Waterfall Oct. 26th, 2008

You dont see what is about to happen yet but this lesson of the fruits of the spirit is going to be cool!


Andrea worked up a very nice idea that brought team work in so that everyone had to keep in the air all the balloons, not just their own...


You cant help but love this photo! Rinira in the photo above in the green pants is a member of the church that has been such a blessing to me here. She went for the first time to Waterfall today, and she loved just being a part of what was going on!


It was a great lesson and the children are getting good teachings in such creative ways! I am so thankful for the ways God uses people that are coming with us each week.

Today you will also notice in the photo, Richard, a close missionary friend of mine from Wales, and my son Theodore was with us today. We always have such a great time!

Oct 19th 2008 A Mixture of Images... Touching people where they live!

Todays lesson was on Creation and the Genesis story...

The activity was to draw the things God has created.

Then at the end, 4 families received basic food parcels. A full months supply of the basic foods any family needs to live on.


I forgot to take pictures of the children giving out more bananas that had been donated. The children were carrying out the crates and yelling "Free Bananas" and all kinds of people were stopping to pick out a few here and there. Children learning to give food and also receiving food. It was a good day!

God supplies the need!

Gilvane is a new friend who is active in ministry in his own church but when we were talking this past week he said, "I am going to talk to my wife. We will try to put something together for the children at Waterfall of Souls for Childrens day". He only knows of Waterfall of Souls through this blog, but felt impressed to do something for the children there! Thank you Gilvane and for your wife for having such a heart of giving!

At the same time, Leandro's parents, Marinho and Imaculada were wanting to do something as well! Marinho went around asking friends if anyone wanted to contribute to the children for today... Leandro said that his father came in the room really excited saying, "someone gave us 10 Reais to help!" (brazilian dollars). So Leandro and his parents put together a special gift bags for the children, and I picked it up this morning on the way to Waterfall. Thank you Leandro, Marinho, and Imaculada for wanting to bless Waterfall and for your action towards that end.

Shalom went with me this morning... On Saturday we took two full crates of bananas to the street in front of the house where I stay and we started asking people if they wanted them. At first people looked at us strange, but then got they got excited and they went and told their neighbors and came with bags and baskets to carry away the fruit. Shalom loved the experience! She has a good heart and enjoys the feelings of "serving", so today at Waterfall, she was almost uncontrolable! Every 5 minutes she wanted to know if it was time to start giving away things to the children. She wanted to guarantee that she would get to help, and she did. She makes a great part of the team!

This is the cool part! Do you know how many kids were waiting in the city square? This picture only shows the majority of the children. There were still others that you aren't seeing in the photo, as well as parents and other people that gathered with us today. At least 50 people were there! From 13 - 17 to 50 without notice! In the beginning I thought "We have too much!" but thank God we had what we needed to take care of so many expecting and excited children! If any one source of giving had of been our only source it wouldn't have been enough... Because several people had the same hearts desire the end result was a lot of smiling faces! Thank you to everyone!

Todays group

Waterfall Oct. 5th, 2008

Today was election day in Brazil, and as you can see by looking at the photo above, the streets are covered with paper and you think, "how will this ever get cleaned up?" but tomorrow people will be out sweeping the streets and throwing away thousands of Brazilian dollars of paper and in a day or two you will never know that there was an election.

Lucas was captivated by the guitar and wanted to play a little...

We sang and played games with the children and had our time together as we always do...

After a snack and a ride around the neighborhood with at least 10 screaming children crammed into the car, we know that it will soon be time to go. We get a bunch of hugs and wish we could be somehow closer to these children during the week, but we have no choice but to say goodbye for another week.

A beautiful day in the country!

Gilvane is a new special friend that Samuel and I went to visit with today at his house in the country. This is a pineapple plant that we are posing in front of, it reminded me of missionary stories that I used to listen to, and now I am where the pineapples grow! Gilvane and his wife are quite involved in ministry and they have beautiful hearts! It was a special time together.

Samuel and Gilvane's son feeding the assorted fowl...

This oven in the photo is a common site in the rural areas. Not only do they burn wood to cook with, but there is a special coil inside the brickwork that heats the water in the house so that they have hot water in the showers and at the kitchen sink. Its simple and yet sophisticated at the same time, and a favorite place to gather to spend time having coffee and visiting with friends and family.


Its amazing how just leaving the city for a short while can make such a big difference in how you feel. Thank you Jesus for old friends and new ones!