Thursday - our day off and BBQ!

Thursday was a team day off in Brazil; it was also a holiday in the state of Sao Paulo, so everyone was off!

We didn't have a team meeting in the morning so anyone who wanted to could sleep in.

Beau, Jean, Katie and Greg had lunch with Altamere, a dear friend and talented Bass player from YWAM and VCF Piratininga. He has moved to Minneapolis, MN with a new music outreach and just got back into Piratininga Wednesday for a short visit and we bumped into him as he got off the bus! Altamere is getting married in October in the U.S. and Wes Watkins will be in the wedding! Anyway's, we had a nice visit with Altamere and then he took us to see the leaders of the Praise Village YWAM base here in Piratininga: Beto and his wife Raquel. They are moving to Italy on Sunday to refresh YWAM in Italy. We love Beto and Raquel; please pray for their move that God will open many doors, refresh them (and Nicki, their 9yr old daughter) and bless their transition. Beto also asked us to pray about the possibility of bringing VCF Anaheim teams to Italy when they get settled!

The team was invited over to Silvio and Ana-Silvia Chavez's house for Chorasca (BBQ). They are a very wonderful family in the Bauru church with two kids; Paulo (18) and Dyanne (13). We arrived at the Chavez's house ~3:30pm and the food was ready for us! They served us BBQ tri-tip, chicken and sausage along with rice, beans, rolls, vinagretch, polenta and three different kinds of desserts......it was incredible! The whole team has eaten so well, we may be bringing back a few extra pounds :-)

Many of the leaders from the Bauru Vineyard as well as Silvio's Dad and Ana-Silvia's mother, Pastor David and his parents all came. It was very significant that Ana-Silvia's mom was able to come; she had been so sick over the weekend that Paulo took Beau, Jean and Kim over to pray for her on the way to church on Sunday and here she was, looking pretty darn good! After a huge lunner (late lunch, early dinner :-) ), the young people went inside and played nintendo, piano, guitar and sang songs, while the old folks (Greg, Katie, Beau and Jean) stayed outside on the patio and talked with David and other guests.

Silvios's Dad asked for prayer as he was recovering from hip replacement surgery; he attends a local Baptist church. We prayed for him and it was very apparent that God was touching him both phyically and emotionally. Pastor David was our interpreter again and then we went on to pray for Vanessa, a woman who had had some health issues in the past and had signs of a reoccurance; God not only wanted to heal her, but also was promoting her to more leadership. We then prayed for our host couple Silvio and his wife Ana-Silvia; God was freeing them both from life-long emotional issues.....Ana-Silvia let us know that Katie had prayed for her on Sunday and something had been broken over her; that she was now able to think of people who had devistated her in the past with pity and love where before there was only great pain. We prayed for Pastor David's father too, for physical and emotional issues. It was a wonderful time of team prayer where the four of us had many words and pictures that integrated together into a whole tapestry of blessing. We used this as a living classroom and tried to illustrate how impressions, pictures and thoughts come from God to bless his people.

All the time we were praying outside, the young people continued to build more relationship with their Brazilian brothers and sisters inside!

Pastor David shared with us a wonderful Kingdom story.......
On Wednesday after we prayed for David Tuesday evening to receive all that Vineyard has to bless with; he was in a service and called anyone forward who needed physical healing. A woman came forward and said she was feeling very dizzy; David went to get some annoiting oil and when he annointed her she fell to the ground and started foaming at the mouth and manifesting a demonic presence. David told us that he felt such authority and unction, that he just spoke to the spirit and commanded it to leave and the woman stopped shaking, stopped foaming and was back in her right mind saying she felt fine. David said that he didn't know this was included in the Vineyard blessing, but he'll take it!

This is how the Kingdom of God grows, by taking back territory from the enemy, and empowering the church to be Kingdom agents!

Love you all,
VCF Anaheim Brazil Team 2009