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.
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
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