Hey All,
Since you have last heard from me things have been pretty busy. Here's a taste of the past few weeks: adventures to 'The Hidden Rock', bagel making, tears, game planning, Portuguese lessons, prayer, a massive youth conference, hard lessons, passing the 70 day point, and listening to God.
I choose this verse because it speaks so loud to my heart at this point in my journey. ( I love how different pieces of God's word come to life when you need it most.) Up until this point, I feel as if i was walking my own path and as a result sin was easily entangling me. But God is good and he has opened my eyes to this and I am ready to run th path marked for me. I want to run with perseverance and above all I want to have my eyes fixed on Jesus. God has been teaching me a lot about putting my all into Brazil, learning to let go of Canada, and surrendering my plans to Him. The journey has been painful and it is not over... but God is refining me.
On the camp end of things, we have been busy. Nathan, Dwayne and Scott went to a camp called PV Sul Beach Camp to speak. The camp is a new camp plant from a larger organization. The experience was very positive. Also, our whole team is preparing for our upcoming staff camp. We are running a 4 day camp program for potential future staff. We want them to learn what camp is by actually participating in a camp program. We have been planning and preparing for weeks, making games, planning sessions and program. Initially we were overwhelmed with the number of people interested. But for some reason, that only God knows, we are not receiving many response. Please pray for our camp. God knows who is meant to be there and who he is preparing to be part of Quest. No matter how many people come, we want to be the people that God has chosen.
Last weekend, a group of us decided to go on at adventure to find a place called "The Hidden Rock". It is an rock face that has been developed for climbing. Let's just say that the place lived up to it's name. We hiked up a hill and bush-whacked for hours before we found that place. On the way up we even had a little accident. Carol was hiking up a section that was a little steeper and slippery. She lost her footing and took a tumble. Luckily a tree stop her fall, but her knee popped out of place. Needless to say the hike back down was interesting and slow! But we got her out safe a sound. Don't worry she is ok!
*Left: Nathan in the bush on the was up to the rock face Right:Scott helping Carol down the hill*
This past weekend, Nathan, Carol and I attended a massive youth conference. 1500 youth from three states in southern Brazil. It was crazy and definitely a cultural experience for me. There were soccer and volley ball tournaments, speakers, worship, swimming and lots of people. I learned a lot about the Brazilian culture and the Portuguese language.
*Left: Soccer and Volley Ball Right: The tents. Most of the people stayed in tents; it was a massive village. *
Also, the longer Nathan and I are here the more we are noticing things that are different here. One things we discovered is that the do not make bagels in Brazil. We both love bagels so we thought we would attempt to try to make them. It was actually a really fun experience and a learning one as well. We made some mistakes along they way but they were actually really good! Below are the results of out labor.
*Bagels!*
As far as my part of Quest goes, I have been doing a lot of the planning for this upcoming camp. My roll has been responsible for planning and creating the program for the week. The theme is going to be "Indiana Jones and the Sword of the Kingdom". The whole week revolves around the campers using a 'map' to find the location of the sword. The map is a series of clues and they all need to work together to retrieve the sword. The week is full of symbolisms. ex. The sword represents the word of God.
*These are the maps and some clues that I created for our game. They are double sided and are in 6 pieces. The map can be put together 5 different ways and each way reveals a different clue.it was a lot of work but a lot of fun!*
I am learning so much Portuguese and my English is getting worse. I am enjoying learning a new language. But there are definitely days that i don't really understand God's plan at the Tower of Babel. It would be so much easier it we all spoke the same language! haha. Maybe that was the point.
Lots has been happening here in Brazil. I have been 71 days in Brazil. At this point I need prayer for wisdom in deciding what to do next. Part of me wants to return to Brazil, but part of me wants to stay in Canada and it is unclear to me at this point exactly what God wants me to do. Also, i am wanting to take a position at a Medeba Summer Camp again this summer. Pray that I will only walk the path God has set.
Thanks for all your support!
Becky
