English School and Carnival Evangelism

This year we began a 2 month English school at the base for staff that is interested in learning the language. We had a great turn out of staff from our base and also from a base in Brasilia. There was even one girl who came from the north of Brazil for the course. Stephanie Braun ( my sister-in-law), Matthew (from ACTION), and Loy (from Angola) were the teachers. Loy, who is a new staff to our base was the coordinator of the school and has been doing a great job.

 The first day there was an oppening party that Mario, Lucas and I participated in...

 We also payed for Jonas to do the course since he was interested, but unfortunatly he quit after a week. He thought it was a bit much for him (although we all disagreed). Maybe when he is a little older he will realize what a great privilege it is to learn another language.

Here is Matthew with his two sons. I think he is showing 3 fingers because he was talking about his wife Elsiene who was going to give birth two days after this party (they now have one more boy).

 Eliana is one of our oldest staff. She was been a missionary with YWAM since the early 80'sn (she started at the base in Belem in the north of Brazil where she is from).
She has helped me a lot with Lucas.

 Stephanie has done a great job teaching. The students have caught on really well. She drives all the way from Anapolis by herself every Monday and stays with us to teach her class on Tuesday mornings.

 She is very patient and enthusiastic with the students.

 Diego (pictured in the foto below) has been the most dedicated student. He is a former drug user who recovered at our drug rehab home and has been a staff at our base for about 4 years. He is working very hard at learning the language and spends hours outside of class teaching himself more vocabulary from a dictionary. I believe God is going to use Diego in missions internationally very soon!

Marcello just returned from South Africa recently and was a substitute teacher for Matthew one day when their newborn baby was in the ICU with a very bad cold (he is ok now).

This last Saturday Stephanie and Eliana put together a special American breakfast for the students which took place at our home. It was a lot of fun!

We had Stephanie's fluffy pancakes with syrup, hash browns, bacon, cereal and fruit salad with coffee and milk from our YWAM cows!

Everyone was only allowed to speak in English and the students did really well (with some sign language and lots of laughter they all communicated just fine).

From March 4-8 we were in Uberlandia in the state of Minas Gerais (about an 5 hour drive) to do evangelism during Carnaval. We rented a bus for all the staff and students (including the English students) and Mario, Lucas and I went in our car because of the car seat for Lucas. 

Diego (you may recognize him from the Africa Mobile Team that was in Zimbabwe) and Daniel are pictured here. Daniel is the leader of the evangelism team and were in charge of the planning for this evangelism.

We worked in parnership with a local church that has worked with us in years past. They prepared all the food for us. Everyone slept on the floor of the church on mattresses, except for Mario, Lucas and I who had the honor of staying in the pastors home. 

Jonas also went with us and enjoyed himself a lot.

Church service on Sunday....

and after that we all went out to do evangelism on the streets.

Spitting fire is one of the strategies to gather people.

Dancing...

and Mime...

After that we approach people to ask them if they understood the message and usually have many opportunities to share the gospel and pray with people. This time was no different. In the days we were there, close to 50 people either made a decision to receive Christ for the first time or reconciled with Him. It rained every day but that didn't stop us from being there and ready. Everyone gave their best.

Praise God for these changed lives!