So much has happened since I wrote you last. It is hard to catch up in a short email, so I will update quickly with an overview of what has been happening.  Please forgive my mistakes on the keyboard. It is difficult to write with the keys that have different accents & the shift key is also very hard to use.  I think I last left you with the story of our ministry work at the village.  That was on Friday of last week.

On Saturday, we started our work at the church we have been serving with all week. It is call New Life church or in Portuguese…Igreja nova Vida. It is a wonderful church and the pastor here (Carlos) really has a heart & passion for his community. Well, on Saturday, Alfred and I were split from our original team of 7 and taken to a mission church in a different neighborhood. We were given a translator and dropped off in a neighborhood where we were asked to gather children and then teach them.  (I was so wishing I had Donna Finley with me) so, Alfred and I played partner tag & red light, green light with the kids and then shared about ourselves (on a microphone so the neighborhood could hear us and come see the americanos) and then told some of the story of Joseph. We were asked to invite them to church the next night and the whole experience was kind of a blur of nervousness & excitement.

Sunday, Alfred taught the message to teenagers. We brought LHGH to Brazil!! Of course, he taught with his terrific sense of humor and the rest of our team that taught the women & men commented that they could hear the teen laughing. I am so proud of my husband. He is stepping so far out of his comfort zone on this trip (some of it by “force”) but he is doing a tremendous job and is really being open and used by our Lord. Praise God!  In the afternoon, Alfred and I were again taken to the mission church where we did a home visit before the church service. We met Maria and her husband. Maria is a believer and her husband was not. We shared our story and how it connects to God’s story and their story and invited them to church. Well, they came and they accepted Christ that night! I cannot tell you what a feeling of joy it was to see them walk in and then accept Christ!! Wow, wow, wow! I still can’t even express my feelings in words that will properly describe the experience.

Monday was a free day for us and we did a little shopping, called home & then slept…a lot!

Yesterday, we spent the morning talking to the pastor and then did another home visit. This was with a woman whose husband was on his way to work one day 2 years ago and had a stroke and fell on the train tracks. No one knew what happened to him and 2 hours later they found him passed out and thought that he was drunk. They took him to the hospital and he had surgery. Since that time he has been in a lot of pain and unable to work. The pastor had visited this family 2 times before and had not been able to get the attention of this man to talk to him or pray for him. This time we were able to see him, talk to him and pray over him.  In the evening, we were taken to the schools to talk to the students about 4 things. Stay in school. Learn English, Stay away from drugs, and the thing help you accomplish all of that…have a relationship with Christ.  It was an amazing experience. Cassie was the first to share. She spoke with boldness and shared from her heart & experiences. It was an emotional experience to watch her. I am so glad I invited both Cassie & Sammy to come on this trip. They encourage me with their faith, patience, faithfulness & joy. I also was very excited to watch Alfred teach as I have always wanted to be a “fly on the wall” at the schools he teaches at during the school year. He said he was a little rusty, but I am his number one fan!! He’s wonderful!!

Okay, that was a lot to share…I’ll leave you with that for now. Thank you so much for continuing to pray, for the messages & comments on face book. Today Alfred and I are feeling the emotions a little more as we are really missing Nathaniel.  We love you all very much and will see you soon!

-Ang

On Friday, we packed school kits to hand them out to some of the neighborhood children as they are currently on winter break and will be returning to school tomorrow. We drove about 20 minutes from the farm where we are staying to a small village-like area. When we arrived, a girl that looked about 12/13 ran up to Cristina (the full time missionary here) and embraced her. Cristina spoke to her in Portuguese and we all thought that they knew eachother. it turns out that they did not and Cristina said that these children are just so hungry for love and attention that they will take anything that they can get. No one really visits the area that they are in so they feel forgotten. Forgotten by brazilians and forgotten by God. This little girls name is Daniella and she is 14. she took off after introductions to run and get the other children. I soon found out that the adults were also hungry for love as we were embraced and talked to as though we were long lost friends. at first it was uncomfortable, but I soon realized that this was the center of Jesus~ ministry. His ministry was relational, his ministry was hands-on and he listened to people.

Our transalator, Aparacida, gathered the children and told them the story of the lost son through huge story boards. The children listened intently and responded very well. At the end, our translator had them pray for salvation and all of the children and many adults prayed that prayer. In total it looked like 4 or 5 families and I’ve continued to pray for them as the images of their tattered clothing and bare feet fill my mind as I lie in my comfortable bed at night and put on clean clothes every morning. we also gave the people food and said our goodbyes. Please pray for this village. I’ll try to update again real soon! love & peace!

Angela

-Ang

Hey it’s Cassie… Well you may or may not of heard all the crazy clumsy thing that have happened but I can’t help when the clumsiness is passed down. Yesterday I attempted to swing on a vine. Just as I swang over an edge, the vine broke and I fell flat on my back. Well today as if that wasn’t enough, I finally saw a cat here in Brazil. As I tried to pet it, a donkey was near it. That donkey was NOT fond of me. It looked at me, turned around, and kicked. Thank God I have a quick reaction time because just as it kicked I arched my back and booked it. The donkey missed me by less than an inch… Brazil is definitely interesting. I am so thankful I have had the opportunity to come. Not just for these interesting moments but for the opportunity as a young girl to get to know my personal Savior as a more personal friend. See ya!

-Cass

So, this is my first impression of Rio de Janiero:  I saw a lot of goats roaming the streets and tons of graffiti. To be fair, we only drove through Rio on our way to the next airport…still in Rio.  We flew from Rio to Vitoria and saw the beautiful scenery on our flight.  After arriving in Vitoria we took a very sketchy bus ride to the Koinonia farm (where we are staying). It was pretty dark out so I didn’t see the terrain we were driving on, but we were asked to pray at one point because our bus was sliding off  cliff. Fun times!!  When we arrived at the farm a delicious, warm meal was waiting and hospitality was the key word we experienced.  Sammy, Cassie, Alfred and I are staying in the same Casita and Gel is with some of our San Jose family.  Gel has quite a story revolving around a tripped breaker and walking in the pitch black to find someone to help.  Today was a relaxing day where we enjoyed another wonderful breakfast and then had orientation, prayer in our ministry groups and meeting with the pastors that we will be serving alongside.  Now we are in town using the full time missionaries computer (thank you, Cris) and just wanted to update our NorthPointe family.  We all love you guys and are very grateful for your continued prayer support. Tomorrow we will tour a few of the sights here in Espirito Santo and possibly ride the Brazilian banana.  We have no clue what that is and our only point of reference is the banana on Houseboats. We will check in again as soon as we can. Just know we are all doing great. Oh, and we start our work in our ministry teams on Saturday.  Friday we will go into the schools and hand out our donations of school kits. Cioa for now!!

-Angela, Alfred, Gel, Sammy & Cassie

The Fiji team is doing well. They have arrived in Nabouwalo on the island of Vanva Levu.  They are apart of a team of about 50 including their host church an interrupters. On Sunday the team was apart of a church dedication for the building that was completed last week.  The church was built in a village that was closed to Christians until last year.

The team has hosted three clinics so far. Trina Weber and Karen Goldsberry are working in the pharmacy department, Shelley Allen is handing out care packages and praying with people, and Angela Mundy is staying busy with tooth extractions. There is more rain then usual and they are having trouble with consistent electricity.  

Please continue to keep the team in prayer. Many of the villages that they are working in are not usually open to Christians coming in but they are welcoming the team in because of the medical services that they provide. They are “the bridge” for the local church and the village. What a great opportunity to share the love of Christ through offering medical services and meeting a very real need.

Blessings,

Kim Gragston

I wish I could send more, these don’t really do the trip justice but maybe it will give you a small taste of what it’s been like.

The pictures in order: 1.  Us unloading from our hopper flight into the mara.  2.  We haven’t even been on safari yet but we still see wildlife. This is a zebra crossing on the way to Emmanuel’s house.  3. Emmanuel’s house where we are staying.  4.  Emily and Jordan in a classroom at Emmanuel’s school.  We have spend 2 half days helping out in classrooms and we will go again today.  5. Handing out bibles to elementary school children.  We have now handed them out to 10 schools, totalling around 2200 students. 6.  Pastor Peter and the Maasai dancers perform at church.  They have also been dressing like this and performing at every open air market where we hold crusades and I preach. 7. The team performs a song for the crowds.  8.  Kyle and Cameron preach to over 1,000 students about the feeding of the 5,000.  9.  The front of the school, we are working on constructing a ramp and stairs to get up to the front.  Progress is being made.

The trip is flying by so fast!  Today we will hold a youth conference
in the afternoon on purity and living out 1 timothy 4:12.  We will be
handing out bracelets to students who make a commitment to stay pure
as a symbol of their commitment to the Lord.  Tomorrow is church
again, Monday we will be on safari and Tuesday we will be having a
pastors banquet at Emmanuel’s house.  Emmanuel is planning on having
hundreds of people show up.  They will dress us all full Maasai with
the paint and clothing.  They are killing a whole bull for the
festivities.  Then Wednesday we head back to Nairobi for half a day
and then catch our flight home.  It’s going by so fast!

Blessings,

Kenya team

Kim,  Real quickly, the last two days we have been doing house to
house evangelism in different areas.  The first day was mostly to the
Maasai tribe and the second day we ministered mainly to the kipsis.
Obviously, this was a big stretch for us, coming from a place where
when people knock on your door to witness you hide from them or tell
them to leave.  How different our experience was here!  Everyone
welcomed us into their homes and allowed us to preach for them.  Many
many people prayed a prayer of salvation right there in their huts and
received bibles.  It was amazing.  We have many stories from this, but
I wanted to give you a quick quick update.  After the door to door
evangelism, I had the chance to preach in two open air markets.  This
was kind of what I imagine the New testament like when Jesus preached
to people.  There were people everywhere, and probably more chickens,
goats and cows then people!  The Maasai dancers supplied the worship
for us, and we delivered the message.

We also had the opportunity of handing out bibles to many schools that
totaled well over 1,000 kids.  Most of these kids had never seen a
white person before, so at first they were afraid, then they just got
a kick out of touching our skin and hair.  The girls with long hair
couldn’t keep mobs of kids off of them (i think this was the most
dangerous part of the trip so far! hundreds of elementary kids hanging
on your hair lol.)  Handing out bibles was amazing, all the students
were reading them and then Kyle and Cameron had a chance to preach on
the story of Jesus feeding the five thousand to all the kids.  Ok
that’s all I have time for now, but we are really enjoying our stay
here.  i am now officially “maasai”.  They gave me a maasai robe and
beaded walking stick.  If you are really lucky I will be able to send
some pictures.  I am trying to transfer some of the best pictures to
emmanuel’s computer and then email them to you, but obviously this is
a process.  The next few days we will be doing construction, handing
out more bibles, doing more house to house evangelism and preach!
Please keep praying for us.  So many people have come to salvation
through the mission and we pray for many many more.

Below is an email that I received from Daniel today around 12:30 this afternoon (10:30pm Kenya time).

Thank you all for joining us in prayer. As many of you know we are currently in the middle of a series on prayer and know how vital it is to the success of the team in Kenya. So when you have finished reading this email take a few minutes to say a prayer for them.

We have now spent two full days with the Maasai and we are loving our time here. Our hosts are so hospitable, they have cooked us very good food, and serve us every meal, welcome us into their homes and serve us lots of tea! Many people on the team have remarked how overwhelmed they are by the generosity and hospitality of the people here, we truly feel at home.

This place is also incredibly beautiful. There are mountains, green fields, corn fields and livestock everywhere. On the way from the plane into the village, we weren’t even on safari and we encountered a group of 6 giraffes. No where else in the world would that happen!

On Saturday, our fist full day here, we spent most of the day at Emmanuel’s school. When pastor Kevin took a team here in 2006, the school hadn’t even been built yet. Now, through the generosity of many, including some from that team in 2006, the school is a reality. When we got out of the trucks, we were mobbed by the children. They were so excited to see us. I have about 500 pictures of students at the school, many of which were taken by the students. They beg you to take their picture and look at themselves. They think its so funny to see a picture of themselves on a digital camera. They are also all aspiring photographers. My camera must have passed through the hands of about 100 children (but thankfully no one dropped it). They let us visit every class, observing what the education is like and helping the teachers. We were very impressed with their educational standards. The preschoolers are way more advanced then back home. When we were there they all counted to one hundred, recited the alphabet, said short sentences in English and learned the names of shapes, colors and animals.

The way they learn is very unique. The teacher spends less time in front of the class. Instead each student takes turns going in front of the class and teaching the other students. If they get the answer correct, they do a dance and every one sings them a song saying, “well done well done, you have been a very good boy or girl!” It’s difficult to describe in words how cool this is, but when we get home we will show you video. Kyle and Cameron took a test with the 5th grade students in math. They said it was very hard. They got about 80% but I think I caught them cheating off of one another! All this to say, the school that Emmanuel has started is a huge blessing to the community. They have great educational standards and all of the students also learn about the Lord. In public schools in the area they have over 100 students in each class, so there is little chance of success. The large majority of students get rejected from high school and have to return home to work and watch after cows for their family. With this new school, they will be able to pass the exit exam and go on to high school. Right now, there are 170 children in the school, preschool to 5th grade. The goal is to extend the school to 400 students up to grade 8. Eventually, if they can raise enough money they would also like to build a high school.

On Sunday many churches from the area gathered for an interdenominational meeting. The service lasted about 4 and a half hours but it hardly seemed like it! Their worship is incredible. People sing and dance with total freedom and it is infectious. Many people on our team, who are normally shy back home were dancing and jumping with the Maasai. Some of them wore the traditional dress like you may have seen on TV or in national geographic and they performed tribal dances for us. We have video and pictures of it, it’s truly beautiful. I (Daniel) preached the sermon and it was very well received. There were hundreds of people who walked from all over to hear the message. After the sermon, many people came forward to receive prayer. The local pastors told me many people were blessed and gave their hearts to the Lord. One man who is known in the community for being an alcoholic gave his heart to Jesus for the first time.

I hope I can write you again. We have some amazing pictures to share, but they are difficult to upload as the internet is very slow here. Rest assured we are having an amazing time and God is working in powerful ways.

Blessings,
The Kenya Team

]]> http://northpointe.org/2009/07/05/kenya-update-2/feed/ http://northpointe.org/2009/07/02/short-update/ http://northpointe.org/2009/07/02/short-update/#comments Fri, 03 Jul 2009 04:59:36 +0000 Kimberly Gragston http://northpointe.org/?p=3005 The team has arrived in Nairobi and is seeing the city before catching their next flight to the Mara. Please continue to keep them in your prayers as they are getting closer to their final destination.