Under His wings you will learn trust.: Brazil

Hello All,

I know, once again, it has been awhile since I have updated on here. For that I apologize. However, since it has been awhile I have lots to tell.

The last two months have flown by. To say the least I underestimated how busy I would be. Every minute has been worth it though. The last couple months have been spent watching the students grow into a little bit more of who the Lord has created them to be.

I have been walking very closely with eight girls. Lisa, Hayley, Shannon, Emily, Megan, Ida, Ashley and Courtney. Many of these young women came into this school simply because they didn't know what to do with their life, and hey, who can go wrong by spending 3 months in Hawaii and then traveling to some far off place? Most of them didn't know what they were getting themselves into. They didn't know that they were signing up for Jesus to pull out all of their junk. We have had different speakers come and talk to the class every week. We have gone over; Hearing God's voice, What Intercession is, Inner healing, What does it mean to be a disciple?, as well as many other things. I have watched each one of these young women struggle through different things as they were challenged to abandon what society says Christianity is and instead live the way that Jesus has called us to, to live and love like He did. To live a life wholly abandoned to God, exchanging the mindset of “Don't be so heavenly minded that you are no earthly good.” for “Unless you are heavenly minded you will be no earthly good.”

A week ago Sunday we, along with my co-leader Hunter and two other students, Sebastian and Grayson, left Kona, Hawaii and headed to Brazil. We left the campus at 5:30PM on Sunday night and arrived in Brasillia on Tuesday morning at 8:30AM. We went from Kona, to LA, to Atlanta, to Brasillia, most of the time I didn't know what time it was! Haha. All together we had around 32 hours of travel time. And now we are here.

Right now we are staying at a place called Atini. I don't know how many of you have seen the movie Hackney, but she is the reason this place exists. Here in Brazil there are many tribes that still follow old traditions. They still have their gods they have to give sacrifice to. The people at Atini want to see that change. In these tribes children are sacrificed or buried alive. Any child that is born with a deformity, mental illness, can't walk, takes to long to talk, born to a woman who doesn't have a husband, or even is born with a pigment issue where the child is white, runs the risk of loosing it's life. Because it is believed to be possessed. In the story of Hackney there was something wrong with her, so the chief made her parents bury her alive before she could even walk. He older brother (I don't remember exactly I think he was 8 or 9) rescued her and started running. He brought her to missionaries that he knew of, this is how Atini was started. Now there is this group of people who man the farm and do the day to day, but the moment there is an alert they leave to go rescue a child, or a family. Much like a fireman who doesn't see action everyday, but the moment he is needed he goes without hesitation. At any time there are families or mother and child staying here in order to save a child's life.

We have been here six days. We have mostly been serving the base, doing tons of yard work, helping fix it up, and lots of cooking. Last night was our first 'official' ministry time. It was incredible, I honestly expected it to be a little rough on our first service, but it wasn't. One of the girls, Emily, shared her testimony, then Sebastian and Ashley lead worship, Hunter preached and then all of the students did the Lifehouse Everything skit. If you haven't ever seen it you should go to YouTube right now, it will change your life. :)

The presence of the Lord was so strong during the whole service. Hunter and I kept looking at each other while the students did their parts and we couldn't stop smiling. It was so good to see them really take ownership of what we are doing and give it their all. It is so amazing watching them come even more alive.