Saying Goodbye

Last night was our last party. There was a homecoming party that prevented several readers from coming, but the turnout was more than I had anticipated, twenty-two.

We played a few fun games together. The fish game was a hit. When you hear "fish" in the story you lift up your right finger while trying to catch with your left hand the finger of the person next to you. (I cheated a little bit because I knew the story, so I got pretty far. I just let others catch my finger at the end...wink...wink.)

Then we had a few snacks along with coke floats. It was interesting to watch the faces of the readers as we explained what a coke float was. They'd never heard of such a thing, but they tried it and liked it.

One of my readers surprised us with a piñata. Kayla went first, then Courtney, Emily, Tanya, and finally I went. It was so demolished at the end that they pulled it up to the top and it broke. Imagine that. I didn't even have to hit it! I just thought about hitting it and it broke!! Yes...I'm that strong.

Anyway, at the end we gave our readers their certificates, took some pictures, talked a little more, and then said goodbye. I can't believe we are finished with the work of our project already!! We have a ton of emails, many pictures, a few gifts, many memories, and confidence that God worked through it all for His glory.

Now we trust that his work is not finished here. God was working before we came and will continue after we leave. We praise him for this opportunity and ask him to spread the fragrance of Christ wherever we go.

Enjoy the pictures below.

The first worked on a word find with many of the words from our Luke workbook they'd been working on.
Tyler's just chillin' with his balloon thinking about something!!

Courtney and Kayla are having fun as we wait for the readers to show up. She couldn't wait to eat ice cream a little later on!

The human first human knot went well. In the end there were two circles they couldn't get untangled.

Our little human knot ended the same way, but it took us a very long time to realize it.

The "fish" game. No one really listened to the story. They were just listening for some form of the word fish before trying to not let their finger get caught by the person next to them. I almost won both times!!

These were three of my four readers. From left to right: Briceida, Ruth, and Tania.

We enjoyed snacks afterwards. Someone brought some "arroz con leche." It was very good!

Emily is trying to give the piñata her best hit. She missed several times. I didn't even swing!

Tania and Tanya. ¡Qué bonita mi amor es!

This is the other preacher, Elio, who works with Raul and Betty at the church. He teaches the Bible class on Sunday mornings.

Texas Party

Last night was our first party. It was a Texas party. Betty and Raul (the preacher here) told us that this was the most readers that have ever been to a party since they started about 5 years ago. There were 34 total, including us. We played Texas People Bingo and Texas Pictionary. We explained Texas slang, but I think that was difficult to understand in Spanish. Oh yeah...we also brought Texas dirt for everyone to eat (see the picture below) along with my grandmother's special Texas sweet tea.

With all the people there we were able to sign up more readers. Now our schedule is completely full!! Praise the Lord!! Enjoy the pictures from the party.

This is our dirt. Really it was a pudding recipe with Oreo cookies on top.

Our team.

Spencer and Raul explain how to play Texas Bingo.

We rush around trying to find people who fit certain criteria on our Texas Bingo sheet.

More Texas Bingo.

Our Texas Pictionary was a hit with our very own Vanna White. Kayla loved erasing what was drawn after each contestant came to draw their masterpiece. One time, she accidently erased the score!! Everyone at the party rightly thought that it was so cute.

Kayla still being cute.

Tyler hit this ball all over the place. He will definitely be a baller!!

Until next time. Peace.

Christmas Party

Last night our annual Kats for Christ Christmas Party went off without a hitch. It was actually quite surprising! We were working on it all day long. Cleaning, getting supplies together, cooking, cooking some more, running again to get supplies, and all the little details that had to get done. Oh yeah...we also put up all our Christmas decorations yesterday too!! I cant' believe how much stuff we got done yesterday.

This was the first time that I cooked 40 chicken breasts all at once. I was rather proud of that! They all fit on the KFC BBQ pit at once too. I had forgotten a light to see the chicken, so by the end it was hard to see if the chicken was completely done or not. It all worked out fine and we praise God for the fun we had last night.

I wonder how much energy we are going to put into walking with the Lord today. Are we going to think about all the details? How are we going to decorate our lives with Christ today? What supplies do we need to gather? Ask for God's Spirit to guide you closer to him today.

Reading from Luke

As we get ready to come back to the States we are working on helping the missionaries know more about our readers. It is incredibly important that there is follow-up to the work that we have been doing. God will continue to work in the hearts of our readers. We praise God for this opportunity that we have had for a couple weeks in our life and trust him as we leave.

Tomorrow is our last day of reading. God is still using us. Our conversations are still important. In fact, this afternoon I have a new reader I have never read with before! We are here to plant seeds so new readers coming two days before we leave is still a good thing! Tomorrow night we have our farewell Churrasco where we will give our readers a certificate and a little bookmark to remember us. We will get many pictures so others can see.

The Lord is Faithful

The work continues in Rio. I continue to make more and more friends here and, in the process, get to share Jesus. Last Sunday our Texas party was a hit! There were a total of 80 people present, 17 of which were our readers. We ate Texas chili, played Texas Bingo, learned some Texas slang, acted out a Texas story, and had great fun the whole time. It was really good to see the readers and church members interacting with each other and getting to know each other. The Lord is faithful in his bringing people together to spread his word to fertile soil.

Reading Sessions

The last two days have been full of reading sessions. I have had a few no-shows, but they have rescheduled. We are gearing up for our Texas Party on Sunday after services. We will have Texas chili, Texas Bingo, Texas slang, Texas stories, and Texas songs. Some of these things we will not have time for, but it is going to be fun for all involved. All my readers are very excited about the party. Our main goal is to get the readers connected and interacting with the members of the congregation here. We are planning for about 100 people at the party. Please pray that God bring glory to his name during this time.

This is one of my readers named Wagner. He is a really cool guy. He says it is encouraging to have discussions with someone in another part of the world that has the same beliefs.