News, Nov. 30, 2007

Hi friends!

As I write this blog, I'm listening to Brazilian Christian children's songs in preparation for working with the slum-kid project at my church tomorrow (Saturday) morning. This project is a branch of Compassion International in partnership with a ministry that has existed in my church for a long time known as "CEVAP" (Portuguese acronym for "Center for Valuing the Person" - i.e. kid). Each week, they serve over 100 kids from low-income homes, providing them with two meals per day, Bible teaching, tutoring, and fun activities. Many of these kids would simply be loose on the streets if it were not for CEVAP/Compassion. Lately, on Saturday mornings, they've created a partnership with Ambassadors to do a soccer championship with the kids. However the 4-6 year olds are too young to participate. Some friends and I are in charge of providing fun activities for these little ones for three hours on Saturday morning. It's been challenging and a learning experience. I'll be involved tomorrow and next week with the soccer club, and then the next Saturday (Dec. 15) is their Christmas party, which I'll probably also participate in. It ends just in time, because my siblings will be here the next weekend for Christmas vacation!

It's hard to believe how quickly the last months have gone by. These last few days my dad has had his executive (national) team here for a retreat, and it's been fun hanging out with them. It's amazing how much work it is to provide meals for seven people for three days, and clean up after them! My mom and I did a lot of it together, which cut down on the work for any one person considerably and made it much more enjoyable.

Last week I spent a day with SEPAL's digital department, getting to know their work and how I could be involved. Monday I'll go into the SEPAL office to get to know the events department. If I work with the events department, I'll have to be here for the main SEPAL event May 5-9, when I had been planning on being in the US. We'll see how it goes :).

The MAPI website in Portuguese continues to progress. I recently made some changes to the homepage that made me feel much better about the site in general. There's a lot to be done, but I'm enjoying it! I'm hoping to get in some time on the English site as well in the next weeks before my sibs get here. If all goes well, Dan will arrive Dec. 20, and Karis and Val on the 21st. It'll be the first time all six of us (us four kids and my parents) are together in Brazil for two and a half years! We're planning on going up to the Northeast of Brazil for a few days for a vacation, as well as hanging out at home and enjoying ourselves.

I hope you are all well!

God bless!

Rachel