confessions of a missionary in Brazil: confessions of 3 in 1.

I have much to be thankful for-even in the unknown, the trials, and the mysteries of this life-I am thankful. Sometimes it is difficult and I find myself wondering---what is going on here? I am all too quickly reminded that I have a purpose here and now-no matter what happens tomorrow or next month or next year.

We were given the news that we need 20 students or there is a possibility of termination of two positions. I don't know that I heard anything after that. No, it isn't the end of the world but it is causing me to pray diligently to our Lord specifically for more students. I don't think any of us realized that our situation was this dire. All of the other teachers are on a different visa now because the government no longer offers the type of visa that I received (to our school). So the school is now having to manage in a way that depends on students being there (whereas before it wasn't so much of a big deal because all teachers were here on support and the school only had to fund their housing/bills). So-in saying all of this-we need students, as we watch more and more go to their next assignments as this is their transition year. We have had some sweet students come in and God has definitely blessed us in this area. He definitely knows what we need and when we need it. It may be that he desires we work with less teachers and with less "other" things that the school has been able to afford in the past. But it could be that He is drawing us closer as we pray for these things and in December-we will have a full preschool program. This week, we had two children sign up for December! Praise the Lord! Starting either in late December or January-I will have a 3 year old and a 4 year old!!! 4 students! There are rumors of 2 more from the US---and our C.E.E.D (the bilingual preschool program) campaign will go out in 35,000 newspapers on Sunday. We have many leads but we know that God will ultimately send who He wants to BIS. Please continue to pray for this!!

Last weekend, we took some kids on a "survivor" retreat. We weren't sure what to expect, but what we got was far more. My beautiful green team was amazing! They could seriously be missionaries in the amazon! They threw together a shelter from 10 pieces of twill, 3 small garbage bags, and carried in all kinds of bamboo. I was so proud when we all got in and didn't get wet (you had to stay dry to win).

But the kicker came when we really started talking about making a stand and not just going through the motions-doing the hard things. 5 of our kids came up and said that they were ready. Yes. We go to a chrisitan school, but some of our students are not christians and I would venture to say that even more do not come from christian homes. So these "underdogs" as I like to call them-yes, they are from Christian families, but they are working overtime to be good examples-for most of the jr/sr. high population. Pray for them-they are such an amazing group of kids!

Going back to my class-I have two students-neither had no previous knowledge of God, Jesus, or the Bible. I am privileged to plant these seeds. I felt especially convicted during their snack time---like I should be filling that time with something. But what? Well, I am a lover of books-so I picked out a book one day and began to read. The book was A Picture of God 3 in 1 and WOW-did their antenaes purk up at this book. It is quite amazing that I read this book to them every single day and if I don't start by the time they both sit down-they are begging for it-while chomping on their apples that they now bring every single day. An apple has three parts. The peel, the flesh, and the core....but there is only 1 apple. God has three parts. God the Father, God the Son,a nd God the Holy Spirt....but theres is only 1 true God. Just an exerpt from this book...and they know all the parts. They know what parts make them happy-and the dark pages about sin make them sad. We've been reading this book for 2 1/2 weeks and they love it. You can pray for the little boy in my class-he is very sensitive to these things at this point. Please pray for me as I continue to disciple him and talk to him about God. :)

Just a fun picture---one of my best friends here got married two weekends ago :) Raquel and Felipe (he teaches me slang)