New Years at Guaruja Island

  I had a wonderful New Years celebration at Guaruja Island in the state of Sao Paulo. It is often refered to as 'The Pearl of the Atlantic". This was my first time to see the Atlantic Ocean, being a Cali girl all my life. The water was beautiful and very warm!
  New Year's Eve was a riot...at one point I really did think it was a riot....people go down the beach dressed in all white and try to jump over 7 waves and eat grapes and throw white flowers into the ocean before midnight...luck for the new year. It was interesting. There were also fireworks and people spraying other people with champagne. It was nuts!
  It rained all New Year's Day...
  I am now back in Brasilia and getting ready for the teacher work week to start....my apartment is in boxes. They took me to look at a few apartments yesterday...horrible. Better luck next time.
  Happy 2010! I know it will be!

Ending 2009

  When I look back on this year I smile. God has been SOOOO good and faithful to me. I often don't have the words to express how much I love Him and how strong I feel His love. I am undeserving, but He is amazing! In love with His unconditional and steadfast love.
  Christmas was an interesting time. I am now in Sao Paulo at my friend Maria's house. We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas with her husband's family. They live in Campinas, it is about an hour and a half from Sao Paulo city. They didn't even eat dinner until midnight. Then there was Amigo Secreto, like Secret Santa, that did not start until 1:30 am. It was a late night! The people were really nice. Brazilians are very friendly. They taught us how to samba, too. I say, us, meaning myself and Lauren. Lauren and I work together and she is spending Christmas with me. Christmas night we went to the movies.
  This break time is nice, laying around is great! Lauren and I are tired from the stressful semester. The Christmas Program went great. The kids did a good job. The last 2 days of school we had a whole school chapel and then Christmas parties. The staff Christmas party was nice too.
  Reflecting before the new year is nice. I just learned that Brazil has a tradition that before the new year you buy a new pair of panties and you pick a color reflecting what you want for the new year. For example, red means you want passion, pink means love, yellow means money, and white means peace. I am trying to decide which color I want...LOL.
  For New Year's we are going to Guaraja! The beach! Yay! Sooo excited! We are going to be there for 5 days. RELAXATION! Life is good!

Tis the Season...

Worship team Christmas Party

Christmas Program Rehearsal

One gorgeous day, my girls and I read outside

 Jesus is the reason for the season! I have always loved Christmas! Christmas for me is a time of love, joy, hope and celebrating! Growing up my parents told us the true meaning of Christmas and I had no idea who Santa Claus was until I was in school. We have always celebrated Jesus' birthday and I always will.
  I am rejoicing because I am staying in Brazil this holiday season. I am going to Sao Paulo to stay with Maria and her husband. There is another American teacher coming with me since her family is coming to visit in January she is not going home. It should be a fun time.
   Work is crazy right now with the Christmas Program coming up! We are rehearsing a lot and making costumes like crazy. I wish you all could come and see. I did the dances...except the high school one...I did the basics and they basically screwed the rest up. They have bad attitudes about having to dance and it shows when they dance. Yikes! Other than that the other students look great!
  This weekend I attended 2 Christmas Parties. The first one was for the worship team at the international church and it was a lot of fun! It was my first outing without having anyone else from the school in attendance. It was great! The second one was super secular and it was a 'White Trash Christmas Party'--I felt out of place and didn't stay long. It was thrown by some teachers at the other international school. Crazy times.
  In case you did not know, yes, I am staying in Brazil! Deus e fiel! God is faithful. The only other issue is that we now have to move apartments...BEFORE the break! Ahhh!
  I am STILL content with the wonderful life that God has blessed me to live!

Thanksgiving

  When I say Thanksgiving I do not necessarily mean the holiday, but the action of thanking God everyday for the wonderful things He has done. The translation for Thanksgiving in Portuguese is the 'Action of Thanks'. A week ago I was teaching my students about the first Thanksgiving and before I could get more indepth into the lesson a student said, "My mom said that Thanksgiving should be everyday, a day to thank the Lord." Smart woman.
  I have been thankful for so many things...when we went around the table on Thanksgiving I said I was thankful for a God who is a 'Dream fulfiller'. It reminds me of a song we sing at Family Fellowship..
  "He's a miracle worker, He's a bondage breaker, He's a dream releaser, that is who You are" So true.
I am thankful for being able to come to Brazil and to teach kids from different countries. I am their teacher, but they teach me so many things. I am also grateful for the international church I attend. I am starting to get to know a lot more people. It is nice. I am grateful for so many things..this is just a start.
  We found out that December 7th is the day that the school will tell us who will be asked to go home. Please pray for us and the leadership. I know that God is not done with me here in Brazil.
  What are you thankful for? Think back on what God has done this year...it is almost over....

Relaxation....

Hi all! Last weekend I had some visitors, Maria and her husband Claudemir, flew in from Sao Paulo. They took me to Chapada dos Veadeiros in the state of Goias. It is a natural park with 25 different waterfalls, canyons and wildlife. It was about 3 hours away, Travis also went with us. We picked up a guide, who was a hippie and he took us to one of the waterfalls with a Woodstock stage...go figure. It was beautiful though. After being there awhile we ate at this yummy pasta bar. Later we stopped at a hot spring. We stayed the night in a pousada, a rustic inn. It was a nice place and I loved the hammocks outside. It was a great weekend. It was my first real chance to get out of the city and do something else.
  Maria asked me to be her baby's godmother! Wow! Yay! They decided to name her Rafaella. (Ha-fi-el-la) I am going to Sao Paulo for Christmas break.
  School news: things are going good. Parent-teacher conferences went well. The school is still trying to decide what to do. It sounds like they want to make a decision by the end of this month! Please pray! Thank you.  I am working hard on the Christmas program. I am teaching the elementary music part of it and all of the choreography. Please pray that I will not get too tuckered out. I am also leading an after school dance club. Life is always busy here, but God is good and I am settling in here.
  Much Love!

Prayer Requests

At our staff meeting today it was brought to our attention that our small school size is hurting the school financially. We are need of more students. For our school to survive we need about 25 more students. I know that the Lord can send them from all over the place. Pray that the embassies will send their children to our school. Our school is also promoting it's preschool program. Pray that more Brazilians and others will enroll their children. If our enrollment does not increase then 2 of us teachers will be going home in January. It has not been decided who those teachers will be yet. It is not a pleasant thing to think about. We have a great staff and I enjoy working with all of them. Don't let this tear our school apart.

We have parent-teacher conferences this week and I have a particularly difficult family I need to meet with. Please pray for me and for them.

Also found out that our director and his family will be leaving Brazil at the end of this year. They have been with the school for 10 years now and think it is time for them to move on. They are expecting baby number 3.

Lots going on, but God is faithful!

"Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised." Hebrews 10:35-36

Overload....

  Thank the good Lord it is Friday! I am worn out! We only had school for 4 days this week, but it felt sooo long. I found out this week that one of my students went home and told her mom that I said she was dumb. I said no such thing. This girl's mom was upset and wanted to have a conference with me at Children's Day, but a member of admin. told her that now was not the time or the place. I can not believe this girl! She is one of my students who doesn't do assignments or follow directions. Ahhh..
  Next week is parent-teacher conferences, this should be interesting. The students do not have school on Monday and Tuesday, but we have to do report cards and have a teacher-in-service. I am looking forward to a few days student free.
  Last night were were all taken out to dinner and I ended up at a table full of kids...I had to relocate myself. There was no way I was going to last a meal there...I had already reached a sensory overload moment in the full van on the way to the restaurant. I wanted to retreat. After I moved tables it was fine. It was just too much.
  Looking forward to a nice weekend...