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