Rotary meeting with my students

On May 20, I had lunch with my students at the Rotary Club in Cachoeirinha, a city near Porto Alegre. The one in the picture above on the left wearing glasses is my student, he is the current president of the Rotary Club. So he needs English.
That week, he and his wife received a group from the USA, and invited me to cooperate. They are professionals who come to Brazil to exchange experiences about culture, so I could help with that. Since most of them were Spanish, English and Portuguese teachers, I just had to tell them how I work here in Brazil.
This is me and Mara, she is also my student, with the ladies from the US. We had a great time, and I could know my students better. Little by little I get to know my students. I just wait for the right time!
Tha's my personality! I love meeting new people, knowing about other cultures, I love to learn other languages, right now, I am in the second semester of studying Spanish at CLEP, the school where I used to teach. I am enjoying it a lot!
I hope I can use my gift to reach more and more people!
Please, pray for this couple, Mara and Luis! They are very hardworking and a very nice couple!
May God bless this work!

Couples' retreat!

On May 10th we had a couples' retreat with the team in Viamao. As I had said before I love this Team we are always keeping in contact and helping each other whenever we can. We went to this retreat to learn from them, and have a retreat with our couples in the future!

Rui and Nadia leading the study group! I think they`re great!

Afterwards we had a lovely and romantic boat ride through the famous "Lagoa dos Patos" (Ducks' lagoon) the biggest lagoon in Brazil!

On the left we had a morning meeting by the river where we could have a word and share our thoughts about God and Nature!

My birthday girl!

On Monday we celebrated my niece's second birthday! Tomorrow we are going to the countryside to visit her! I hope that in the near future I can have a daughter as beautiful as she is! Ah! She is also our Goddaughter! :)

Happy birthday for my mom!

This last Sunday ( May 25) was my mom`s birthday. She is a great example of a mother should be! We had difficult times together as a family, we had our losses, she became a widow at a very young age, and had to raise us all alone, she continued to have faith in the future, and she always took us to the church! She is a woman who follows her dreams! Right now she is studying English in the USA (one of her dreams of 30 years ago) and will be back in a few months! I can't imagine my life without her strength! God bless her! :)

Developing Friendships!

This is Raquel! She has gone to our church for 4 years. She was there in the beginning of my relationship with Matt. She is going to our house church with her mom, she is in her 20s, the only young lady in our house besides me! We have always had a friendly relationship, but now, I think I'm touching her heart somehow; she's very nice, but difficult to open up and share about herself. Now we are spending more time together, I can understand her heart better! We have very funny and good moments as sisters! Please pray for this relationship! :)

April 26th Couple`s meeting!

This time, I didn`t take any pictures because I forgot to recharge my batteries. I feel bad because I like to give an illustrated report about our work here in Brasil!

Anyway, I chose the picture above to represent the couples! We had a great time in our apartment last saturday. We talked abou finances using the bible as our guide. It was very rewarding , everybody participated and shared experiences. It is also a great opportunities some for Christian women with non-Christian husbands. They go to these meeting just to please their wives and they ended up enjoying, participating, and interacting with other members. These men don`t like to go to the worships, at the same time they don`t refuse a couple`s meeting!

Now, I see that preparing these meetings is more important than I thought!

Please, keep praying for our working here! We are doing our best to serve our brothers in Christ!

Another birthday girl!

April is a month when many special people have birthdays. This is Grace and she is turning 21. I actually saw her growing up, more than that, I feel part of what she became. I met her when she was 14 years old. I was her English teacher at a language center. Yes, I used to work with teenagers, they kind of liked me; some of them, including Grace, even went to my wedding! I feel special about Grace because we identify with each other, she had her difficult times during adolescence, and one day she came and said to me that during her classes with me she could escape from her troubles, the English classes were a motive for her to overcome her difficulties. So I realized that I wasn't just teaching, I was making a difference in her life. We had a play in English "Romeo and Juliet" and she was my Juliet, as sweet as she can be, as a student she was my proud and joy, as her English is also perfect!,
To my surprise she is following my steps, she was approved at the federal university, and she is studying languages, the same course and university I went to. In 2005 we had a program at the church called LST (Let`s start talking) for teenagers. I invited all the teenagers of the language center, including Grace, she was charmed by bible studies in English, and by the people she met. She made good friends, she visited some missionaries in the US. And she was finally baptized last year!

This is her mom, Ivoli! She is also coming to one of our house churches, she and her husband haven't decided yet about being baptized, but Grace already did the first step! As a teacher and evangelist I feel that my mission is accomplished with Grace!

Ah! She also wants to be a teacher and work with English, just like me! Maybe we can work together sometime!

The message that I get from this story is that every act is important, I try to be the most patient teacher I can be, and work with love, maybe I can influence my students with my example!

I thank God for Grace`s life! She makes me want to do more and continue my mission next to Matt!