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) :)