Gigi....

Gigi is the little girl who lives next door. And for some unfathomable reason, she adores me haha. Let me just say first that she can be the MOST ANNOYING thing in the world... for example, one morning after service when I desperately needed a nap... there was Gigi... in my room... jumping on my bed and on me, telling me to wake up... haha and then when she's here and she wants to do something, she wants to do it NOW, not wait for me to finish whatever random thing that I was previously working on... but she can also melt my heart like no other haha... when I was in Dourados last week and didn't come home until later sunday night, apparentally Gigi came over the next morning at 7am, waiting for me... luckily they didn't wake me up haha so I got some rest that I was looking forward to... Then I didn't end up seeing her until last night, when her and her father were coming home on his motorbike and a ball came careening across the way & he swerved and the bike and company fell over. Luckily, they weren't too badly injured, but had a lot of scrapes and bruises. I didn't find this out til later when her dad came over to get me and elza because Gigi wanted me to pray for her. So we all went over there & everybody was like "Gi! Nikki's here!" (b/c I still hadn't seen her again since I left for Dourados) and she came walking up to me slowly, pouting, with big scrapes on her forehead and body and just wrapped her arms around me in a big hug... I wasn't sure if I wanted to cry or laugh, it was just so sweet... So we prayed for her & I stayed there for awhile watching A Bugs Life in portuguese with her and her brother... And needless to say, when I got up this morning, there was Gigi, waiting downstairs for me to play with her... Life is certainly interesting here in Brasil... :)

Answered Prayers

God is great!! :-D This week has been simply amazing & I am forever grateful for the opportunity given. Last week, I was kind of frustrated and struggling with a couple of things - one of them personal but the other was just that I wanted to really hear from God and know what He wanted to do with me here in Brasil. I was looking for direction and like I said, REALLY wanted to hear from God. So I decided to fast for three days & three nights and just spend all my time reading scriptures and worshiping Him and staying in prayer. I've gotta tell ya, I have never felt the Holy Spirit or God moving in me as I have now :) God answered both of my prayers... and quickly! In ways that I never saw coming haha The night of the 2nd day of my fast, I was invited to meet up with my friend who was working with a group here called ABU (in the US i think they said the name was Interversity....?? wow I probably am way off on that name...) who were finishing a conference here in Campo Grande by speaking to the college students about their lives and their different faiths... Although part of me was really scared b/c I thought "how am I going to speak to people with my limited portuguese?!", part of me really wanted to go b/c I felt God tugging me... So I kept praying about it and I ended up being able to go and it was really good :) I got to talk to these 2 girls, in portuguese haha, and one of them gave me their email so I'm hoping to maybe get to talk to her here again soon. Afterward, I went out to eat (although I didn't eat haha) with the team from ABU and was somehow invited to join them in a few days for their last conference, which was in Dourados, another town a few hours away. I continued to fast and pray the next day, my last day and later that night, I got the call from Phil, the leader, that they were able to get me on last minute - so I could go!! I was so excited and had really been praying for God to either open this door or shut it closed but it was opened wide and I had a wonderful week! I went with a couple of the guys to a big high school during their lunch break one day & we talked about ABU & the service later that weekend and I sang a song in english & one of the guys interpreted the meaning for me. A different day, I got to lead the morning devotional for the team. Yesterday, sunday morning I was asked to share with the church about some of my testimony. But that was only some of the things I did. I only went to help. The team did so much more. We went out to all these different universities and they talked to students about what they believe and their views of the world. They shared what they were doing here with ABU and invited people to the workshops & service we had on Saturday night. They led programs at diff churches and schools where they shared their testimonies, gave sermons, led worship. It was just amazing to be able to be a part of this and it just goes to show how amazing God is and how He answers prayers. I continue to pray for more opportunities like this and have actually been invited back to Dourados as well as other cities. :) God is good. His grace covers a multitude of sins and the filth that we are constantly struggling with or trekking through. And I praise Him for that LOVE daily :) What greater love than this - that a man should lay down his life for a friend... And for Christ to lay down His life for millions of people that can't really be called His friends? ... truly amazing...

you need to watch this....

Everyone needs to watch this video...
b/c it's pretty accurate and b/c we do need to be conscious of our surroundings... in america everything's more free & consumption is a big problem... i can testify that here in Brasil, they have at least a 60% less consumption rate than at home... i've learned some good practices for when i do go home...
go to www.storyofstuff.com

A Blog of Pictures - RETIRO

Sorry it's been so long :/

didn't realize i hadn't been updating...

busy busy busy, trying to get everything together w/my tax returns and filling out my fafsa and applying to UTA, etc etc all from brasil haha

also had an issue w/my bank where one of their 3rd party lenders had a problem w/accessing out information to other people... so attempting to make sure everything's ok on that end...

anyway here's some photos for ya! :-D

from the retreat we had a couple of weeks ago :)

this is bispa geraldo & bispa elza

the family that i am staying with :)

we all camped out in tents at the retreat...

in between services, we played games...

one of the worship teams warming up :)

during worship

altar call

baptisms

i can't even begin to tell you how good these kids are at soccer... it amazes me really... :)

only a few of the many kids who would eventually ALL be in the pool hahaha

we all took turns cleaning up after everything

some of my friends, young and old

What can I say?? Almost every day i'm in a different service and every time i meet a new group of kids, they just seem to stare at me through the lesson and worship as if i'm an alien from another planet that doesn't deserve to be there... and then after service, they all crowd around me and want to talk to me and sit with me, asking me to play games with them or sing to them... Can't say i truly understand it hahaha but it's good... At the retreat, it was really neat b/c i would be habitually back and forth between my friends and the kids. Even then, after the first day, the kids always knew where to find me so even when i was sitting w/my friends, there would always be at least 4-5 kids around us as well. :) But unlike how it sometimes is in the states, all my friends would love on the kids as well. :) There was a total intermingling of kids and young adults w/o any complaints which i really loved. hahaha and it was just so strange to have kids always following me around! one night, a 13 yr old boy told me how beautiful i was & asked if i had a boyfriend. when he found out i was single, you should have seen his face! hahaha he so thought he had a chance... another boy almost never left my side the whole time and was always in my tent... and there was this one precious girl who wanted me to hold her throughout 2 diff services & wouldn't let me put her down... :) good stuff... Nothing here is as i expected it to be... Then again, i didn't have many assumptions to begin with... but the few i had are completely erased... Even the expectations i make while i'm here continually change b/c that's how it is here in Brasil... no real routine, other than always being in church haha everything is just up in the air... hahaha I don't know if I've mentioned this in my blog, i've definitely mentioned to a few friends though... that here in Brasil, in most ways, things are really different, but i guess some things never change... at least with me and my circle of friends hahahaha once again, i find myself being one of 2 girls (sometimes we have a 3rd) in a mass circle of all guys friends... yes it never changes haha And they view things so different... I don't think i've ever had so many guys telling me how beautiful i am and how cool and sweet i am... very strange... and yes, for all of you people who want me to meet someone in a foreign country (weirdos haha), i have even had someone pretty much ask me if i wanted to get married, if God had put that in my heart for him... The answer to that one was no, if you're wondering haha i have been pretty explicit about not wanting to date while i'm here, although as always i don't want to put God in a box & have said there's always a chance that i might meet someone who won't leave my heart even after i go home... luckily, i think the guys got the hint about not dating haha and now i seem to have accumulated a ginormous amt of older brothers... but they really are very cool... from the beginning, ALL of the guys always give up their seat for me, ask me if i need anything to eat or drink, hold open doors, walk me to wherever i'm going, always looking out for me... and not just me! to all women, young and old :) (now if only my guys back home could learn this lesson haha) it's nice to see the respect they have for people... especially their elders... anyways just wanted to fill yall in on a little more going on in my crazy life... i'm still pretty homesick for my family... but the more i'm here, the more i love it... strange to say that considering when Pastor Kevin said Brasil, i was like "say what....?" cuz i can't stand the heat... and i still can't... and some days are so hot, they make tx heat look like nothing... but then again, they don't really have a/c here unless you make really good money... trucks neither hahaha the only people who own big trucks are the very rich farmers... oh the differences... but it really is beautiful here and when PK said it was his fave place, i thought "well sure for him..." but no, i really love it here too, when i never thought i would... minus the heat and bugs... bugs everywhere!!! hahaha mini ants crawl over EVERYTHING and they don't bite but they are everywhere and it's annoying... if i ever moved here, i would have to bring a giant arsenal of cleaning tools b/c i just can't handle bugs crawling everywhere... bleh :/ haha anyway that's all folks! (for today anyway) :)