An understanding that surpasses our own

Hello Family and Friends,

We hope this update finds you filled with the grace, love, and peace that can only be found in Christ Jesus. Your prayers are cherished and something we have found to be an incredible source of strength during this journey. Thank you again and again for lifting us up in prayer. Like Kelli talked about in our last posting God has reshaped our hearts in many ways, however it has not been easy. In preparation for this trip we believed we would have an intense, service-packed two months ahead of us and we were very excited about this. We came wanting to give %100 of ourselves in any way we could in hopes of loving, representing, and making Christ known to people of all ages in Brazil. From the very beginning our trip looked a lot different than we anticipated but we continued to trust that the Lord was in control and was doing a work in us whether we realized it or not. From the get go our trip “pace” was very slow. We understood that as a full-time missionary family, or any family for that matter, they would have a variety of responsibilities that must be taken care of. We were ready to work with and around this families schedule to be seeking, chasing after, and of course serving the Lord with intensity and perseverance. Our hearts came to Brazil pounding to give everything we had to Jesus, whether it looked like playing with children, scrubbing floors, helping with construction, cooking for others, cleaning, holding babies at the orphanage, singing, dancing, sharing our life-stories, ministering to others, or just spending time loving other people all in the name of the Lord. Whatever it was and whatever service to Jesus looked like, we were ready, with willing hearts. The few times we were at the orphanage was incredible, here we were confident in our purpose and we knew the Lord was working through us to bring joy and laughter to parentless children. We were honored to be used by Jesus in this way, as we believe that orphans have a special place in God’s heart. Spending time with these beautiful children was something neither of us will ever forget. Our 3 day trip to the countryside, where Challenge Ministries focuses their efforts, was an amazing trip as well. Three members of a Christian theater group journeyed with us and performed magic tricks, circus acts, and little skits in every village we visited. They shared Christ’s message of hope in creative ways through all there different performances. It was neat seeing the way that this theater group evangelizes, and it really opened our eyes to an interesting faucet of what living life for Christ looks like. We learned the meaning of taking your gifts, talents, and desires and giving them to the Lord in service because he can and will use everything you give for his glory. Service to God is marked by a life surrendered to him in complete obedience. It is marked by a life that gives everything to the Lord. God gives us certain gifts and talents and things we enjoy doing so that we can use those for his name’s sake. It was encouraging being with this group and coming to the realization that whether we are singing, dancing, acting, doing magic tricks, playing sports, cooking, or working full-time if it is done for the Lord, it is service to the Lord. However, this trip to the country side was also a challenge as we sat back and watched everything going on and questioned what we should be doing to serve and love. We questioned if much would have changed if we weren’t there. This was not a comfortable thing to be feeling but we pushed on, eyes fixed on Jesus, trusting he must be using us somehow.
As our time in Brazil progressed we continued questioning what our purpose was in that the majority of our days there were not marked with service. Our few trips to the orphanage were something we clung to and when we were there our hearts thrived on giving, loving, being with, serving, and sharing Jesus. We came to the Lord in prayer about our purpose in Brazil and we continued to wrestle with the Lord asking him why service was hiding from its seekers. We sought the council of others as well, and the common response was “why don’t you talk to Marconi about this and your desire to be doing more work.” We took the advice after seeing we had no missionary endeavors planned on the calendar for the next two weeks. The many days that passed void of activity or service in conjunction with the lack of planned events ahead concerned us greatly. We had come to serve and we felt like we were not doing that. We asked Marconi, if we could spend maybe a week or longer serving at the orphanage, knowing full well we had deep purpose when serving at this facility. The answer was a brief “maybe” and no further steps were taking to see if this was a possibility. Even though we were finding ourselves not doing much the Lord was moving in our hearts and continuing to grow in us a desire to serve as an act of love and love as an act of service. We also asked if it would be possible to spend a few weeks in Carnauba, the city we built the church in last summer. We thought it would be neat to see and spend time with the people we ministered to a year ago, and serve them again in any way we could. We were told they did not feel comfortable with us being there without them so we moved on hoping some other opportunities for us to serve would arise.
Growing discontent in lack of service was a tuff situation to be in and after many attempts at communicating our hearts desire to serve and not getting anywhere we were honestly very frustrated. We continued to pray about this and what the Lord was teaching us. He was teaching us SO much, he was reshaping our hearts and growing in us a desire to have lives marked with service. Not just a couple months in Brazil but entire lives trade marked with this quality. God was also revealing to us the importance of Love, as simple as it is, we were really rocked with the truth that love must cover all that we do because God is love and this is his 1st and greatest commandment. We came knowing full-well that a challenge that would be there was the language barrier. We were ready to work around this and to our best to learn as much Portuguese as we could. We were very thankful that the missionary family spoke English as well. They were excited to teach us there language and we were excited to learn as much as we could in the time we were there. This was something that was very comical in our attempts to hold conversations with those who knew absolutely no English. We were so happy to be learning Portuguese because we believed it would be more powerful to speak directly to others than through one of the family members translating. However, during this learning process it was very difficult to never be able to understand what was going on. We found it especially hard to never understand a church sermon or Bible study. We were told that weren’t going to be translated for or have things translated to us because in the mist of this we would learn the language. Of course this was a goal of ours but was not our 1st priority. Our first priority was to serve the Lord with this missionary family. We found life and growth in daily reading our bibles and praying together. We also trust that the Lord’s spirit was teaching us many things, however we are confident in the importance of community, mentorship, being taught and “spiritual fed” by those who are our spiritual elders. This was an issue considering sermons were in Portuguese. To us these sermons were nothing but noises. Marconi told us he wanted to do a bible study with us in English and this more than great news to us, it was something we were starving for. About 3 weeks into our stay we did our 1st meeting and we greatly appreciated the community and being taught. This was honestly the only time we knew what was going on and besides this bible study our communication was reduced to saying hi, asking someone’s name, and how there were doing. We wanted to share our hearts, our stories, and the message of Jesus even if it required the family to translate. We never knew what we were doing moment to moment because all conversations were in Portuguese. We followed mere signals as to what to do and where to go all the time. One time Marconi asked us if we rather do our 2nd bible study or a Portuguese lesson and after Kelli quite boldly said that she would rather learn about God, we still did a Portuguese lesson instead and never did do the 2nd bible study. We started to feel like Portuguese was a bigger goal than what we came to do which was to serve, share, and love. Like we said before we do feel like there is so much power in being able to share with people directly instead of through a translator but throughout the learning period we didn’t want to shift focus from what was most important: God. As we felt communication was a problem even with the family that spoke English and of course a difficulty with others we began to feel unnecessarily trapped in a language barrier as weren’t getting much help. We felt like Portuguese took the front seat instead of serving, sharing, and hearing about God. This forced silence and inability to share our hearts was a burying feeling. After praying about this and the way we were feeling we thought it best to just talk with Marconi and clear things up. We tried to communicate with him that, of course we wanted to learn, but more than anything we wanted to serve and we felt trapped when we weren’t ever able to share our hearts through them, our translators as we did last summer. Nothing seemed to change from this point forward. We felt disrespected and like we weren’t important enough to ever be told what was going on, rather we were to just follow signals. Everywhere we went we just sat in silence as conversations progressed and nobody took time to fill us in. We felt useless and we were questioning our purpose again.
In conjunction with the lack of opportunities to serve, spiritual not being fed into, an inability to effectively communicate with even the English speaking family we were staying with, feeling that Portuguese became a bigger goal than Jesus, and feeling trapped in a language barrier we began to desperately call on the Lord as to what we were supposed to do. We felt like talking with Marconi and explaining things would be the best option but every attempt at sharing our heart previously failed and the conversations ended up concluding on some random topic having nothing to do with what we came to talk about. We felt like there was some kind of underlying tension with Marconi as well, as numerous bus-rides or walks home were in complete silence. This was such an uncomfortable feeling to be in the middle of, so we found it necessary to ask him what was going on. We asked if we had done anything to offend him or anybody and we asked why we felt this tension. The answer we received was “you guys have doing nothing wrong and if you had we would come to you right away, don’t worry about anything.” This was great to hear that nothing had been done wrong but after this conversation the tension was still there, we found ourselves again feeling trapped and stuck. Communicating to Marconi was such a challenge, we felt disrespected, always in the mist of tension for reasons unknown to us, and our hearts were losing steam. It was burying and the lack of healthy communication with those we were staying with, in conjunction with this strange tension all while being in a foreign country started to get to us. Our hearts were losing steam and we prayed God would show us what we were supposed to do. We came before the Lord with hearts surrendered and desperate, willing to do whatever he called us to do, whether we were to stay or go. Sure enough the Lord answered our prayers. He spoke it clearly to us that our work there was done, he taught us what he needed and wanted to, and it was time for us to take our changed lives and reshaped hearts to serve him elsewhere.
We are thankful the Lord understands and sees all things and is always at work even in the mist of our not being able to understand his plan. God’s hand was clearly at work and an opportunity for 2 females to serve on Summer Staff at a Christian Young Life camp in the U.S. for the month of July came our way. Wow, we were blown away by this opportunity, and we knew that God was moving and hearing our prayers. We are thankful that the Lord is always in control and we are trusting that he knew all along that our mission trip was going to look a lot different than we expected. We know he called us to Brazil and he knew how hard it was going to be, and the way Jesus refined us into women who understand the importance of love in all circumstances whether it is easy or seemingly impossible, is something we will forever embrace. Love cannot exist apart from God because he created it and it encompasses everything he is. In the mist of not being able to serve as much as we had hoped God spoke to our hearts the importance of taking love and combining it with service as a lifestyle and not 2 qualities that characterize just a 2 month mission trip. God sent us through the fire to be refined for the last month during our time in Brazil and now he has called us out, and redirected our trip our mission trip back to the United States. We are back in Colorado and continuing the second month of our mission trip, hopefully at Young Life’s Southwind camp in Ocklawaha Florida as full time servants! Young Life is a ministry that seeks to meet kids wherever they are in life, build lasting relationships with them and introduce them to Jesus. Throughout the school year weekly gathers titled “club” are hosted in kid’s houses throughout the entire United States. Young Life leaders venture into middle schools, high schools, and colleges in an attempt to meet others and invite them to these weekly gathers. A typical “club” is a couple hours filled with skits, games, singing, and a message about Jesus at the end. Both of us have been involved in Young Life throughout high school and now in college. This is a solid ministry that has summer camps all over the United States as well as abroad. Young Life leaders build relationships with the kids that come to “club” throughout the school year and then invite the students to come to camp. Camp is a weeklong and jam-packed with fun activities that include things from water sports, to climbing walls, ropes courses, swimming, watching skits, singing, dancing, playing sports, and hanging out with other kids from all over the U.S. Throughout the week talks are giving on who Jesus is, what he did for us on the cross, how he loves us, and how he desires to be our salvation and embark on a relationship with us. Many people are needed to run these activity-packed camps and Summer Staff is the title of those who volunteer to help run the camp. We are thrilled at the opportunity and ready to take are reshaped hearts to serve with eyes still fixed on Jesus in a place that is desperate for volunteers. We are currently in the application process and ask for prayers that we could finish promptly and be accepted into this month long program.
We will continue to update our blog as we have not come back from our mission trip yet but are just being redirected as to where we will be serving for the remainder of it. Thank you again for your support, prayers and love for us. We are discovering that God works outside of our plans and we are learning to be flexible with change and sensitive to his guiding spirit. He is good, faithful, and incredibly mysterious, and always purposeful. If you desire to hear more we are more than willing to share our experiences further in depth. We love you all!
All for His glory,
Jessi and Kelli – TEAM KJ

Raw as the meat in the market that made Jessi want to become a vegetarian

Hello Everyone!

We apologize for not writing sooner. First of all, thank you so much for your faithful prayers. Kelli is not sick anymore! Gloria Deus! (Praise God). She finally started to feel better after a short 18-hour nap and a few days in bed. Let me tell you, being sick in Brasil is not ideal, but God is good, and I, Kelli, am feeling great J Jessi and I laugh as we proudly say that we have experienced the full meaning of “culture shock.” From sweating to digestion and the most difficult of all, pace. The slow pace has absolutely thrown us for a loop. The first week and a half we were so excited to be here that we kind of disregarded slow pace when we found it. However, we went straight into the countryside when we first got here so we did not get hit with the Brazilian pace right off the bat. When things started to slow down though, we started to question, as we said in other postings, what our purpose really was. After going from full time students/ working young ladies to the ability to sleep in and not have to cook, we were questioning if this was really what the “missionary” lifestyle looked like. This has not gotten easier for us. God has provided wonderful opportunities here and there to serve in ways that are heart changing, both to the people we are serving and us. Each time we have been able to go to the orphanage, we have felt like we are really doing what we said we were going to do, serve with everything we had in us. When we go there, we go go go until the final point that we either have to eat, go to the bathroom or leave. Giving ourselves like that is what we have wanted to do from the get go. If this summer was a song, we dedicated it to the beautiful life goal of service when we made the decision to come down. In our questioning if we were doing things right and if there was more we could be doing, we decided to talk to Marconi. After getting everything we could out, he said that the gift that we brought, the $9,000 that was raised/ donated for this ministry, was more than enough. He followed that with that if we spent the next 2 months on the beach, we would still have accomplished so much. Jessi and I were grateful that the $9,000 had made such a strong impact, but we were not quite satisfied with the thought of not putting our more than willing hearts and bodies to work. Please be praying that we could serve with everything we have. We are willing to go anywhere, do anything and love anyone in the name of Jesus Christ. He has really done a work in us since we have been down here.

Jessi and I discussed the image of a prisoner being stripped down and sprayed off and decided that that is the most accurate picture of us, thanks Paul and Philippians. All of our comforts have been taken and we are now just kind of sitting in a wet puddle, naked as a jay bird, discussing the important things in life with the One who created life itself.  In extremely different ways, we feel like God has really pressed upon us the important of love and serving as an act of love. It is like starting all over, but it is the most beautiful recreation the world has ever known. We have both always strived to love well and serve as much as we could, but our hearts have changed to the point that recognition of loving any particular thing is recognition of the presence of our God, as “He is love.” (1 John 4:8).  And with that said, we have been pushed to recreate not only our hearts but what it is that we know to fill our hearts, which is love itself. God has redefined the meaning of love in our hearts. Each visit to the orphanage has taught us something different about joy, about being unconditional, about faith in God when things don’t always look superb, (but that is a topic of its own.) And the one trait of love that has really clicked, is service. In a discussion between the two of us gals the other day, we commented on the fact that we have always wanted to want to serve, and now, we want to serve. It continues to amaze me that God teaches and re-teaches lessons that are so seemingly simple, but each time they are taught or revealed, the meaning is more profound…

We have found ourselves to be two girls, something close to woman, that are lost and uncomfortable and confused, but have a LOVE with new meaning for Jesus Christ, a yearning to serve to support this love and zeal to chase after Him more with each step of life.  We are very confused in why service would hide from its seekers, but more thankful that God has chosen to do this work in our hearts. No matter what, we are learning to be seeking genuinely 1000000%. God is good to take care of His beloved, to concentrate on character and not always comfort. We are excited as we feel step one, learning, of this trip has taken place. We now hope to take all that has been jammed into our heads and push it forth into a life FILLED with loving God, loving people, and as we have re-acknowledged the meaning behind love, redefine service in our lives. As far as prayer requests, we ask that you would pray for:

-All the kids at the orphanage to know God and live a life filled with His love.

-All the girls at the “Apple of God’s Eye” orphanage to know God and have their lives turned around

-Jessi and I to live lives of love and service, and with that, have opportunities to serve with all we have

-Safe travels wherever the Lord takes us, as Brazil and surrounding areas do not have a commissioner quite like my father to take care of the road issues J

-To be vessels of Christ’s love and power and walking proof of grace in living color

-Safety and protection from people near and far and against spiritual warfare

Thank you all so much. We love you and are so very appreciative of you. May God minister to your hearts wherever this update finds you and continue to teach you about love with the same intensity that we have been rocked with. 

Love with new meaning,

Kelli and Jessi

Sleepover at the orphange!

Kelli doing what she does best at a church right next to the orphange. After dinner we walked to this church so the girls could practice a dance they were performing for the congregation.

Jessi reading, or better put, attempting to read Isaiah 53:5 in Portuguese to the girls in their bedroom.

Jessi with some of boys during dinner.

Kelli and all the girls she braided!!

First of all we want to thank you agian and again for all your prayers! They are much needed and much appreciated! We desire to be the hands and feet of our Lord and savior and sometimes doing that can be tricky. However, we felt that our sleepover at the orphange was exactly where God wanted us to be. I, Jessi, am excited to share about our experience there.

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."

James 1:27

This is one of the little girls from Lily of the Valley Orphange.

We know that God has a special place in his heart for orphans, so the opportunity to love them, serve them, and just spend time with them was very exciting for us. We hopped on a bus with Marconi and Kelita to the city of Macaiba, which is only about 40min. away. Once we arrived in Macaiba we went to the local meat shop and bought a few plastic bags full of meat to take to the orphange, as providing food for 33 children continues to be a daily challenge. We got to the orphange just in time for dinner and were greeted with open arms, excited kids, and a large plate of cus cus with bread, and coffee. After dinner we took our stuff to the girls house and Mother Kika (the lady that lives with and cares for all the girls) showed us to her room which she gave up for us to stay in. The room was extremely small and filled with all different kinds of things that probably had no other place to be stored. Eventhough the room was relatively under sized, we were amazed at this womans selflessness in giving up her space to two complete strangers. We continue to marvel at the way Brazilians have mastered the art of hospitality. It's incredible and it is something I hope we both take back with us when we leave.

Later that night we watched a movie, in the girls house and giggled as we all attempted to communicate with each other. As the girls began to fall asleep Kelli and I decieded to go into Kika's room and get a good night sleep as well. Kelli took the bed and I crawled in the hammock that was hung up just for our stay. Not two minutes passed before I heard something crawling on the plastic bags in the corner next to me. I looked over and sure enough there was a insect (sized classified as a animal according to Kelli) crawling up this plastic bag toward the feet-end of my hammock. It had long tenticle-things coming out of it's forehead and wings! It started to flap those things and buzz around the room. I threw both sides of the cloth hammok over my body and demanded Kelli attack that thing. We found our selves in a predicament...we had no shoes, no weapons, no nothing except our hands. So as soon as that sucker craweled inside one of the plastic bags in the corner Kelli started to punch it. She gave it everything she had, to find out that it didn't even seem to effect that monster. She grabbed a broom, as I continued to cheer her on from under my sheet, and tried to stab it with the handle end. It escaped in the pile of stuff up against the wall and the last prayer I said before I went to bed was "God please don't let that thing get me."

Kelli attacking the unknown creature!!

The following morning we woke up, had breakfast, and went back to the girls house for devotionals. Kika told us that they do devotionals everyday after breakfast. They go around the room and take turns reading though a chapter in the bible, they sing songs, and then conclude with prayer. Kika is such a blessing to these girls, please pray that God would continue to encourage her work as she has given her life to loving these children. Later in the day we played volleyboy with some of the older boys and some dodge ball type game, that I don't think either Kelli or I fully understood. We just kept running from the ball in fear that it might hurt to get hit. We watched another movie later that day with the girls and Kelli braided their hair. We played tick tack toe, and other similiar type games with the kids until it was time for dinner. After eating, a majority of the kids asked us to write notes in their journals, eventhough they wouldn't be able to read or understand them since they don't know english. One of those boys showed me his journal with all the notes he had from various visitors and I then realized they justed wanted to have something to remember us by. So we wrote letter after letter that described Gods love for them and that he was the one who brought us there to be with them. We exchanged email addresses and before we knew it Marconi was there to pick us up. It was tuff having to leave them, but we believe that they are at a very good orphange. Everybody that works there seems to love these kids very much and all the children apprear to be really happy. However, they still need our prayers. Pray that God will provided families for them, prosperous futures, and guidance into his will for each of their lives. To find our more about them you can visit their website at: http://www.orfanatoliriodovale.com.br

We love you all very much! Please continue to pray that God will reveal himself to us while we are here and that we will be led by him in everything we do. Thank you so much for all your love and support.
-TEAM KJ

P.S. As I just read this over with Kelli she asked if you all would please pray for her cold. She is not feeling well and wants to be %100, exspecially while she is here.

fé.. faith in Portuguese

Hello everyone! I wanted to briefly update you in this half hour of down time. Jessi and I have been all over this week from prayer nights to pastor meetings.  On Tuesday we got to go to the orphanage that Woodland Park Community has worked with in the past. Brazil continues to be beautiful and we continue to beg our brains to soak up more of the language. We have found ourselves confused however, in the midst of the beauty of this place and the crazy amounts we are learning about this culture, as to what exactly our purpose is here. Last year we prepared for months and months with a team of 20 to come down here and build a church. We had 2 packed weeks of service, community and culture shock. This summer has been quite different from our last experience. We did not come with the goal of constructing a building, but rather laying down all that we had to serve, love and do whatever was needed of us. Without overstuffed days, filled with moving bricks and sweeping concrete, we are forced to look deeper and question how we are being used, and how we can be used. This has been difficult for us, the adjustment from a 20 person team and 4 leaders, to 2 best friends and a Brazilian family. In the middle of “kid bonding” trips to the mall, our hearts are screaming to serve. We trust that God is bigger than our not understanding, though. Each time one of us is frustrated or discouraged, the other doesn’t miss a beat in reassuring that we were called here, and regardless of if we “feel” anything or understand the way we are being used, we are. Last night in our debrief, we discussed how when little kids see fishes in a glass tank they tap on the glass until the fish move. We compared this to our situation. If God was the tank of water, or more realistically, the ocean, we have zeroed in on just one aspect of our Father and are tapping the glass in hopes that we will be able to see Him move. We are standing by each other as He is refining our hearts, watching as finger by finger, we are forced to let go of time and control and knowing it all. We ask that you would pray for a few things:

-       Jess is not feeling well, nothing serious but her throat is soar and she is fighting lack of energy.

-       That we would go let and let God. We want to serve and if it looks like dancing and singing and sharing our stories, then wonderful, if not, all the better. God is made strong in our weakness.

-       That our bodies could adjust to the Brazilian heat, food, humidity and sleeping schedule.

-       That our minds would be open and quick to Portuguese.

-       That God would guide me (Kelli) and reveal where I am supposed to be this fall.

Regardless of what we expected or how different reality has come to be, God is so good. We are thankful that he has chosen to refine our hearts and have hope in coming wisdom and strength. In a few hours, we will be taking off to spend the night at the orphanage with the kiddies and we are SO exited. When we visited earlier this week, we felt like we were exactly where we needed to be, holding babies and loving orphan children. We can’t wait to be back there with them, to love them with all we have. 

Thank you so much for your faithfulness to prayer. We have found it to be the most powerful form of loving and direct way of making a difference. Praise God for His profound lessons of simple truth. 

Jessi and Adriano,  a boy at the orphanage who has watched as members of WPCC have returned 3 times to share their love

Kelli with 2 of the little babes

After the orphanage on Tuesday, we went over to a church for a prayer meeting. Jessi and I went to the back to wash up and Jessi found poop on her shoe. This picture displays why Jessi and I are a match made in heaven.. her shoe, my hand. :)

The girlies at the orphanage

Two little babies that we got to hold at a school we went to Wednesday.

We love you guys, May God be glorified and known,

Kelli and Coco Puff

A New Culture...

Hey Family and Friends! JESSI HERE...

What a joy it is to get to fill you in on all that is going on. I find myself having to look back at all our photos in order to remember everything we have done.

With each passing day I am noticing more and more the differences in the way of life I am so accoustumed to in the U.S. and the way of life I find myself in the middle of right now. Some difference include: Brazilians don't have the "American Bubble" (obviously, its American..haha) but what I mean when I say that is they are much more upclose and personal. Rather than a just a simple handshake when meeting someone new its a kiss on each cheek. Its also that way when someone is leaving, it seems to be of way of saying goodbye. It was a little uncomfortable at 1st, but Kelli and I have both adapted and think its pretty cute. It's going to be comical when we get back to the U.S. and invade someones personal bubble with a kiss on the cheek.

Another culture difference we have both noticed is how the Brazilian people are very open and in touch with their feelings. When they think your beautiful they tell you, even if they just met you. If a boy likes a girl, the don't keep it some hidden mystery in hopes the other will figure it out, they just come and tell each other. They are senstive here, and its not a bad thing. I think the reason its so different in America is because we are taught to value independence, self-reliance, and survival of the fittest in dog-eat-dog world. Here they rely on each other, the family is highly valued and they stick together to survive. It's not what the individual can do or become but what the family-unit can accomplish by working together. Children don't move out of the house when there 18 years old. Rather they stay at home and either work or go to school, and contribute all that they can to the family. It is not uncommon for a single household to have a mother, father, children, cousins, grandparents, aunts and uncles all living under the same roof. Its actually very uncommon for just a mother and father and their children to live by themselves. They don't push indiviualism what so ever, its a collectivist culture and I think that makes for a much happier culture in many ways. Whether their happier or not, I can tell you they sure aren't lonely here. It's been fascinating observing the culture differences.

We've also noticed its a much slower-paced culture. People are always sitting on plastic chairs outside their houses or store fronts and nobody every seems to be in a hurry. I think the technology and advancements in America are partially a result of our face-paced way of life. Being in Brazil has really opened my eyes to how ahead of the world we really are!! The simple things like level roads, to intelligently designed highways and tranisit systems, to toliets that you can actually flush your toliet paper in. America is clean almost everywhere. Its very dirty here, trash everywhere, and things are broken and need repair everywhere you look. But in the mist of this are a people who know how to love well and are masters in the hospitality category. Everywhere we have been, whether houses in the country-side or houses here in the big city of Natal, we have always had food prepared for us upon our arrival. I'm not talking cheese and crackers, I'm talking a feast!!! It's amazing how they appreciate company and treat you like you were the president coming to visit them. If you don't have time to stay and eat then you are always sent with some kind food. We have been given fruit, bread, corn on the cob, meat, ect. Simply spending time together and talking is highly valued in this culture. So a visit to someones house means a lot.

Saturday we packed up and Marconi and Catiana (our Brazilan parents), Kener (one of the sons), and of course Kelli and I went to a town about 40 minutes away to spend the night at a family friends house, just to be with them. We drove in a small car that was lent to us and packed our blow up matresses, hamocks, and clothes in the trunk. We arrived at dusk and went to the city-mayor's house. Here we greeted with open arms (and of course some kisses) and smiling faces. We were there two minutes before we were handed a plate and silver ware and were told to dish-up. We ate and visited for a little while and them we hopped in the car and went to the local community building. They were having some kind dance/music rehersal for an uncoming performance. We got to enjoy a free show, with great rythimic Brazilian style music and dance. Lots of dance! There had to be 70 dancers jumping around to the face-paced rythum of the music. It was a quite the cultural experience! Later that night we traveled a few minutes out of town to the little farm house we were staying at. When we got here they immediately began cooking corn on the cob and fried cheese for us. Marconi (the guy were staying with) told us that this family were not believers so it was very important for us to go and spend time with them so we sat out-side in plastic chairs all night and visited. We blew up our air matresses and crawled under our little sheet and slept outside, under the Brazilian night sky.

Sunday after breakfast we hopped back in our little car and headed back home to Natal. (Sidenote: Church takes place in the evening here, and I am assuming the reasoning is because it is way to hot to congregate a bunch of people in one place during the day). So later that evening the entire family and few others who work with Challenge Ministries got on the bus and headed to a nearby church. Challenge Ministries was doing a presentation that explains who they are and what they are doing in the country-side in a effort to raise support. I got up and spoke briefly about what the Lord did in my heart last summer and how I felt called to Brazil once again. It was pretty neat speaking in front of the church (of course it had to be through Marconi, my translator since I am not fluent in Portuguese), nontheless it was a neat experience. After Church we walked quite a distance to a Acai restaurant (this is a family tradition, every Sunday after church they go there). Acai is this AWESOME Brazilian fruit, its consistancy reminds me a lot of sherbert ice cream. It is dark purple and tastes kind of grape-ish and is served in a ice cream bowl. You can top it with all different kinds of fruits, granola, candy, and syrup. It's stinking delicious and its supposed to be a naturally engery giver! I think it works too, Kelli was bouncing off the walls after her bowl set in!

I better get going, need to shower because we are off the Orphange today. Love you ALL!

PICTURES! Up and running

Jessi and her favorite little man, Alexander 

Back in Carnauba 

Jessi and Kelli!!! Before we went cliff diving.. just kidding

Vanessa, Giovani and Kelli

Eliana and Jess

Countryside!!

Oi FAMILY!!!

We apologize for not updating sooner! For the last 4 days, we have been in the Brasil country side serving, seeking and sweating like crazy. We had neither time nor internet where we were but I, Kelli, am so happy to sit down now and write an update!

Last Tuesday, the 26^th, we stuffed ourselves in a little Honda and drove to the bus stop.  Our group was made up of Jessi, myself, Marconi (the top dog of Challenge Ministries), Katiana (his wife), Eliana (another member of Challenge) and three new members of our team who were visiting from Southern Brasil; Oodie, Fla and Shandrie. We stood around at the bus stop for a little while and attempted to communicate, which is always a good laugh, and then hopped onto the bus. We bounced around on the bus for about three hours and arrived in Acari to find three of our old Carnaubas friends waiting for us. It was a sleepy but very exciting time to see our friends!!! We walked down the cobblestone street with our old buds to the house that we would be staying at and stayed up late acting out what our lives have looked like for the last year, and catching up in our broken languages. It was amazing to see them and be back in the world of professional shariads. We slept on the porch of Pastor Silvanis’ house on the same air mattresses that we used last June, dripping with bug spray and smiling in our sleep that we were there.

Wednesday morning we woke up with extremely swollen eyes and even more curious minds of what the day would hold. We ate a fairly typical breakfast of corn in 3 different forms, bread, fruit and coffee strong enough to keep you awake through a night shift, and were quickly on our way. Pastor Silvani, the man whose house we were staying at, has a VW van that we used for our transportation while we were there. (Side note: VW van is like a brick of gold here. Challenge Ministries has been trying to buy a van for something close to four years and just recently obtained enough money to buy one. So, going to a house with a van= extremely wonderful). We went to three villages on Wednesday. The first stop set the tone that things would be a lot different than we thought. We visited the house of an old friend of Marconi’s. She had prepared a little snack of fruit for the group and we all ate and listened to the old woman talk about the house. Well, I think she was talking about the house. She was pointing to pictures and walls, which leads me to believe that the house was her “topic” if you will, but in reality, I have no idea what she was talking about. But the fruit was delicious. The Brasilian part of our group were all amazed at the architecture of the old house, the walls about a foot and a half thick and the ceilings extremely high. Jessi and I did not have the knowledge behind appreciating or understanding the differences between this house and others that we had been in, but we loved watching them all googly eyed. The high ceilings offered something of a natural air conditioning, and I wish I could explain how great that was. I don’t know if we have yet mentioned how hot it is here. As a result of the climate, I have learned the extent of a talent I already new existed, which is sweating. Not to be arrogant, but I am extremely good at doing so profusely, better than most people I meet or have ever met. It is pretty neat. Anyways, back to the countryside adventure. We ventured on to Caranuba Dos Dantes, which is where we spent a majority of our trip last summer. The drive into the village was a pretty intense ride. There were a lot of emotions pouring through the two of us girls as we re-entered into a territory of memories made last June. This place has held the status of a kingdom in both of our hearts. A place where the Lord’s presence was extremely tangible and work had been done in the construction of a church and the construction of a community of believers. Jessi has questioned and pondered the thought of going back to Caranuba to continue the Lord’s work there, so going back was significant and powerful, waiting to see what emotions would be stirred upon return. And myself, well, I have no clue what I am doing with my life J But for the reasons previously mentioned, this visit to Carnuaba was a big deal. The first place we went was the church we helped build last summer. When we left last June, we left a beautiful sanctuary of hard work and love. It was the most precious and impressive building any of us Americans had ever seen, because our hearts lined the walls, however, it lacked a few finishing touches that would be in the Brasilian’s hands to finish. Nothing big, but things such as paint, decorations, etc. As we drove up to the church, we were stunned. It was white, like white white. The way that we felt about it last summer was now mirrored in its concrete appearance. Tear jerker. Literally. In shock, we went over to the restaurant we ate at last summer and enjoyed the same meal, same drink, same waiter, same little washing area for our dirty construction hands. It was intense and I don’t know if I can adequately serve justice to how big it was to be there with all these similarities, but take my word that this was huge. I dared Jessi to eat a hot pepper towards the end of our meal and she accepted the challenge. We all laughed a lot as she scarfed down rice and water to kill the burn and as I was wiping my laughing tears, I rubbed the pepper residue on my finger right into my eyeball.. It was a little circle of pain and heat and laughing. Oh the good times of Caranuba. We finished eating our meal and went outside to play in the rain and chat with the people that were around. Most of our kids from last year were in school but the people that we saw were enough to keep our hearts from settling. We met a man that had recently been on the news for his animal graveyard. This man does it all. Puts the animals to sleep, takes them to his graveyard in his bike trunk (the basket between the handle bars) and buries them, headstone and all. He was quite a character and our friends from the South thought he and his career were extremely funny. We toured his facility of putting the animals to sleep, saw a dead cat, which was a little odd, and then got back in the van to head off to our next village. On our way out of Carnuaba, we saw four of our little kids from last year. One of the kids, Alexshandri, was Jessi’s all time favorite little kid. She has continued talking with him since we left and has been looking forward to seeing him. It was crazy that they just so happened to be walking on the side of the road as we were leaving.. God thing. He agreed that we just couldn’t leave without seeing the kiddies. AMAZING. The next place we went was Santana, where we stayed for the remainder of the night. We sprayed ourselves and added some clothes layers to avoid Malaria and jumped into the night’s activities. Were we at a party that was for some of the children of the town and we sang children’s gospel songs and wiggled around with them. Then our friends, Oodie, Fla and Shandri, performed their show. Jessi and I were told that the three of them were part of a Christian Theatre group called “Teenstreet” but were not sure what to expect of them. We were extremely impressed with their acting ability and the way that they shared Jesus. It is so much different than the ways that Jess and I have been gifted but so incredible, so truth packed and so perfect for their audience. They were dressed like clowns, with silly red noses and striped pants and after each magic trick, they would tell a story from the Bible or relate their trick to a Biblical value. For example, they would make a ball appear out of nowhere, and then another, and then another and then talk about feeding the 5,000 and how with faith, the Lord can do big things. This was the first of time of many that we saw our friends perform in this trip to the countryside. Every time we picked up on more, more words (keep in mind this whole thing is in Portuguese) more truth being revealed in their act and more appreciation for our brothers and sisters’ talent. At this time, we were pretty tired but our night was still young. We ate “Canjica” which I like to call to corn jello. It is squishy, sweet, yellow and made out of corn. Awesome. So we ate some corn jello and drank some much needed coffee and went to the next “Party.” This one I would not describe as a party, more of a street gathering, and there were people of all ages there. When we first arrived, we had a hard time speaking with the kids because of the initial shyness but after a few minutes, a comment of how they thought I was Asian, and the mention of Andrew, Evan and Christian (who went to Santana on their trek around the world), we were all giggling and giving our best at talking to each other. The Teenstreet group performed again and were followed by Pastor Silvania giving a talk, two talented girls leading worship and finished with Marconi talking. We ate some hot dogs, drank some Brasilian soda-pop, called Guanana, and chocolate cake, and it was time to go back to the house. We assured the kids we would be back and confidently said the words we knew best “God bless you,” and we were off. On the ride back to the house, Jessi, myself and Eliana sat in the back and talked about the day. We found out that every time I had said “I speak poorly,” I was actually saying “I speak backpack.” Apparently “bad” and “backpack” sound extremely similar in Portuguese. When we figured out what I had been saying the whole day to new people, we laughed all the way home. Language barriers and laughing have proved to go hand in hand. A couple of us relaxed and played some music on the porch for a few hours, which always ends up being one of my favorite things to do, and then were off to dream land….

I am going to tag team the writing to Jess now. J

            Hey Yall! Jessi HERE! Okay so Thur. morning we woke up and took off in the van after breakfast for Negros Do Riacho. I was a smidge nervous because last summer the people and the children in this village were, well I guess you could say they just weren’t very welcoming or glad to have us there.

The van we were coming in would not be able to handle the absolutely crazy off-roading that it would take to get to this village. So when we turned off on the dirt road Marconi plowed through the 1^st small lake in the middle of the road and drove as far as the van would take us. When it become evident that the van would not go any further we pulled off to the side of the road and there a couple people in a rusty old truck picked us up. We climbed in the back of the truck and had an adventurous ride to Negros do Riacho. When we pulled up kids were running after the truck and yelling “Marconi, Marconi.” It felt much different than it did one year ago. There had been a significant change in these people. A light, hope, a sense of happiness, and a longing to know why it was we were there.  The children were still nervous to come near us but a few warmed up and would even do silly hand shakes with us, some would even tell us there names and answer when we asked how they were. These small changes were truly incredible, a mark of the Lords hand at work. How encouraging it was to see and experience! Wow!

The drama group performed their act, we sang some songs, handed out candy, and gave them the jewelry we had on…all a sign of our love for them. Then we went to the house of a family who just recently accepted Christ as there Lord and prayed, sang songs, and gave them some food- a basic necessity that is greatly appreciated there.  Another rusty old truck pulled up full of kids ranging from 3 to 17 years old. They were on there way to a near by town to go to school. We climbed in the over-packed truck bed and road back to where the van was parked. It was an adventurous little trip to say the least.

Friday morning we woke early to catch the bus back to Natal. I was extremely tired and slept the entire 3 or so hours back. When we got back the 3 people from the theater group wanted to go explore Natal, so Kelli and I journey with them. Our first stop was a car rental shop where we picked up our transportation and headed the see the worlds LARGEST TREE. This one tree looked like a small jungle in itself. We were taken on a tour, where we walked through this “little jungle” and heard all about the history of this gigantic thing. Of course we couldn’t understand what was being said but I think it was almost 125 years old and the government wants to buy all the house around it so they don’t have to keep trimming and can let it grow to its full potential. After this we went on a boat that took us out to a safe spot in the ocean. Here we got to snorkel for a couple hours, which was an absolute blast. When our boating excursion was over we went to go see this old military base on the out skirts of town. It was a huge castle-like building right on the beach.

Later that night we went to eat at a really neat buffet style restaurant and came back to Marconi’s house to enjoy a magic show by Oodie, a member of the drama team. It was nice to have a day to relax after being in the countryside, going non-stop for the past few days. The heat seems to suck all energy out of us really fast, so a day to relax is highly enjoyed! The Lord has been very good to us and we are so happy to be here. He is stirring up big questions in both of hearts. Thank you for your love and follow, praying for, and being apart of this journey. We love you!

Lost in translation.

Four weeks ago, God opened up the curtains and showed me something huge, a 2 month trip to Brasil. Naturally, I started talking to everyone I knew about this upcoming adventure. I got responses everywhere from "You're crazy" to "I wish I could go" and one remark that came up every 5 people or so, which was "Can you speak Portuguese?" Well actually, they would ask "Can you speak Spanish?" and I would tell them that the Brasilian language was Portuguese and then they would ask. And of course, my answer was, "Eh, a little bit." Well, let me correct myself. No, I do not speak Portuguese. I will, but currently, saying that I knew a little bit was an over statement. I feel like when I was 6 years old and I jumped into a pool without knowing how to swim. The water is the portuguese and the lack of oxygen is my lack of this language. Thankfully, when I was 6 years old, my brother pulled me out of the pool when he saw my arms frantically splashing. My "rescuer" here is a team effort. First, the family Jessi and I are staying with are some of the most incredible people I have ever met and 3 of the 5 are fluent in English. They are wonderful teachers, sounding everything out for the hooked on phonics girl. Secondly, Jessi's hours and hours of Rosetta Stone are really paying off. It is a joy to watch her babble with the Brasilians and giggle through the mess ups. She is excellent in helping me attempt communication because she knows my position. Third, acting things out is always a helpful tool. Last summer I became a professional 'sharaids' player because of the language barrier and in the 24 hours that I have been here, I have proudly resorted back to my learned trait. And last but not least, I completed my first lesson in Rosetta Stone today. I walked around the house saying "Lindo, lindo," thinking I was repeating one of my new words, meaning "reading." However, "Lindo" means beautiful and "Lendo" is what I was trying to say. But, it made for a great laugh when Kener, one of the boys that we are living with, walked towards me and I matter of factly called him beautiful. Oh boy, I have a lot to learn. But it is only day one! Needless to say, I had a huge weight of relief lifted when my new family and I walked into a movie that was in English!!! God has a way of blessing us in HUGE way with just little baby blessings :)

Utterly Amazed - by Jessi Cowan

To HIM be all the glory...

I arrived at the airport in Denver at 11:30am. Andy dropped my mom and I off curbside so we could unload the two over-sized pieces of luggage I was checking. There were no lines to speak of so checking-in was relatively painless. Bags being checked were not allowed to exceed 50lbs, anything over that would be charged a $200 fee. I plopped my 1st bag up on the scale and that ginormous thing- filled wiht clothes and candy for the orphans, gifts for the family were going to stay with, and a multitude of othere necessities (and non-necessities )- weighed 62lbs. We pulled it off the scale and took out a few pounds of chacolate; figured we could just buy it when we arrived in Brazil with the $200 we'd save by not exceeding the max weight limit. I grabbed the 2nd bad, and anxiously set it on the scale... 49.5lbs.... "Sweet, thanks God."

Moments later Kelli and her family arrived. Seeing my best friends, travel partner, and sister in Christ who I'd be sharing the next 2 months with amplified the excitement pounding inside my chest. She went and checked her bags and the keyboard we are bringing for KiKi (one of the boys we are staying with who is a music major at the college in Natal). Soon after my aunt Diane and my youth pastor, along with his beautiful family, arrived to pray over us and our trip. After a few minutes of chit-chat Matt, doing what he does best, gathered everybody around to pray.We called on the name of Jesus to guide and protect us, teach us and use us, and then we had our final good-bye hugs, a few last minute pictures, and a couple of tears. As we turned to leave our parents, family, and friends I was in shock that the day I had been waiting for, for almost a year was finally here. Kelli and I headed straight for the bathroom, into the large handicap stall to take care of some ubber important business.

Thursday I went to the bank to withdrawl the $7,600 from the account that was opened for all money raised from the $10,000 Challenge. Later that day and into Friday a few hundred in donations came in. I divided the money evenly into the 2 "top-secret" money belts and took off to the airport this morning with a total of $8,600. A few super last minute donations came in and Kelli and I went to the bathrooom to strap these money-belts to our bodies. We sat on the tile floor in the handicap stall overwhelmed with excitement and God's goodness to us. We counted the money one last time.

"Okay, here is one belt with $4,100 and heres the other with the same amount. Oh yeah and here is $200 more."

"Here is another $150 I got in the mail..."

On and on it went for a few minutes. Stunned, speechless, awe-stuck, and reminded of God's power we sat on that tile floor next to the toliet and counted $10,261!!!

PRAISE HIS HOLY NAME!

He laid this challenge on my heart 5 months ago and called Kelli to be apart of this 4 weeks ago and all it took was simple obedience. Saying "yes" to the Lords calling. Saying "yes Father I will go after this goal. I may look like a fool and people may think I'm crazy but I choose to trust in you."

Wow we serve a BIG God. NOt only did he come through, he exceeded the goals, far exceeded it! He provided $10,261 in cash for us to take. However, after doing some math, it became apparent that the Lord provided a total of over $17,000 for this mission. From the actually cash we brought, to a multitude of items and gifts for the family were staying with and the people in the villages, to our personal travel expenses the Lord came through in HUGE ways. We are literally in shock!!!

All for Him, Him for all.

Hello Friends and Family and thank you for taking interest in this adventure! We want to welcome you to the first blog posting by Team KJ (Equipe KJ)!!! What an exciting time this preparation process has been and now, we have our own page! We want to start off this page, this trip and this communication device with what started it all. His name is Jesus. It's because of Him that we have to ability to reach our creator in a personal and intimate way, live a life of freedom, and forever be saved from the punishment of sin. Because of the power of His death on the cross we were impacted and changed five years ago and have accepted the challenge to share Christ's powerful message of hope with our brothers and sisters in Brazil. He is our motivation, our strength and our authority. We go in confidence that we will be used to make an impact for the kingdom. We are also confident in our inadequacy but we trust that as we go with willing hearts the Lord will work through us to do mighty things in his name. We have watched as miraculous amounts of support have come in and we await the last $3,900. We feel like God set the goal of $10,000 and we will not stop until we hear differently. As we prepare in the last 18 days in our country, we ask for your prayer support. We have found prayer to be the purest form of power and we ask, plead, and challenge YOU to be our warriors in prayer. We will fill this page with blessings, problems, testimonies of miracles and everything in between for you to keep in your prayer lives and we ask for your faithfulness and we pray blessings over you for loving us in this way. Thank you for everything you have done to assist this trip to where she stands today. We are screaming the countdown daily to each other and everyone we come in contact with so join in with us, 18 DAYS!!!!!

With ALL of our love and excitement to share His story,

Equipe KJ

(TEAM KJ)