Não Nego a Minha Fé

After 4 months in Natal, I decided it was time to take a break from this wonderful city. Now, don't get me wrong, I love Natal very much, but my restless spirit needed to see a new place. So, I hopped on a bus and rode 3 hours south. Before freaking out, know that I wasn't alone and that I had a purpose. My friend Andressa and I went to João Pessoa for a young people's retreat. The theme was "Não Nego a Minha Fé" which translates to somthing like "I won't deny my faith" (maybe, all you blog readers know how my theme-translating goes). Youth from churches all over the Northeast of Brazil joined us. The camp we stayed at was beautiful and very green, as in nature. I love green. It kind of reminded me of the area where my mom lives, except less hilly. I shared a room and bathroom with 8 other girls. It was pretty nice for a camp cabin.

My Cabin



The camp also had a covered eating area that resembled a nice restaurant and kept out the mosquitoes. There was a huge chapel, a cantina, and a pool. I didn't get in, but everyone else seemed to enjoy it! My favorite part of the camp was the trees. There were mango trees, caju (the fruit cashews come from) trees, and trees that had an interesting-looking fruit called jaca that I'd never seen before. Plus, the mango trees outside our cabin had monkeys! I tried and tried to take pictures of the micos, as they were called. They would strike a nice pose for me, like they knew exactly what I was doing. Then, as soon as I pressed the button, they would jump to another branch or behind a leaf. So, I have several pictures of jumping monkeys, but none of the entire monkey. :( Oh well. You'll just have to take my word that they were very cool.

Baby Caju fruit, cashews come from the stem at the top



I just want to take a moment to say that I love Brazilians. They are just wonderful. I met so many great guys and gals at the retreat. We had a blast (at least I did!). I played about a million games of Uno, winning maybe once. We also played Imagem & Acão, Brazil's version of Charades (and Pictionary). Since it was all in Portuguese, I didn't know about half of the words. But I did guess one right! When my turn came to act out a word, I usually had to ask someone who spoke some English for help or just keep getting cards until I found a word I knew. Everyone was great about it though.

Here we are playing Imagem & Acão



Saturday afternoon we divided into small groups and talked about sexual purity (my favorite topic, haha). The leaders said some great things. They even mentioned saving your first kiss for your wedding day (I think). For those of you who know me well, you know I fully supported them on that! Saturday night we all got dressed up for a fancy dinner then stayed up til 4 in morning just talking (mostly in Portuguse, go me.). The speakers were really good. They gave great messages, from what I understood at least.

Some of the people I met. Aren't Brazilian women gorgeous?



After all that, I'll sum up the weekend in two words: Awesome and Blessed.

Thank you so much for all of your support and prayers! Please know that they are being answered daily. I would greatly appreciate it if you would continue to pray for my readers as they encounter God's Word and Truths in it.

I look forward to that day...

Yesterday, one of my readers said that he hopes Jesus come back soon.

Me too.

Just a Simple Reflection

I'm suppose to be going to sleep right now. But I chose instead to update my blog. Lucky you!

"Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household" Ephesians 2:19 (NIV)

This verse brings joy to my heart! I recently read it in my daily reading and then heard it read publicly. (Isn't it amazing how that happens sometimes? It's even more amazing when it just so happens to be the exact verse you need at the exact time you need it.) It has so much more meaning for me now than it ever has. I am a foreigner, literally. Being a foreigner is not easy. Having surroundings you know and understand, a place you can feel fully connected, is an invaluable gift, more precious than we usually realize. When you are in a place that is unfamiliar and incomprehensible, you can feel vulnerable, lonely, and lost. And that's exactly how it feels to live without God. Thankfully, because of His grace and the sacrifice of Jesus, we are none of those things! We have a family and a place to belong, no matter where we are, what we're doing, or what is happening around and inside us. We belong to God's family. We are loved unconditionally. We have reason to hope genuinely and profoundly. And those are the best feelings in the world.

Pirates and Rednecks and Mummies Oh My!

Halloween will never be the same for me. I don't usually celebrate this holiday aside from carving a pumpkin and/or watching a scary movie. So I wasn't expecting to do anything this year considering I would be in a country where halloween isn't a big deal. I'm so glad I was so wrong. Warning: due to a great two days and lots of pictures, this post will be long.

Thanks to one of Halloween's biggest fans (besides my good friend Charity), Samantha Jewell, Cris and I teamed up with the American missionaries to throw an LST costume party. We held it on October 30. First of all, any party here in Brazil will be a good time. If you want even more fun, add costumes. We told everyone not to dress up as anything evil and to be creative. Despite the fact that so many thought they had no idea what wear, they did a great job with the costumes. I have only a very tiny creative bone in my body, so coming up with costume was not the highlight of my month. In the end, I decided to go as...a Brazilian (very tiny creative bone, remember?). When I told some of my Brazilian friends this, the first thing they said was "Don't wear a bikini!" Haha, no worries there. I went all out, dying my hair so I wouldn't be so "blonde" and even painting my nails as the Brazilian girls do, red on the fingers, clear on the toes. I told them to enjoy it now because they probably will never see red nail polish on my fingernails again. It just doesn't work for me. I completed my ensemble with a pair of jeans folded up at the bottom, really high platform shoes that felt like I was walking on my tiptoes all night (yes, it hurt. and yes, I took them off before the party was over.), a borrowed yellow shirt that said Brazil, and a pair of earrings I bought here on my trip last year (one side is just a ball that hangs and the other is a long layer of feathers and jewels). Everyone looked so good! Here are a few of my favorite costumes.

A family of caipiras, Brazil's version of the "redneck"



Who knew a pink flower, a soccer player, a redneck, Christmas, and a hardcore motorcylist could be such good friends?



Pirates and Mummies are only friends one day a year



Ok, so it was really hard to choose just a few pictures. You have to see the rest of the costumes in my Facebook album.

As you can probably already tell, it was a great party! We kicked it off with a mummy-wrapping contest. They took the task seriously. Poor mummies.

Mummies don't need to see or breathe, right?



The winning mummy



Then, probably the best part of the night, we got to enjoy each other's creations with a costume fashion show. The next time you are involved in planning a costume party, you MUST do this. The winner was Cyndi as the woman at the well, or "a mulher samaritana" as they called her in Portuguese. Although Greg made a great Roman philosopher. Check him out showing off at the fashion show.



Then we took a break and ate hot dogs, cookies, and cupcakes. To end the festivities, everyone went trick-or-treating door-to-door in the church building. Hearing shouts of Trick-or-Treat, or more accurately, Chick-o-Cheet, has never made my ears happier.



Then we ran out of candy so we said a prayer and everyone left, which was good because we were all exhausted from the fun of the evening.

Yesterday was the official day for halloween. And I enjoyed it immensely. What did I do? I slept in, went to the beach, and had some acai. That my friends is the best way to spend halloween. I hope all of you had a great holiday. May God bless you during November!

P.S. I might get CNN in English so I can watch the election results. Woohoo! Unfortunately, that depends on if the cable guy comes before Tuesday. Cris and I think he'll show up at 8 am on Wednesday morning. Hopefully, the USA has a new president by then. Happy Voting!