August 5, 2008
Boa tarde desde Brasil! :) (Good afternoon from Brazil!),
Our Brazil Gateway Team from Faith Baptist, Regina, SK continues to enjoy and get more accustomed to life here at the CHAIN of Love Homes in Campo Bom. We're beginning to settle into a routine here, but definitely an active routine!
Monday the team painted most of the playground equipment various primary colors and Shelly and Sarah Hagan did some weeding in the on campus greenhouse they have here. We also begin to schedule various sports, recreation and arts sessions/classes for the kids here over the next 2 weeks. We're offering craft classes every morning and afternoon and recreation games for younger kids every morning and afternoon as well. Those all begin and are in session as I write (Tuesday afternoon).
We also began 2 levels of ESL (English as a Second Language) classes last night and had a huge response with over 30 kids involved. We'll be doing those ESL classes 2 more nights this week and 4 nights next week. Beginning after the ESL class on Thursday night, we'll begin to have Basketball, Football (Canadian) and Floor Hockey clinics/scrimmages as well. We'll do a total of 2 this week and 4 of those next week.
On top of all of that, those not involved in leading/helping in all of these classes are doing other work projects involving painting, staining, weeding, etc. Justin Jaarsma, from our team, is an electrician by trade and he has been put to work with some new wiring in the activity center.
We also had the opportunity to go to House 9 last night for Marcia's birthday and give her a gift from one of her sponsors (my parents in Milwaukee, Art and Irma Schmor) and a gift from the team. Those who didn't need to head back to start the ESL class were also treated to an exceptional meal by Marcia's house-parents which they're still raving about!
Tonight we have plans to visit NAB missionary Lyndell Campbell in Porto Alegre for a tour of the Baptist Seminary where she teaches and also dinner out.
So, as you can see, we keep quite busy and this place has been able to keep all 20 of us quite active. Shelly Schmor, Sarah Hagan, Josh Docksteader (Faith's Youth Pastor) and Krista Docksteader have also been helping Chris Kidd with some of his office work by filing, taking pictures of the kids, and other general needs.
Thanks for your prayers! Pray for endurance and adequate rest. The team definitely eats enough as we have Worley (a Brazilian lady) cooking for us each noon hour and Shelly overseeing and cooking the rest of our meals.
Blessings,
Randy Schmor
2 comments:
Thank you for keeping us up to date on what is going on in Campo Bom. I can hardly wait to talk to the kids and see how the relationships they develop with the kids down there will affect their lives. Sounds like they are kept very busy - as it should be!
Thanks for the updates. We always follow with much interest the experiences, impressions and reactions of team members that go to COL. Just one little note. The Portuguese word "desde" means "since." You should really use "do" which means "from."
Keep up the good work!
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