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.