Where has the time gone?

13 days left in Brazil. WHAT?! I know, this summer has flown by for me too. I can't believe I have lived and labored in South America for 6 weeks already. The more I have reflected on the past weeks, the more I realize how much God has revealed and grown me. It is unbelievable how much He has taught me so far. Although it has been a very challenging summer, I am very thankful for my experiences here. Here is a little re-cap of the past week and what is to come!


Last weekend our team went to a favela (the area where the very poor of Belo Horizonte live). It was an eye-opening and humbling experience. We went to a school to hang out with children and gave them snacks. It truly convicted me with how selfish I am and how much I am blessed with. After an hour of playing games with all the children, we did a little skit that presented the Gospel. It was a really cool experience to get to love on and minister to a different people group in Brazil.


The campus I have been going to all summer to meet people, PUC, wrapped up there semester a week ago. This week we had the challenge of initiating plans and trying to get all of our contacts to hang out with us. We did fun things each day such as going to historic landmarks, professional soccer games, the movies, and the zoo. God has provided many good friendships for me and is making it easier for me to bring up deep conversation with them. I am confident seeds are being planted for His glory. Another cool thing our team did this week was going up to a huge tower in the middle of the city on my birthday. From the top of the tower we were able to see the entire city as the sun set behind the mountains. One of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. The team then surprised me with a strawberry birthday cake - my favorite!. I definitely felt very loved.


Things you guys can be praying for as our summer is wrapping up:

• The guys I have gotten close to: Mateus, Gustavo, MT, Alex, Lucas, and Caio. Some have already gone home since school is over, but pray God continues opening doors for experiences with them and conversations about His grace. 
• We are about 95% sure we are having a final retreat. Please pray that all gets worked out and that many students come and are exposed the the Gospel.
• We only have one Discussion Group left. Last nights went great as we brought up the subject of the Bible and it's importance and truth. Pray the students continue investigating and that we have a big outcome next week. 
• HEALTH and ENERGY for our team! Many of us have been getting sick and are constantly tired. Great way to learn to depend on God's strength, but it is very challenging. 
• That we would take advantage of every moment we have left. That we would initiate and lead and most importantly, love. Pray God continues to use us to water the seeds and that Brazilian students would be moved further along in their process of knowing Him. 

At Ouro Preto, a historical city in Brazil.

At a Cruzeiro soccer game with some Brazilians.

He is the God of this city.

Time is really flying by very quickly here in Brazil. So quick, that I didn't even realize it has over 2 weeks since I have updated last. I apologize for that! A lot has been going on, but I will try my best to summarize it. 
Last weekend we had our investigative retreat; a huge event that God truly used. Our team of 20 Americans, the Campus Outreach Brazil staff, and about 60+ Brazilian students all traveled to a fun camp site in a town about an hour and a half away from June 10-12. We had fun activities such as soccer, a swimming pool, a movie, pool tables, a bonfire, and lots of food, but the main aspect of the weekend was discussing deep, spiritual topics. I was very encouraged to see how interested the Brazilian students were. Like I mentioned before, the them of our summer is "Origin". We bring up topics such as "How did we get here?" and "What is our purpose?"We used the movie Inception to correlate some of the questions we discussed. The staff did a really good job at connecting the movie with our own personal lives and spirituality. What I was most excited about was that we finally brought up Jesus openly during the retreat. We talked about the relevance of Christ in our lives and the importance of knowing Him in order to know God. After each main talk the Staff gave, we broke up into small discussion groups to open up on our thoughts of all of these topics. I can really see seeds being planted. In Brazil, and especially with the college students, exposing them to the Gospel and their need for it is a very slow, loving process. I can definitely see many students opening up to investigating truth. 


One student in particular I have gotten closest to is Gustavo, a law student at PUC. We met him early on in the summer on campus along with a group of his classmates. He was the only one that has really stuck along and has been getting involved. He gets some persecution from his friends every now and then, because he always wants to hang out with the Americans. It is really encouraging to see how it does not stop him from spending time with us. Weeks ago, Gustavo made plans with a friend to go to a different city for the weekend for a huge party. He instead chose to come to the investigative retreat with us. His friend was really upset and even blocked him on facebook, but I definitely saw God's sovereignty through the situation. I had a long, intentional conversation with Gustavo on Friday night at the retreat. He shared his beliefs and views with me, and asked me about mine. After he told me his background with Christianity (or the lack of it) and what he personally believed, God gave me to opportunity to share my testimony with him as well as the full-out Gospel. Please be praying for him. He has some pretty radical, off-the-wall beliefs (He believes in Spiritism and doesn't think Christ has any significance or that God is Lord) and had never really been exposed to the Gospel before getting involved with our team. He heard a lot of truth at the retreat and I am confident he is still thinking about it all. Please pray God opens more doors of opportunity for me and other guys on the team to pour our lives into him and to share more truth. I am really hoping God softens his heart for him to genuinely begin investigating more. Here is a picture of the two of us:

Other guys I have gotten close to that you can be praying for are Mateus, Marco Tulio, Caio, Giovane, Anthony, Bruno, Lucas, and Alex. 
I also have had some really good conversations with Brazilians students that have come to Christ through past CCPs. It is really encouraging to get fellowship with them and to hear how God saved them. It really pushes me on to continue seeing the fruit God has produced through teams in the years past. 


The team is consistently tired, but we are all pushing through. We have gotten a lot closer and are beginning to really feel like a family. Vulnerability has reached a whole new level! I an continually challenged being here and feel drained physically, emotionally, and spiritually, but it has pushed me to rely on God more than I ever would in the comforts of home.  I am thankful I can trust in His grace and cling to His truth. We only have 3 weeks left in Brazil, so please pray I take advantage of every minute. Pray God would continue opening doors for us to talk about Christ. Also, PUC has finished the semester, so we are no longer going to campus daily. Please pray we have many opportunities to hang out with the students we have built relationships daily outside of campus. I can see God moving in Belo Horizonte. He is the God of this city. 


A few more pictures:

 The team hanging out on our Sabbath day.

 Me and Marco Tulio at Festa Junina, a huge typical Brazilan party we had. 

A few of us on the team with Gustavo at the Investigative Retreat.

His grace is always sufficient.

We were given the evening off tonight, so I am going to give a quick update of the past week. Time is beginning to go by a lot faster. We are about to begin week 3 here in Brazil. From what I hear, we are definitely off to a good start. Like I have mentioned before, our main focus is to build as many relationships with Brazilians as possible in hopes of sharing the truth of the Gospel. We have team time every Tuesday and this past Tuesday we name-stormed all of the Brazilians we have hung out with on campus and at our house and came up with over 70 names. And we continue to meet many more each day! Please be praying these students continue to come around and desire to spend time with us Americans. Also pray that we continually live out the Gospel at all times.


A few people on the team have gotten sick, but I have probably been hit the worst so far. I was the first to have to miss a day on campus because of illness. I spent literally ALL day Thursday laying in my bed. I also unfortunately had to miss out on Discussion Group, but I heard we had a great turnout and awesome conversations. It was not a fun day for me, but I am feeling way better now. Most of us are always exhausted, but it is starting to get a bit easier the longer we spend here. It is definitely teaching me how vital it is to depend on God in my weakness. His grace is always sufficient.


Our team is getting a lot closer and I'm starting to get closer to a few Brazilians as well. I can't imagine what these relationships will be like after 6 more weeks. I've heard from past teams how difficult it is to leave these people after building such deep relationships. The fear of getting really close to people then knowing you have to leave them sometimes holds me back from fully going forth and investing as much as I should. God has revealed a lot of my fears, insecurities, and sins to me over the past week, and it has been tough, but beneficial. I just have to remind myself I am doing God's work for His glory. Such an incredible thing to grasp, and very humbling. Please pray the Lord continues to use our team.

Deus é o Senhor do mundo.

Days here in Belo Horizante are far more eventful then I ever could have imagined. It has been a lot of fun and God is teaching me things left and right. It still has been one of the most difficult experiences I have gone through, though. I feel like I am constantly drained physically and emotionally. The first couple of days here the staff told us that Brazilians have a very high relational capacity. I thought I could handle it being very relational and social.. but man, was I wrong. In America, I tend to be refueled by people and love time with my close friends, but I have learned my capacity is weak-sauce compared to Brazilians. They will spend hours upon hours of time just hanging out. This has been very draining, but it is why we are here, so at the same time I am thankful for it. With that said I'll fill you in on how God has been moving the past few days...


Every Thursday we have what we call "Discussion Group", and this past Thursday was our first one. We spent Monday-Wednesday meeting and hanging out with as many Brazilian students on campus to invite them to this. I was pretty surprised and excited about the outcome. We had a decently big group for it being the first week. Discussion Groups are kind of like a Campus Outreach Weekly meeting we have in the states. We start with an ice-breaker type game and the staff give a short talk leading into what our discussion will be about. Most Brazilians don't understand why we are here yet, and most are turned off by any type of organized religion. The staff did a good job of explaining why we had all the Brazilians over... basically we want to indulge into the culture as much as possible and talking about things that matter with Brazilians is a good way to do that. The staff introduced the theme of the summer, "Origin" and explained how everything has an origin and that it effects many aspects of life. We broke into small groups of Brazilians and Americans and were given questions to talk about:
1. Where did we come from?
2. What is our purpose?
3. Where are we going after life?
4. What is wrong with the world?
3 freshman I have been spending a lot of time with at PUC came and were really responsive. It was really exciting to see them interested and giving their opinions. Hopefully it will be a good leeway to future conversations. Please be praying for...

• Marco Tulio, Caio, Clarissa, Bruno, Lucas, Matheus, Diogo, Mario, and Fe. 

There are dozens more I have met, but these are Brazilians I have spent most time with. Especially Marco Tulio, Caio, Bruno, and Lucas.

We had "Disciple Training" on Saturday morning where the Christian, involved Brazilian students come over. The staff taught about the Sabbath and resting and about how Biblical it is. During Disciple Training we had worship in both Portuguese and English. One of my favorite experiences yet. This was when I was remind God is the Lord of the world. It was so awesome, I still get chills thinking about it. I teared up seeing how much these Brazilians love God and it motivated me to push even harder here to help make God known. 

Both Friday and Saturday we had people over to the house for parties. Another draining part of all of this, but I think it has been very effective. If Brazilians are invited over, they will stay forever! Haha... Saturday was our bigger get-together and it started at 2 in the afternoon. People showed up and most stayed until 11 PM... so yeah, that's a 9 hour party! That is very normal here. I was surprised they did not get bored, but card games, us teaching them our chereographed American dances, fifa on the xbox, and just sitting around and talking kept a ton of them entertained for hours. It was a lot of fun, but we all went straight to bed as soon as they left! 

Sunday is our Sabbath day. We get to use it to rest in whatever way we'd like. I slept in until about 10 and then spent a couple of hours with God praying and getting into the Word. I also went on a run which is really refreshing for me. I still get confused with the whole metric system, but there is a sidewalk that is marked with signs that goes all around the giant lake here and tell you the distance in kilometers. I ran somewhere between 4 and 1/2 to 5 miles and enjoyed the amazing view of the city wrapped around the lake. It has been a much needed day. We all just sit around and refuel in whatever way we like and are going to church tonight. 

There are times when I love it here and other times where I don't like it as much. But I have realized that I react off of emotions that come from certain circumstances far too much. It is hard being here, but God has proved that His grace is sufficient for me and that He is glorified in my weakness (which there is a lot of!)... I am humbled to be able to experience laboring for the Lord in another country and just need to remind myself that this life is not my own, but for His glory. Thank you all so much for your support and please be praying I rely on God here more each day and never try to do anything out of my own strength. Also pray more Brazilians would come to the Discussion groups and parties and really ebing to investigate in Spiritual things. Eu amo o Brasil! 

Eu amo a Brasil.

Today was day 6 in Brazil. Unbelievable. Feels like 2 weeks because days go by so slow, but I wouldn't have it any other way. A ton has happened since I have last posted. Way too much to summarize on here, but I will give you the gist of it!


On Sunday we had more training before church at 6 PM. There was a huge soccer game that we watched as well. Soccer is obviously a very big deal here in Brazil, but Belo Horizante has two professional teams and everyone here picks a side (Cruziero and Athletico or Galo). These are the two teams that played and it was the championship game. I decided I am a Cruziero fan after a few Brazilian students convinced me and they ended up winning the game! I really enjoyed church that night as well. Our team got hand-held radios and earphones so we could hear the sermon being translated into English. My favorite part was worshipping in Portuguese. They had the lyrics of the songs projected on the wall and I was excited to understand most of it. One of the things that has warmed my heart the most is seeing Brazilian college students worship, pray, and get into the Word. It gets me really excited! 


Monday we had some team communication and evangelism training after finally finding out what campus we would be on all summer. Our team of 18 students is split and sent to two different college campuses here in Belo Horizante. UFMG (Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais) is the public college here. It is gigantic with over 30,000 undergraduate students. PUC (Pontificia Universidade Catolica) is the private university in Belo and is much smaller. After much anxious waiting and a drumroll that seemed to last forever, I found out I was assigned to PUC! After going to campus I saw God's sovereignty in the decision and felt right at home. Our team at PUC is split into even smaller teams within campus to really be able to meet and impact as many people as possible. Kaylee Carman, Kevin Combs, and I spend most of our time in the Law cafeteria/area of campus. This is where all of the law and communication students have classes, eat, and hang out. They are very talkative people are most are very fluent in English, which makes it a lot easier on us! They help us learn a lot of Portuguese as well. A normal day on campus for us is to go to the cafeteria when we get there at about 10 AM. We hang out there for a few hours and meet and talk to as many students as we can. They love Americans and will spend hours sitting with us... (Even though multiple people ask me if I'm Brazilian haha... probably because of my name and dark complexion.) We then go to the sports club where they have a track, pool, weight room, and multiple basketball and soccer courts. We have played hours of basketball and soccer both days we've been on campus and the Brazilian students love it! I'm pretty terrible at both, but it is a lot of fun and worth the time spent with them. 
Monday night our team went to a dance class held by the church and it was a great time. We learned a few basic steps of some of the traditional Brazilian dances. All the girls I danced with said I was really good... not sure if I was or if they were just being nice! 


Tuesday is team night, so all of us get some Biblical teaching from Nate, our staff leader and then get some solid quality time. We all got a popular treat called acai cream and went to an amazing spot in Belo on a high hill where you can see the entire city. It was amazing... didn't bring a camera, but once the girls put their pictures up I will try to post some. 


The food has been surprisingly really good! We eat rice and beans everyday, but that is something I am used to growing up in a Puerto Rican family. We haven't had one meal I did not enjoy. 




There have definitely been some challenges and frustrating moments, and I didn't exactly love being here at first, but I am confident God will grow me through the things I am not comfortable with. I am constantly exhausted and I am not a big fan of change, and being here has been the most change I have ever gone through. I have realized my selfishness in many ways and am praying for more sanctification and ultimately glorying God more with my life. It has really pushed me to have to rely on Him more, and that is never a bad thing. 


So there you have it.... almost one week down and 7 more to go. Can't wait to see what else God reveals and what else is in store. 

This is home.

The trip here to Brazil was an interesting one to say the least. 24 hours of traveling which included flying and layovers was not the most exciting thing to me, but we made it. I left for Memphis with my family at 5 in the morning after a night of no sleep. We all said our goodbyes and flew to Miami in probably the tiniest plane known to man. If I were 2 inches taller I wouldn't have been able to stand up straight in it! We then got to Miami and hung out in the airport for 4 hours until our flight to Sau Paulo, Brazil. We took advantage of eating our last American meal and got dinner at Chili's. I was dreading this flight because it was 8 hours long, but my emotions for the flight quickly changed once I stepped foot on the plane. It was huge and had TVs on the back of every seat with a touch screen. On them you could view a map that tracked where the plane was, listen to music, play games, but most importantly there were tons of new movies you could choose from... including Harry Potter 7. Haha, flight wasn't so bad after all. They served both dinner and breakfast, making it my first experience with Brazilian food, and I really enjoyed it. Things got a little bumpy once we were in the Sau Paulo airport. The language barrier and lack of communication got us a little tripped up, but we figured it all out. Then while going through customs, a lot of us on the team got our customs paper taken from us and thrown away without us realizing we needed them. We had to run back and have the employees search through the trash cans to find them for us. We finally got them back and were on our way to the final destination: Belo Horizante! 

Once we landed, the Campus Outreach staff that works here in Belo picked us up and took us to our house here... or should I say mansion. It is absolutely incredible! 3 stories tall and tons of bedrooms and space. I seriously got lost the first time I was trying to find my room! It really is a blessing that our team gets to live in it. There are 8 guys on 4 sets of bunk beds in my room... definitely will be a challenge, but it will only mature us in our character and will give us opportunity to die to ourselves and serve others. There are 2 Brazilian college students in our room as well and 5 Brazilians living in our house all together. They have been a big help for sure. We all immediately showered and crashed once we got here, and then later unpacked and got acquainted with the house and the CO staff here.

Today we had our first day of training. We learned more about the Brazilian culture and how to relate to them in building relationships and evangelizing. We then learned a lot of do's and dont's and all about taking safety pre-cautions. My favorite part of the training today was the Portuguese lesson. Thankfully I am picking it up pretty quickly because of my background in Spanish. Hopefully I'll be fluent by the end of the summer! 

We'll head to campus for the first time on Monday, so please be praying that we have a lot of favor with the Brazilian students we meet! I have only been here for a little over a day and have already had an incredible experience. Can't wait to see what else God reveals and does here in Brazil. 

My God will supply every need of yours.

It is incredibly hard to believe I am finally in Brazil. Didn't quite hit me until we were picked up at the airport in Belo Horizante by the CO Brazil staff. As I sat in the small Brazilian-made car and cruised down the road, (felt like I was in a fast and furious movie haha) I swallowed the fact that this is home for 2 weeks. Hello culture shock! Those of you who know me well know that my Blackberry is always in my hands as I constantly text, update twitter, and check facebook. Don't have that luxury here! It will be a tough summer of being uncomfortable in more way than one, but so far God has shown me His provision - Hence the title of this post. 


When I was challenged to be part of the CCP team about 6 months ago the first thing I thought of was "Sounds like an awesome life-changing opportunity, BUT raising $5000 seemed like a daunting task. I immediately was not trusting God. At our first team meeting and training session we learned all about support raising. How it is Biblical, how it is a blessing, and how it forces one to truly rely on God. I did not do that so well the first few months of attempting to raise the money. My fears and insecurities took over and I was not diligent in any way. Then two weeks before our departure I was faced with a tough reality: I had barely raised 50% of the needed financial support. That is when I would usually freak out. But this time, I decided to really dig into what it meant to trust God. Many times in His word He tells us nothing is impossible for Him in faith. I meditated on many verses of truth, but the one I held on to tightest was Phillipians 4:19...

"And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus."

I then in complete confidence begged God to provide and then diligently made phone calls to potential supporters. The day before I left God miraculously provided over $2000!!! I was blown away by His faithfulness. People I did not even know were sending me money for the trip. I then understood how important it is to trust in His love and provision. I know I'm going to face many challenges this summer in Brazil, but He has definitely equipped me to understand there is no reason to worry. He's got it all under control for His glory.