Woohoo! Finally Connected

The airline system, transportation, phones and Internet can surely be frustrating when in Brazil. I could not connect to the blog yesterday and could barely stay on the Internet for any length of time. Oh well, here we are now.

I'll start by apologizing for a lack of pictures. It's not for a lack of trying but mainly time. We started off schedule today and stayed that way. Today was our prayer day as a group. We started at the hill where Aracaju was founded in 1855 and learned a bit of the history and ventured through a small Catholic church nearby. From there we went to "the center", the middle of town and saw the Governor's Palace, where the House of Representatives meet and other government offices. We also went to see the oldest cathedral in Aracaju and learned about the religious disposition of most of the nation. At each of these stops, we spent time in prayer for the people where we will be working and other topics based on what was discussed. After lunch, we went to a day care/orphanage for children from very low income families. We heard from the founder's wife about the founder's heart for kids and why he started the facility, saw some of their daily activities and performed a couple of puppet skits for them. From there we headed to San Cristovan, the 4th oldest town in Brazil and learned more history, ate some fresh baked bread and got to visit the home of Julio who hosts the church at his home each Sunday and also hosts a Saturday night Bible study. His mother also lives with him and has Bible studies with ladies from the town periodically. They are wonderful Christians who love God.

Tomorrow we start what we came for. We will begin our VBS program early in the morning with approximately 90 kids in the first session (if you are from Decatur, the church building here is roughly the size of our new family room so you can imagine herding 90 kids in groups through a reasonably small space) and the rest of our group will go on a singing campaign.

We are still tired from the travel and a couple of our young ladies still haven't seen their bags with their clothes but are holding up well. We spend each night meeting together and talking about the good and the bad we encountered during the day. The worst thing is the language barrier but the people are still friendly and loving.

I did try to post pictures but it's sslllloooooowwwwwwww and it's past my bedtime. We start EARLY in the morning. I hope to have good reports tomorrow. Keep us in your prayers.

3-2-1

We leave on Sunday. It doesn't seem possible that it's already time to go. 29 of us leave DFW around 1:50 on Sunday afternoon and arrive in Aracaju at 1:50 Monday afternoon (11:50 our time). It will be a whirlwind and maybe a bit circus-like at times. Keep us in your prayers.

More Prayer Requests

We are 1 week away from traveling to Aracaju, Brazil. Our team met tonight and there is a mixture of emotions - excitement, fear, bewilderment, wonder - and those and others will likely heighten as the week progresses.

I did receive some specific prayer requests tonight that I wanted to share on the blog and others will be given to members of our church to be praying about during our travel time.

Please pray that all of us may do God's work and help bring more people to God. Also pray for our families while we are gone and that we will remain safe throughout the journey.

Pray that we will reach many people, safe travel and return on time.

Melissa asks, please pray for a successful VBS in Aracaju. We will have close to 400 children that may know nothing or little about Jesus; pray that their hearts will be open.

Preston asks, pray that the retreat and VBS go very smoothly and that our Christian brothers and sisters are very encouraged.

There are many other requests like these. We thank you for your prayers and trust God will lead us and bless us on this trip.

A Call For Prayer

I plan to have some specific prayer requests posted here next week for those on our team who want to list them. In the meantime, I'm calling on you to add our group in your prayers. We are 10 days away from leaving (we leave on June 15) and the stress level for each of us is rising as we try to prepare to get things ready and deal with the mental/emotional part of leaving our families.

Be praying for:
safe and event-free travel
our families who remain at home
that God is softening hearts to His message
for the body in Aracaju and the surrounding areas and their continued spiritual growth
for the School of the Bible and those who enter to learn about God's love for them
for the Ledbetter family (Rob, Marie, Morwyn in Aracaju/Johnathon in S. Africa and Amber in California)
for Randy and Angela
for anything else you want to add.

On behalf of our team, thank you for praying for us.

Planning for the next big trip

This is a new site dedicated to the mission efforts of the Decatur, Texas Church of Christ. In 2006, a group of 30 from our church traveled to Aracaju, Brazil to visit, help and support a missionary that we sponsor, Randy Warzecha. The trip a life changing event for many of us who went.

We are now planning our second trip to Aracaju this coming June. A group of 29 from our church will participate in the 10 day event. Making this type of trip with a large group is no easy task and we have solicited prayers and money to make it a successful trip that allows us to help share the Good News in Aracaju and touch the hearts of all of us who travel there and back. We also seek pray for our families who stay behind.

There will be more to come with updates, pictures and video (maybe) as we go on this incredible adventure.