In January I was able to attend an event called Teen Street. It is a seven-day conference held at a college here in town, directed mainly to the Christian youth of Brazil. This year there were over 1,300 people. Kids come from all over Brazil to attend, and a few from other countries too. The speakers themselves were Irish that now live in America, and they come to speak at this conference every year. The first Teen Street started in Germany, which is where it is the biggest right now. And they also have it in other places like; Malaysia, India, South Africa, Australia and Uruguay. It was a lot of fun and I hope to be able to go again!
In February we had our annual Free Lutheran Carnaval Camp at the Arca. Since there were seven of us from Maringa we went with the bus from Campo Mourão, our neighbor town. It was a good week; I was very excited to find my friend Alisha there, who is doing MTI from Bible School.
A couple of weeks after camp I went to Campo Mourão for a program the Central church was doing at our Bible School with the youth. It was an afternoon with the orphanage kids playing games and stuff, and at night there was a church service. The intention of the day was to pray for and encourage the orphanage kids, but in the end I think they were the ones that encouraged us the most! It really showed us that we have a lot to be thankful for, and it got the youth excited about our program to bring over a kid or two to stay at their homes on weekends. The kids are really fun; some of the girls were sharing with me what their homes were like. Like my one little friend Jani, she just turned 12 this year, and she has had tattoos ever since she was 10! It’s just crazy. But we can see God really changing their lives.
This year I also started attending the cell group of the girls that were in my room at Teen Street. We meet once a week, and usually start out by each one telling how their week went. I joke and say it’s like a group therapy session, but we don’t say hi and then the persons name after it gets to their turn! A lot of the girls go to the same school, and this year one of them started a “prayer room” at their school. It has been a blessing; they started out with six people meeting to pray during recess, and now not quite a month later they have over 80 people coming to their prayer room! One of the teachers volunteered his classroom to them at the very beginning, and it has air conditioner! But now they are already getting too big for that classroom. I am excited though to see what God is going to do!
I also went to a camp with the girls this weekend. It was a camp to get the youth away from the partying of the city on Easter weekend, but I know we had way more fun!
Well, there is a little bit of some of what I’ve been doing lately, but I’ve still got busy weeks ahead of me! God bless you all .
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April is the daughter of missionaries Jonathan and Tamba Abel.
