Monday, May 12. held a treat for us and the local school children. Jenny and I woke up early, at 9 o'clock, to head to the school to teach a little English! We visited 4 classrooms and each class was a different grade. Jenny taught them basic introductions. Then we taught them some English songs. The favorite one was "He's got the whole world". To our surprise the kids began to ask for autographs and pictures. It was a novelty to have Americans at their school!
In the afternoon a Pastor from Estrella (15 minutes away) came to visit. Jason has taught several times in his church. He was negotiating with Sammy to have Jason come and speak this coming week. Pastor Wagner brought his 17yr old daughter named Jessica as well, she remained with us for the remainder of the day, in order to practice her English.
Then we were off for our next adventure. Here in Brazil there is a plethora of shoe factories! We watched them make some leather boots. The work that is required for one pair amazed me! In my little western-mind, I just assumed that many of the steps we completed by machines, but almost every step was completed by hand. We recognized several workers from the church. The factory was hot, loud and the smell of glue can be a little overwhelming. Seeing the factory allowed us to see how where a large portion of the population work.
On our way back to Sammy's house we went to see the new property the church owns. It is a narrow but long piece of land...60 ft by 2 miles long. The view of the river, dam and surrounding country side is breath taking! After we took all our pictures it was time to leave... however, there was a little difficulty turning the van around. So Sammy went straight down the huge hill! We were all amazed at the little VW van bouncing down the hill. Then it was our turn to go down the hill. We stopped in to see Douglas and his family, they live on the property as caretakers.
After thanking the Lord for our safe return (PTL), we headed to the church. Jason taught a leaders meeting. His main focus was unity, the attitudes and promote and
destroy unity described in Philippians 2. The meeting was actually a workshop with breakout discussion questions posed by Jason. Many of the leaders are looking forward to the second part of Jason's workshop that will be held on Thursday.
The fun did not stop after church. A local fisherman and his wife came over to cook 
some fish that he just caught from the dam we looked at yesterday. We had a fantastic fish fry! In traditional Brazilian style, many people joined us at Sammy's house. It was fun and crazy all at the same time! There were people everywhere! The fish was delicious and everyone ate till they were full.
The fishermen party left at 1am... BUT several others dropped by a few minutes later to practice some songs with Michael for the purpose of recording a CD the next day. Wow, brazilians love to fellowship. All the visitors finally left near 2:30am.
It has been neat to get involved with the local culture and to celebrate our oneness.
'Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!' Psalm 133:1
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