Week 2 at Aldeia do Meco – SidebySide Photography

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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