What was my prayer for this trip? To grow in my relationship with God.
Not only did that happen, but I also was given another family. Let me tell you about them so you will know when I speak about them.
Bruno and Camilla Costa with their daughter Marianna: Words cannot express how wonderful they are. Bruno goes out by himself or with help of a couple of volunteers each morning. He sets up everything and preaches the gospel to anyone who will listen. I was told that Bruno is trying to go to every school in the city that they live in, Sao Paulo. I was surprised that my church, Roswell Community Church is the only one that monthly gives to the family. They only have 2-3 teams a year that come to them. We went to their lovely little apartment and were told that 80 % of what were saw were given by donations. I believe that each month, give or take the change in currency, they have about 65 % of the money that they really need. They instantly welcomed us like we were family. They even gave us presents; candy that is well known there, and a key chain with the Brazilian flag and our names on it. I would say the big thing that you could be praying for is that they would be able to get a visa to come to the US. They tried earlier in the year, but was turned down b/c they don’t own land/car. Everything that they own is in OAC’s name.
Hadassah: She was our wonderful translator and Camilla’s cousin. She lives an hour by plane ride away and works for the government. She also teaches school. The wonderful thing about her, well there is so many. She was the best translator. When Bruno and/or Camilla wanted to tell us something long or quickly, she was instantly ready to help out. What Mike had said was that she not only knew English, but also slangs words or movies/TV shows. She was able to be my roommate while we were in Rio. She was how my relationship with the Lord grew stronger. He brought me to meet her. While we were about to eat lunch, she had mentioned that she had been engaged twice. Not to give too much away on her account, but we shared so many of the same things. All I did was keep saying, I know!! I know!! By then end, she took my hands and prayed for her and me. She prayed for our husbands and the children that we were going to have. She really wants to come to the states, and you can pray that God’s will be done. She wants to come to school in the US to get a masters degree in Linguistics.
Tim and Lizzy Spainhour: Lizzy is a teacher and Tim works as a MRI technician. I remember Lizzy and I talking about our kids from school. How she hopes that they can see she is a Christian and loves them. Her eyes just lit up once we got there. She wanted to learn all about the sketch board and other things.
Elizabeth Blackburn: She is a wonderful person. She loves Brazil like I love Guatemala. She went a week before we did and spent time going to schools with Bruno. I am so happy that we got to know each other even more than we did. I am so happy that we are friends!!
Carolyn Compton: Our picture taker. I don’t know how many times I thanked her for taking pictures, as I was happy that she was.
Brandon and Bryan Autry: God brought this family back into my life after both of us leaving New Covenant Bible Church. I had gone on my first Guatemalan trip with Bryan and his daughter, Brittany. I was so happy that we were able to catch up on what had been happening in our lives. I have three younger siblings that I don’t see as often as I do. My brother is the same age as Brandon. It was really nice to have a younger brother on the trip with me, to laugh and cut up with me.
Mike B: What can I say? In the beginning he was not going to come on the trip, but it ended up that he was supposed to. Such a wonderful father figure that I needed to have.
So, I have only the pictures that I took on the trip. Once I get more from Carolyn…. there is said to be more than 1000, I am going to post them. Brandon also was wonderful and videotaped a lot of different things. I am excited for you to see a Redeemer Skit being done. It is one thing for me to talk about it, but you just have to see it being done.
And here we are all together!
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