Thursday!

 Michele models her new duct tape earrings!  She has been such a big help to Amy with the beginner's class.

 Duct tape wallets for craft workshop!

Two campers try out archery at the carnival today!

We made an American dinner with barbeque chicken, potato salad, green beans, banana cream pie, and iced tea. Thanks for your help, Henrique! 

Erin has been helping with the Music Workshop and cooking American meals with us.  Shane has been our speaker in chapel each evening.  They, along with their children--Camile 16 and Gabriel 13 who are here in camp, are missionaries from the U.S. working here in Brazil in Porto Alegre.  

Wordless Brackets!

Patti & Amy with Krista--so much help with cooking American meals for the campers & Steven at dinner!

Laci teaching crafts!

Monday:
The campers came today.  We have 2 boys and 11 girls ranging in age from 14 to 21.  Their English is generally high level from beginners to the advanced students, so it will be a fun challenge working with them.

We started preparing tonight for cooking 3 American meals for them--breakfast, lunch, and dinner, each on a different day.  The kitchen at the camp is large and we had at least 10 of us--Americans and Brazilians--all working and fellow shipping together.  What a joy to be in God's amazing family!

Tuesday:
We are doing an English Workshop each day.  We have 3 of them which the camper rotate through--baking apple pies, making various crafts, and the one I'm working in-music in English.  We are working on 'camp songs' starting with learning a little history about how 'camp songs' began.  I am working with another American, but she is a missionary here in Brazil.  She is also a gifted musician playing the piano for our workshop.  We worked so well together that it was obvious God worked everything together forming us into a team.  The campers wrote their own song which we will be singing for our closing program for this week in camp.  We all had a great time together!

God has been so Good!  We are working with the staff here at the camp and they have been so helpful in guiding us through life at the camp, working along side us in the kitchen, and as we have been worshiping together.  We can't help but feel blessed by God for this time to spend with such gifted people on this camp staff here in this beautiful country.  Praise the Lord, for He is Good!

We are getting to know the kids as we spend time with them.  One way is by writing Dialog Journals.  The campers write to us answering a question or whatever they want to write.  And then we write back to them about what they wrote.  Some began writing immediately about serious issues in their lives.  Others wrote about ideas, dreams, or about their families and themselves.  It takes some time to write to each camper in their journal, but it is worth it and fun to learn about them and their lives.

In chapel after supper, an American missionary (in fact the husband of my music workshop partner here at the camp) is sharing the whole story of the Bible.  He has condensed it down, but it began at creation and then we learned about Noah and King David last night.  He has created the presentation as a graphic novel that is being projected onto a screen.  The campers are fascinated learning about Biblical heroes.  Our camp theme this week is on heroes, both superheroes and Biblical ones.  We learned about Paul tonight.

We have had very positive response to the English Workshop baking apple pies.  Pies are not part of Brazilian cooking, so it has been a new experience for the kids.  Even the cook here at the camp liked the apple pie. 

We made tomato soup and toasted cheese sandwiches for them for lunch, along with peanut butter and jelly.  We brought the peanut butter with us because it is not readily available here.  The have even written songs about the American food we have been preparing for them.  They liked the chocolate chip cookies also.

Thank you so much for your prayers for all of us working together at the camp and for the campers.