Saturday, July 4th - our first day of ministry in Brazil!

We got it pretty late on Friday night as we ran into quite a bit of traffic through Sao Paulo. We didn't arrive in Piratininga until 10pm and were all pretty fatigued with us now having been in transit for 24 hours. We are staying at a new hotel that just opened up last October called the Chalet Brasil; it is very close to the "Green Hotel" which is where we have always stayed in the past, so we are still close to the park with the kids of Piratininga. Even though it was late on Friday night when we go it, most of us went into town and had a little dinner.....the teens at least had huge X-Tudu's, that look like a hamburger on steroids, but they can afford the calories :-)

We did stop by the park on the way home and bumped into two of the park kids, Daniella and Daniel....it was so good to see them. These are kids that VCF Anaheim teams have been ministering to for 5 years now....Daniel is now much taller and is almost a teenager!

On Saturday morning we had a team worship and ministry time; the hotel has a separate room off of the lobby that they are allowing us to use for team meetings. Aaron Hatcher led worship for the team and did a great job; we prayed for each other and had some words for our trip that were very encouraging. We prayed for Joelle, who came down with a sore throat, please keep her in your prayers, her throat is still tender, but she is a trouper and hasn't let it stop her at all. The team also prayed for Katie who was talking to gathering of girls and parents that afternoon and then for Beau and Andrew who would be speaking at the Vineyard Bauru 'Jovens' (youth) Service on Saturday evening.

The Bauru Vineyard worked out a schedule to send team of people with cars to provide transportation for us to/from Bauru. The teams got here to take over for the parenting seminar that Katie would be speaking at "Gods-girls", but we were still eating in town and arrived 1/2 hour late....but in Brazil, this was not yet 'late' :-) We also met the new pastor of the Bauru Vineyard, David Asckar; David is a wonderful pastor with a soft heart and teachable spirit; it feels that we've known him for a long time already.

The time with the kids was very sweet, Katie spoke to both the kids and parents about reconciliation and then afterwards had a ministry time for the families and kids that came without a parent present. We had a little 8 year old girl named Stephanie who came with her grandmother that prayed the sinners prayer.....Stephanie was abandoned by her Mom who has multiple children, all by different fathers, so it was especially sweet that gained an eternal Daddy yesterday!

When we got back to Piratininga in time for Joelle, Andrew, Aaron, Aaron, Lauren and Kim to go to the Park and play with the gang of kids that are there on most days. They rushed back in time for us to dash off for the Vineyard Youth Service in Bauru. Beau and Andrew spoke on worship after a great time of Brazilian worship; they both did great and focused on worship being the heart of the Vineyard movement and where we get in touch with the Father and learn of his mercy. That led into a very intimate ministry time, where we saw many people touched, including one of the worship leaders who had severely burned his right hand in an accident at work; Andrew and Aaron Hatcher prayed for him and the pain left and he could completely move his thumb and fingers, even though all the scaring from the burn reamined! David (the Bauru VCF Pastor) found a recording of the star-spangled banner and played it for us as our 4th of July celebration :-) The ministry time lasted until after 11pm and then we went out for dinner and didn't make it back to our Hotel until 1am....it was a long but wonderful day.

This morning (Sunday) started early, we had to up and ready to go by 8am.....the kids on the trip (that's anyone under the age of 30 to me :-) ) were all exhausted, but made it up and out....we are so proud of all of them! When we arrived for the Service this morning, the worship leader was none-other than the man who was healed last night! He played guitar with his burned had and gave testimony to the power of God! I need to go now, we are leaving for the Bauru Sunday night service....I'll post again tonight about our services and activities today.

We appreciate your prayers more than you know; ministry is a wonderful thing, but also exhausting so pray for stamina for all of us; also pray for Pastor Nilton (former Bauru Pastor) who is in the hospital and not doing very well....I'll fill in the details later.

God bless you all, you are our prayer warriors and fellow ministers in-Christ!
-VCF Brazil Team 2009