Sunday!

Okay, first let me say that I didn`t know what to make the title of this blog entry. But, anyway, there`s a couple things I wanted to mention in addition to the last post, along with some things from today.

One, if you came last year with Georgetown, then you probably remember a little girl named Ana...Portia`s girl :) Anyway, we saw her a couple days ago at the Ohio`s group program. She was so excited to see someone that knew Portia! I think Lizene went to visit her yesterday, too. One thing that I wanted to bring out was that last year we learned about how her living situation wasn`t optimal. But, I think seeing her again, knowing that she does attend church, and that because of that special bond she made with someone a little over a year ago, shows the hope she has for her future. That just goes to show that even the smallest things can really be a "God" thing for others. People may have complained last year about having to make sock puppets at the same school everyday, but obviously there was a reason for it. That`s why I believe that if you`re going on a mission trip, that you can`t completely plan it out by yourself. We didn`t have the school thing planned out like that last year, but we ended up doing that. As long as you keep an open mind, and your heart open to hear and follow God`s purpose for you each day, then you`re doing the right thing. You can`t just sit and complain and say "I don`t feel like it`s worth it" or "I want to do something else" or the worst one,  "I don`t think I`m getting anything out of it". Who cares if you`re not getting anything out if it (sorry, I should probably take that sentence out of there haha). But anyway, obviously if you have that mind set, then nothing will happen. You`ve completely shut yourself out and basically living in your selfish mind. Get yourself out of that rut because you`re wasting your time and space. ha....well I think I´ll stop ranting....there may be a lot of down sides to going by yourself, but one thing that is a positive/negative is that you don`t have to deal with other people in your group...moreover, you still have to keep yourself accountable. Luckly, in this situation, it`s not as if I went by myself, because it`s like one big family here.

There seemed to be a huge group at church this morning! All the rows were full! Morning church at Alpha is a little different than a typical church. First, it`s basically full of kids, and a handfull of adults. It`s pretty cool to see the children out number the adults...because usually you see the opposite. Anyway, I guess the best way to describe church is kid of like a kids day camp/vbs event. It starts with breakfast, then they play games, have a big quiz bowl, sing and dance to songs, listen to what the Pastor has to say from the Bible, and then play more games outside, then they finish with lunch. It`s a whole morning/afternoon of play and learning about the Bible. As Lizene says "the pastor always knows how to make it fun for the kids". Not only the kids, but the adults have things to partipate in as well. In a bit, I`ll be heading to evening church. This is the more formal/traditional service. There aren`t as many kids because the bus doesn`t run to pick them up. But a lot of adults come, along with the people here at Alpha. If I remember right, it`s a little longer than a typical America church service. An hour is not enough time to get everything said and done at the service ;) But then again, it`s supposed to start at 7:30, but that`s on Brazil time...so it probably doesn`t really start until about 7:45 or maybe even 8. haha


Well I think that`s all I have to say for now. I´ll put the pictures up soon! And for another semi-funny story: Today, one of the American`s here from Ohio asked me in Portugues what my name was, I told her then asked what her name was in English....she was a little taken back that my English was so good. hahahaha I guess I`m not as white as I was last week when a Brazilian asked me if there was a sun in America. ;)