Bunnies, Chocolate, Eggs and Jesus

Sharing the Easter story and passing
 out beads for the bracelets.

  Nowadays, when people think about Easter, all we ever see or hear about is the easter bunny, eggs, chocolate and marshmallow chicks. Here in Brazil, giant chocolate eggs is where it's at (and they're a bit pricey if I might add.) Last Wednesday, we had our Easter celebration at the project, since Thursday and Friday were holidays and I was privileged to share with the kids from the project what Easter is really all about. I shared the story of Jesus and what he came to this earth to do: die for us so that we may live and that he's alive again!

  Have you ever made a salvation bracelet before? In my [almost!] 19 years of life, I've made several of these things. The church I grew up in would make hundreds of bracelets and send them off with teams going on mission trips to Brazil. I made them in my DTS in Mexico as well. It was pretty fun to actually make them along with the kids I've been spending the last 6 weeks with. 

  Though it was quite a challenge to get everyone seated and quiet (I'm getting pretty used to that by now) overall it went very well. The story was shared, bracelets were made, beads were dropped and rolled away and a prayer, asking Jesus to give us a new, clean heart, was said by almost every child and teen in that room. It was a very joyful experience to hear, in that whole day, approximately 75 kids say that prayer along with me. Everyone got a good laugh when I jumped, shouted and danced around demonstrating what was going on in heaven after that moment.

  Afterwards, we all shared a special snack of chocolate milk with chocolate cake. We celebrated what Jesus did for us and we celebrated and enjoyed each other. It was wonderful to be able to give something so simple, yet so special to these kids: fun, food and Jesus.

A Lesson on Grace

  Grace. We sure do need it, don't we? Every day I am amazed, simply blown away, at the grace God extends to me each day. I also need his grace and mercy so much so that I can extend it to others, like my students. This week I really needed God's grace.

  My mom has been sick this week so I had to teach the two classes we do together by myself. On Tuesdays, the day activities begin at the project each week, we teach Portuguese class to about 10 kinder gardeners. It's slightly ironic because neither of us are Brazilian. But we are just teaching the ABC's. :)

Ana Dara practicing her spelling.

  The class went fairly well. I had two kids decide they didn't want to play Bingo anymore and escape the class room to play, so I had to go bring them back. One of the kids has tantrums, so I had to pay him a lot of attention so that there would be no problems; and the rest of the kids just don't know the meaning of "Please, be quiet and sit down." Instead, they'd say over and over again, "Tia, tia, tia, tia, tia, tia, tia....!" [teacher/auntie (literally that many times!)] "Can we have candy?" My throat was so sore afterwards because I had to speak louder than them (which, by the way, they were all yelling) just so they'd know I that was talking. Those who've seen me speak in public [without a mic!] know that I have a very quiet voice too.

Guilherme, one of the kinder gardeners.

  Okay, so the kids were a little out of control that day. But it was very interesting to teach a class by myself. I really did enjoy it. I taught the kids a song about frogs that I'd learned in Mexico at my DTS (dts folks: I translated the Sapo song from Spanish to Portuguese) and the kids all love it! We all played a game outside and had tons of fun together. They all got a prize for winning the ABC bingo game. And my throat recovered. But in the end, even though the kids may seem to drive me crazy at times, I still love them so much. I know that what I'm doing is important to their lives. And I learned something about God.

  All the time, God is asking me  "Amelia, be still... Amelia, listen to me..." and I keep babbling on, "But God... God... God... God..." Yet he continues to extend grace to me. He doesn't yell at me. He doesn't lose his temper. He continues to be patient, speaking softly to me, until I finally calm down and stop to hear what He has to say.

It's amazing the things we can learn from little kids. :)

Pink Flowers On My Wedding Day

    It has truly been such a blessing to be involved in what I am involved in.  I've been learning so much about teaching, working with young teens and kids and what I can do to help these kids grow.  But this week has been the the first time that I have realized just how serious all of this is and just how important it is to be doing what I am.  I had a glimpse, today, of the reality that these kids live in.  Many of them live in homes where several types of abuse are present and many are from broken families.  This project is a place where they receive safety, security, love, attention and care.

    I am seeing just how beautiful God has made these kids, just how beautiful their hearts are and how much they mean to God.  And it is so awesome to be a part of their beauty, to be a part of their blossoming.

    Last Friday, I helped out with the 7-10 year olds Portuguese grammar class.  As the kids are coloring pictures of birds and fishes and trying to spell the names of some of the many species, one boy (10 years) colored the one and only flower in the picture completely pink.  I've heard it's not very popular for males to appreciate pink in the area because of "machismo."  Machismo is somewhat the opposite of feminism.  One of the girls questioned why on earth he had colored the whole flower pink, of all colors!  She was even more astounded when he said that he liked pink flowers and wanted to have them at his wedding.  "I'll be the one paying for the wedding and I want pink flowers."

    You can't help but smile.  How many 10 year old boys say they want pink flowers at their wedding?  It really is a sweet, yet simple story.  But to me, I see something of beauty here.  God has given him a beautiful heart, and I could see it through something so simple.  The cool part of all of this is that these kids are like trees or flowers and we're here to sow and plant in their lives; to take their beauty and give them opportunities to cultivate it and become an even more beautiful person than they already are.