the pieces are coming together

good morning! we have been telling you a lot about what we've been doing in londrina, but we wanted to give you a snapshot of our vision and our purpose here.

yesterday, eight of us were planning on going to the university to connect with students and invite them to the friday night extravaganza. around noon, we separated into two cars and headed there. in one car, our good friend edu was driving rafael, morgan, allison, and emily burns. we started talking about random stuff on the way there, but burns asks edu if he had anything going on that day such as work. edu said that he was done for that day. shocked, we asked if he works a couple of hours a day. he had cancelled his appointments for the rest of the day [he's a dentist]. humbly, we thanked him and thanked him but he quickly said, "no no no, thank you for cancelling your appointments and coming to spend this week here with us." wow wow wow! talk about encouragement. we were wrecked for the rest of the day. it completely captured our vision:

God is already doing amazing things here in londrina and through capela da graça. we are here to equip, encourage, and continue the mission that they have established. we are not here to create a new mission but to strengthen their existing vision.


with that in mind, yesterday was a step closer to fulfilling this vision and mission. early afternoon while half of us continued to paint, the other half went to uel [universidade estaduao de londrina] to have lunch with the students as well as invite them to the friday night gathering. we did so by walking around the campus and having conversations with people we came across. some of us even got to sit in an english class. later on in the day, a second group went to an english school [cultura inglesa] to encourage the students, answer any of their questions, as well as invite them to the gathering.

THE PIECES ARE COMING TOGETHER!

mad props to everyone else in the group for doing their part. thanks spirtual development team for our inspirational morning devotions. thanks project team for getting everything ready and leading the group with the painting. thanks encouragement team for all that you are doing and your words that lift us. thanks accounting team for keeping up with the expenditure.

guess what! yesterday was emily bedenbaugh's birthday and we sang happy birthday at least twelve times and she had the honor of wearing a crown. they made her a pineapple and dates cake with coconut frosting. mm mm delicious!

so now we're off to continue working. please keep praying for capela da graça and what God is doing and will do through them.

much love

[pictures will be posted tonight]