Christmas cookies and Babies

This year my mom and I decided to restore an old family tradition making and baking Christmas cookies. My favorite cookies are Gingerbread men so we made some of those...

 And my mom pulled out my great grandma´s German cookie recepy, and we had fun with those too...

 Look at all those cookies!!

 Here´s me at 9 months with a belly full of flour!

  rolling out the dough...

 The cookie cutters are from the States, because cookies are definitely not a Brazilian tradition, but I am sure my neighbors will enjoy getting them anyway!

 Ready for the oven...

 Yummy!

 and some sugar cookies just for variety...

 The first ones came out nice, but by the 50th cookie I decorated, I was ready to be done!

 And this is our Christmas tree. We are planning to plant it in our garden later...

 my mom made this center piece, which we put on our brand new table! After 6 months living in our new home, we finally we able to get our table! Lol

 ``Let it Snow``...it´s kind of a joke because it´s impossible in the hot December summer of Brazil!

 Everything is ready for Christmas now...including Lucas´ room...just waiting for him to arrive any day now!

 My mom had this old sofa bed at home, which we painted white and she covered with new fabric to match the room (I made the pillows)....looks perfect!

 I also made this mobile with felt animals. It doesn´t play music or spin, but it looks nice over the crib...

 Grandma Braun also made this blanket for Lucas...

 and I made this sock bunny out of an old sock...There aren´t that many options for baby stuff here in Brazil, so you kind of have to be creative...

 The staff of the base also planned a baby shower for us. It was actually a ``diaper shower`` (so all the presents were diapers, which I hear, you can never have too many of!). To deserve the presents, Mario had to prove he is ready to be a dad (Rodolfo, who has a 6 month old little boy, gave him some pointers).

 and the diaper was actually full!!!.....

of chocolate cake that is!

 and to show he is prepared, Mario demonstrates what to do after the baby eats...

 Rodolfo´s wife, Viviane, planned the whole party for us, and at the end blessed us with a prayer for Lucas...

It´s going to be a wonderful Christmas!!!
Maybe the best of all time!

Zimbabwe

After 36 hours on a bus comming from South Africa, the Africa Mobile Team finally arrived at their destination- Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. The mission? To train yet another African street evangelism team...

                                                

Earlier this year Mario was able to make a contact with a local church in the city and we began praying and planning to train another team there. Unfortunatly I (Lika) was not able to go on this trip because I am close to 8 months pregnant now, as is Lorena (Junio's wife, another member of the Brazilian team). This time only the men went on the trip.
Everyone was surprised at the size of the church and it's structure and were encouraged to find such enthusiasm in the young people who were already selected by the church and were eagerly waiting for the guys to arrive in order to be trained by them.

During the service the guys presented a couple of our skits to the congragation...

They were received with open arms...

They arrived on a Saturday and after getting settled in began planning for the training as a team...

13 young people (including two young at heart ladies in their 50's) received the training which usually lasts at least a month, but they were able to successfully accomplish the task this time in just 15 days!

Prayer and Bible study are also essential parts of the training...

The first day they were already introduced to some of the skits, and trained hard every day!

Each of the guys took turns giving important principals and Bible study. Below is Junio giving his lesson...

It was very interactive as many of the Zimbabwean's had questions...

God moved tremendously among them, especially with emotional healing and forgiveness...

Marcello spoke about how God is our Father. It was one of the most emotional lessons, as many of the young Zimbabwean's had deep wounds from their earthly fathers. It was a time of forgiveness and restauration for many of them...

It was a time of great fellowship and sharing among the two cultures...the Brazilian team had the privilege of trying some typical Zimbabwean food...

Another day of training...Marcello was the main choreographer...

And at church there were services several times during the week...

Mario preached 3 times the last Sunday they were there...

Here the trainees made their first presentation to their own congregation...

The BIG test was on the last week when the team was ready to make their first public presentation on the street...

Over 200 children and some 100 adults gathered around to see their Zimbabwean brothers present...

The skits and dances work as a tool to gather people, but the real objective comes at the end of each presentation when the message of Christ is shared and the invitation to receive Him is given...

Back indoors for some debriefing and prayer...

On the last day each of the Brazilian team members received a gift of gratitude from the Zimbabwean team, which was named "EXTOL"

Mario said that it was not easy to say goodbye...even though the time was short, he tells me that this is possibly the best team they have been able to train in Africa so far! Praise God!

Congratulations to all 6 Brazilians who worked hard to successfully plant the 5th African Evangelism team!

And here you have EXTOL...1st Evangelism Team, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe!

Please pray for them!


To see videos of all the teams that have been planted in Africa since 2006, please check out the side bar (Africa Mobile Team- Our ministry in Africa). Enjoy!