Children's Day Fun

October 12th is Children's Day, but Brazilians celebrate it all week (month) long. This week Living Stones had special competitions, prizes, and Disney fun at Guadalajara and Lagoa.

After a trip to Disney World, I (Rachel) wanted to share the experience with the kids, and made a video that I then shared with each of the Living Stones programs

The video includes different Disney princesses attempting to speak in Portuguese for the children, and wearing our birthday glasses:)

At Disney, my mother secured a map of the Magic Kingdom for every child (over 150) in Portugese--so we had a "treasure hunt," finding different places on the map and then in the video.

Lastly, each of the children took time to think about their own future dreams and write it down on our special Disney paper:

Thank you for helping us celebrate children!

Tournament

Saturday, October 5th Carpina, Guadalajara, and some teams from Recife got together and had a tournament:

Women's Basketball Team

The team that came from California put together this neat video of their time in Brazil:

Re-Open!

We are so happy to announce that through generous giving, we were able to re-open the Guadalajara ministry in September!

Thank you for giving to Luizinho! If you would like to join his ministry support team, go to https://www.egsnetwork.com/gift2/?giftid=12F6A5779EF947E

Luizinho

The ministry in Guadalajara is on hold until the leader, Luizinho, can raise support: help us re-open soon!

In 2006, Luizinho met Jesus through the ministry of community churches in Brazil. Since then, he has been working and serving different churches, working with the youth through sports ministries.  In 2012, he began an incredible ministry to over 80 children in Guadalajara, working with and through World Renewal Brazil, Althletes in Action, Glory Sports, and Living Stones.

Luizinho has been working on a minimal budget that cannot continue: he doesn’t even have enough for public transportation to the church. The leadership has put the program at Guadalajara on hold until resources can be raised to meet Luizinho’s basic needs: $250 a month. Donate at https://www.egsnetwork.com/gift2/?giftid=12F6A5779EF947E

If it were up to Luizinho, he would walk to the church and continue no matter what. It was one of the hardest things he’s done to tell 80 children that the program could only re-open when finances were met. Let us come along side our brother to help him continue this amazing ministry to the children. You can see Luizinho’s blog here: http://luizinhoandrade.blogspot.com.br/. 

Infographic Guadalajara

Valentine's Day in Brazil

June 12 is Valentine's day in Brazil, but it is called dia dos namorados (literally, Boyfriend/girlfriend day). Living Stones shared with the children that it doesn't need to be a day where they have to have a boyfriend or girlfriend, but rather a day to show love to the many wonderful people in their lives already: namely their parents, siblings, and friends.

We passed out little Winnie-the-Pooh valentines, bought on sale after USA's Valentine's day, and the children were enchanted. The confusing part to them was the envelopes. "We really have to lick it? Isn't that weird?" You glue envelopes closed in Brazil. They kept looking at each other to see who would lick it first, and questioned if it was sanitary. I had never thought about that. Perhaps it isn't.

And of course, what is Valentine's day without heart-shaped cookies? Spread the love.