september

it has been an incredible month!

our huge adventure this month was the trip down SOUTH we took with the interns. amanda and carol needed to renew their tourist visa, so we headed towards URUGUAY,

 and made a heck of road trip out of our 7 days! 

first we stopped in Curitiba, a city i spent 6 of my growing up years in. Arguably the most beatiful city in brazil, once considered the ecological capital of the country with record parks per capita! we did a rush tour of my top 4 spots, then headed to Porto Alegre (POA) 

moments in curitiba

POA was AMAZING!

here are some reasons why:

MATT & WALESKA - an incredible missionary couple that is developing home churches in POA. the nights were full of inspiring conversations about the future of the church and our role in brazil.... conversations such as these give me a renewed gusto for the ministry of the Kingdom!

matt and waleska on the right - sharing a great meal w/ us!

THE CHACARA - matt works with a rehab program called The Chacara, very similar to Sitio Shalom. our group went to visit the place, and we fell in love with the ppl and their love for God and longing for the Holy Spirit. Mark stayed at the program for a couple of days, interviewed the directors, spent time with the guys, and came back with a bigger and better vision for the work at Sitio Shalom!

(translation: i don't smoke! i don't drink! i died to the world. i was born for God. I live for Jesus.) 

THE BLUMES - there are some ppl that it takes a whole 2 minutes to know that you absolutely love them and could be entertained by them forever. that's the blumes in our life! before this trip to POA, our face-to-face interactions with them had been 5 minutes in a parking lot as we left the missionary conference in january. and yet, they seem like old friends (well, kevin IS old, but just an old fart, not old friend) .... we arrived in POA just in time to welcome their 6th child into the craziness! yep, 6.
it's the one family that just being around them makes us want to have 6 kids.
we shared our stories, and laughed, and cooked, and played games, and ate and ate.

the oldest (brownwyn, 17) and the youngest (giovanni, 4 days) 

carys during home church

kevin demonstrating his eating skills (as you can see, benay has learned to ignore him)

don't let Ansley's angelic face fool you!

 

this trip has guided and changed some of our visions for our minsitry and church leadership here in Itu. Thru God we keep having new experiences and new conversations and meeting new people who show us a new love. and we are being molded at every new turn.

ak