Final Thoughts from Brazil

Hello friends and family,

I wanted to apologize for not posting the past couple days. We all have been caught up in everything that is Brazil. Today we are traveling back to Atlanta and we are currently sitting in an airport in Sao Paulo. Looking back we have had such an amazing trip. Wednesday we had the opportunity to visit a new orphanage called Acridas. This orphanage was such an amazing experience. Being a part of a team that was asked to return in the future is really something special. After we ran camp at Acridas we went and visited the Dunn’s new home here in Curitiba bringing them much closer than their current home. This will make their ministry easier since they aren’t traveling an hour just to get to town. After our trip to their new home we stopped by Boni which is the local grocery where everyone had the chance to buy coffee, soda, and other yummy snacks to take back home. Later that night we went to hang out with some of the battered women from Patrick’s Place. During this time all the men went to go grab pizza for dinner which literally took 2 hours. It was insane, but gave our team some time to really love on these young ladies.  We pampered and loved on them by giving massages and other spa treatments. While they were getting pampered some of us watched their children giving the ladies a chance to relax. Brandi was so sweet to open her heart and share her story. This story touched so many ladies. The whole night was really special and to know that these girls really enjoyed a break from reality. Yesterday was our last full day serving in Curitiba. Needless to say yesterday was interesting. Several team members and some of translators somehow caught a small virus. It was our touristy day so it definitely was a blessing that they were only going to be missing out on shopping. We went shopping then made our way back to the hotel to rest and hang out before leaving to go to Lar Herminia. We played and loved on our babies for one last night. Katie, Kaley, and Jacob all shared their stories and did such an amazing job. We said our goodbyes and made our way back to the hotel to debrief about the trip. Debrief is such a cool way to end the trip, because it gives everyone on the team the opportunity to share their thoughts and experiences. Now here we are hanging out during our 9 hour layover just wishing we never had to leave Curitiba.

#BeFlexible #ThisIsBrazil

We have learned time and time again that in Brazil we must #BeFlexible. Today, we woke up and had our morning devotional which was led by Tim. We learned two things from the lesson.

1. Your measure is for the good of the body and others.
2. You can grow our measure.

This was a perfect message for today, because we would be traveling to Patrick’s Place to visit and then after lunch go to La Moises. We are not enriched for ourselves, it is about others. Today’s mission was to love on children and we were going to have the opportunity to spend time with some teen moms. In the past, the teen moms have ranged in age from 13 to 17 years old. Today’s group of women were all 17 years old. A group of girls on our team loved and pampered these ladies while the rest of the team ran camp. The plan was to be at La Moises this afternoon, but because #ThisIsBrazil plans change. Due to a scheduling error the team ended up staying at Patrick’s Place the whole day. After a fun day of playing and loving on children and teen moms, we found ourselves at the Botanical Garden of Curitiba. This place was beyond beautiful. We got to hang out with and walk around. Needless to say we took lots of pictures especially since there was a gorgeous sunset. Dinner time in Brazil is around 7:00 so we made our way to the pizza place for some yum yum. Think Fugo de Chao style service but with pizza. It was incredible. We ended our day with a debrief on how the past 48 hours have been. As a short-term missions team there is only so much we can do within a week. Our goal is to make God known and we have a huge opportunity to do that tomorrow. We will be visiting an orphanage that Jim and MJ have not been able to minister in yet. This will be a huge step for their ministry here. When Jim and Matthew met with the director last week, they asked what they could do to help. The director replied with “we need some spiritual help.” What better time and way for us to break through in this orphanage. Please pray for us tomorrow and continue to check back for updates. Goodnight from Curitiba.

People Loving People

HEY HEY HEY!

TODAY WAS PRETTY DARN AWESOME. IT WAS SO AWESOME I AM TYPING THIS IN ALL CAPS SO YOU CAN REALLY FEEL HOW AWESOME IT WAS. IF YOU CAN’T FEEL IT, IMAGINE IT. TODAY WAS ALL ABOUT PEOPLE LOVING PEOPLE. WE HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO VISIT A NEW ORPHANAGE. THIS WAS AN ORPHANAGE THAT REALLY WAS NEAR AND DEAR TO THE DUNN’S HEARTS, BECAUSE THIS IS THE ORPHANAGE WHERE THEY ADOPTED THEIR CHILDREN FROM. WE RAN OUR CAMP AND SERVED LUNCH. AFTER WE VISITED THE ORPHANAGE WE TRAVELED TO PATRICK’S PLACE. PATRICK IS THIS AMAZING MAN WHO HAS BEEN DOING MINISTRY IN BRAZIL FOR 18 YEARS. PATRICK’S PLACE IS A HOME FOR BATTERED WOMEN AND THEIR CHILDREN. IT ALSO IS A DAY PROGRAM FOR AT- RISK KIDS IN THE COMMUNITY TO COME WHILE THEY ARE NOT IN SCHOOL. LOVING ON THESE KIDS HAS TO BE THE BEST PART OF THIS EXPERIENCE WITHOUT A DOUBT. THESE KIDS ARE NOT IN THESE ORPHANAGES OR DAY PROGRAMS BECAUSE THEY WANT TO BE. THEY HAVE BEEN EXPOSED TO THINGS THAT MANY OF US CAN NOT EVEN FATHOM AT THAT AGE. THE LOVE THEY HAVE IS SO SPECIAL AND REALLY CAPTIVATES YOU. I THINK EACH ONE OF US HAS FALLEN IN LOVE WITH A CHILD THAT WE HAVE MET DOWN HERE. YOU MAY THINK IT WOULD BE EASY TO JUST COME AND RUN A CAMP, BUT WHEN YOU FEEL THE UNCONDITIONAL LOVE THEY HAVE ITS NEXT TO IMPOSSIBLE NOT TO MELT. AFTER OUR VISIT AT PATRICK’S PLACE WE HAD A BREAK BEFORE WE WENT TO ZECA’S HOME FOR DINNER. ZECA LIVES IN THE CITY AND HAD US OVER TO JOIN THE COLLEGE KIDS FROM i3C FOR DINNER. THIS WAS A CHANCE TO SPEND TIME WITH SOME OF THE COLLEGE KIDS ALONG WITH SOME OTHER INCREDIBLE PEOPLE FROM i3C. AFTER DINNER WE MADE OUR WAY BACK TO THE HOTEL TO DO SOME FAMILY BONDING BEFORE GOING TO BED.

WHEN I SAY WE ARE TRULY BLESSED TO HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO SPEND TIME WITH THESE PEOPLE I AM NOT LYING. WHEN WE ARE ALL TOGETHER YOU CAN JUST FEEL THE LOVE NOT JUST FROM THE KIDS, BUT LITERALLY EVERYONE WE HAVE ENCOUNTERED. CURITIBA, BRAZIL IS A SPECIAL PLACE WITH SPECIAL PEOPLE. I AM EXCITED TO CONTINUE SHARING OUR ADVENTURE WITH YOU ALL.

Love God and Love Others

Today, we had the opportunity to visit i3C. This is the English speaking church within a larger Portuguese speaking church that Jim Dunn runs. It was so amazing to see people of different cultures all together worshiping one God. Several members on our team spoke and shared their testimonies. Tim, Austyn, Heath and Chris did a wonderful job sharing. After church we went to a steakhouse and enjoyed every kind of steak you could imagine. It was beyond delicious. From the second we pulled into the steakhouse, Austyn was so excited about the life changing coffee this place had. The coffee did not disappoint. After lunch we traveled back to Lar Herminia to play with the kids until time for dinner. Nothing beats the endless amounts of fun we had. You would think that the language barrier would be a problem, but nothing stops us. We find ways to communicate. We had the chance to have dinner inside the homes with the house mothers and children. It was a real treat to be in their homes. Post dinner, we had a short message lead by students and also a dance party. We danced for a hour straight and we really applied our message about being unashamed. There was a huge circle and we all just danced and enjoyed each others company. Fun fact: Taylor really busted out the moves during our dance party. He was getting it. Once the dance party ended we made our way back to the hotel to debrief and get some rest. Our mission continues this week as we travel to a new orphanage tomorrow as well as Patrick’s Place. Please continue to pray for us as we love God and love others.

 

 

41 Hours Later

Friends and Fam,

What an exciting day it has been. 4 AM came quickly and we found ourselves waiting on a shuttle that ended up not coming until 5:00. Once we got to the airport we found ourselves in the longest line that you have ever seen. To give you an idea of just how long, think of the line starting at the front doors of Graystone and going all the way to the intern house. Needless to say this line made everyone nervous. Heath found a way for us to cut the line, because he is the real MVP. We cut the long line and our group began to check in. Mind you that we are in Brazil and a sense of urgency doesn’t exist. While we are checking in one at a time, our plane’s status became last call. Heath made the call to send anyone who was already checked in to security so that they would make the flight. Then he sent another group to head on to the security shortly after. There was five of us left and once we got checked in we took off to security. Heath described it best as a scene out of Home Alone. We were running through the airport. We ran to security and got in line. Midway through the security line they closed the doors blocking people from entering. Not even 5 minutes went by and they reopened the doors. By this time we were near the front so we made it into the next security line. While in line there was this constant awareness of time. Checking watches or cell phones for the time became a sport. The pressure to hurry up and make this flight was on and we all were very aware of each minute that passed by. We were confident the rest of the group had made it to the plane. Once we made our way through security, we were off to the races again. SHOUT OUT TO BRANDI MENGEL. Brandi currently is rocking a boot on her foot, because she broke it prior to the trip. She ran with a hobble, but made her way through the airport like a champ. After sprinting to the gate, we found out we made it. We scanned our boarding passes and loaded up on the bus. In Brazil, often they have buses similar to a MARTA buses take you to your plane. You walk outside and climb stairs up into the plane. Everyone was excited once we all made it. Only a short 38 minutes stood between us and Curitiba. Some of us slept on this flight and some of us enjoyed the ride. By ride I mean the insane amount of turbulence. We landed in Curitiba to find it was raining. We loaded up and made our way to Lar Hermina. Lar Hermina was one of many orphanages we will be visiting this week. The day was spent meeting and reuniting, playing with, and loving on the kids and house mothers. We hosted a sports camp that had three parts. Each group got the chance to go to sports, bible story, and crafts. Once camp was over, the guys took all the kids to play while the ladies took the opportunity to love on the house mothers. We gave them massages as well as some good mani/pedis. This was a time to help them relax and enjoy some time to themselves. After dinner we cleaned up and made our way back to the hotel.  Needless to say after 41 hours of traveling and a full day of loving on people everyone was ready for bed.

Today, we will be visiting Jim Dunn’s church and going back to Lar Hermina. Check back tonight for an update.

Travel Day(s)

Hello from Sao Paulo, Brazil!

Quick update: Everyone is alive and well.

We have always been told to go with the flow. In Brazil, things change and you just have to adapt. Sometimes this simply means we have dinner a little later than normal. Today, it meant that we were going to be staying here in Sao Paulo for the night and traveling tomorrow to Curitiba. Our travel day turned into days* and we got the opportunity to see a part of Brazil we have not seen before.  Our flight here to Sao Paulo was smooth and most of us slept through the 9 hour flight. Due to some delays that were beyond our control, we found ourselves missing our flight to Curitiba.  Tomorrow’s flight from Sao Paulo to Curitiba is going to be extremely early. The team will meet at 4:15 AM and take shuttles over to the airport to catch our flight. I think at this point everyone is just ready to be there and excited to start loving on some women and children. Please pray for us as we continue to travel and make our way to Curitiba.

Keeping checking in for updates throughout the week.

Our Last Full Day

Today we returned to spend the day at La Herminia. Our day began with an amazing church service where Brie Swinks shared about the story of Paul. It was so amazing to witness all of the children singing along and praising God together during the service. We spent the afternoon playing games and doing crafts. It was nice to have some downtime to relax and spend time with the kids for our last full day here. We ended the day by giving each of the kids their shoeboxes from the families at Graystone. The kids were unbelievably grateful for the gifts they received. They were so excited and immediately opened the new toys and games. It was a wonderful way to close out our last full day of the trip. We will definitely miss Brazil and these wonderful people. Thank you so much for your prayers for our trip this week! 

Fundaçãu Iniciativa

Today, after picking up a few souvenirs, we visited a new orphanage that we have not ministered to before called Fundaçãu Iniciativa. We spent the afternoon teaching the story of Paul to the kids and making butterfly crafts to symbolize Paul’s transformation into a new man following Christ. As we closed out the day, we spoke about the love that God and the church has for each and every child, and that with that love, presents were provided for each of them. It was absolutely priceless to see the excitement on their faces as each child was handed a shoebox full of fun new toys and gifts. One of the most rewarding parts of this mission trip is to be able to bring such happiness to their lives during our short time here. Each of us feels truly blessed to be a part of this mission.

A Day at the Zoo

We started the day with taking the children from Lar Herminia to the zoo in Curitiba. The children enjoyed seeing all of the animals and getting to spend another day with each of us. As we were leaving the zoo, a kind lady selling balloons said that she felt as if God was telling her to give each of the children a free balloon. For these kids who do not always receive unexpected treats this was something special. You could see the joy on their face when they received their balloon! We loved getting to spend another day with the children and look forward to seeing them again on Sunday.

If there’s one thing we have learned on this trip, things do not always go as planned. Such as, we were planning to go to dinner tonight and found that almost everything was closed for News Years Day. Thus begun the great mission team food hunt! After several failed attempts, we finally lucked out and found a place much better than the other options anyway, which goes to show that all things eventually work out in the end. 

 

New Years Eve in Brazil

We had a pretty relaxed day hanging out with the children and house moms at Lar Herminia. We got to celebrate the New Year with lots of yummy Brazilian food and fireworks. We look forward to taking the children from Lar Herminia to the zoo tomorrow