes which we all know can not last long in seasons like this. 
Wednesday 26, 2008 Today was my last Classe de Musica, for the teaching part anyways. After each class I always end up reviewing things and seeing how each person is progressing and who is not. If some are not progressing like others, I always say "homework!" for the particular thing they are lacking in. The kids think this is the funniest thing. Well, today I could not say "homework" due to no more classes. However, they all said "Teacher teacher, homework for you!!" And I said "Ok, what is my homework?" And they lovingly yet humorously said "do not forget us!!" I could never forget the faces and hearts I have grown so close to and love so dearly. The absence of being in their presence is going to be very challenging.
“In the blink of an eye”
I am in shock at how fast this time truly has gone by. At some points it didn’t feel like it but then to see, wow, I have one week left; that’s crazy! It truly shows how our lives are like a mist; I see the true reality of that the older I get. I also look back at all that has happened, all that has been learned, all that has been taught and I am quickly humbled as I see how undeserving I am to have been in the midst of it all. I honestly don’t even know where to begin to tell of all GOD has done in EVERY moment of everyday. This actually will lead me into a few new prayer requests:
1) That God would begin to reveal to me how I am to present this trip to all those back at home. I don’t want to rob God of any of the glory or recognition for anything that has happened during this season; I see how easy it could be to do that. Please pray that God gives me the wisdom to know what would be most pleasing to Him for me to share; what would bring him the most praise! This is my desire.
2) For the separation that will soon take place. Victor shared with me the other day that it is going to be very hard for them when I leave; especially for Clara my roommate. He said he has seen such changes in her since I got here and he has seen her open up in ways that she has never opened up before. This was SO encouraging to hear but then also hard, keeping in mind I am leaving soon. I have grown quite attached to her; to all the kids! I have grown completely fond and love knowing, too, that at anytime I can go out and be with the kids; whether playing, watching, holding, singing with, etc. It is a lifestyle I love and see Christ in constantly, and the closer I get to actually leaving the more I realize just how hard it really is going to be.
3) A sweet and memorable last week for all of us. That whatever it is being done, God would be glorified and memories would be rooted deep; lasting forever.
My life will never be the same after this trip because of what the Lord has done in my heart and what he has shown me in the hearts of these people. I pray that as I have been encouraged and blessed beyond measure, that each of them would also be just as encouraged, if not more, and blessed; that Christ was and will continue to be seen in and out of my life and that I may bring encouragement to all of you as well. To Him be all glory forever and ever!
“Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” Ephesians 3:20-21
“In the blink of an eye”
I am in shock at how fast this time truly has gone by. At some points it didn’t feel like it but then to see, wow, I have one week left; that’s crazy! It truly shows how our lives are like a mist; I see the true reality of that the older I get. I also look back at all that has happened, all that has been learned, all that has been taught and I am quickly humbled as I see how undeserving I am to have been in the midst of it all. I honestly don’t even know where to begin to tell of all GOD has done in EVERY moment of everyday. This actually will lead me into a few new prayer requests:
1) That God would begin to reveal to me how I am to present this trip to all those back at home. I don’t want to rob God of any of the glory or recognition for anything that has happened during this season; I see how easy it could be to do that. Please pray that God gives me the wisdom to know what would be most pleasing to Him for me to share; what would bring him the most praise! This is my desire.
2) For the separation that will soon take place. Victor shared with me the other day that it is going to be very hard for them when I leave; especially for Clara my roommate. He said he has seen such changes in her since I got here and he has seen her open up in ways that she has never opened up before. This was SO encouraging to hear but then also hard, keeping in mind I am leaving soon. I have grown quite attached to her; to all the kids! I have grown completely fond and love knowing, too, that at anytime I can go out and be with the kids; whether playing, watching, holding, singing with, etc. It is a lifestyle I love and see Christ in constantly, and the closer I get to actually leaving the more I realize just how hard it really is going to be.
3) A sweet and memorable last week for all of us. That whatever it is being done, God would be glorified and memories would be rooted deep; lasting forever.
My life will never be the same after this trip because of what the Lord has done in my heart and what he has shown me in the hearts of these people. I pray that as I have been encouraged and blessed beyond measure, that each of them would also be just as encouraged, if not more, and blessed; that Christ was and will continue to be seen in and out of my life and that I may bring encouragement to all of you as well. To Him be all glory forever and ever!
“Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” Ephesians 3:20-21
