One of the events that we had last month at the Training Leadership Camp was our annual “Christoval” celebration. Carnival is Brazil’s annual “celebration of the flesh” before the initiation of Lent on the Catholic calendar. It’s a week- long party where “anything goes” and every city in the country shuts down allowing full participation by the people. The Vineyard churches combined efforts several years ago to begin “Christoval”, a retreat for youth, away from the city, with a focus on Jesus and having a lot of good clean fun. It has been a great success to redirect the youth’s energy towards God instead of the temptations of the world and drawing kids toward Jesus. During the three day retreat, the youth had opportunity to connect with Jesus through lively worship and dynamic teaching.
The following week after Christoval at church we had 7 people accept Jesus as their Lord (1st picture below). The church has been doing well and we continue to focus on the developing our leaders, praying for the sick, and reaching out into the community.
On a family note, Camilly and Alyssa really enjoyed being at the camp for Christoval as well. They had lots of friends to play with and they ate a lot of ice cream. It is hard to tell if Camilly was truly eating the ice cream or just putting it all over her face. Camilly was thrown in jail with her favorite friend Eliane. If you wanted to put someone in jail, you could purchase tickets for 25 cents and then someone would have to purchase another ticket for 25 cents to get you out. I got put into jail 3 times. I tried not to take it personally. LOL.
Please take care and thanks for your prayers and thoughts in our life.
Love and blessings, Steve, Elba, Camilly, and Alyssa
PS – Check out a few of the other pictures below.
We caught this Mucura and her baby in our backyard. The people in this area typically kill them because they kill and eat chickens. I took the Mucura and her baby outside the city and let them go.
Chuck from the Vineyard Church of Delaware took this photo of some woman along the river while on short term mission trip. It is a perfect river community picture. I really like the photo!
Tax deductible donations can be written and sent to:
The Xingu Mission
P.O Box 340785
Columbus, Ohio 43215
Or On-line donations at:
http://www.xingu.org/6_giving.html
We caught this Mucura and her baby in our backyard. The people in this area typically kill them because they kill and eat chickens. I took the Mucura and her baby outside the city and let them go.
Chuck from the Vineyard Church of Delaware took this photo of some woman along the river while on short term mission trip. It is a perfect river community picture. I really like the photo!
Tax deductible donations can be written and sent to:
The Xingu Mission
P.O Box 340785
Columbus, Ohio 43215
Or On-line donations at:
http://www.xingu.org/6_giving.html
