Things Are Happenning!

Just because we have been quiet recently doesn't mean things haven't been happening here in Brazil! The contrary! When we are quiet that typically means lots of things are happening at the same time!

The elementary (Juniors) of the church in Santo Amaro, Palmas had a day outing in June! It was a great day! Many of the adults that would be responsible were afraid that the children would not listen, but that did not happen! We had a great day on the beach by the lake here in Palmas. We threw the American football but that quickly turned to football (soccer)! One of the other fears was the infestation of piranhas on this beach, but the kids braved the waters and not one was bitten on their toes! Since then the local goverment had installed a metal screen to keep the piranhas out of the swimming area. Click on the pictures for a larger version.


The juniors Sunday School department also had a pie in the face contest where squared off against each other answering questions on the book of Ruth! It was fun for everyone that participted, and tasty too!



We saw Julio Cesar become engaged to Layane at the Santo Amaro church, they have marked their wedding for December. In Brazil it is not uncommon to have an engagement party and have a special service at church to celebrate the engagement.



Also in June we had a special day in Sunday school with the primary department! The children had their June Festival party which included a corn dish that is very sweet, sort of looks like mush to me, but tastes really good. The children normally dress up like hillbillies during this month of June in the schools and such places. Square dancing is one part of the parties. While the Catholic church celebrates this party to catholic saints, we celebrated the month of June and explained that we were not celebrating these saints! It was a fun time for the children and they enjoyed dressing up!
June 24th God blessed us with six people completing the discipleship course of the church. This is for anyone that wants to participate, but usually for new believers. There were actually seven people, but only six were present when we had the certificate presentation.