August 7, 2007

Ola, much-loved friends and family!

I know it’s definitely been about 5 weeks since my last update, but I’m here again. Really, I’m not dead. It’s OK. Anyway, the past weeks have been so crazy busy, but the Father has been doing some really great things. Kim and I worked at Ajuda Crista a Juventude, a Chr camp for underprivileged children. We were separated most of the time, though. We hardly ever saw each other long enough to say more than “Hi,” so our experiences were very different. If you want to know Kim’s side of the story, you have to read her update on the SBU website: http://www.sbuniv.edu/ICS/Journals/indx.htm .

ACJ is an organization kind of like Compassion International or World Vision or any other organization that sponsors poor children, but ACJ does it on a much smaller scale. The kids at this camp—ages 7 though 10 the first week, and ages 11 through 14 the second—came from the worst kind of situations. Poverty, starvation, abuse of all sorts, broken families, you name it. Most of them knew very little about Dad. Raquel, the Portuguese girl who was my co-leader, and I were responsible for spoon-feeding 2 different groups of girls as much of His love as we could give.

The first week of camp was incredibly difficult for me. Almost no one spoke English, and my Portuguese was not that good yet, so most of the time I had very little idea what was going on, and I couldn’t communicate with the girls in my tent. I was supposed to be their leader, but because I couldn’t communicate with them very well, they didn’t seem to realize I was even a leader. In the end, though, I realized that my job was not “to be a leader” and to get the kids to like me. Instead, it was to serve the kids and love them just because of Dad. (Sorry, I know that’s really general, but I can’t really put into words what I am thinking)

The second week was much better. The attitude adjustment the Lord gave me the first week really helped me keep a better perspective on life. Part of my frustration the first week came from the fact that I was desperate to develop relationships with the other leaders, but it was so difficult. They were amazing people, but despite my efforts, they acted kind of awkward with me because of all the language and culture barriers between us. Finally, during the second week, they warmed up to me a little more, allowing us to build relationship.

Also, some new leaders arrived, and literally, when they did, it seemed like a ray of sunshine flooded the camp. These new leaders were so much more open and friendly with Kim and me. They weren’t afraid to approach us and talk to us. I know the Lord heard my yarps and sent them to encourage us.

Favorite camp story: Going to the pool twice a day was the kids’ favorite activity, but it was so cold! And if you know me, you realize that I hate being cold worse than almost anything else. (I love pools, just not cold ones) But I went to the pool every day so I could connect with the kids. One day during the first week, one of the girls in my tent, Susana, stayed by me the whole time I was in the pool. We played and had a great time together, even though I thought I was going to die of hypothermia. Susana was a truly special-needs girl. Though she was 9 years old, she had the mind of a 4-year-old. She couldn’t respond the same way other girls her age could. At home, her mom beat her for small mistakes. Susana needed so much love! I stuck by her all week.

After we got home from camp, we started a week of teaching ESL (English as a Second Language) classes. Kim, our roommate Amanda, and I taught a class for 2 hours in the afternoons. In the evenings, we just talked with people who wanted to practice conversation. Other people from the m team did more intense teaching. In total, we spent about 3 hours a day in transit, traveling to and from classes. Our afternoon class was great. Two of our students were our age. They spoke nearly perfect English and came because they wanted an excuse to hang out with Americans. Kim and I plan on spending a lot more time with them. They are so fun, and they are going to help us with our Portuguese! Our other student was an older woman. She was so intelligent and perceptive. We loved talking to her.

During the evening class, Amanda and I talked with the same woman every night. She was so sweet, and she knew everything! Before she had kids, she was an attorney. She knew all kinds of facts and figures and statistics. One night, I brought her a news article in Portuguese and asked her to help me with the words I didn’t understand. I ended up getting lots of helpful information about shades of meaning in Portuguese verbs and about the Portuguese judicial system. But she was also interested in American culture. When she found out that Amanda lived near a Native American reservation, she wanted to know all about that. At the end of the week, when she said goodbye to us, she said, “I’m a believer too. What you’ve been doing here has really been a blessing from the Holy Spirit.”

Now that our week of ESL is over, Kim and I are dealing with more changes and busyness—but it’s the good kind. We are moving to a new apartment.  That way, we won’t have to travel 30-60 minutes to get to our work in the city. Also, I’m going to be teaching ESL twice a week. I’m hoping the Lord will use that to bring many ministry opportunities.

All the m's here  agree that the Father is starting to do something amazing here. We don’t know what it is yet, but it’s something He’s never done before. Along with that though, Satan is fighting back. Kim and I have been under a lot of spiritual attack lately, and all the other m's have had issues too: serious illness, life changes, the challenges of language learning (Note: Yarp for Ray and Penny. They are in their 50’s, but they are newly appointed career m's dealing with learning Portuguese language and culture. They worked in Spain for 2 years, and now they’ve been in Portugal for a just a few weeks. They’re such a joy to be around. Their courage and determination is inspiring.).

Well, everyone, I’m done jabbering on. Thanks for your love and yarps. Keep talking to me on email and Facebook. I know I’m kind of an Internet slacker sometimes, but I try to keep up communication.

Beijinhos,

Brittaney

Photo Captions:

1. Kim and Amanda cooking in our kitchen in Alges. They are both great cooks. Between the two of them we always had so many yummy things to eat. Amanda had to go back to the US today (Wednesday), but she left us some of her recipes. 2. My group of girls (in no order) from the first week, with my co-leader, Raquel: Jessica, Patricia, Janis, Susana, and Rafaela.

3. Me with Monica, one of my girls from the 2nd week of camp. At 14, Monica was much more mature than most of the other campers. She was super sweet and was a huge help with Kristina, another special needs girl in our tent. Behind us in this picture, you can see Ismael, who was one of the other leaders (with the glasses). The other boy is Michel, a camper. Some quick yarp requests: Praises – Our ESL classes have been really successful so far; Dad is building Kim’s and my relationship; other ministry opportunities are opening up; our supervisors are helpful and caring; Dad is pretty much spectacular! Moving – We need to learn our new area  and find the ministries Dad wants to give us there. Language learning – We are restructuring that slightly and hoping to create more opportunities for consistent conversation. It’s a little tough sometimes, especially since Kim and I have very different learning styles. The other m's on the team – Don and Billie,  Chris and Jill ,  Scott and Sandra,  Emily Rose, Ray and Penny , Lielson and Veronica.