For the last time...

Oi family for the last time,

My last day here has been amazing just like the other forty. My day started early due to the fire in the slums. Some of you may have seen from my Facebook posts but for those of you who haven't there was a huge fire in the slums yesterday. We recieved the final count and over one hundred families lost their homes and everything they own. Eight of our children were amongst those families. Thankfully no one was injured. The last fire of this size happened in 2008 and many of those families still haven't recovered and are still homeless, so many prayers are needed.  This morning started with a trip to the church where we loaded dozens of bags full of donated clothes, shoes, and basic necessities into the car where we took them to the Kid's Place to be distributed to the families of the eight children who were in the fire. There we sorted everything and made piles so the mothers could easily go through and grab what they needed. Also we put together food care packages to give to the mothers of our children. After our families go through the donated items the rest will be donated to the shelter lodging the other victims. Hearing about the fire, I was a little bit numb. I was just going through the motions trying to help wherever I could. Then I went into the main room where I saw two of little boys who are in my class, Kyle and Victor, shirtless covered in ash while their mother sorted through some clothes for then. I went over and greet them by putting my hand on their heads and they did the same to me with adorable smiles. They take my hands and we begin playing a hand game that I taught them that I learned in Mexico, which they absolutely love. It became real for me in that moment. I know these little boys. I've played with them, comforted them, talked with them. I can't imagine how scared they must have been to see their home go up in flames along with all of their neighbors. They already didn't have much and even that was taken away. I helped to get them bathed and in new clothes and then we played with puzzles for a while. As Victor and I were working on a puzzle, Eliane came up and tapped me on the back and motioned for me to come with her. I follow her outside where all of the kids are standing waiting for me to arrive. They are holding three signs: one had orange handprints on it with "I love you" written on the top, and the other two were heart shaped that said "Sarah, you are special" and "We will miss you" in Portuguese signed by all my babies. They start singing a song to me and I just busted into tears. At the end they all say "I love you!" and run and tackle me in one giant group hug. It was the best send off anyone could have asked for. After Kid's Place I went to Starla's house and she took me to another set of slums where we were able to hand out the baby clothes that I brought. I was able to make 20 bags, each complete with 5 onsies, 5 cloth diapers, and 5 blankets. We were able to hand out six bags today to 5 pregnant women and one with a three month old baby. They are going back tomorrow to see if they can hand out more. It was a perfect way to end the day.  

My time here has been something truly extraordinary. I've learned so much about this culture, myself, and God. He has been here with me through it all guiding me through different experiences that have shaped and molded me into a stronger Christian and a stronger missionary. I still have so much to learn and a long way to go but Brazil and what I learned here will forever be in my heart. I want to thank everyone who made it possible for me to come. I can't tell you what it means to know such love and support and I'm just so grateful to all of you for allowing me to have six weeks to share all that love and support with my babies here. I can't wait to be home yet it breaks my heart to leave. I only ask you continue to keep the children and their families, the tias, and everyone who works with these kids in your prayers. I'm going to include some pictures from my send off below. God Bless you guys! I should see you soon! It has been the trip of a lifetime. 

My giant goodbye group hug! And yes, we all ended up on the ground. 

Abraços e Beijos,

Sarah 

Port of Chickens

Hello Blog Family!


I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while. This week has kind of been all over the place. I wasn't able to go to Kid's Place because it was closed this week because school is back in session and we have to rework our schedule. I miss my Brazilian babies. The good part about the week was that I was able to do some vacationing. Raquel took me to this beautiful beach called Porto de Galinhas, which means the Port of Chickens. We also had the company of Simon and Jacob, two German guys who had come to Brazil for the World Youth Day and the Pope's visit. They had traveled all over Brazil these past few weeks and wanted to come with us and we were happy to have the company. We spent a lovely extended weekend there, from Thursday to Sunday, complete with beach laying, swimming out to a reef, feeding fish, and beach walks. I'll include some pictures below. I hope everyone is having a wonderful day. I only have two more days here until I depart so stay tuned for more posts. And for all my church family traveling to New Jersey today know that you are in my prayers and I am there with you in spirit. It breaks my heart to miss our annual church mission trip!

 

My German Beach Buddies

 

 

 

 

 

 

Party!

Today was Party Day! We had a party for all the kids who had birthdays during the first semester. We also had volunteers come from a church nearby for company and entertainment (they are in the green shirts).

 

 

All of the birthday boys and girls

 

We love parties!

 

All of the kids got cake and soda. A rare treat from the typical rice and beans we usually eat.

 

The kids also got party favors like these little levitating ball pipes, whistles, and bubbles.

 

Everyone had a great time! Parties are the best!

Dodge Ball and Micky

Bom Dia Família! 

I experienced my closest moment to death yesterday at the Kid's Place. It involved playing dodge ball with the other kids. This children seem all sweet and innocent when we sing Praise and Worship songs but when the dodge ball rolls out and the group splits up into boys and girls, a new side to these children comes out. It is all out war and these kids are ruthless. I, of course, played with the girls team. What I liked about these kids is that it wasn't about their individual victories, they cared about a win for the entire team. If an older kid got hit a younger one would take their out so that the team would have a better chance of winning. I pretended to be a younger kid and took the out for an older better girl because I wasn't bringing much to the team and the boys throw hard. Other than that it was a lot of fun and I enjoyed seeing the kids work together as a team. So I've told you my closest moment to death and with that I think I should also tell you my closest moment to Christ yesterday. It involved a little boy named Mikelangelo, Micky for short. Micky has a lot of behavioral problems. He just doesn't stay focused well or listen to directions. He is always in his own little world. Eliane says he is very aggressive with the other kids and teachers. I would find out later that his father was murdered just 15 days ago because of drug problems and ever since then his behavior has gotten worse. But just like how I saw a new side of the children when the dodge ball came out, I also saw a new side to Micky yesterday. Almost every time he sees me he comes up to me and puts his hand on my head. I usually do the same to him and then we laugh and hug. It is our little greeting. After playing outside with the kids we came in for art time. Micky came up to me as usual and put his little hand on my head. I guess I was hot because when he did it, he got this worried look on his face and then disappeared. I didn't really think much of it until he came back a few minutes later with a glass of water. It was the sweetest moment. I drank it with a lot of enthusiasm to show him just how much I appreciated it. These kids show me so much love with the little things they do and I can see God working in them through these little acts. Here is a boy who has just had his father taken from him and he still went out of his way to make sure I had a glass of water. My prayer is that he and the rest of the children will continue to grow in Christ and break the cycle of bad decisions and tragedies of their families. Please pray this prayer with me. I love you guys! 

Life Lessons From A Four Year Old

So today I was reading over the old mission trip daily blog posts and I realized that I haven't really told you guys what I do, day to day, like we do with the mission trip entries. Well today things are going to change. If all goes well I shall tell you about my day, slip in some God insight, and teach you a bit of Portuguese. Here we go...

I started my morning off at 6 AM which is 5 AM your time. I had a quick breakfast of papaya, a roll, and really strong coffee before leaving the house. After that Nubia dropped me off at Eliane's apartment because she had an early class. Eliane (First Portuguese lesson of the day: Eliane is pronounced like "el-i-on-ee") Eliane is the Vice President of Espaço da Criança (Second Portuguese lesson of the day: this is translated to the Space belonging to the Children or as we call it, the Kid's place. The pronunciation is "es-pa-so dah kri-on-sa"). Eliane is such a delightful lady. She always wraps me in a hug whenever she sees me and she is just full of warmth. I really am able to work on my Portuguese with Eliane because she doesn't speak very much English. I've been teaching her a little each day because she is coming to America in December and has been begging me to teach her. She is such an eager student and always laughs when we actually are able to understand each other. As soon as I get in, she makes me a glass of chocolate milk which she discovered that I love and a piece of pound cake. Keep in mind it is about 7:30 in the morning but that is just Eliane for you. I'm grateful because of my small breakfast and scarf it down. After that and a little reading while she gets ready, her husband drives us the Kid's Place. When we arrive the children are all ready there, obvious by the talking and giggling you can hear from the street. I go put my backpack down and go join them in the outside area. I'm greeted by my favorite sound, "Tia!" and a few hugs. I sit down with the children while one of the teachers gives directions or announcements. I see some new faces today and I think our numbers have increased. When I sit down, Caluane (pronounced "cal-wan-ee"), who has become my little buddy, crawls over and plops herself in my lap. I'll talk more about Caluane later but to keep the day moving, next we did Praise and Worship. This is one of my favorite times because almost all of the kids dance and sing and just give glory to God. I'm actually starting to learn a few of the songs so I sing a long in my best Portuguese accent and dance with Caluane and a few of the other children. After we are exhausted from toting children around dancing, we meaning the tias, we go to story time. This week's story is the story of Lazarus. I really enjoyed seeing how engaged the children were in this story. The story time leader Kidia and I acted out Lazarus (me) rising from the dead and walking to Jesus (Kidia) while all the children shouted "Lazarus, come forth!" in Portuguese. I think they really enjoy the stories. After that we went to art time where the kids were split into groups and given a large sheet of poster paper and we had to draw the story. This was more difficult than expected with about 10 opinionated 4 to 6 year olds who each have their own color crayon. We did end up with something quite abstract and colorful though. After art time we went outside, Lila (a fellow tia) blew up some balloons and we played until lunch time. After that I played with the kids until someone came to pick them up and then read my book until cooking class. The Kid's Place offers certain classes for the mothers of the children to help them develop some skills such as cooking and cosmetology. This helps the mothers be equipped for better jobs instead of turning to other less desirable ways of making money. The cooking class I went to today had had about ten mothers and an instructor. I had to quickly become a visual learner mimicking the other mothers as we made a type of Portuguese pastry that was like a mini pot pie. They actually turned out really good and I was able to meet some new friends amongst the mothers of the children I've been playing with for two weeks. Quite a successful day. Now back to Caluane. Caluane is a little girl who has climbed into my heart and taken residence and I just have been so blessed by her presence these past couple of weeks.

This is Caluane and she is four years old and has just started coming to Kid's Place this semester. I always enjoy her company because she is loving, and just chatters at me and doesn't expect an answer, which my limited Portuguese would hinder me anyways. She is completely unaware of the other children around her and definitely dances to the beat of her own drummer.

During Praise and Worship we listen for a while and tease her about her crazy hair. She isn't really into dancing this morning so I just hold her and dance around with her that way. I call her my little monkey (meu macaquinho pronounced like "may-oo moc-ah-keen-yo") because she is always climbing all over me. If I'm not holding her she climbs up my legs or waits till I grab her arms and the she just goes lifeless forcing me to hold her up. When I do hold her she is constantly climbing all around me or falling backwards expecting me to jerk her up before she hits the ground. She just has this blind faith that I will be there to hold her no matter how close she is to the ground when she dangles off of my hip. As children, I'm sure we all had those moments when we would fling ourselves backwards from an adults arms knowing they would be there to pull us up and not allowing us to hit the floor. Or perhaps you might of dived off of the diving board or side of the pool into the arms of a waiting family member, perched ready to catch you, easing you down into the water. As children we do these things because we trust and rely on the adult there to protect us. Jesus saw this in Mark 10:15 saying that we should receive the Kingdom of God like children, with trust and reliance and blind faith. I often think that I trust God, but how often do I rely on Him? I typically just go through life thinking I'm handling it all and usually call on God whenever it is convenient for me usually when I want something or have a problem. A few of the pastors of the church here in Brazil just recently returned from Nigeria from a mission trip. She talked in her sermon about how the people there rely on God because He is all they have. The people there wake up every morning and pray that they will have food for their families, clean water, and a roof over their heads; things we take for granted everyday. They rely on God because He provides for them. I know I trust God but do I rely on Him for even the most basic needs? I rely on my parents to provide food and shelter. Most of you rely on your jobs to provide you with money so you can buy the necessities. It is just habit. We are comfortable this way. We just call on Him when we can work it into our schedule. How often do I wake up and pray that I will be able to have breakfast? Or that when I turn on the sink clean water will come out to drink? Just like Caluane relies on me to pull her back from falling out of my arms I think we should rely on God for the many things we take for granted, things that others rely on prayer to receive, just to live another day. God longs for this reliance, this blind faith in Him that He will be there to provide for us. We should acknowledge it in our lives. He's holding on to us waiting for us to trust Him enough to lean back into the unknown where he will be there to pull us back up. Caluane and the other children are teaching me more than I'm teaching them. Today as I was holding Caluane she nuzzled her little nose into my neck and I just started to cry. Such love from a little girl who I've only known for a couple weeks. I can see God everywhere in this place and he is doing awesome work. I'm sending my love! Keep all of us in your prayers!

Put Your Hands Up!

 

 

 

Raise your hands if you love Jesus! WE DO!

 

 

Love,

 

All of us 

If we only knew...

Hello Everyone! I am finally able to upload some pictures so enjoy :)

 

 

The children enjoying a puppet show. Today's story: Jesus feeding the 5,000.

 

 

 

Laira and I

 

 

Tino

 

 Caluane

 

 

Francisco and Debra

 

 

Shakira and I

 

 

Daniella and Camilly

 

 

A few of the boys

 

 

Marcus

 

 

A classic game of pick up sticks.

 

 

Now that is how you make a crazy face!

 

 

He was showing me his muscles.

 

After seeing a few of the beautiful babies I have had the pleasure of being in the presence of the last few days, I bet you are able to see my joy. This precious faces are what I'm here for. As I was showing the pictures to Elaine, the vice president of Kid's Place, she beamed with happiness, as did I, as we scrolled through them. Then, one by one, she started telling me a little about the children, mostly why they were here.



"This one's mother had tested positive for HIV."

"This one's father is in an insane asylum"

"This one had four brother who are all in jail."

"This one's mother is in prison for drug trafficking."

"This one was abandoned by her parents and lived on her own for a month."

 

With each story my heart broke a little more. These little faces, faces I've held in my hands, have gone through more than most of us combined and they aren't even teenagers yet. These smiles, smiles that I see practically every second of everyday, are hiding neglect and abandonment. Take a second to hug the children in your life because we sometimes forget just how different things might be if they had been born to another family, in another country. Without the Kid's Place these beautiful children would most likely be headed down the same road as their parents or family members, however, here they have a chance to rise above with the gentle arms of God, facilitated by the extraordinary people working here. Continue to keep us all (the children, the families of the children, the teachers, the volunteers,) in your prayers!

John 14:18

 

Love,

Me