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So i'm not sure anybody is going to continue reading this, or if the rest of the team wants to write anything else, but I figure maybe I'll write possiblly one final post just for the heck of it. I guess I'll just kind of give a summary of my experience during this mission trip to Salvador.
First, just so everyone knows and in case you can't tell, I had an amazing trip. This was my first ever mission trip and it has made me want to continue doing this, or things like this, in future years. I really don't know how to start, or what order to put things in, so hopefully you can bear with me and the disorganization of it all. This was one of the hardest things I've done, but also probably the most rewarding, actually I know it was the most rewarding. I kind of got a firsthand look at what it means to teach the Bible to people, to deal with less fortunate people on a day-to-day basis, and spend way more time in the Bible than I have in the past.
Something I learned during this trip, personally, is the importance ofBible study and Bible knowledege. For iduno how long, I've tried to read my Bible consistantly, and I generally have sucked at it. Than moving to Regina, it became something I did more often. Than, going down down to Salvador, for that 6 weeks, I read more Bible than I have in a very long time. Not only were we able to read with readers and learn from them and see things from their point of view and learn something new no matter how many times you did a lesson, but I was able to spend a lot of time in personal Bible study. It may have started because during the week my stomach wasn't doing too good I spent a lot of time in the washroom... haha, sorry for that information, but it had to mentioned :)... but either way, it was awesome in that regard. In Acts it says that the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians because they received the scripture with great eagerness, and examined tham daily to see if what Paul said was true. They didn't just settle for reading commentaries, or listening to podcasts (for you tech-geeks out there), or merely listening to sermons, they themselves studied and searched for answers themselves. I always knew this verse, but hadn't realized the signifigance of it.
Than there is also the fact we were able to become so close with so manyof the people down there. We met some amazing people and hopefully we were able to encourage them as much as they encouraged us. I know I personally was encouraged so much by the people, and it's amazing how we can find things in common with people who live on the other side of the world, in a totally different culture.
Since we got back, I have to admit it has been quite strange for me. At the airport people met us and although I talked to everyone and was overjoyed to see everyone, it's like my head wasn't quite there yet, and still somewhere in the clouds. Iduno, kind of hard to explain. I suppose it's partly because we got in such a col routine down there, it's done now and it'll take some time to adjust. And it feels like I had so much information jammed into head, it's hard to process it all. Anyways, it was an amazing trip, I can't imagine if I'd said no and missed out. I'd be kickin' myself now that's for sure.
Thanks again to everyone who supported us to go down there, and helping us do something we believed was so important. The Church down there seems to have a super good foundation and the missionaries down there are just amazing (but than, I'm 19, what do I know about strong foundations and that junk haha), and hopefully we were able to encourage them and do what we had hoped to. God bless you all! Please keep praying for all of our readers! Take it easy, as this may the last time I ever writ on this blog haha bye!
-Justin Robert Geza Gauthier

The Finale

Well I suppose for 6 weeks all of us knew these last days would come, but now that they are here it's kind of weird. We had our final party tonight and it was probably the best turn out of readers we've had yet which was awesome. We were planning on having a talent show with food and such for everyone, and in the weeks prior many of our readers said they would come and perform talents so we were pretty excited. However, things didn't go quite as planned, like most things down here in Brazil ha. Silas was supposed to play guitar, but he left Salvador for a few days. Dante couldn't tap dance or play guitar because he moved to Portugal. Marcelo couldn't play guitar because he came straight from school. Filipe couldn't bring his trumpet. Daniel couldn't show us Ikeda because he had his wisdom teeth removed a couple days ago. Julie couldn't dance because she had dance class. Marcelo couldn't act like a monkey because he forgot to show up (the rest of the team will find that one funny haha). Graciela couldn't show us ballet because she couldn't come. Plus some others! So, many people couldn't perform so we made the best of it. We showed a slide show of our whole time here and that was cool. Daniel showed us some photography he has done and pictures of Ikedo. Peret (PAY-HEY) recited a poem for us in Portuguese than translated to English. Ryan did some awesome card tricks. We showed them the cup game (check out what that is on video on my facebook). So it ended up being a lot of fun. It however is very bittersweet, as I believe Pamela said, because we have to say goodbye to some really amazing people we just met and became close to so quickly. We were talking with each other the other day- actually we say this about 5 times a day- 'man do we ever have some amazingly cool readers!' It must have something to do with Brazil, in all honesty because it's unreal how many cool people we have met. This past week has been cool because it has been our final reading session with some readers, and we know we may not see them ever again. We can only hope someday, and we will keep in contact through email, but it's a weird thought. I just read through the book of Acts the past few days and in some way, it kind of reminds of some of Paul's adventures. NOT that we are as good, or amazing, or on his level, but some of his comments to the people in cities. He traveled hundreds of miles to cities everywhere preaching and encouraging churches from all over. It's like he never stayed in one place, he just wandered around making friends (and enemies haha) everywhere he went. In one section, chapter 20 I think, he writes a letter to the Ephesians and he basically encourages them and says he will probably never see them again, but he wants them to continue following God. Iduno, somehow in my head that seemed connected and it seemed somewhat similar to what we're doing down here in Salvador. We don't know who we will ever see again, but we only hope and pray that we've affected and helped the people HALF as much as we've been affected, and that the church here could be encouraged and strengthened as we have been. Anyways, enough talk from me, my eyes hurt, and I'm stinkin tired. Love ya all and I guess we'll be seeing you pretty soon! This may be my last ever blogpost... can't decide if that's a sad thought or not... ha anyways night everybody!

Justino

Well hello everybody as its been a week since we last wrote on here I guess that means that it is time for another update some might even say ‘past time’ but… “what can we do?” (that is one of our favorite sayings that we hear here) .

Last Friday we had our 4^th party – it was a camp themed one. We had a fire outside and roasted hotdogs and marshmallows (some people had never done this before so it was fun to show them how to do it) The guys were very inventive in making roasting sticks you should ask them how they did it. After enjoying the fire we moved inside to play some fun games, and sing some camp songs. Oh and we also had four lovely Pinattas thanks to the Sunday school class :)

This week we started our 6^th and final week of reading sessions. It is strange that our time here is already drawing to a close. When you say that you are going to a place for 6 weeks it sounds like quite a long time but in reality it is actually quite short. We have met some very cool people during our time here in Salvador. We have been blessed as we have gotten to know them. Before we left Canada, as we prepared for our work here, we prayed for those we would meet and now we will continue to pray for them as we leave. That the words that they have read and studied would be alive for them and that they would hear them not only with their ears but also their hearts! We thank God for the opportunity He has given us to come here and share His story with these people and pray that He would be glorified through the work that we have done. And we thank you for being a part of this work as well, through all of your support, encouragement and prayers!

BUT… We are not done yet! We still have 3 full days here. Tomorrow is our final party and we have been preparing for that. This party will be a time to say good-bye and acknowledge all the work that our readers have put in during their weeks of reading sessions. We have also decided that it will be a talent Show night and have asked our readers to come and share with all of us their talents. We will be sure to take lots of pictures and tell you all about it. It is sure to be exciting so stay tuned to hear how it goes.

Love,

Sarah

Tap Dancing in Brazil!!

Hey guys!

So I suppose it's just kind of late evening wherever you are, so maybe you'll read this tonight. I wish it was late evening here, but it's just after midnight. That's ok, I'm a big boy kind of so I think I can handle being up past midnight on the occasion. Anyways, today was a relatively slow day. We had about 17 or 18 hours of study scheduled between us, but a few didn't show up. Apparently today is some sort of holiday here so many people were out enjoying themselves, as if being at ICOS isn't enjoyment enough haha understandable though, everyone needs breaks from study right. One reader whom I talked about in a previous post came in today. He missed his class at 4, so I called him and he came in a couple hours later. We had a good lesson talking about John baptizing Jesus and this guy just loves to learn and talk about the Bible. Anyways, after the class, I told him I'd help him set up an email since he didn't have one. I don't think he has ever used a computer before! A first this really surprised me, but now I suppose maybe it's not so surprising. I guess I just figured everyone had used a computer, and iduno it really caught me off guard. There were many simple things he had no idea about so I taught him and a bunch of stuff, and hopefully by his sister's computer or the library we can keep in contact by email! He was so excited to try and learn too it was cool. Like now he just wants to learn about computers and stuff and how to use them, hopefully at the library he said, so that was kinda neat today. Also, like Ryan said, Kresten and I went out to Dante's tap dancing show last night. Wow was it ever awesome! Just the whole experience actually. First, we didn't know what bus, so had to flag one down and ask if it was for Pituba. Than we didn't kno exactly where to get off. So we passed where we should have gotten off, realized it, jumped off the bus and realized we were gonna have to run. So we ran in bare feet or flip-flops I'd say around 2 km's on the side of the road or grass towards oncoming traffic (haha that was pretty hilarious). Than we didn't know exactly what building, but lucked out and found it 5 minutes before the show. Then the bouncer wasn't going to let us in because we had shorts and flip-flops! Man we were ticked because we had just bought tickets. So we just kept trying to communicate and get someone who spoke english and so he brought 2 ladies over, one the manager I suppose, and we said Dante'e name, and then she let us in. Than the show was awesome! Dante was like the star of the show and basically ran it, it was super awesome. How many people watch tap dancing in Canada, never mind Brazil haha it was so cool. Then after Dante came to see us and was so excited, and introduced us to so many of his friends and things, and we in a bunch of pictures and it was pretty hilarious because now there's going to be 2 random Canadians in so many people's pictures! Anyways, Dante is leaving for Portugal in a week, so this was his final performance and so many people were so excited for him. What Kresten and I noticed most about him was how much he loved people. Everyone know him and came to congratulate him. Every kid he saw he picked up and hugged and gave them a kiss. Every parent or brother or sister he greeted with a huge smile and it was so cool to seem someone who loved people, and who people loved. He was just so excited to introduce us to people, and everytime he's be coming to see us at least one person would grab his arm and talk and distract him. Anyways, super awesome guy I kinda wish everyone could meet him. Anyways, I'm pretty wiped so I'm going to get going. Have a good night all, God Bless!
Mr Gauthier

Hey

So we had a couple fun days off that was nice. Kresten and Justin went to watch one of krestens readers tap dance, so that was pretty neat. Sarah and I had to stay back and read with people so that was fun too. We have 12 days left thats interesting. We don't really have any big plans for our last days. Hopefully we can just have as much fun as possible.

Friday night we are having a camping party. We are pretty excited for that. Hopefully we can roast some wieners out on the side walk, we dont really have wood but we can use charcoal which is fine. Then lots of old school camp games and stuff. People can be praying that lots of people turn out for that. Tomorrow is a holliday, so we are not sure how many readers are going to come but hopefully most of them will. Friday is Valentines day, don't worry though none of us have valentines so that shouldnt be an issue. Friday is also game 7 on the NHL finals so we are going to Travis' again to watch that with Len and Carol. Its nice that the games start late enough that we can even finish our parties before that starts. Travis is pretty sweet, everything has gone basically perfect for us, we have a lot of fun hanging with him and Alicia.

Ok well it is time for me to stop writing. Have fun everyone.

Sunday is always a full day around Igreja de Cristo O Salvador, and so it was today. There are about 45 members that attend the service. Travis Sass and Gabriel, a church member, shared their thoughts with us today. It was in Portuguese, of course, but I had a reader who was able to translate a few things so that I could get the gist of the message. The message was from Philippians 4, starting in verse 4. It says, "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near." What does it mean to rejoice in the Lord always? We are to be living lives that are remarkable to those who see us. So often we take for granted the undeserved offer of life with God, or believe that all we need is ourselves. How do we learn to understand our dependancy on God? I like what Paul says in Philippians 3:

"If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless. But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ."

Paul was following the Law with great zeal, but he was missing out on the life from God. He had been relying on himself, but a catastrophic event help to change his life. He understood his depedancy on God. His life was changed, and he changed lives.

An interesting story I read with Mauricio this week, was about the adulterous woman. Jesus has great wisdom in helping the woman, and shows great mercy by not judging her. The woman was humiliated and expected to die, but was saved. What would that feel like? I wondered how her life changed at that experience. How has my life changed from the time when I realized my sinful life was bringing me to death, and when Jesus said "I don't judge you either. You can go now, but don't sin again." (Easy-to-Read)? The woman was a goner, and so was I. I expect the woman's life was deeply changed. How could it not be?! Where do I need to continue to change?

I cannot trust in myself, and I need to recongize my dependancy on Jesus. This is where I must grow, but the earlier verse gives much hope because "God is near." Hopefully our readers are seeing Jesus, and hopefully we are mirroring Jesus as we learn from his words each day.

Today we spent the evening with a friend named Thassia. She had met Justin when she spent a few months in Canada, going to high school in Winnipeg a few years ago. It is pretty cool to have a friend to hang out with during our free time. Today, we went to Thassia's friend's house and just sat and chatted for a couple hours. The friend, Gabriel, had also gone to Winnipeg and so it was fun to talk about their experiences in Canada, and to tell them about our time in Brazil. Each day we spend many hours with people as we go through our readings, as they randomly show up at the building for multiple hours and as we spend time with them on our free days. I am learning more that life is about relationships, and we are having many chances to show our relationship with God to others.

Thank you for thinking about us, and praying for us. Be checking your mailboxes for some nice postcards!

Kresten and the Salvador team.

Hakuna Matata

Hey yall

So today we all had pretty busy days. We all had lotsa readers and spent a lot of time with readers even though they may not have been reading sessions. Kresten and I went to get hair cuts. That was interesting, i guess my golden long locks have paid their dues and now it was time to retire them, not by my choice albeit, but more my sweet barbers haha, but i went in knowing full well what was probably going to happen . Kresten still looks pretty solid, I look interesting haha just different thats all, I havent had my hair this short since Gr. 8. Today Kresten and Sarah both went to their readers houses for dinner and seemed to really enjoy that. Justin and I hung around at the church with some readers and church members so that was pretty good to.

Tonight we went to a soccer game with a couple of readers which was kinda fun. Bahia won 4-0 so thats always fun when the home team spanks the other team. The game started so late because there is a law that says that no brazilian soccer games can be played at the same time as a Brazilian national team game. So Brazil played Uraguay at 4:00 and they also won 4-0 which was world cup qualifying or something like that.

Sunday is going to be pretty busy, so i am going to end this post and go to bed. C ya

Party

Hey

Today we had our Card game party, it was pretty sweet, we played some games that we knew and then played some games they taught us which were pretty fun. Then we ended it off with a nice relaxing, peacefull game of spoons. That was fun. We have had a fairly full week of readers which has also been pretty stellar. Tomorrow night we are going to a Bahia soccer game so we have all jerseys now, except Sarah. Don't worry the game starts at 9:30 at night so we wont be missing any readers, they will all be tucked away in their beds...haha Actually some readers are taking us so that is pretty sweet. So basically everything is going pretty normal, or as normal as it can get i guess. So have a good day everyone.

- RH

Hello there Everybody

So its kind crazy to think about all of you reading this in your homes in Canada, the US and Mexico (and maybe some other places too that I don't know about) while we are here in Brazil. Yesterday I got to talk to my Mum for the first time since being down here, (and yes since I am the girl on this team -more on that later- I will admit that I almost cried when I heard her voice) but while we were talking it hit me that we are all so spread out in this world, living our lives for God, and even though we are so far apart we are still connected through our Father in Heaven. How wonderful it is to know that there are people so far away that are thinking of us and praying for us and that even if we can't see you we know that God can and that He is taking care of you just as He is taking care of us. So those are just thoughts from me. God is so Great and being apart of His family is such a great gift!

On our days off this week we were able to spend time with people from the church here and it was great to be able to rest and visit with them. We saw some more of the city and it is beautiful. We went to the Zoo and to a Fort/Lighthouse from the 1600's. We tried some Brazilian foods (Acaraje and Beiju - Those might not be spelled right...) We also ate some crab and these coconut cookie type things that were delicious. Oh and cheese that is roasted on a skewer with oregano - very tasty.

Yesterday we started our 4th week of reading sessions. As we get further into our studdies with our readers it is great to see the conversations deepening. This morning I read with a lady and our lesson was about when Jesus is sharing the Passover meal with the Apostles before His death. Our conversation was about the new agreement that Jesus brought with His own death and what that means for us. We talked about how important it is that Jesus would do this for us and for all people and how we need to remember this everyday. We looked at how the Apostles must have been feeling - hearing Jesus talk about dying and what Judus must have been thinking while Jesus was talking. It is so interesting to read these texts with the eyes of some one else - to try to understand it from their view point and to explain and question it so that the story comes alive. I think we sometimes forget this when we are reading for ourselves- that this is a true event that people were living and experiencing. Reading with someone else and watching them understand what the Word is saying and hearing the messages that are in it is so exciting.

Ok so bye for now. Love to all,
Sarah

P.S. back to something I said earlier about being the girl on this team... Alot of people keep checking to see if I am ok and if the boys are being nice to me and all that so I just thought that I would let you all know that they are :)

Today was Sunday

Hey

So today we had a rockin Sunday. We all went to church as usual which is always sweet. Kresten did communion, everything had to be translated so that was cool. He did a pretty stellar job.

This afternoon I helped out Travis, with his advanced english class, I talked about all the fun things that people in saskatchewan do. Like roasting hot dogs and marshmellows. somehow, they all knew what this was it was weird almost.

We also had some readers this afternoon. Sunday afternoons are usually fairly busy for us cause alot of people are here for church.

Tonight we went and ate acari or something like that, its like this berry that only grows in the amazon, its delicious, they make it into a cold, ice pudding almost, and you put oatmeal on it, it was prime, then we went to Travis and Alicia's apartment and watched the hockey game over skype with his parents so that was pretty awesome as well. So we have had a pretty full day, and week.

Its crazy that we are exactly half way done as of today, assuming your reading this on monday, which i know you will be cause i am writing it on monday my time, maybe not your time, so maybe not i dunno. The time has flew by, but it has been a blast so far. Here is a fun Fact Travis told us today, the coldest day in Bahia ever was 17.3 degrees one night a couple of years ago. right now, 23 tonight possibly 21 so cold i know.

Well here are some pictures of our Birthday party. Enjoy,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR HEATHER!

Ok, so today we had a birthday party... for Heather, the intern missionary here for those of you who don't know who she is! Actually, it was just one of the parties we have each Friday that was themed like a birthday party, and we realized at the party that Heather's birthday is on Wednesday. So, that's whose birthday party we decided it was and it was awesome. People didn't start coming really until about 7:30, and then there was enough people to keep things going for the evening. It's a really good time to meet the readers outside of Bible study, get to know the Missionaries better and also meet people within the church down here. At this party, we played some pretty funny games that are mainly for teenagers or younger but everyone of every age is willing to do it and have a really good time. There weren't as many people as we'd hoped, but everyone there had a real good time and we just hope that by next week or the following we will have more show up and have fun with us as well! Also, we had those long balloons that you make animals out of everywhere, and everyone was trying to make things or wearing stupid hats and running around; there were babies running everywhere and screaming and balloons flying everywhere (I almost typed 'there were babies flying everywhere' haha that would have been awesome too). So overall very hectic and noisy and that made it all better. Ryan also made a cake today that he decorated with different colours of icing into a picture of mountains and the sun... Oh man it was awesome and tasty. Anyways, that was our party, I'm sure we'll have pictures posted everywhere.

We also each had some readers today which was really good, at least for me I know it was, and actually I know it was for everyone as well. Unfortunately, some Brazilians are still pulling hooky and not showing up for all their classes, but enough of them have come and we've stayed busy. Today, only 2 of my readers showed up but they combined for 3-4 hours of really good Bible study and hang-out time. My one reader- get this: Julio Cesar (sounds like Julius Cesear!)- has come for 2 double sessions now. His english has already improved and that's kind of cool, but he just loves to study the Bible. Today we went through the section in Luke that talks about the Pharisee who prayed about how good he was while the tax collector was super humble in the temple, and also the section where Jesus rides in on a donkey into Jerusalem. It's really cool to talk with people from another culture about these stories and sometimes have a really similar understanding of the text. Afterwards he said he really appreciated being able to talk about the Bible to someone because he is used to just being taught in a more formal setting and not discussing as much. He said it was good because some things he didn't always understand and talking about it clears things up a lot. Iduno, he's just a really cool guy and I think maybe not having as many readers show up as we have scheduled maybe brings me a little closer to the readers that do come everytime they're scheduled. He just has a really good heart and it's awesome. My other reader today is 17 years old and his name is Filipe and he's a really cool kid too. I guess he's grown up in the church his whole life and says while he tries to read at least a few chapters every night before bed, he's no different than anyone else I know and falls asleep or forgets on occasion just like I know I do! We went through the story of the Angel coming to Mary and talked about a lot of different things. For such a young kid, he has a very strong faith and a lot of knowledge about more spiritual things and it's really cool to see. Ok, one more reader story only because this guy is really cool. His name is Marcelo; he's a new reader and has only come twice but he's super awesome. He's around 35 years old and he also just has a really good heart for serving people. He wants so badly to learn english so he can go to an english school and get a degree or whatever in language so I told him he can as many times as he wants. Well did he ever take advantage of that! He's going to come Sunday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday! He's just so pumped to learn english and talk about Luke and everything it's really cool. He's a pretty quiet and humble guy, and it seems like he's gone through some stressful times (as I know all of have) and I just love hanging out with him and reading with him.

FF of the day- 'Sweet Dreams' (not sure who it's by) was song of the day today... Leandro sang it all day and got it stuck in all of our heads.

FF#2- the Brazilian version of happy birthday is wayyyy more fun than our version, you should look it up on youtube, it's awesome.

Well, maybe I'll to bed a bit early today, that would be nice eh? Hope you all are doing well, keep praying for us!

JG

Ola

Hi everybody,

So I guess we have been slacking a little bit on writing on the blog. Hopefully none of you thought that we were dead, cause we're not. Everything is still going well, we are basically full with readers, now the only thing is getting them to come. When it rains hard here everything stops and since many of our readers take the bus, it makes it very hard to get here. Luckily for us this week has been warm and not rainy. So we have been pretty busy lately. That is pretty stellar. I feel that many of our readers are now transitioning from being readers to being friends so thats cool too.

Tomorrow is our Birthday Party, we do not know who's birthday it is but im sure we can find someone. Tonight Sarah made us some delicious icing and tomorrow we are going to make a delicious cake. We have lots of fun games planned for the party, some pin the bow on the present, people bingo and some other fun stuff.

Justin has been slightly ill so maybe some extra prayers for him. Kresten and Sarah seem to be doing alright, so thats cool. I think im feeling pretty normal so thats handy too i guess. Well thats how we are doing, thanks for the prayers.

Peace out (that is some slang we have taught our younger readers. haha)

And once again Hello to you all! :)

Well I have to say thanks (or Obrigada) to you all for staying tuned to our adventures/mission here in Brazil. It is so great to come on here and read all of your comments, your words of advice (especially about the cats that was very good advice :) and your encouragement!

It is hard to believe that our second week here in Salvador is quickly drawing to a close. We are still getting more people signing up to read with us which is great! Like Justin said the rain has been making it hard for some of our readers to get out but there is always something to plan or do and so we are still kept busy.

The party last night was so much fun! I am so impressed with the Brazilians for their ability to meet complete strangers and immediately be the best of friends. Many of our readers met each other for the first time and right away were laughing and joking together. Watching them sing their anthem was one of the best things. They were all so into it jumping and moving around pretending to drum etc. it was just so great. Kresten took a video so maybe one day you will all be privilleged enough to get to see it :) Apparently there anthem has like 5 or 6 verses and can go on for quite awhile - we only heard 2 or 3 verses I think...

Something that is so great about preparing lessons to read with people here (paying careful attention to the words, trying to understand from the point of view of someone who maybe hasn't heard it before, going slowly etc.) is that you notice things that really hit your self too. And then when you are working through the lesson with your reader they say things that just really make you think or make you see things in a new way and it so cool. That at the same time as I am hoping and praying that something that I can say will help or affect someone so that they might understand Jesus better I am being taught and renewed as well. Today I was reading with someone from a lesson in Luke chapter 9 where Jesus talks about the suffering He will go through and the fact that His followers must be prepared to suffer as well. I asked my reader Why she thought followers of Jesus would have to suffer? She said she thought that it is through suffering that we learn and through pain that we grow (she said if we are smart that is :) And then she said She thinks that when you have Jesus in your life that you are given "new eyes" and you no longer see trouble and suffering in the same way. That Jesus changes our outlook on life and that because of Him we are able to Endure! So yeah that was very encouraging to me and I thought that I would share it with all of you :)

Love All the Way from Brazil,
Sarah

Hello friends and family.

I've finally decided to write a blog post. My teammates have done a great job of keeping you posted on what is happening here in Salvador, and you've done a great job of reading and encouraging us. Thank you.

Tonight we had our first party. We were unsure of how many people would show up, as it has been raining for about three days now. Many of our readers have missed classes during the past two days due to the weather, and at the start time for the party it appeared the trend was going to continue. However, a few minutes later people began to arrive. The party went really well; people had a blast, we had a great time, and the missionaries were very involved. It was a huge success. I'm pumped as I write this because it went so swimmingly. The theme of the party was Canada. We had several games:

1. Matching Canadian words with their pictures
2. Canadian trivia
3. We showed a video/slide show of Canada
   
4. We had them write a poem of what they thought Canada was like
5. They acted out a Canadian subject
6. Relay races

The final aspect of the party involved singing. Our team sang O Canada for the Brazilians, and they sang their anthem for us. It was fantastic! They loved it. They were extremely excited about sharing their anthem with us. They even had a lady pretend to conduct the rest of the readers who were singing on stage.

The purpose of the parties is to provide a time to show our readers that Christians like to have (and can have) fun. It also serves as a time to connect our readers with the missionaries so that once we leave, they will stay connected with the local church. It also allows the readers to share aspects of their culture with us. With these goals in mind, I think the party was a success and I believe the next one will be larger as more people are attracted to people living as lights here at Igreja de Cristo O Salvador.

Here is a poem that one of the groups wrote:

Snow is white; it doesn't make you smile
snow is cold; it lasts for a while
snow makes cars go very slow
snow can blow and snow can throw
snow can make you lose your toe
Raspadinha (snow cone, I think) is the only snow I know

I had a reader show up after the party was all over because he thought we were going to party all night. haha. I assured him the parties were not that intense, and let him know he could come again next week. This same reader has been asking me many interesting questions about following Jesus. His family follows various religions, and he's tired of being pulled in different directions by all his family members, but he is very interested in finding truth. However, he also admitted that it is difficult to change one's behavior to follow the teachings of Jesus. We chatted for two hours one night. It was fulfilling to talk with him about such important topics.

This is just a few experiences we have had, and we look forward to more. Please continue to pray for us; for patience, for boldness, for faith, and for greater convinction. I feel the need to grow my faith. I read the story of the living water from John today with a reader, and it was very good. Everyone is searching for this living water, but it is only found in Jesus. I feel the need to have this spring inside of me to flow much stronger. God is at work; may we work with Him.

so it rains in Brazil... a lot

Hey guys, so does everyone know Brazil rocks? Because it really does. It's their winter here, and all it does is rain like nobody's business. Zero snow. Apparently when it rains here, it's almost like the city kind of shuts down, it's funny. Each of us had at least 3 readers not show up because the rain causes lots of flooding and the streets really slow down, so I guess people just slow down too. It was cool though because each of us had a few readers come in soaking wet like troopers and get right to their lesson, so it was still an awesome day. I personally had this one guy named Fabio and he's a really cool guy. He speaks and understand English pretty well already and he really just wants to have more of a Bible study while learning more English. He's married with a child, is a musician, works all the time and still manages to carry around a pocket Bible that he reads. What an awesome guy. Then I had this 17 year old kid come in and he's just super pumped to learn English and the Bible so he's awesome too. The other reader I had has lighter skin than us I think and speaks English pretty well also. He straight up told me that he really doesn't believe the Bible too much and thinks it is mostly metaphors and such, but he's got a hilarious sense of humour and is very open to ideas. So I guess you all could be praying for these 3 guys in particular after you read this post. This morning we had french toast that was awesome too! O ya, behind our kitchen in the back alley is these 2 stupid kittens that never shut up, it's kind of ridiculous at times haha. I think I had some other good story for everyone, but I forget. Shoot. If I remember I'll blog it later. Keep praying for us and tchau! ps- this was Justin

Hello Hello Hello

Everything is going well. I thought I would share something interesting from what I have noticed about Salvador. It seems that there are churches every 5 blocks in Salvador, they are everywhere. Which means that pretty much everyone I have read with has already read the book of Luke or has some knowledge of the bible. This is handy because it lets us ask questions that are more thought provoking and more focused on the bible. So that just seemed neat to me.

Yesterday I read Lesson two with a couple of readers, they were both long time church members, one of ICOS and one of a Baptist church. Lesson two is about the angel talking to Mary, and then Mary becoming pregnant even though she was a virgin. Both of my readers told me of miracles that happened to them so that was sweet. One story was from my friend Anderson, he works at a hotel and so I think he was returning after his honeymoon, but he did not have enough money to pay his car insurance or somethin like that. Then on the day it was due, some guy left a $100 tip, he said that usually they may leave like 10 reais tips. The $1oo dollars was enough to pay his bill plus give a tithe to the church. So that was a neat story.

Somebody will probably write another post. Kresten has actually only done 1 post, 0 since we have been here, I like to make people guess who is writing, and it makes you read with an unbiased opinion on things. But I guess thats just me, and lots of people disagree with some of my methods for stuff. Thanks for you prayers.

-Ryan

Oi from Salvador!

Hey everybody! It's Justin this time, hopefully that doesn't disappoint anyone. So, things are going really well so far. We each have had more readers sign up with us in the past days and so I believe each of us has at least 12 or 13 readers. I think Sarah is winning because she has 15, I think. Today is also the last day of our weekend since we have Mondays and Tuesdays off. Even though we don't do a whole lot of physical hard work and stuff, reading with people who don't speak English very well, and being with people at least 10 hours a day is very draining and these couple days of rest were much needed. Although I suppose these coming 5 days will be our first full work week, I'm sure we'll be just fine. Being with the people has been really cool too. They are all super friendly and within less than an hour of knowing some of them it seems you can be tight with them real quick. They also love to just hang out at the Church with us after or before sessions until we basically have to tell them to leave because we have work to do haha so it's really cool. Yesterday we went to some big mall (which is called 'Salvador Shopping) and that was nice. Today one of Kresten's readers, Cesar, took us to downtown and the market place area by bus and it was awesome! You go up this massive elevator on the side of a cliff and it takes you up top where he showed us around. People are always running up to you trying to get you to buy things and since we don't speak Portuguese, it's awkward, but whatever. Anyways, it's really windy here today and although we tried to go swimming the sign said 'perigo' or 'danger' and the waves were stinkin huge so that didn't work out so well. I'm kind of tired so I think we're going to lesson plan and play UNO than bedtime! PS- our favorite thing to say- not to Brazilians- is Eu me mijei. you should figure out what it means.

Salvador is our Ark

Hello

Today we had our first worship service, it was good. We knew most of the songs, but they were not in english so we just kinda hummed along. We are all getting pretty good at being able to read and pronounce words, even if we dont know what they mean, so singing was not to hard.

I had one reader today, it was very interesting. His name is Peret, (pay-hay) he has studied english for 26 years, and says he has no religion. It was one of the best bible studies I have probably ever had. He does believe in God and Jesus. We decided that we would just read through Luke in the NIV because the work books are very simple. Peret brought up many interesting points about science and religion, this surprised me because he has a literature degree and focuses on learning different languages. I never thought that i would ever connect schrodingers cat or quantum mechanics to the bible. Another thing I enjoyed about Peret was that he was real, he lived life like he could die any second. I dont mean like wild and live for the moment but, I could die right now, or I could die walking down the stairs, or he could die riding his motorcylce. You cannot know when its over so you have to be real about living life, I think that sometimes christians live like they will live till they are old, then they will really focus on Jesus, but you need to focus on him now. Peret is an english teacher and he said he may be able to send us a couple more students, so we are almost full with 15 readers each; which is a good reason to Celebrate.

Monday and Tuesday are our days off. We are very exausted from reading with people and helping out with the missionaries english classes. Although it can be very tiring to have to concentrate on every word someone says, it is also very rewarding when you are able to laugh and joke with your new friends.

So our first week of work went very well and we are looking foreward to the next 5 weeks. Thanks for your support. We will probably write again sometime, but you never know. haha.

-TSL RODAVLAS

Oi,
Hello from Brazil on a Saturday night. Today was our Third day of reading sessions with our new friends here in Salvador. Things are going very well, we have readers that are returning LST participants while many are brand new to this course. It is exciting to see all the people that God is bringing to these classes. We have had several people who have come "just off the street"- they have seen an LST poster or flyer somewhere and have come to sign up. Some readers have already told their friends about the course and they too have come. The people here are all very friendly and welcoming, they want us to learn their language just as much as they want to learn ours! Many of our readers will come early for their classes and afterwards stay behind just to visit and "hang out." Yesterday we studied with 18 people, and as of today we had 49 people signed up to take part.

Thank-you all for your prayers and encouragement. It has been a very busy week as we have arrived in Salvador and have been adjusting to our home for the next 6 weeks. We have been so blessed by all of you and by the people here as well and we know that all blessings come from our Father in Heaven and we are so Thankful to Him.

Tchau for now :)
J.K.R.S.

P.S. Hi Brooke

FIRST READERS!!!!!!!!!!

Ola

Everything is going very well here. Today we had our first readers. We all got the hang of things very quickly and we also made some new friends. A few of our readers are english teachers, which is very handy so if we need more readers , then, they know many people that would love to read with us. Most of our readers are our ages which is very good, because we can relate to them. Some are older and have studied english longer then us even, but this is nice because then we can talk about the content instead of the english so much.

We are working Wednesday to Sunday, we read from 10 am to 9pm, with a lunch break at 1. We do not read constantly, only when our readers can come, so somedays we will have many readers and somedays we may not have quite as many. The optimal number for us would be 6 people a day.

We will be spending most of our days off hanging out with readers and church members. This is very important because it builds the relationships with readers and church members. We are only here long enough to get people learning about God but church members are here for life, so if we can encourage members to become friends with readers, hopefully then, relationships will be strong enough to build faith in Christ. Teaching english is a very good way to attract people but the relationships are where they really see God working in everyone's lives. One of the young adults in the church is a great surfer, as well as many of our readers, soooo hopefully we can encourage them to become friends and get to know each other very well, and then maybe the readers will be encouraged to go to church with one of their new friends.

Travis and Alicia and the rest of their team have been perfect hosts. Things are going awesome, we thank you for all of your prayers.

Tchau

-LST Team Salvador

Well, I suppose we're here now!

Hey everyone! Hope you are all doing as excellent we are! We arrived in Salvador yesterday around 2 in the afternoon and it feels like we've been going pretty steady since, which is definitely a good thing. Our total travel time was just over 24 hours, so we had plenty of time to continue lesson planning and going over information meetings, questions and sessions, devotional time, and not to mention getting a lot closer to each other- seeing as we were crammed into little airplane seats beside each other! As soon as we arrived at the airport in Salvador Travis met up with us and took us to the church- ICOS- here showed us around, where we would be staying, where things were as well as taking us to the grocery store we would be using. We met most of the full time missionaries here and they have been really helpful and awesome. We've all been able to fellowship with each other a lot and that is really cool. Just to pray together, sing (even though we're not a choir!) and sharing devotionals has been awesome. We also had our information meeting tonight at 7 o'clock and it went really well... Even though people were showing up anywhere from 530- 8 pm! When someone showed up at 530, we hadn't really planned on it, and so still had to get more work done but Marcos (the early guy) helped so much and it was awesome to get to know him. In that few hours with people I think we all learned a fair amount of Portuguese actually, which is going to help us a lot! As hard as it can be to communicate with people who don't speak english as a first language, you figure out different ways and hand gestures, and drawings or writings to figure out what each is trying to say. Hopefully through these sessions with each of them, they can learn about the faith we have and over time develop a relationship with Jesus. It's been a really cool experience so far, and we're been here for less than 48 hours so we are totally looking forward to spending the coming weeks here! Anyways, Tchau all! God Bless and thanks for all the prayers!
- Justin, Ryan, Sarah, Kresten

This is it!

Well Lord willing tomorrow morning at 11 am we will be leaving for Salvador, Brazil! CELEBRATE!! After all our training and preparations it is time to go. We fly through Toronto, Washington and Sao Paulo before we arrive in Salvador at 2:40 pm on Tuesday, May 12. Please keep us in your prayers as we travel down and start our work there. Thank you for the thoughts, prayers, support and encouragement you have given to all of us already - you have no idea what that has meant to us.

Hi Everyone :)

So we are now at just over 2 weeks until our departure date, May 11! We are all very excited for the work that we will be doing in Salvador and I pray that through this work that God will be glorified and the people we meet may come to a relationship with our Saviour. It has really hit me in recent months just how important this type of mission is. We are holding onto the words of life, words that redeem and save words that give life. Not just a life for here and now but one for an eternity. How can we, how can I, just hold onto these words and not share them with others, how can I not help but tell people about our God and what He has done for all of us. This definitely means that I will have to get out of my comfort zone – and that is a good thing. It means that I will have to trust and rely on God more fully in every area of my life - which is a great thing. It means that I must find my strength and courage in God – which is a wonderful thing. I am thankful for this opportunity to work in Salvador and I pray that I will continue to learn and grow and that sharing Jesus will become as natural as it should be in my life both on a mission trip and right here at home.

“Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life...” Phil. 2:14-16

Love, Sarah

Kresten's First Post

Hey everybody,

This is Kresten, and I'm just writing this to say that I'm excited for this mission trip. Our team is great; we have many talents, and we are all eager to go. Going to Salvador is special for me because I was there three summers ago on a LST mission with my family, Christie Sanders, and Candace Lamb. Then, it was a great time of spiritual growth for me, so going back and being with some of the people I studied with will be nice for me. Much change happens in three years, and so it will be interesting to see where the church in Salvador has grown as well. Our team will grow from this experience, and the people we read with are going to see the relationships that come from being a Christian; relationships with people, and more importantly, relationship with our God. So often, God is just an idea in my head, or I make him into a set of morals, but He's the I Am. I don't really know what that means, but missions provide a time where God shows me how small my thinking is. Throughout history, God has been involved in our world and He is involved now. This is a chance where we get to experience this in a very concentrated form.

A repeating thought I been having lately is: if the Bible is true (which I believe it is), then we were created by God. We have sinned. Jesus was a real man and God's son who chose to come to Earth and lived a perfect life. He died and rose so we could be forgiven. The ONLY way to be saved is through relationship with him. These ARE true. These are very elementary, but we often lose the great significance of truth. There is an urgency to let others know about this. The stakes are high. True life begins when One submits to our Creator, Leader, God of all people, the only God, the I Am.

God, let us be earnest in sharing You with others, and showing You through our lives. Keep molding us. Give us a proper view of life. Guide us with your Spirit. Let us not rely on ourselves. Let us live in such a way that people can't help but be attracted to the Light. This is a fulfilled life.

Team Mission Statement

Brazil Team 2009

Justin Gauthier, Ryan Husband, Kresten Krogsgaard and Sarah McGeachy

We as a team want to be genuine and patient

as we share Jesus with others,

becoming more comfortable talking about our faith

with strangers and friends.

We want our relationship with God

and our faith in Him to grow and be

strengthened through prayer

as we shape our world view

and that of our readers.

We want to be an encouragement to

the missionaries and Christians

in Salvador as we live in the Spirit.

How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in?

And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard?

And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?

And how can they preach unless they are sent?

As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

– Romans 10:14-15

Our New Blog

Hey Everybody

Welcome to our blog. It is 32 days until we leave for Salvador Brazil. So if you were wondering what our title means, because we knew you were, except Pamela. In english Celebrar O Salvador means Celebrate the Saviour but if you were to take the O in the middle out, it would become Celebrate Salvador. Celebrate has been a team slogan for us because we need to recognize and celebrate all the blessings God has given us. We had a very hard time coming up with that last sentence. Basically anytime something usually good happens to us then we need to celebrate. For example, kresten finished fundraising therefore we celebrated. Or Ryan finished classes today which is a marvelous reason to celebrate. Better yet Justin quit his job so we celebrated for him. Sarah celebrated when we finished our teams mission statement, which will be posted very quickly. We have decided to celebrate everything and be grateful to God for all we have.

We will try to keep our blog as updated as possible so that everyone can see how our training is going and then eventually how things are in Salvador with Travis, Alicia and the rest team there. Their blog is brazilianbeanbrewed.blogspot.com

In God's Loving Care

SARAH, KRESTEN, JUSTIN AND RYAN