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CIRCUS IN GOIÂNIA

Thought I´d post some photos from a recent trip we had to a city in Goiás, a state a bit further north in Brazil. YWAM there have mounted a tent for a 30-day outreach in the city and asked our group to go and perform a night of circus and dance for the opening of the Big Top.

Here are a few photos from the work we did there in the Big Top and also from a street impact we did in the city the next day... a good time was had by all!

More news to follow shortly...

DISCIPULUZ

This is (some of) the performing arts group in Vide, the church I´m working in. We have 90 young people enrolled in the group this semestre, aged between 13 and 20-ish.

I had my fisrt rehearsals Friday and Saturday - you can choose 2 modules (modules?) out of about 5 - I´m doing Circus skills and Afro-Brasilian dance. Yep. I´m hurting ALL OVER. Some of the things they get us doing require you to basically forget that you have a spine. BUT, I am, after 22 long years, finally learning to do cartwheels! hahaha! Ok so I´m not quite there yet (I´m still put off by the fact that I am learning on a hard, uneven concrete floor) but I will succeed, if not by pure determination alone!

I´m also started co-leading a small group of 15 young people, discipling, counselling etc and am working in the leadership team of the youth department, Generation Attitude.

This week I started helping out in the nursery (cute cute!) and they also have Discipuluz Kids (imagine the above photo except only with tinies - aged 3-10) so I´m helping out with that too.

Next week I´m going to start giving English lessons to people from the local community - every Tuesday the church opens to the community and they have hundreds of local people coming to do all kinds of skills workshops and stuff, so I´ll be getting involved in that too.

So I´m pretty busy! Loving it all so far, it´s all really new and really challenging but I know I´m gonna enjoy it. My Portuguese is starting to feel more natural again which helps a lot - I was getting really tired the first couple of weeks, headaches etc, but it´s flowing a bit more now!

Katie Markham is coming to visit me for a couple of weeks, she arrives Friday, so I´m really excited about that! It will be great to have her here for a while! Someone to drink tea with, hooray! They all look at me like I have 2 heads when I drink tea here - "what is THAT? MILK?!!! NO SUGAR??!?!?!?!??!" =p

Anyway, I´m starting to ramble... hope all is well with everyone over there! Keep sending emails, news etc - it´s great to hear from you.

Until the next time...

C xx

NEW PLANS!

Just to keep up with my reputation, there have been e few changes of plans in the last couple of weeks!

I have decided I´m not gonn ago back to YWAM at the moment as the delay getting my visa meant that I would be arriving half way through a semestre so there´s not actually much I can do there at the moment.

THE NEW PLAN... As I mentioned in my last post I´ve been offered the opportunity to be part of the leadership team for the youth group at a church here in Uberlândia. It´s an amazing church with an amazing youth group (at least 100 young people I think) and they do a lot of work with discipleship, they have a performing arts group (dance, drama and circus skills) and loads of other stuff going on. I´m also thinking about getting involved with the kids work.

I´m going to be moving next week into an apartment with a girl from the church - it´s right next to the church and it´s just the two of us in a 3-bedroom place so it´s perfect... I´m really excited to get going with everything!

I am probably going to stay here until August when myself and Plácido will head back to YWAM. There is a leadership school starting in September which we really want to do - it´s run by the guy who started YWAM in Brazil and teaches about leadership and putting together your ministerial project so it sounds like it would be really helpful for us to get more focused on what projects we have for the next few years. After that there are a few things we are considering for next year, but one thing at a time!

So that´s what´s going on at the moment! I´m getting used to being back here - it´s good to experience life in Brazil outside of YWAM, it´s a different reality and something I really wanted to do.

I´ll update again soon!

xx

p.s. the photo was taken yesterday - myself and another English girl, Anna, who is here at the moment, were invited to a small group for 11-13 year-olds to talk about England, the young people there, the church, we did some typical English food, party games and stuff - it was so much fun! And I successfully made a shepherd´s pie! Anyone who has seen me in a kitchen should be suitable impressed by that...

BACK IN BRAZIL

Hello all!

Well, this is my first post since I´ve come back to Brazil, I´m gonna try and make this a regular thing to keep everyone updated on what I´m up to so check back now and then!

I got here on Tuesday - great flight, got here no problems. I´m in Uberlandia now, staying at my boyfriend´s house, spending some time with him and his family (at last!) and seeing friends I´ve made here from past visits.

So far I´m having a GREAT time, loving it! It is unbearably hot here so thats gonna take some getting used to (but I´m sure I´ll manage!) and I´m already being eaten alive by the mosquitos, but apart from that it´s all good! I´m surprised how normal everything feels - definitely doesn´t feel like I´ve been away for 10 months!

This week I´ve just been seeing people, getting used to everything again. I´ve got some decisions to make about what I´m going to do next - I was going to go back to YWAM to work with DTS until June when I´ll be starting another course, but it´s too late to do that now. SO if they don´t have any work for me to do at the base in Belo, I might stay here in Uberlandia until June. I´ve been asked to stay and work in the leadership team for the youth in the church here, so I need to talk to people more and figure out what I´m gonna do - either way, I´m looking forward to getting stuck back into it all!

Well, thats about it for now! Hope everyone´s well - I miss you all already, especially Mum, Dad, Steve, Jo and Joseto - love y´all!

Will post again soon...

xx