Teaching at Pastor Marcio's church/A Day at Central Market

Hey friends!

I am so happy to finally download these few pics of pastor Maurcio and his church; I have been so desiring to show you the face of one who has so graciously received me into his family out here. This is He, Sarah from the states, and I posing together after a service at Igresia Baptisa Jesus Esperanca Mudial (Jesus: Hope of the World Baptist Church) the night he invited me to speak at his church in Betim, Brazil, a humble church and drive about thirty five minutes away from our abode.

The pic next to this one is of the night I spoke, this past Tuesday. And... finally... again: Byron Shore, standing next to me translating in AWESOME Portuguese. I have been so bummed we havn't caught a good one together til now either; I have been wanting to let you guys see these precious ones for quite some time! Thanks to Byron (who never seems to get in any of the pictures we snap!!!) I have made some of the sweetest connections out here, as he has been a full time missionary here at Casa De Apoio in Contagem for about two years, and in the business of connecting people! What a huge blessing both he and his surrogate daughter, Raquel have been to me, like real family.I brought the word on Ezekiel 47, about going deeper with God as I touched on Psalm 132 and making a dwelling place in our heart unto the Lord. The people were so blessed; these ones are serious about the Lord. What a sweet group.

When we went into the radical move of Mary at Bethany and her total abandonment to self to annoint the Lord with her passionate worship, the people deeply took part. Such a blessing. This night was one of those times where the Spirit of the Lord was felt...thick in the place. Praise God!


And now Sarah from North Carolina, a one month missionary at 20 years old, is both my adopted little sis, and roomie. She is a nature girl so we get along good! What a cutie! These are a few of the things we did during our time off yesterday at Central Market in Belo. What a place to see!
First it's to the gemstone store to pick up Tigers Eyes, Rose Quartz, Agates, Crystals, and my favorite one that day: the Pedra Du Sol... the Sun Stone. So beautiful, all these sparkling treasures God has given us to enjoy. Brazil is known for the semi precious stones here; you know I loved this and will be back to the Market before I leave for home.

Look at all the hanging meats all over the place! MY goodness! There were even whole pigs, and sheep and whatever else you could possibly imagine. I had to capture this scene.

Sarah and I getting ready to go back to the Casa De Apoio after a fantastic Acai ice cream with granola and bananas, finding the fruits and veggies (and SO thankful to do so! I miss them fruits and veggies!!), and wrapping ourselves in the beauty, love, and sweet spirit of Brazil.

I will be getting up at 6Am tomorrow for a huge day with Crianca Feliz. Going out to the farm where many of the street children come first before placement into one of the ministry homes. I am starting our street strategy in the favelas of Belo Horizonte next week so please pray for me. It is completely outta this world, that they are jump-starting this program so rejoice in the Lord with me as we watch God do amazing things! Crianca Feliz's street ministry has been put on hold for a time due to the changing of the program over the past year and they will actually be using my ministry model to jump-start the new strategy! Praise the Living Lord! I have been looking forward to this for sooooo long; it is the reason I came out! So... prayers for continued humility, the balm of Gilead sent down saturation style upon me for strength, wisdom, and discernment, not to mention knowledge from heaven about how to raise up the other team here in Nova Contagem.

I so appreciate your prayers covering me; please don't stop! Also I love your hearts for the King! I know God is doing huge things on the west coast right now with all of you... also you east coasters!

I send my love also to all the North Caroliners who are participating in our times here in Brazil together; Byron tells me that y'all are also reading my blog updates! Be blessed in the hands of your God who is very near.

EVERYBODY: don't forget to leave comments as I am not always going to be able to check my hotmail like before. I can more easily just log on to the blog to corresspond and this will make life a lot easier for me. Thanks and lots of real love. I miss you and have each one of you tucked genuinely in my heart.

In His hands and smilin' about that,
Jeanne
~A pic of two of the little children in a favela neighborhood in Nova Contagem. This is on one of the days we did family visits with the social work team thru Casa De Apoio. This precious little boy had so much fun with us and the camera after playing the memory game together. I will try and send another pic soon from that day...also from some of the women in the garlic factory that we visit frequently to give them the ord that they SO hunger for.

Pastor Marcio's church

Waterfall Of Souls Sunday ministry

The cuties!

Here are the photos from the favela I preached at...

UPDATES! God is good! Back from Waterfall Of Souls this Sunday, the little village where we make friends with the very poor children bringing Jesus in creative ways, and I wanted to say thanks for all the prayers before I drift off to sleep for tomorrow's very busy day.

Comments are FINALLY available if you wanna post em on my blog.

Sorry that took a while. Here are the pics I promised and two from our "Waterfall project" this afternoon.

"Extol the name of the Lord with me...let us exalt His name together" Psalm 34:3

"Call to me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things which you do not know." Jeremiah 33:3

Please let the word of the Lord dwell in you richly as you receive His good, good love like showers upon your life. Let praise and intimacy be in your heart unto God now and forever!

Love in Him,
Jeanne

Nova Contagem times...

Quick as I can, I wanted to catch up a little with some of the pics from one of my favorite areas to love, Nova Contagem.

This is not Contagem, the city that's brothers with Belo, where I live, but a handful of people that were removed from Contagem because of over population. This village of people live in extreme, sometimes horribly dangerous conditions, that are out of this world. Something to see, that's for sure. The sewage runs through the streets, the dogs run in packs, theres a huge amount of drugs and violence so the village is out of control. The Casa De Apoio is the main rescource of help for getting health treatment, jobs, dental work done, schools for the children, in short ANY positive direction period, even the government itself because every program the government set up failed.

They finally ended up giving the Casa De Apoio the land that they now have set up there, like a little light in the darkness and I have been spending lots of my time andheart t here recently. This last time down, I visited some very poor families with the social worker on site here, as wll as reconnected with the women in the garlic factory, one who is pregnant with twins. all of these women are mothers of children in the schools run thru Casa De Apoio, and in constant need of deep love and encouragement. The Casa De Apoio has set up a precious , safe, and clean garlic factory for these women to work in while keeping motivated, and confident. The first day I sat with them we prayed and each women was touched. A couple were in tears. I have been visiting them to encourage them and teach them in the Word ever since and they love and appreciate it. These women are not even Christians but they totally receive!

Byron (my friend and translator here as well as my connection to the Casa De Apoio and team leader for groups who come to stay here at the project in Brazil) says "once they have been loved, they are open". He is so right. So everything ALWAYS comes back to that vital act: L-O-V-E. Praise the Lord!

Psalm 103 on my heart and life... wer'e so from the dust, aah...but God's everlasting love toward us. I pray you are all encouraged right where you are this day, glad to be soaring under Daddy's wings.

Love to ya!

Jeanne

(pics are in Nova Contagem...street kids playing can and sticks... they let me join in. Also pics of Lobato's project in the favela under the busy road, the night I preached at his small church where news was made in the heavenlies next... what a night! There was a little girl gave her life to the Lord that night after never coming in to the church and usually dancing seductively at the entrance, she begged me for prayer, the last one I prayed with that evening after I brought the message on the new mind in Christ, and she was filled and received right then and there. Hallelujah to the great God Almighty who reigns!)

Prodigal Son... under the sun

Joao Victor gets a special cross painted on his precious arm. This little cutie lives in the Casa De Apoio ( House of Care) where I am both living and working at the time. This is a project that was started over 15 years ago by a man named Maurico Rangel, who was a local restaurant owner that was convicted by the pain in a little child who had thrown a rock at one of his customers while eating lunch. This challenged him to start serving the street children like a soup kitchen through his business, but the other business owners complained so he took it to the streets! Praise God! Over time, he and his best buddy and amazing co- partner (Vilmo) rented a house and not only did they serve the children, but offered some of them a place to stay. After a while, the Brazilian government saw what a powerful work that these two and now others were doing, and literally gave them a piece of land. It is 16 years later and so much to tell! The street children and children from majorly broken homes and poverty, come to stay here during the week where they are fed breakfast, lunch, and dinner, are given help with their homework, and poured into through those that live on site. They have devotionals in the morning, and afternoon, and they go back to their families on the weekends. This boy is very special to me because he is in the process of being adopted; his home life is too rough for him to go back into. Pray with me for him. He is so shy, yet so adorable when he laughs. I loved making him smile today with the painting.



Hey! I am in love with a village called Waterfall of Souls! This is where a group of us go down on Sundays to give the word in a very remote, WAAAAY off the beaten track, extremely poverty stricken village about an hour and a half outside of Contagem (the city just outside of Belo Horizonte) where the Casa De Apoio is located. It is a farming village where the people live off almost nothing depending on their crops. The parents are uneducated people and this is reflected in things like the very poor hygiene of the children here. Yes, this has become a gem for me to look forward to every weekend. Here you see me preaching the word on a very hot Sunday last week. The kids are attentive and super grateful for our hugs and ministry...even more so them hugs tho.
yay JESUS! Here we say goodbye... till next Sunday.


Ok, this is Rockin' Raquel... she is amazing along with Byron and Leandro. I guess you could say that these guys are my three amigos! They seriously came in on the scene and rescued me out of some really interesting situations upon my arrival...but that would be a whole new story. Let me tell ya, they all help translate my hilarious Portuguese...I mean English. There are no pics of Byron or Leandro, but they will be on the way. This is Raquel, and Vilmo's son Samuel.
Be blessed gang!
I love you all higher than the moon. Many hugs and kisses, and a huge thanks for all your love, prayers, and support. I will update you soon as I can.

from Brazil to California...

Ficar com Deus!
(Stay with God)

Jeans