Amazing!

Today our wonderful hosts blessed us with a day of sightseeing. We trekked to the apex of the Christ statue and soaked in the breathtaking scenery. The statue of Christ the Redeemer was just named one of the seven wonders of the modern world. Afterwards, we ascended dual mountains on the Sugarloaf trolley and ate a leisurely lunch on the veranda in the midst of a panoramic view of city, ocean and mountains! At the end of our day, our hosts provided us with another amazing traditional Brazilian meal.

Pastors Philip and Renee Murdoch have created a thriving and vibrant church that is changing the heart of Brazil. Their vision for the Kingdom of God is huge and we are honored to say we got to be a part of making it happen! Special thanks to Pastors Scott and Sherry Dalton for making this trip truly exceed our expectations. Their daily care and leadership of our team was a tremendous blessing.

Today was an all around awesome day! We can't wait to see you all and share more when we get home. We arrive in Memphis July 8th @ 11:12am on Delta flight DL4825.

Adam Simer

Festa en Favella

This afternoon we went to a festa for a young men's small group. God
cleared up the rainy weather just in time for us to have the party in
the park. (It hailed during breakfast!) Cliff and Calvin got to share
with the group and did a great job. Our guys even got to play futbol
with them in the sun-drenched field.

Tonight we went to two festas in the favellas. One of the parties was
for a small group that focuses on care and support of those recovering
from addictions. The group is meeting a very felt need in this tough
area of town.

The other festa was awesome! It was for a young people's small
group.  We had a blast with about 70 people partying on the 3rd
story rooftop of a favella. About 30 of those people are not part of
the church. This is not just the fruit of our labor, but the hard,
persistent work of the young people and other leaders in the church.

It is great to see another church like ours where the pastor really
believes in the next generation and is entrusting them with so much.
Romulo is an amazing young man who has been with us throughout
the week helping us evangelize and translating for us.  We are
inspired, challenged and humbled by his dedication and passion for
winning the lost. This week is his school vacation and he gave up
most of it up to be with us.  He approaches people without
hesitation to share the gospel and an encouraging word.  He's only
17 years old and we know that he is going to be a world changer.

Tomorrow we are going back to all of the areas we have visited to
do follow-ups and will then go hit the streets to do a final push for
Saturday night's special church service.

Construction

We started the day with breakfast, debrief, and prayer. At the beginning of the debrief we were infiltrated by hard rain and then hail. Five of us stayed behind while the rest went out to another vacation party for the youth in the area. The five (Buff BJ, Rob, Jane, Zenon,and Nate) of us worked with the goal of finishing the eight speakers. Zenon continued to work with Pastor Phillip on the precise cutting andengineering of the speakers. Rob and Nate continued on the assembly of the speaker boxes while Jane and BJ worked on painting them. Jane and BJ also helped with assembly and cleaning up the area. We got almost all of it done minus putting fronts on a few of them. We had an awesome time hanging out and working with Pastor Phillip who reminds many of us of Pastor John. He is so knowledgeable and inviting.

The rest of the team went to the first of 3 vacation parties today then to ice cream for dessert followed by playing at the beach. We are definitely suffering for Jesus! :P. Tonight the whole team is going to the 2 other vacation parties. We are all in good health and having an awesome time working together and furthering God's love and kingdom in Brazil. Tomorrow, we'll be doing more evangelizing then going to church at night. Peace, love, and hugs from the team to you!

Nate Babcock

Zenon and Pastor Phillip planning out the cuts (measure 4 times, cut once)

Jane and BJ painting the boxes

Rob and BJ working on the braces

Ministering in the Favellas

Today we went to a different community to minister. The poor houses here are called favellas (slums). We have been to favellas before but the ones we went to today are government houses. They are small brick/cement houses stacked on top of one another. The children were everywhere and continued to follow us all throughout the community. We brought candy, toys and some small soccer balls to hand out to kids. Once they saw the gifts, they never left our side! We had quite a group by the end of the day!! One of the cool stories from last night's festa was of a 13 year old girl. Jane sat down with her and her family first thing and talked the whole night. She couldn't speak English very well (only a few words such as Chris Brown :) but loved to talk with the "Americans." We invited her to church and she promised she would come on Sunday. We found out later from Alexandre (the Interim Youth pastor) that the girl does not know Jesus and had not been to church. It was neat to be a part of her beginning a relationship with the church and Christ. Our plan for tonight includes dinner at a churrascaria restaurant in Barra (pronounced Baha). Barra is the wealthier part of Rio and the most Americanized section. We don't have a festa tonight, because we have three tomorrow! On another great note: the women now have hot water for showers! For the first couple of days our electric water heater didn't seem to work and we just thought we would have to make the best of it. It turned out the heater just needed to be adjusted! Thank the Lord for hot water!

Festas

What a GREAT day in Rio today! It is 11:20pm Rio time and we are just leaving the festa. These festas are meant to be launching parties for area cell groups. Each festa is like a party to invite you to another party. Pastor Philip Murdoch likened this week to the story of Esther and how she kept inviting the King to parties to win his favor. Light to the Nations is opening their arms to their community to form new and lasting relationships. There's not a better way to do it in this culture than through parties! Prior to the festas each night we spread the word by visiting the streets and just meeting people. We have met all walks of life these two days. It has been a great opportunity to welcome everyone to the church. Not only are we inviting everyone to the festas and church, but also using the opportunity to pray with families. Another project we are working on is a mobile stage. The church is transforming an 18 wheeler to become a mobile stage to reach thousands of Brazilians through crusades. Construction work is done every day to bring the project closer to completion. Well, we are back to the GAP now (our dorm) and settling down for the night. Here are some pictures to show you the festa from tonight! Enjoy!

Scott with area neighborhood children at the festa

















Cinda showing children pictures from home
















Aimee talking with Brazilians with one of our translators Romulo

Big "C"...for Celebrity

We arrived in Brazil early Tuesday morning after a long flight. We thought for sure that most of us would fall asleep for at least some of the 9 1/2 hour flight but...sleep would be describing it loosely.

Right off the plane we jumped into a bus on our way to The GAP. The drive through the Brazilian landscape on our way to the country was beautiful! The city is settled right in the middle of the mountains. And they are no small mountains!

We settled into our dorms, had a delicious typical Brazilian lunch of fried chicken, black beans and rice and potato salad, and then we were off! Our whole week will be comprised of street evangelism during the day followed up with festas (parties) at night. The church is starting new cell groups and the days will be used to begin relationships with the people to draw them to church with the festas as more sharing opportunities. We each have numerous stories from the day and will hopefully share them soon.

The big story of the night was that Big C was the "Big Celebrity". He stole the show with all the kids (and adults!) at the festa! The love that radiates from his life was a magnet and everywhere he walked the kids followed. If he went inside, they waited outside and chanted for him to come back. He ended the night signing autographs for many of them.

We are off again today. Pray for us as we go into a new neighborhood to share the gospel and invite them to church.