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We woke up Saturday morning to a small gift, the sun. God is good. We ate breakfast, got on the bus and headed to the Christ the Redeamer statue. Beautiful views and lots of pictures. We left there to go to lunch. On the bus Ray realized he did not have his passport, it was lost! Everyone scrambled, some crawling the aisle of the bus looking, some praying. After we got to the restaraunt we got word that the passport had been found back at the Christ statue. God is great! Some kidded that Ray was in a hurry to go home and left his passport with Christ.
We all sighed in relief and finished lunch. Afterwards we went to Sugerloaf moountain and rode the cable cars to the top for more pictures. This ended our touring of Rio and we were off to the airport to start the legs home.
We had some wait in the airport, but we were heading home, no problem. My father and I even got an exit row for the long flight to Miami. Did I say God is good?
Now we're sitting in Miami waiting for the last couple of flights to get home. See you all soon! |
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 We got to Rio today after about a 2 1/2 hour delay in leaving Iguassu. We made the best of it, Tim Coker got a dice game going, Randy Ward played video games, Janie Boswell slept, some read, most women bought rings, and we all had snacks (because we haven't had nearly enough to eat here).
After get to Rio we had a nice bus tour on the way to our hotel, the Sheraton Rio, and saw from a distance the sites we'll visit tomorrow. The weather is a bit better and warmer here. We're all praying for sun tomorrow.
We had about 4 hours before dinner. Some shopped for jewelry with a friend of the Hipps, some went to a local mall, and others walked along the beach and just chilled. After dinner we got to bed early to prepare for a very full day tomorrow before jumping our plane home.
We've all had a great time and enjoyed each other's company, but we're ready to come home. We desire the familiarity of home, our own beds, our own bathrooms, and desire to share the things we've seen with the ones we love. |
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 This post is a day late because I had no internet access at Iguassu Falls, so 2 postings today. We got up Thursday morning at to the airport by 4:30am! Even though we often joke about people here are on Brazilian time, all of our hosts got us to the airport on time. We checked in went to Rio then got a connection to Iguassu. When got there it was cloudy and raining.
The weather kept us from doing the zodiac boat tour on the river and under the falls, but we still got pretty wet doing the walking tour with our panchos. They've had a lot of rain recently and the volume over the falls was about 2-3 times the normal amount. Regardless, it was still beautiful and we all had a good time. No complaints.
After the walking tour we went shopping at Brazil's largest souvenir shop. We then had dinner back at the hotel and got to bed at a decent hour.
It is quite amazing, even though it rained on our outing at Gramado and Thursday's trip to Iguassu everyone remains happy. No real complaining at all. This is truely a unigue group of people God has put together for this trip. |
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The RAs are really missing one of their teachers, Randy Ward, and wished to send him a message while in Brazil. Click either of the links below to watch the video.
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 This morning after we loaded the buses at Central Baptist we headed on a tour around Porto Alegre. We saw the 2 main soccer stadiums and took pictures from a couple of other tourist sites in town.
We arrived at Elderado, had breakfast then we had a devotion led by Billy Collum. Billy relayed 3 sets of Scripture to show us how our moments of weakness, temporal moments, can widely and adversely affect others. He directed us to think of how we keep ourselves from these moments, renewing ourselves at church, staying in the word, and prayer without ceasing.
Following Billy, Heaven Myers gave her testimony. We all love Heaven and now that love has deepened.
Heaven's testimony led to a time of open sharing. Our trip had reached an emotional climax with many people voicing their praises to God, the Brazilians and fellow travelers.
Butch closed our devotional time with his best impression of Johnny Cash. He sang a song he had written for Niander. It was in typical Butch style and he had us all laughing and the mood lightened.
Our work was completed at the site at Elderado and we said our final goodbyes to many of the workers and children as we walked our last walk to the restaraunt a few blocks away. After our meal we went back to Porto Alegre for some last minute shopping.
We had dinner at the church and our families picked us up for home. We spend our final night with our host families, share gifts and some final stories before getting to bed early. We are to be at the airport by 4:30am!
Tomorrow we start a couple of days of recreation before finally going home. For the first-time travelers here it has been a life-changing experience. For those that have come before, we take a little more home with us. Our hearts are moved by God's work in Elderado. Our work here was small, but our greatest accomplishments will be to take what we've gained on this trip and spread it to our own communities and churches.
I am not sure how the internet connections will be along our trip home. But, I believe there may be at least one more posting before we make the long trip from Rio to Miami. Keep our travels in your prayers. |
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 Today started like most of our other work days. We took the bus to Elderado, had breakfast and then our devotional. This morning's devotion was special because we had several people involved.
Ralph Lee started us out. During his devotional time he asked us how we had contributed to God's work in Elderado this week physically, emotionaly and spiritually. This opened up the door to a flurry of testimonies and discussion. It is amazing that after only a week here most have begun to show an openess in their spirituality as they have seen in the Brazilians. I wonder if we'll be contagious when we return home.
Our Brazilian friend Nanci shared her testimony following Ralph. It was neat to see how God had work and is continuing to work in Nanci's life.
In between Ralph and Nanci and concluding our devotion time we were mesmerized by the vocals of the men's quartet. They are truely talented.
After devotion time we went back to work for the day. By day's end it appeared that we were done with the carpentry work and landscaping. There still remains some painting work for tomorrow to finish up. Ernestine led a class to teach doll making. A craft that can be used in Elderado to help locals learn a way to earn a wage. We also had the area children in. This time for sports and health education instead of the Bible study from last week.
We left for Central Baptist around 5:30 to head to our host families before cleaning up and meeting together again as a group at a pizzaria. All kinds of pizza flavors. Most like we have never seen in the US before.
I've received several emails and comments that from our pictures it appears that all we do is eat and fellowship. Now it is no lie that we do eat well and we do fellowship with the locals, but in amongst this we do quite a bit of work. The problem is that while we work we don't have our cameras with us. It is when we break from our work that we grab our cameras and start shooting. That should explain it (At least sounds plausable, doesn't it?).
Off to bed before our last day in Elderado. |
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 Today was to be our day to play tourist. A break from the work we've been doing at Elderado. We got to the church this morning and had breakfast then jumped on the bus to head to Gramado, a little German village in the mountains, for site seeing and shopping.
We made it to the first stop to shop with no problems but after we got off the bus at the second stop it started to rain. It rained all day long. We did get to visit the chocolate factory, see some sites in Gramado and have a late lunch at a German restaraunt that was terrific.
We skipped the shopping in Gramado because of all the rain and headed back to Porto Alegre about 3 hours early. This is when it decided to stop raining. We agreed to do some shopping across the street from Central Baptist. Which worked out fine.
The picture to the right is what happens when you're couped up too long with 40 people. That's a barf bag on her head by the way. |
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 Today was a completely full day of celebrating the Lord and His work here. We had breakfast at church and then split up to go to either one of the Brazilian Sunday School classes or an English one led by Randy. This was followed by a special Sunday morning service filled with music and personal testimonies from North Americans and Brazilians.
From our team testimonies were given by Anita Vincent, George Gregory, Butch Hugueley, Cliff Bratton, Ralph Lee, Angela Bowman and Mike Young.
After the service we immeditely got on the bus to go from Central Baptist to Elderado. There we had a great time of fellowship and bar-b-que followed by a wonderful dedication service. This service was to dedicate the new all-purpose building at the Elderado Project site. As you can see from the picture above the building was dedicated in memory of Alexandra Hipps! A cloth was cermoniously pulled from the wall to reveal the plaque and picture. There wasn't a dry eye in the place. A fitting dedication for a building built to provide for the children of the desperate area in Elderado.
We gathered ourselves again to mobilize back to Central Baptist for evening services. As we had in the morning , more music and testimonies. From our group Katie Heady, Tim Coker, Richard Ward, Ernestine Kitchin, Carol , Susan Lee and Billy Colllum. I'm sure I missed someone from this list at this late our that I'm writing this, but I'll say that they were all inspired and at times very moving. I hope that these people will share their stories when they return home.
When we conluded the service we all headed down stairs for hotdogs. Good old American hotdogs, wait, these were a little different. There was ketchup and mustard but I don't think I've ever seen sweet corn, parmesan cheese and green peas as hotdog toppings anywhere in the US. They were good though. We haven't had anything bad. Different, yes; bad, no. |
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 I (Randy Ward) turned 40 today. The Brazilians and North Americans showered me with attention. Being surrounded by people who love me was wonderful, it could only have been better if my wife and kids were here as well (sniff).
Today when we arrived at Elderado we listened to a couple that have started an Arts and Crafts school near Elderado. They use the school to teach poor people from their area a skill to earn a wage. Through this process they begin to share the Gospel. The students then in turn share with their friends and family. A powerful testimony.
The children then came in for their last day of Bible school. The puppet team really showed their God given talents by performing for the children, this time without puppets. They put on a moving play that touched the children and brought a tear to the eyes of many adults looking on.
Some more work was done on the site, but also a lot of cleanup to prepare for the dedication service and bar-b-que that will happen on Sunday at Elderado.
We left the site a little early to go to our hosts family's home for some free time to shop and eat with them, or get some much needed sleep.
As you see from the picture above our Pastors truely do wear themselves out for the Lord here. |
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 This morning when we met at Central Baptist we listened to a man from the Baptist Convention of Rio Grande de Sul. He shared with us their vision of planting 50 churches in the next 5 years in the state.
After we arrived in Elderado, Susan Lee provided our devotional for the day in place of the still silent George. Susan posed the question - `What possesses you?´ What drives us spiritually? She drew an analogy to the gardening she has been doing here in Elderado. asking 'Are we well rooted in Christ?' Where do we get our nourishment?
It was back to work as good progress has been made in the painting, carpentry and planting. This was the second day of the children's ministry. Today the puppet team entertained both the children and the adults that peeked in the windows. The Fingers of God puppet ministry will continue to touch the children here by training Brazilians and getting them started with some supplies.
Our evening concluded at the gaucho restaraunt where we ate our grandest meal yet and were entertained by some traditional dance and music. Our own Heaven Myers was called on stage by the performers to aid in the entertainment and basically get made fun of.
We are not only getting to know our Brazilian friends better, but we are getting to know our fellow North Americans better. Bonds that will remain strong once we return.
The picture above is our version of clowns stuffing themselves into a Volkswagon (both figuratively and literally). We stuffed 6 humans into this tiny VW! Wow. |
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 We started our day at Elderado with a slideshow from Pastor Winter giving a history in photos of the Elderado Project going back to 1996. Wonderful pictures and stories of those North Americans that had come before us.
Butch led today´s devotional by asking us if we were travelers or tourists. He continued by sharing his thoughts on the differences between the two. We reflected on this through our wordly and spiritual lives. And what kind of baggage do we bring with us.
Work continued today on painting the new building, landscaping, and repairing the pulpit. Today was also the first day of the children´s program. Central Baptist volunteers ran the bible story time through drama, while our group organized the crafts and outdoor sports activities.
A devistating event happened today, George Gregory lost his voice! I believe this was aided by his calling to a flock of geese flying overhead and confusing them out of their ´V´formation.
One last note before we bed down tonight. We are planting around 50-60 trees along the property line this year. Pastor Winter said we need these trees to ´break wind´. Huh? I am just glad he doesn´t blog and comment on our lack of mastering the Portugese language.
Goodnight. |
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 As we will do every morning, we got to Central Baptist this mornig and took a bus to the worksite at Elderado. Once we got there we had a wonderful breakfast and some time to fellowship.
We then had a devotional led by Sherri. Sherri told us to replace our worry with trust and to have a positive attitude, no complaints. Good spiritual advice, especially for us as we begin this trip.
We were divided into our teams to work in several areas. Painting in the new building, painting the playground area, landscape work around the pastor´s home and new building, and carpentry work to repair water damage on the pulpit area.
We broke for lunch at 12:30 and walked to a nearby restaraunt. A similar one to last night, a lot of meat. The walk back to the church helped work some of that off. We had a snack at 4:00 and broke camp for dinner at 5:30. We really could get more work done if we didn´t eat all the time. The food is always wonderful and safe to eat for us dainty Americans. Our Brazilian hosts take every effort to make us comfortable.
We took a bus back to Central where our families took us home to rest and probably offer us more food before getting some much desired rest.
I had planned on writing about how a few people´s understanding of this morning´s devotion expired after we left the worksite. There was rabid complaints after I suggested a small change in the process of going through the food line at dinner. I was convinced otherwise after being showered with attention. I think someone told them what I was going to write. I feel so cheap.
I´m off to bed for a hard day´s work tomorrow. |
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 We made it to Porto Alegre this morning without much problem. We did try to lose some people in Sao Paulo but all were found well before the flight left. We were greeted by our friends from Central Baptist with typical flare. Pastor Winter had us all stand hand-in-hand around our luggage as we prayed and sang praise to God. All this in the middle of the airport. Our Brazilian friends are not ashamed to live their faith openly.
We had a wonderful lasagna meal at the church then broke off to go to our host family´s homes to shower and rest. Boy was that a relief, some of the group were starting to get ´ripe´.
We met back at the church this evening to review the itenerary while in Porto Alegre. We then went out to eat at a nearby restaraunt that served every type of meat imaginable. I sure wish they would feed us while we were hear (smile).
I just want to say that as I walked past Matt MCarty´s table he was tasting a small bowl of yogurt. As a boy from Texas I sure expected to see him put away more beef. I believe I have laid down the guantlet.
We have wonderful internet access here so there should be no problem with updating this blog or with many being able to get emails out to loved ones. |
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 We've made it to Miami and have met up with our friends from North Carolina. No major mishaps yet, but it is still the first day of the trip.
Richard is calling an all team meeting right now to give us our host family and roomate assignments. Looks like we'll get the detailed itenerary translated to English (thanks Patricia).
Heaven says she loves her husband. |
 If the rest of the team is like me, they're all packing and going down their checklist preparing to take off for Brazil in the morning.
We've created this little blog to keep our family and friends informed of what the team is up to. We'll include some pictures so you'll know we're working hard. I'll try to update it as often as possible, every evening I hope.
So, check back often and keep the team in your prayers.
Brazil Team Geek - Randy Ward |
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