We are in the second week with a new format at Vida em Cristo. Based on research that some have done, and observing those same results here in Brazil we have decided to strongly emphasize getting each church member to attend an activity twice each week. We know that there are few who come whenever the church doors are open, but most people work, have family, and many other busy schedules only have two time slots each week. Traditionally Vida em Cristo has had Sunday school in the morning and then Sunday service in the evening, prayer service and youth group on Wednesday and Cell group on Thursdays. Our desire is to increase the amount of Cell group offerings, and hopefully, through various days and times, provide cell group access to everyone in the church.
To replace the traditional Sunday school teaching time the church will have different classes offered at different times throughout the year. There was a lot of thought and discussion that went in to these changes and we came to the decision that what is missed by eliminating everything but service and small groups can be made up for by having consistent groups who have the confidence to confide in and grow with each other. We are approaching the beginning of the first session of classes, which will begin in the middle of September, and we really appreciate your prayers. There will be one group located in downtown Cubatão on Wednesday nights, Aaron will host one group on Thursday nights, and Izabel and I will host a group on Saturday afternoon.
We have had guests to the field down here, but they are no strangers to anyone down here, Aaron's parents are visiting for a little over a month. Also, a friend of theirs has been able to make a shorter length of trip and we have the pleasure of hosting her at our house. Samantha loves any opportunity to have somebody new to play with, so while we are happy to use our house to help others out, Samantha is extra happy.
I remember writing updates and afterwards realizing that I had forgotten to say that I've begun teaching a VIP student at Life English School. It is a good opportunity to spend more time at the school getting to know more people. I've gone regularly to the Saturday morning English exercises and been able to get to know many students, I also see many others when I show up for my Portuguese classes which are held in an unused classroom. Cris Brakefield hosts another activity that I have been able to attend since the time for this activity was moved ahead one hour.
I've been feeling more confident to talk with people in Portuguese but I know that I still have a long way to go. I still drive in to Santos every Wednesday to play soccer. This was originally meant to be a time that I would have fun, but Aaron encouraged me to make it a time to work on my Portuguese too. I quickly learned that it is not appropriate to yell all of the things that they yell at each other but it has given me a group that I can be a good example to. I have more freedom now to stay after the game and talk with them since I don't need to hurry back to Cubatão in order to make it for the prayer service.
We appreciate your prayers, Izabel has had a nasty cough for a few weeks and within the last couple days Samantha decided it looked like fun to start coughing. We don't like when anyone in our house is sick so please pray that these go away quickly.
I apologize for the lack of pictures on this, I rarely plan ahead to bring the camera to activities and it is usually when I am already somewhere that I realize it would be a good photo opportunity. I will try in the future to plan better.
