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Week 2 at Aldeia do Meco

Hey All,

So after our lovely weekend in Lisbon and Sintra, we headed back to the camp. The kids were pretty excited to see us, and we were excited to see what this new week would have for us. Because of all our scheduling problems and communication, we didn’t get to do as many activities as we had brought to do. So we decided in this second week that we would try and do a jam-packed craft and activity week! That and we were showing part 5 of the Jesus film and the wordless Bible. 

The kids were really excited about all the crafts and it seemed like we couldn’t get enough out for them to do! But what was really interested was how excited they were to watch the Jesus film. It could be that they were excited about any movie we put in the player (like Chronicles of Narnia in English – they didn’t have any movies) or they were truly interested to know about it. I guess we’ll never know, but after each showing, we would ask them questions and talk about what it means that we are all sinners and what it means that Jesus came to save us from sin.

 

I think the most interesting moment for me was when I was listening to our translator Eva talk to these boys about the wordless Bible. She asked them if they had ever done anything wrong and they admitted they had. She asked if they believed that Jesus could take away sin, and they said they did. (Sounding good so far) But then she asked about specifics…will Jesus forgive us for a lie? YES! Will Jesus forgive us for hitting someone? YES! Will Jesus forgive us for killing someone? NO! So I think for them, it will take a lot of understanding that Jesus can truly love and forgive us unconditionally if we choose it but they have probably had so many people in their lives love them conditionally and love them for a while but then give them up again. It was really sad and eye-opening for me. And even if I wanted to with all my heart, I can’t love them unconditionally either, that’s why they need Jesus.

 

Now for some photos! I have one more Portugal post after this which will have the video and slide show! yippee!
We did devotionals together every morning and took turns leading them. This is the larger room where most everyone slept and where we did our morning and evening meetings. (and it’s where we made coffee during all hours of the day!) 

Playing “Red Light, Green Light”, they loved learning this game! And they were incredibly strict about moving. Seriously, we could not even scratch our noses or we’d have to go back to the beginning! 

Painting nails was a big hit! They were very reciprocal about it too, we’d paint theirs and they’d paint ours right after. I had glitter all over my fingers for the rest of the week 🙂 

The gentleman with Rafaela. 


Jessica and me 


Sarah and Catarina


N8 made friends with lots of the kids because he was out there all the time playing soccer!


Eva with the Pequininas (the itty bitties as I liked to call them) They were the best and were the most forgiving about language. They would just chatter away for the longest time.


Another Jessica and Paula. This girl was a trooper! She got a really bad sunburn on her face and someone put some cream on it which irritated it even more. She was miserable for a while until we could get it all off and put aloe on instead. Then she got pricked by a sea urchin, the lifeguard had to take all 3 “needles” out of her foot.


The beautiful praia (very similar to the Spanish Playa) The Atlantic water was pretty cold and the waves were strong and dangerous but the kids absolutely loved every beach day.


The gentleman took a bunch of really cool pictures like this, he’s just showing off 😉


This is my little Jessie (the 3rd Jessica of the bunch) and I think she looks like she could be my daughter. Couldn’t I just go back and bring her here in my suitcase?

 

And so here we are enjoying our last day at the beach. Ciao!

 

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europe places to go

We’re Back

Well, we just got back last Friday from Portugal. I will still have a few more posts about it though because I have plenty of photos and stories to share. For this post I’ll update you on the weekend in between. 

So, after our first week, we headed back to Lisbon for a much needed weekend off. We stayed with the Farmers and made most of our meals together there. It was really great.

On Saturday morning we did a walking tour of Lisbon and the castle there with the SunDeo group also from EFCC. They were in Portugal around the same time we were just working on different projects. After that we had the afternoon off and did a little shopping and eating.


At the Castelo, of course

Safety guard rails in Portugal?? Who needs them?

We  stop to have a tea break overlooking the city.

I discover Portugal’s unique obsession with roosters…it reminded me of all the random roosters running around in kauai, hmm.

Eden hopes that Scott will pick some grapes for her. We found them on our walk, I just love her hopeful face.
enjoying our Lisbon moment!

Sunday was great, we went to another home church (like we did the day we got to Portugal) and worshiped together with the missionaries and others. It was really refreshing to be in a small group all fellowshipping together and eating a potluck breakfast together.
After that we got to go up to Sintra. It’s a small, quaint little town with a castle on the hill. There are plenty of “touristy” things to do there but mostly we were pretty tired and just saw some shops and ate. About half of us went there, everyone else stayed in town.


Seriously though, statues are pretty boring on their own in photos. Isn’t imitation the highest form of flattery?

That’s all for now. Stay tuned for photos/stories from week 2 with the lovely kids!

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Week 1 update from Portugal!

Hey Everyone! So I’m writing a very quick update while we’re in Lisbon and have a chance to use the internet.
So, since we got here, lots of things have changed and our expectations have had to be flexible. Thankfully for us, a lot of things have been for the better! First of all, in the last post I said we didn’t have tents. Well, not only were tents provided but once we got to the camp site, we didn’t even need them! We had heard that there was going to be a room for us to put our valuables into but that room turned out to be a large meeting room plus kitchenette and two little rooms, plus our own bathroom! So the two married couples are in the little rooms and everyone else is in the big room. It’s been great because it has provided us a bit of a sanctuary when we’ve needed time away from the kids and a nice place to meet together as a team.
The kids are great! They are overwhelming and need a lot of attention, but they are so great, loving and so much fun! They are also mostly patient with us as we struggle to communicate to them through language. What’s nice is that smiles and hugs are universal and we can speak that way to them.
We’re all pretty tired and will be happy to have rest when we get home, so if you could please pray that we can have extra energy for the rest of this week. We’ve still got 4 more days with the kids and find that it’s hard to pull ourselves away for rest and alone time.
I’ve got some pictures for you all to see. I don’t have time to organize them and put them all in a nice order, so I’ll just put a sentence of commentary and you can figure it out. I’ll also put tons more up when we get back, this is just a snack for you 🙂 if you click on them you can see them full size…
an example of many of the buildings here, just abandonded
this is the only way we’ve found to have a somewhat normal sized coffee! cappucino!

Us in the doors of a cathedral in lisbon

our team at the castle in lisbon


where we’re staying, aldeia de meco (15 minute walk from the nude beach!)


view of lisbon. in this photo you can see the bridge designed by the same guy who did the golden gate bridge…look familiar?? also you can see the jesus statue in the background that looks just like the one in brazil!


one of the kids on the bracelet making day. they loved this! the boys and the girls! they are so sweet 🙂

 


and comic relief from the gentleman, come on, what are we supposed to be, mature???

 


laura and ines during our “american food” day. i think they got a kick out of us being in the kitchen for once!

 


all the kids watching a portion of the jesus film. they are really interested in it, i’m really excited to see what they think once they’ve seen the whole thing. please pray that they will take it all in and really understand the message we’re telling them.

 


me and rafaela. she took the gentleman”s hand and mine and we walked together to the beach. i think she would really love for us to be her parents. she is so precious! and she’s wearing n8’s glasses, she thought they were cool!

 


playing beach volleyball with the kids, something different than soccer!!!

 


the kids at the nude beach, it doesn’t phase them a bit! we were quite shocked however! (notice we had to crop the picture carefully when we took it)


our van! the gentleman is doing a great job learning portuguese driving habits with a group of 10 or 11 sometimes in our 9 person van. also notice n8’s newly acquired habit of poking into photos


some more of the kids. obviously 🙂

hope you all are having a great time without us! we are having one last afternoon off and then headed back to the camp. you won’t hear from us again until possibly thursday night and then we’re going home! keep us in your thoughts and prayers!

 

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“Nothin’ we can’t git around”

So just a quick blog to let everyone know that we made it here to Lisbon all in one piece! On the first leg of our trip our pilot was awesome and was telling us about some turbulence we were going to have and what he said about it is what is going to be our motto for this trip.

“Nothin’ we can’t git around”

We thought, this will be a great quote and now that we’re here, we’re having to use it a lot! Flexibility is a virtue on trips like these and right away we have had to be flexible. We’re tent camping on this trip and found out today that there are no tents! So we’ll figure that out. Also, we’re having technical difficulties with my computer (which definitely limits video editing!). So, our motto will have to do.

Anyway, we had a 5 hour layover in Philadelphia, got off and saw the Liberty Bell and ate Philly cheese steaks in Liberty Park! Then we got here at 8:30 am and are working on staying awake all day so we’ll sleep all night!

Tomorrow we’re off to the orphanage and I won’t be able to update again until Friday or Saturday. Sorry there are no pictures, hopefully my computer will work soon! Please pray for it, my little old mac laptop…i want it to be better!!!

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europe places to go

Portugal

Well, we’re leaving for Portugal tomorrow! I think we’re both finally starting to feel excited. We’ve been so busy this summer and haven’t had a break at all. Even the last couple days have been crazy editing weddings and getting everything together for the team. I will try to keep this blog updated while we’re away, but I have no idea if we’ll have the internet at all while we’re gone. Since we’ll be tent camping right by the orphans’ summer getaway (i.e. building with beds out in the boonies) I highly doubt we’ll see much technology. We, of course, will be bringing our cameras and a video camera so when we return, there will be plenty of pictures and a video or two. Where would we be without our technology?? So anyway, here’s a new picture of our team. We lost one member and gained another so this is the most recent shot.For those of you who don’t know what we’re doing…we are leading a trip of 10 of us “young adults” to run a summer camp for a group of 55 orphans. It should be fun.exciting.overwhelming.tiring.awesome.exhausting. you name it! I’m especially excited because most of our team has never done a missions trip besides Mexico. I just pray that this experience will be a positive one for them and for the missionaries we’ll be serving. If you are more interested in what Paula and Spencer are doing in Portugal, check out their blog at: www.fourwildgeese.blogspot.com

 

Please pray for us while we’re gone if you could! We’ll keep you posted as we can and we’ll see you all soon!