Love those kids

Thursday, July 13, 2017

9:10 pm

The ministry team just arrived back from our day in Serra Grande.  About 30 people (7 Americans, 11 Brazilians from Campinas, and 12 members of the Pianco congregation – the place we have been serving for the past 5 days) drove about 1 ½ hours this morning to another town to minister to that community by hosting a VBS and community outreach.  We arrived at the Church and were welcomed by some of the church leaders and their families.  We began our time together by going on a prayer walk down two of the main streets, stopping at each door to invite those that lived there to join us for an afternoon of learning about God, fun and games, and a little pampering.  We then ate lunch and headed back to the Church.  I think we had about 100 people, mostly women and children, join us for the afternoon.  Junior (Tom) and Pedro (Ed, from the Campinas team),  “Jesus” and the sheep helped share about how Jesus is our good shepherd and He will never leave us no matter what.  The kids really enjoyed meeting Junior and Pedro and seemed to respond to the lesson.  They loved making the sheep puppets and had fun learning the Bible verse, “I am the good shepherd, the good shepherd gives life to his sheep.” John 10:11.  We then set up our various stations in different parts of the church building.  Tom and Michael stayed outside with many of the kids helping to monitor the trampoline and the game of catch (played with Velcro paddles), Don and Linda had a coloring station which turned into a Portuguese/English learning session, Becca and Morgan worked at the face painting station – WOW those girls can create great designs, and I helped give manicures.  There was also a room set up for male haircuts, a room for women to get their hair done, and a room for a nurse to take blood pressure and talk about health issues.  We had a busy afternoon but it was a blessing to us to be a blessing to this community. 

I loved being able to talk, one on one to the girls and women who came to me to have their nails painted.  They were so grateful for someone to take the time to do something special for them.  It was such a joy to show God’s love in such a practical way, to let them know that they are a precious child of God and are loved by Him and by us.  The Church in Serra Grande is young, so pray with us that God will do great things through the leaders that He is rising up in that small community.