Carnaval

If you watched our video presentation in the post below you saw where we were planning on doing a series of activities during the Carnaval weekend. The last two years we have taken our church family to a camp ground of sorts outside of the city to escape the atmosphere of Carnaval. This year we decided to focus on being a family within our community. We had activities starting on Saturday, February 2nd, through Tuesday, February 5th (the day of Carnaval).

Day 1:

On Saturday some of our church family went to a beach that is south of the city. The beach is on the lake that Porto Alegre rests on, but was an hour and a half away. We really didn't know if we were going to be able to go because it had rained quite a bit leading up to Saturday. We had everyone on "stand-by" waiting to see what the weather was going to be like Saturday morning. We made the call to go ahead and make the journey to the beach. Jennifer and I had to leave a little late because a certain someone (Elisa) needed a nap. When we finally got to our destination it was pouring rain. The other 25+ church members that went out there were just standing in the rain. It was a sad sight! There was no where to take cover from the rain, so you either stayed in the car or stood in the rain. Fortunately, after about 45 minutes the rain stopped and we were able to get some burgers on the grill. We ended up having a fun time with our church family.

Rain or shine it is hard to keep young people out of the water!

Benay and Jennifer sought shelter from the rain in the Blume's van while they made the hamburger patties.

Spencer and I worked on grilling burgers for the group. We had 30 mouths to feed!

Here is some of our group enjoying the few minutes of sunshine that we had at the beach.

Day 2:

On Sunday we had a celebration service at the athletic club where all the house churches come together on the last Sunday of each month. We had a wonderful worship time together. Matt brought a lesson, encouraging us to take care of each other as Christians. After our time of worship we had chicken prepared on the grill. There was a great time of fellowship and some games played. It was a wonderful experience in which many took part. The best part (in my opinion) is that we had almost 10 visitors! It really was a great day!

Worshiping together as a family should!

Daniel did a fantastic job with the chicken! It was tasty!

Days 3 and 4:

On Monday and Tuesday we went out to the small town of Cachoeirinha (cash-o-e-rEE-nya) to do a service project. This was the first time that our church family was going out into the community to work on something that didn't directly effect us. What I mean is, our service projects in the past have all been about fixing up our building or doing something for our church family. This time we were going to a poor neighborhood to help out a government run daycare center. We have a contact at the daycare that let us know that there was a lot of work that needed to be done, but that there weren't any funds to make it happen. So, Jennifer, one of our members and I went out to see what needed to be done and what kind of materials we needed to buy. We decided that we needed to work on all the interior walls of the daycare. We deal with a lot of problems that come as a result of humidity in Porto Alegre. One of those problems is when the walls get damp on the inside and start to deteriorate. This was a big issue at the daycare. We got as many people together from our church family as we could these two days to peel paint off the walls, lay dry wall and cement and then paint. It was a lot of work, but we managed to get it done. I am really proud of everyone who went out to help. I believe that we were a light in a difficult place to live. We have some church members who live down the street from the daycare. We pray that this service to the community will open doors for our members, Claudio and Rute, to share Jesus with the lost in Cachoeirinha.

The group: trying to get organized!

This is the majority of the group that helped on Monday and Tuesday out at the daycare center. I was very encouraged by all the selfless work that was put into making that a better place for the community. Great work, guys! I'm proud of you!