Itu Tambien

   The youth ministers of the Itu church were invited to come and lead the youth during the 3 day conference in Maceío, a northeastern city of Brazil.  Rather than taking a flight, we decided to make it into a road trip and drive there.  We had 8-10 hour days in the car and made stops in cities where friends and missionaries live.  By the end of the trip we had stopped in Belo Horizonte, Medina, Salvador, Maceío, and Rio de Janeiro.  On our way to the conference and back we spent some time talking to a several missionary families about their time and work in Brazil.  Mark , Ali, Mary Lou and I also spent  lots of time in conversation with each other.  At the conference, we gave the lessons on “The truth, the light, and the way” and on “Christianity is more like a trampoline than a wall” to youth ranging from 13 to 19 years of age.  They really enjoyed learning about a more relational aspect to Christianity were quick to share this new perspective with others.  It was great to meet people from different parts of Brazil and to get to know their beautiful cities.

 15 Kids, 4 youth leaders, and 1 Kombi arrived to Praia Grande excited and ready to join up with the youth group there to share a few days together on this missionary trip. 

We arrived to an igloo campsite (made out of concrete) where we would sleep the next few days.  Our group introduced themselves to the Praia Grande group and spent a couple of hours getting to know them through games and ice-breakers. 

The following days were full with lessons and activities planned.  Our lessons were over “The truth, the life, and the way” and on “Christianity is more like a trampoline than a wall”, and “Deciding what to do with Jesus”.  Both lessons were inspired by the author of Velvet Elvis, Rob Bell. 

Both groups spent time talking to each other in small groups about the philosophies of Christianity.  Although these youth groups are young in age, their understanding of the topics was incredible!  During their down time, everyone walked about two blocks down and enjoyed the beach. 

MaryLou is the big 22! We definitely made a night out of it and got all dolled up for a night of food and fun.  The preparation for this night was also interesting.  A week before we got a few cool invitations made with fun pics of MaryLou.  Hope you enjoyed your day roomie!

During the week of April 18th-April 21st, our youth group will be heading to Praia Grande on a mission trip!  We will be joining up with another youth group in Praia Grande and together will spend a few days lending our services to the communities around us. 

Preparing for this mission trip has been quite an experience! For five weeks in a row, we have been taking on a series of fundraising activities to get each person there without making it too expensive for their parents.  Take a look at the various fundraisers that the "Jovens Kaiseres" have taken part of:

Bake Sale-The Kaiseres got together to make a little over five batches of snikerdoodle and chocolate chip cookies to sell to friends and family.  Random Fact: these types of cookies don't exist in Brazil!

Pizza Sale- A member of the church had credit for 30 pizzas from a local pizzeria and gave that credit to our youth group.  We sold the coupon tickets and made a little over %100 profit.

Hippie Fair Jewelry Sale- Another member of the church used his craft making talents and spend a day with our youth teaching them to make necklaces, bracelets, and earrings out of Brazilian seeds.  Each piece of jewelry had a unique style and maker. 

Babysitting Night- The Kaiseres also offered to babysit during the weekly Couple's Meeting and keep the kids entertained. 

Japanese Dinner- Our last fundraiser before taking off to Praia Grande was last Saturday.  We hosted a nice family Japanese Dinner for all of our friends and family.  The youth group worked on providing the services and entertainment to make the dinner a success. 

All supporters can send their contributions to the following address:

A&M Church of Christ

2475 Earl Rudder Fwy S.

College Station, TX 77845

Here are some of the ministries and activities we take part in weekly:

Ministry Fair-  The Church of Christ in Itu will be having a Ministry Fair three weekends out of this month to make aware and promote the various ministries that the church has available.  Mary Lou and I will help promote various ministries such as Youth Group, Intern's Ministry, and the Social Work/Community Ministry.

Youth Group Fundraisers-  Our youth group will be running various fundraisers for the next couple of months in order to help out with the costs of camps in Porto Alegre and in Itu.   

3-7 Ministry-  This ministry is brand new and is scheduled on Saturdays from 3pm-7pm to bring together anyone who is free and work on projects that church members may need additional help with such as gardening, painting, cleaning,etc.  It also gives everyone time to spend with each other and have fun. 

Tutor Tuesday-  This ministry is also new and is targeted towards students who may need help in science, math, portuguese/english/spanish, etc.  Students are welcome to come Tuesday evenings and work on their homework. 

Youth Group-  The youth group minsitry is very involved within the church and within the community.  Along with bible studies every thursday night, they also come together for Tutor Tuesdays, and 3-7 Ministry. 

Lar Cristao-  Lar Cristao is a children's home about 20 minutes away from Itu.  Marly Lou, Ali, Mark, and I have chosen this ministry to be more deeply involved with.  We spend one day a week visiting the Lar and helping out with any extra chores that need to be done, babysit, or work in the office doing social work. 

Sitio Shalom-  Is a drug/alcohol rehabilitation Christian center that motivitates their participants to replace their addictions with a relationship with God.  Their 9 month program allows us to work with the men there and help them enter back into society.  This could mean teaching them a new trade, helping them with their resumes, working on having stronger social skills, etc.    

  Soon after arriving in Itu, Mary Lou (our new intern) and I took off to a camp in Belo Horizonte, a city about 8 hours away with the entire youth group.  Our mode of transportation was a Volkswagen Kombi that has been around for quite some time.  After being on the road for an hour, our Kombi broke down leading us on to the first adventure of this trip.  This mishap set us back one day but we were able to hop back on and continue our journey through central Brazil.  

   Once in Belo, our youth group had an awesome time reuniting with other churches around southern and central Brazil.  Camp allowed the youth to regain that closeness between themselves and God.  It also provided lots of fun activities to participate in such as sports, zip-lines, and even trail-walks into the forest that led to the cascades near the river.  Needless to say, everyone enjoyed spending time with each other and with God.

November!

This month has been filled with several trips around Brazil.  Our month started out with the CCC Missionary Women’s Conference in Maresia’s, Brazil.  Missionary women from all over South America came together for a week to be filled spiritually through this conference.   Right after the CCC conference, we headed to Joinville, Brazil to an Alpha Course Conference.   Alpha Course was created as an evangelization program that is based on Christian premises and is led as a question and discussion session.  The conference mainly demonstrated church leaders how to lead an alpha course in their local church. 

Among other things, we’ve continued with our weekly youth group meetings on Thursday and have been working on food collections within the community to prepare for the yearly Christmas food baskets.  This past weekend we celebrated Thanksgiving and had all of the American missionaries over as well as a few Brazilian friends to experience the holiday.  During the next 2 weeks we will be celebrating Christmas with a Christmas party, collecting gifts for children who live in the outskirts of Itu, and will be preparing to leave back to the States.  It’s been an amazing semester!  Thank you to all of the supporters and I’ll see ya’ll soon!