As USUAL I'M Rambling: There was more than 6 days in Brasil

Well back to Brasil - maybe even the rest of the trip thanks to having Labor Day off again after two years of ACU refusing to give us that day off. I am just chilling here at home watching and praying that the devastation of this hurricane is not near as severe as the news media seems to want it to be!!!

Maybe the gulf coast folks should pack up and move to Brasil apparently they don't have hurricanes there!! Seriously though I can't imagine the nightmare that the residents of LA and MS are going through again. One of my friends lost his dad in Katrina and h

e is having to live that all over again so prayers for that area of the country and the residents.

So that Thursday back in June in Brasil I bargained with Jana to NOT get to the VBS at 8:30 when it is SUPPOSED to start at 9 so we got there at 9 and guess what - not anybody there but us!!! Now in Brasilians defense there was a bus stike on and so we were very worried that the number of kids that would be able to come would be very very minimal. But Danny with his van mobile to the rescue. I think Danny made three or four trips around Recife to pick up the kids and bring them. They were so excited to be able to come. It was worth the late start.

Our 2nd day theme was David. The kids made sling shots and then their snack was these sheep made out of marshmallows, marshmallow creame, chocalate chips for the eyes and nose, pretzels for the legs, and small marshmallows for the tail. What was funny was they don't really have marshmallows in Brasil so some of the looks were really funny. Some of the kids loved them and some of them hated them. We also introduced the Brasilian members that helped us Adri, Ricardo, Gilmar, Ana, and Lee to roasted marshmallows over the gas stove and they loved them. This gave us the idea of smores (you'll have to wait eagerly for a later post about that).

The VBS went really well again and it was even better because we got to spend more time with the kids and get to know them even better. After it was over Danny played Taxi service again and took all of the kids back home.

As for us we went and ate another awesome meal at the Escola da Bilbia and then we headed for the orphanage.

While we were preparing for this trip Jenn's home church had raised money to be able to purchase whatever the orphanage was in need of. When we asked them they said they needed a TV and VCR. However, as we pulled up to the Orphanage in again a poor part of town we were told by Danny and Lee who work a lot with the Orphanage that they already had a TV and that in their opinion the kids were not watching appropriate shows because they were not monitored. As Danny and Lee are planning on helping starting an orphanage at the camp site by January with support from some churches in Alabama we decided to save the TV for their orphanage.

As we walked into the orphanage we saw one lady sitting behind a desk and then we walked into a concreate area about the size of my living room with kids everywhere just sitting. Their was two baby beds with multiple babies in the beds and the small kids did not even have diapers on. Their were mattresses laying around the perimiter with kids laying there that did not even budge upon our arrival. When we opened up our bags of coloring books, crayons, and mcdonald toys we had collected the kids surrounded us but these kids weren't sharing they wanted all they could get. It was so different from the kids that were in the poor neighborhood with the church that had love and shared. There are not words to describe the sadness and lack of love that was in the atmosphere at the orphanage. The neglect these kids were receiving was devastating beyond words. For me it was hard to even give them a glimpse of what love is like because I did not even want them to know what they were missing out on. It made me really appreciate what I have and even prompted the topic for my latest article for the Way magazine (maybe I'll post that later).

After we left the orphanage emotionally drained we went to catch a boat ride around the port of Recife. This is similiar to the boat rides around NYC. It was a little wierd leaving the orphanage and feeling so helpless and then going right back to our touristy life. The boat ride was fun and relaxing and we got to see where Jana went to high school and where she first worked. It was cool seeing Recife from the water and then we saw a beautiful sunset.

After the boat ride we split up and half of our group went to visit Dona Cosabida (Mrs. Cosabida) who is a member

of the church who lost her husband and son in the past year unexpectedly. Daniel and Jana and baby Jack and Rena and Charlotte went to her house. Me and Yancey and Jenn and Randy went to another lady Dorinha's house and visited with her family. After going there we had Randy drop us off at the street market where we did some shopping. We had wanted to do that wed. night but had ended up just sitting on the beach where it was so peaceful that we missed the market!!!