My last Brazil post

The last part of our trip was spent at a retreat with the Brazilian church members. We had a great time. When we arrived, the guys spotted this blue "bull". They had to take a ride - I have never laughed so hard in my whole life. Watching these guys doing stupid stuff is the best entertainment in the world! I almost peed my pants from laughing so hard. Thankfully they didn't get hurt - I'm not sure how they didn't considering that they do such dumb stuff. Here is Kyle giving it a try. And Andrew...
and Preston...
and finally the Brazilians...
they didn't give up quite as easily!

Here the kids are trying to decide whose on whose team for the soccer game. I think what was really happening was that the Brazilians were trying to decide how to spread out the Americans so that their teams don't get ruined by our inexperience on the "football" field. Here is the game in action...they were so nice to allow the girls to play

(not a custom in Brazil, but we had Lindsey Hicks - she's as good as them)!
Here is Bela - one of the members of the church in Aracaju. She was a translator for some of our kids classes - we couldn't have done it without her!
Here is my cabin - deluxe accommodations! The shower is behind the wall - cold shower, that is! It is so humid there too, so I never felt clean during the retreat. Oh, and no A.C. I felt like I was at CDR again! We made it though...this housing was better than the other retreat sight we had two years ago.

Leann with one of the little girls.
They love, love, love the camera...

Sonia with the camera loving crew!

Hal Ray had a little posse that followed him everywhere.
These girls are my favorites - they are cousins, and their families are a big part of the success of the church in Brazil. They have recently moved from Aracaju to a town about 6 hours away and are now working with the church there. They picked these beautiful flowers for me and Deena. We met them 2 years ago, and they have just grown so much. They hold a special place in my heart!
This little girl is the youngest of 12 children - can you believe that?
One night, the kids made these windmills as a craft -they absolutely loved them.

Austa and this little girl were attached at the hip during the entire retreat.
This was so sweet - the kids had their Bibles out during our kids classes - it warms my heart to see them in the word and growing spiritually. It's amazing to see the change in them since two years ago - in their parents too. That was amazing.

These were the girls in our cabin. There were four of us (Americans) and the rest were Brazilians. It was so funny trying to communicate with them. We did...a little, and they were telling us all the things they know in English -

like High School Musical!
Bela and Victor - my favorite Brazilians. They spoke English, and they are an amazing couple - helping to do great work in Aracaju.

Me and Adriano - he is such a big part of the church in Aracaju too. He's great.
Me and Will - he was the exchange student to Decatur I mentioned that lives in Sao Paulo. He was an amazing help as a translator. We were glad to have him with us on this trip, and it was great to get to know him so well. I miss you Will!
This lady in between me and Deena was one of the teachers that brought her kids to VBS. She was baptized at the retreat.
Saying good - bye. We were on the bus waving farewell to our Brazilian friends.
After the retreat, we still had our tourism day. We went to the market, went out to eat, went to the beach, etc. While we were riding around in the bus, the youth sang A LOT. Preston was so funny - he was wanting just a moment of peace and silence. He sounded like a mom! This was Casey getting right in his face to irritate him with his singing! Again, good entertainment for me!

This was at the market - corn, corn, corn.
They celebrate Saint John during the month of June, and one of their traditions is to have a bon fire and roast corn in their front yards on a special day (which happened to be the next day after this picture). This is why there was corn everywhere!
This was a corner market - you can buy pigeons and goats there!

Gas is really expensive there - about $8/gallon. I guess this is cheaper!
It was raining when we were supposed to be going to the beach, so us girls wanted to go to the mall instead. This is our taxi - they are very small economy cars, but we got 5 of us in there. Leann sat in the front with me, Sonia, Shelly, and Deena in the back. Our taxi driver was quite attractive and smelled really good. He spoke no English, but he laughed at us the whole time. Good times!
This was our big dinner at a Churacarissia ( I cannot spell it or say it right). It was yummy.

Our bus driver was saying a few words to us as he was dropping us off at the airport. He was out of work until we arrived, so he was expressing his appreciation for the work and for the good time he had with us. He was great.

Saying good-bye to Adriano at the airport.

A shot of Aracaju as we were leaving. Farewell until next time!

I had an incredible trip to Brazil. It was so great to see it for the 2nd time and to see how much has changed in the church and in the members. It was truly a wonderful experience that I will cherish forever. I can't wait for next time! I hope you enjoyed the pictures - I only posted a small fraction of them.