Lagoa Santa

Here's an update on what God has been doing in my life here in Brasil. I have some really exciting things to share with you! God has blessed Bruno and I by allowing us to be leaders of a small team or Pod in a smaller city not far from Belo Horizonte called Lagoa Santa. God has opened the doors for a pod to come to Lagoa Santa to help here in their church....Igreja Batista Nacional em Lagoa Santa. So God has really blessed Bruno and I by giving us the opportunity to be the ones leading this pod.

I have really been able to see the faithfulness of God through this church. They have gone above and beyond in blessing us here. They have provided a house for us to stay in which has wonderful fruit trees in the backyard and everythingwe could need inside. The church here gives us a sense that we have a family. They are always inviting us to their house for lunch or dinner. The church members are always checking with us to see if we need anything. They definitely make me feel at home away from my home in the States.

At first when the opportunity was placed before Bruno and I to lead the pod here in Lagoa Santa I was apprehensive, about what that would mean for me. I didn't think I was ready to lead the people in our pod when I felt like I still had so much to learn. But God kept calling me and continued to encourage me. Telling me that he has prepared me for this time, in this place and to not be afraid because he will be right by my side walking with me. He has given me the ability and the strength I just had to believe I could do it. God was encouraging me and everyone else was believing in me but I had to get to the point where I believed in myself.

So everyday that passed God continued to speak to my heart in a deep way calling me to himself telling me that his Holy Spirit would guide me the whole way. So I surrendered knowing that God knows me better then I know myself and if he says I'm ready then I'm ready, so I said here I am Lord, Use me! I will lead this pod knowing that you are there with me guiding me how, because without you, I can't do this, I need you!! So God has been so faithful in what he told me from the beginning. Every single day I wake up I feel his Holy Spirit speaking to me and guiding me.

God has been giving us so many wonderful opportunities here in Lagoa Santa. We are working with a creche here at the church, which is like a daycare or school. Every Tuesday and Thursday we teach three physical education classes in the morning and six english classes in the afternoon. I've realized it's much harder to teach english to children that already know another language but God is guiding me, so its been a challenge but fun. Also we are very involved in the church, we have been working alot with the youth, hanging out and discipling them. This saturday we will be having the whole youth group over at our house for the youth service. We are getting in contact with schools to do school assemblies, and we are looking for contacts to help in hospitals as well. God has placed the right people in front of us to help us with contacts and ministry opportunities here in Lagoa Santa. So we are really excited about what God is doing here in Lagoa Santa!!

Prayers Requests:
Please continue to keep us in your prayers, that God would give Bruno and I wisdom how to lead this team and how to be able to properly communicate with one another. We are still getting to know each other along with leading the team so at times it can be a big task. Pray that God would continue to open the doors for ministry opportunities here, and give us wisdom how to engage with the church and how we can serve them.

Thank you for all your prayers and support, they make such a huge difference in my life!!

Christmas in Brasil

Jan. 11, 2010
Dear Family and Friends,
I hope you all had a good Christmas and New Year’s. Wanted to give you an update on what’s been happening here in Brasil. December was a very eventful month. We wanted to do something really special for the street kids for Christmas, so God gave Anderson, one of our coaches, an idea to have a special Christmas dinner for the kids on the street. Many of them have heard of Christmas but have never been able to really experience it, since they live on the street under extremely poor conditions. Imagine being an 8 year old child who has never been able to wake up with his family on Christmas morning to open presents and enjoy a Christmas meal and the laughter and fun of having the whole family together. My whole life growing up in the United States I never stopped to think on Christmas Day about all the things I had been given and all the blessings I took for granted. How easily things had been given to me, that I never thought about others not being able to experience. When life is “easy” you never stop to look outside your own bubble of comfort to think of the struggles of others.

We contacted businesses and store owners to see if they would be willing to donate food and sweets to make this Christmas dinner possible. I have to say myself that going out to ask at first I was a bit hesitant thinking that no one would want to help us, but much to my surprise many of the people we asked were more than willing to not only donate food, but to help us cook or set up for the meal. The Wednesday before we went out and tried to get an idea of how many kids would come to the dinner, and we made a list with names, but when the actual meal was ready everyone went to invite their family members to come with. As a team we decided to sacrifice money individually that would really cost us something, not just our next ice cream cone, to buy presents for the kids. There was a whole day of preparation for the party, but when we actually were there and serving the kids, I found that I was the one being blessed. To hear one of our team members, Gustavo, sharing his testimony about being a street kid and how God rescued him and gave him a reason to live and how that affected these kids to see that there IS hope for them was very touching! Its amazing to see how when we allow God to use us to serve others, how we are the ones who are actually being blessed the most.

Coming up this summer our team will be travel to the United States to minister in churches and share what God’s doing in Brasil. We’ll be starting to prepare when classes begin again on Jan. 19th, by working on our English and dramas, testimonies and preaching. God has been stretching me and teaching me to rely on Him through teaching English to the Masters Commission students. I now have a huge respect for my past teachers and the amount of patience they had with me. Thank you for helping to make this trip possible by purchasing our 2010 calendars. We still have calendars available for any donation you might want to make. We just want the opportunity for people to learn more about us through reading the stories in our calendar and praying for us.

Thank you for all the support, financial and prayer, that you’ve given for me to be able to share Jesus’ love with his precious kids here in Brasil. The monthly support necessary for me to live here is $200.
Prayer requests:
1) That God would continue to guide me and give me wisdom on how to be a teacher and leader the best that I can be.
2) That God would provide for our financial needs, so our whole team can go to the United States this summer.
3) Pray for the street kids and for wisdom to know how to minister to them in the best way.
Thanks again for all your continued support, both financial and prayer, for me.
For the Kids,

Lindsey

Becoming a Coach

This new year in Master's Commission is full of new and exciting things! God is me teaching what it means to be a leader or a "coach". This means new responsibilities, which is challenging but very exciting. In learning to be a coach I am learning the only thing I have to offer is what God can do through me. It is teaching me to depend and totally rely on God, because I can't do this on my own. John 14:10 "Don't you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I speak are not my own, but my father who lives in me does his work through me."

Also this year I am responsible for teaching all the portuguese speaking students english. This is a big responsibility but God is teaching me what it means to teach. This is challenging but I am amazed at how God has given me the ability so far to teach the students, and he has taken away my fear about teaching. God has given me a boldness to teach the students without fear. 2 Timothy 1:7 "For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timity, but of power, love, and self-discipline. "

Also there will be five boys from an orphanage in Mozambique coming hopefully this month, we are still trying to work out all the things with finances for the boys to come. So please keep them in your prayers, as we are really excited to see the things God is going to do in their lives this year. Also, they will be learning english as well, so pray God will continue to teach me how to be a teacher and how to meet the needs of every student. Thanks again for your continued support and making it possible for me to make an impact in the lives of these students. May God Bless You.

God is Faithful....Deus e fiel!

Wow....sometimes I'm still amazed that I'm actually in brasil. I was walking down the street the other day and I was thinking I'm in brasil! God has been so faithful since I've been here. He is teaching me so much. My prayer everyday is that I would fall deeper in love with him! I want to be more like him.....through my actions and my words. God has revealed many things to my heart since I've been here....and I'm so excited to spend time with him everyday.

Learning portuguese has been difficult but it really is fun. I have been trying to push myself lately because I dont feel like I'm learning alot right now...because alot of people at jocum (YWAM) speak english so its hard. So I have been telling the brasillians to speak portuguese to me so I can learn new words and practice and its been fun actually. It's hard because some of it doesn't make sense to us Americans because you can't translate it into proper english....so I'm finding that my english is starting to not be so good but my portuguese is getting better. Ha! Funny how that works.

We have been doing alot of ministry lately....going to different churches in the area and doing dramas, stomp and preaching. It's really been an awesome experience getting to engage with the youth at the churches. Last weekend we got to help with a camp, that was alot of fun. We did dramas every morning and night and had preaching at night as well. I also got to practice my portuguese with the youth there so that was fun. It was amazing just to watch the people there during the night service while someone was preaching and just see how God was moving there... you could feel his presence so thick. It was amazing to watch God touch and move in the lives of the people at the camp. God taught me alot while I was there too.....just about his love for us. I would watch the sunset at night and just be amazed to think that God created that for me! Our God is pretty awesome!

God has also put some things on my heart about what he wants me to do next year...so please keep me in your prayers.....as I prayerfully seek God's heart about his plans for me next year. Thank you again for your prayers and support. I really appreciate your sacrifice!! God Bless! This picture is some of my group from master's when we went to a soccer game here....as well as a few of the boys from the Restoration house and and Loreen that works at the boys house.

I'm Finally Here! Thank You!!

Life in Brasil

Wow.....life here has been great!! At first when I left home I was scared because I didn't know what to expect....but God has definitely shown me his grace. Everything that I was worried about or uncertain about has turned out to not really be that bad. I guess its best to be prepared for the worst, then its not really that bad after all. I'm living in Belo Horizonte at the reborn house. A house for pregnant street girls. It's a pretty incredible place....i love my roommates and its really nice. A hot shower....and a nice big room....God has blessed me!

I live with Sarah (from Canada) and Debora and Amanda which are both from Brasil. I never thought coming to Brasil I would learn about Canada but Sarah is teaching me a lot. It also helps to have someone here that can speak English....and we are learning Portuguese together so that helps....its a lot of Fun! Sometimes the language barrier is hard but I continue to pray that God would break that barrier.....all the Brazilians are very patient in my learning and quick to help so that is awesome.

In the morning we go to the boys house (a YWAM house for street boys) and we have classes in the morning....like Portuguese class, relationship class, and class on the book In His Steps, and of course drama practice. So we have that in the morning then eat lunch there are then we go to the different YWAM houses to serve for the afternoon....the one I work at is the house for kids with aids. The kids are there either because their parents can't afford their medicine or their parents abandoned them.

Then we have different activities we do in the evening....we had a pod activity on Tuesday....Wednesday minister at different churches (dramas and preaching or stomp), then Thursday night we meet with all the YWAM staff and volunteers for worship and preaching....then on Friday nights we have cell groups we go to from the church we are going to (cell groups are like small groups in the states). Then on Saturday we practice our dramas to minister at churches that night and on Sunday night as well.....so we have been keeping really busy. But it has been really good! I love learning Portuguese but it is definitely challenging, but I feel like I'm learning new words everyday so God is good. :) I love the team here, they are so sweet and welcoming....I have felt like family since I have been here. God has been so faithful!! God is giving me a new and deeper love for the street children here.

One Friday night we got to go to the streets to hang out with the kids....it was a really amazing experience. We got to play American football with them and uno which they loved. Then we got to talk with them and they started to open up about early that day their friend a street boy had gotten stabbed and killed and they were really hurting. We could just see the pain in their eyes. So because of that they were opening and sharing with us and we got to pray with them....so it was good to see how God could turn something bad into Good. It was also hard to see that all the kids were getting high on paint thinner....they would do this to ease the pain of their situation. That they would rather live on the streets then deal with whatever situation they had at home. This was so hard to see because you would never see children living on the streets in South Dakota.....it broke my heart.

This is just a little of what Brasil has been like for me so far....its really been an awesome experience and God has been teaching me so much!!! Thank you to those of you who have given either through prayer or money to make this experience possible for me....your sacrifice is not being taken for granted!! May God bless you greatly for your sacrifice!!!

I'm In Brazil!!

I'm so excited to finally share with you all that I have finally arrived in Brazil!! Praise the Lord! God has taught me alot from my wilderness experience but I am so thankful to finally be here. To be in the place I prayed everyday that God would get me to is really exciting. God is so good! He has taught me alot about himself while I was in sacramento now I'm excited to find out how he is going to use me here in brazil and why he has called me to come here. God has continued time and time again to prove his faithfulness....I am so blessed to be here right now!
I am so excited to work with the orphans and the street children to show them the love of Jesus that they have never known or felt! Thank you so much for helping make this trip possible and for all your prayers! At first it was a little scary to fly to brazil where I have never been before alone but God gave me the grace necessary to get here.
The pineapple here is absolutely amazing....so juicy....puts the pineapple in america to shame. I wish you all could try some...very amazing! :) Right now I am staying at Pastor Richard's with his family and that has been such a blessing! They have been very open and loving which has been such an amazing blessing! Then next week I am off to help with a camp with the team. Right now I am in campinas and the team has been in Belo so I am so very excited to finally meet all of them! So things have definetly been great so far and God has been showing me brazil through his eyes which is so eye opening...just the love he has for these people its amazing. Please keep me in your prayers as I continue to make this transition and enter into the lifestyle of the brazillian people. It's always an adventure and a big change to live in a foreign country but God is giving me the grace necessary....God is faithful! I'll try to keep you posted as much as possible. Thank you for your prayers and I will keep you in mine as well! In all his love, Lindsey