It's our last night in Rio do Sul

Well, our blog didn't go exactly as I had hoped. Timely posting has proven to be difficult. Parents, your students' phones are filled with pictures and memories. Yesterday's English Camps were a success. Today was filled with a gathering at the park, a traditional churrasco, church services, then a big old pizza party.
Tomorrow morning we begin the trek home.
I'm going to try to give some gentle advice: Don't be overly impatient for them to be able to verbally process the trip with you. Right now our emotions are tangled with exhaustion, mixed with the grief of leaving friends, and we're throwing in some sinus issues for good measure.😉
On the flip side, don't move past the trip too quickly. As they show you photos, some wonderful stories are sure to spill out.
I have had a total blast! Your kiddos have blessed me beyond what I deserve. Time and time again our friends at Celivres Church have told me how shocked, amazed, and humbled they are that our students have such depth of faith and ability to express it. Make sure you ask your child how God used his/her own giftedness for His glory in the past two weeks.
We will have some time tomorrow and early Tuesday to relax, reflect (and maybe shop). Then we would ask for your prayers for smooth travel connections.
Looking forward to our Eppley Airfield reunion!
Julie

Wednesday, by Alexa

Hey ya'll! This is Alexa Pinkman! Yesterday was a crazy and exhausting day but God is definitely working in and through all of us. Everyone was split up into different groups and I ended up staying back at the church with Bailey, Hayden, Isaac, Justin and a guy from California along with a few translators and Johnny. We started off the day by going to a school in Rio De Sul. Instead of doing a English class we just did a Q&A with the students for about an hour which went well. We aren't sure, but we believe it was a Christian school. After that we went to a few preschool classes and taught colors and animals. They were so cute and interactive with us! After the first school we came back to the church where the guys left for the detention center. The rest of us went up the mountain with Johnny and a translator and taught an English class at a Agricultural high school. The students at this school come from all around Brazil and live there year round. They choose to study either animals or plants. After about a hour of teaching English, the guys joined us. We were able to share a few testimonies, worship with them and answer some questions. The class ended up being about 3 hours which was exhausting but relationships were definitely built through it, and it was a fantastic experience. The teacher in the class was the leader of a Bible reflection group at the school so he took the opportunity to invite the class of about 30 to the group. All the students were very respectful and seemed interested! After heading back down the mountain we went to a city called Lontras nearby and taught 2 more English classes. There, we again had the opportunity to share the gospel and invite the students to the church in Lontras which is a branch off of the church in Rio De Sul. I can't wait to see what else God has in store for our team! God bless ~Alexa

From Justin

Justin's Rio do Sol Journal

What's up American family! It's your buddy Justin Hullman here. For those of you who don't know me, I'm a 19 year old soon-to-be freshman at Northwestern College. For those of you who do know me, much love to you guys. Family and friends have been a key topic within our conversations with the new people that we meet here. How neat is that? Your guys' names have traveled all the way to Brazil :)

As for these past four days in Rio do Sol, two words sum it all up: flippin' awesome.

We have visited three schools, eaten some bomb food, participated in an English/Portuguese church service at CELIVRIS (Pastor Johny's church), and have ridden some horses. The relationships being built within it all have been a tremendous blessing. Going to the schools and talking with the students has been bitter sweet. Having conversations and playing countless hours of soccer with them makes for an amazing time that leads to a difficult goodbye.

Personally, God has used the beautiful game of soccer as a way of ministry for me here. It's a very humbling experience to say the least :) Being a "gringo" who can somewhat hang with some Brazilian studs really attracts a lot of the kids. Sharing our mutual love for soccer has set up opportunities to get to know them on a personal level and to share with them the relationship that I have with Jesus. Whether it be through my actions of love throughout each match or by explaining what the "2 Corinthians 5:14-15" on my bracelet means, it's been a very relatable and connecting experience!

Along with that, our team is one big family. To quote the movie Lilo & Stitch, "Ohana means family. Family means nobody gets left behind." Man let me tell ya, that's what this family is all about. It is such a blessing to walk alongside these selfless, love-driven brothers and sisters in Christ. Each member of our family contributes in such a unique way. We're only four days in and every single person has faced their weaknesses and expressed their strengths. We have a super cool balance of people who run late to every single event possible and people who enjoy following the schedule. We have athletes and musicians. We have large-crowd speakers and one-on-one initiators. Wow our God is creative! Watching my best friends use their gifts for the Kingdom is so awesome. I could write pages about each team member and how much of an impact they're making on my heart and everyone they encounter. It's been such a blast growing with everyone and serving the Lord together.

Pastor Johny and our Brazilian brothers and sisters are also an amazing blessing within this journey. Each one of them also deserves a novel written about them :) Their inviting hospitality and warm-hearted personalities make for such great relationships. They serve, love, and trust in God's provision through it all. A lot of joy is found in going through life with them.

Praising God for His infinite love and grace that He poured out on the Cross and for blessing us with the opportunity to grow in Him daily. Beyond grateful for our family here in Rio do Sol and the relationships we have back home. Prayers for open hearts at the schools, efficient energy (for the team, Pastor Johny & his wife Marcilia, and for all of our Brazilian friends), and consistent trust in God's plan would be big time appreciated.

I love you guys and am stoked for what God has in store for the rest of this journey!

As they say in Portuguese, "tchau" :)

Justin Hullman

Saturday/Sunday

This is Julie. I'm having difficulty getting students and good Wi-Fi in the same room, simultaneously, but I wanted to give you an update. Your students are doing fabulously! I am so proud of them.
Saturday most of us went to a school for English Camp. About 75 students joined us there. The team spent the day in various activities like singing, classroom English teaching, game playing, etc. The purpose of a day like that is to help the local church planting pastor (in this case, Lucas) build relationships in the area. Toward the end, Brad shared his testimony and did a great job! Then Lucas spent a few minutes inviting the attending students to try out a Wednesday evening gathering. We literally could have spent the whole day answering questions the group had for us. They liked to use their phones to translate a question and then try to speak it in English to us.
Bailey, Jordan, Shae and Bryan stayed in Rio do Sul and conducted a middle school "J247"-type event. Ask them how competitive some of the games were!
In the evening, we gathered a very tired group back at the church for pizza.

Today, Sunday, we spent the day as host families. Everyone did something different, so you will have to ask your team member about that when you talk with them. My "family" went to a great horse club for a barbecue and some riding.... Really... But not me. I did enjoy petting all of the horses, though.
Tonight we will go to church. Three of the students are sharing 10-minute each messages which they were asked to have ready for such an occasion.

Until later!

Day 2

Shae Alexander 

Yesterday was a very eventful day. After a four hour bus ride, we finally arrived to Rio do Sul. We were immediately introduced to Johnny, Marcia, and a few other members of the church/organizers of the trip. They whisked us away to an awesome lunch with some of our host families at a buffet down the street. They had amazing food. After lunch we came back to the church and exchanged our money. We then went to the super market down the street to buy snacks and boxes of coffee to take home as gifts. We quickly moved downtown and spent a couple hours shopping around. The group soon split up as some went to go to the outdoor store and others were on the hunt for soccer jerseys. On our third store, we finally found awesome soccer jerseys for a great price. Once our search was over, we retreated to the church and awaited arrival of our drivers to take us jean shopping. Driving in Rio do Sul is quite exhilarating and quite intimidating at the same time. The Jean store was very modern and we had a lot of options to choose from and many of us walked out with two pairs. Evan and Mills even bought the same jeans so they could match (lol). After jean shopping we then returned to the church again for dinner. We had many different flavors of pastels and fresh pineapple juice. While we were finishing up dinner, we were notified that we were going to a school to talk in classrooms and that the bus will be here soon. We grabbed our backpacks and loaded into the van. The ride there was filled with all of our voices belting out song lyrics as Mills played the guitar. We had a little bit of trouble getting into the school at first, but then someone came to our rescue and let's in. It was dinner time for the students so we split up into our designated groups, each group with their own translator, and started engaging with the students at their lunch tables. Brad, Mills, and Chase played music in the background as we conversed.  My group had a lot of fun talking with a group of 16 year old girls about what they like to do, what they're favorite things about Brazil are, etc. Dinner time seemed rather short, but then we switched to individual classrooms. Some classes were better than others but overall it went very well. Once everyone had finished, we were all moved to the gym. A lot of the guys played soccer while others played volleyball and others sat on the bleachers and chatted. Once the designated class time was over, we returned to the van and drove back to the church. We had a short meeting addressing instructions about what was awaiting us the next day and we were told who we were staying with for host families. Around 10 pm Brazil time, we split up to go home with our host families. What a day! 

Day 1

Hey everyone, this is Jordan and I'm writing from the back of our bus as we travel down the road to Rio Do Sul! Our trip is finally underway and God is already pushing us to move and grow. Our first initial flight out of Omaha to Houston was delayed over an hour, which left us only minutes to connect to our international flight from Houston to Rio De Janeiro. We all sat on our first plane and prayed and prayed and I know people at home were praying as well. Missing an international flight could have cost us another day of travel and we would have had to spend the night in Houston. So we all ran (literally- RAN like picture our backpacks bouncing around and people staring and Justin's shoes falling off) across the airport and onto a shuttle to make it to the international plane. God is faithful and allowed our flight to wait until we all got there! The flight itself was just under 10 hours and everyone did their best to sleep the majority of it. Personally, I slept maybe a total of an hour and a half. Pro tip: The Notebook and The Intern are cute dramas to watch to help pass the time and the gelato was 10 times better than the meals they served! Steve met us at the airport in Rio and after checking our bags we took a bus to see Sugarloaf. This place was crazy beautiful. We took a cable car  up to the top of this mountain that overlooked the city and the ocean and all the colorful boats. We also had lunch here and the majority of our team had a bacon cheddar burger (just to be on the safe side). Julie and I decided to share a plate of Picanha. It was grilled sirloin with deep fried potato balls, fried rice, farofa bread crumbs, and a salsa to dip it in. It was fun to do some tourist-y things on the mountain and take the time to enjoy this beautiful place! Brazil is so different from America; all the buildings are extremely close together and they all drive within centimeters of the car next to them. We have also seen wild pigs and horses running around as well as an adorable tiny tree monkey! It has been strange to try and adjust to their lifestyle and it has been odd to be the one who has no idea what anyone is saying here. So now we are leaving Florinopolis to take a 4 hour bus ride to our home church and our host homes. (Another pro tip: Florinopolis has weird pizza with messy caramel sauce and sesame seeds. And I mean MESSY.) despite a crazy first 24 hours, I know we are all excited to see what God has in store for us! Like in Ephesians 2:10, we are all created to do GOOD work for HIM. God specifically picked every individual to be on this trip and I know He is going to work wonders through us. Keep us all in your prayers!
-Jordan

Meet the Team

This group has been working hard to get ready to launch our summer trip to Brazil. We leave next Wednesday, June 15. Missing from our team pic: Justin Hullman and Bailey Fairchild