Oi! Tudo bem! Hello! Everythings great! Here I am done
with my first week at Presidente Prudente, am I'm still alive and
kickin! Yup, I have lived to tell the tale... Not to say that
things have not been busy or that I have not been stressed. This
past week has brought so many experiences for me that it seems to
be an eternity. To tell you the truth, it seems like a lifetime
ago the last time that I saw all of you and since then so much has
changed. Heck, it seems like it was so long ago that I saw my
fellow JEMS workers like Sumiko and Tomio!
Even though it has only been a week and I have four more weeks
of stuff to do here in Prudente, I can't even begin to tell you
how this trip has been. Be prepared for a blank stare or a weak,
"Umm, it was good..." when I come back and you ask me how my
trip was. Through it all, it has been awesome to see how God has
provided for me and the ways that He has worked. I thank you so
much for your prayer support and encouragement. Thank you so much
to those of you Davis people who wrote the letters and to Joe who
collected them. I have been reading them one by one and it would
be beyond awesome if all of you knew how you have ministered to me.
I can just feel the prayer support. For those of you who know me
well, you know that I don't do well in group settings, that I am
very shy and don't open up to people very well. But through
prayer, God has granted me a spirit of boldness to reach out to
my students and church members. Many of my students have told me
that they think I am rather outgoing and talkative!
Wow, who is this Jeff anyway? That's just one of the ways
that God has been answering prayers. There are days like today
when I don't think I can make it, but God gives me strength.
Take today for example. We came into Prudente from a wedding
around 6:30am, I had a basketball clinic at 9-11, we had lunch
with a church family from 11:45-2, at 2 I did worship, shared my
testimony, and led a craft for a youth program at church... Whew,
I am tired! Not everyday is like this though!
Let me tell you a little bit about my ministries here. I
teach my 8:30 advanced class four times a week. There are about
8 people and it's a very fun class. They're very eager to find
out about how American culture is because for some of them, I am
the first American they have ever met. We get along well, and as
a class we will go out for a traditional Brazilian lunch next
Saturday and afterwards I will play tennis with one of my
students and her family! Yes, I get to play on clay courts for
the very first time! One of my lifetime dreams...
I also teach a 4:30 beginners class four days a week. I
admit that this is a hard class for me to teach because of the
language barrier. There are five students in this class. The
first day went horrible, I was stressing like crazy and didn't know
how to begin teaching! But as the week went on, I found better
ways (hopefully!) to teach. I thank God that He provides me with
translators from day to day. Please pray that I can be a good
teacher for this class!
Right after that class, I have an intermediate class.
These are mostly people who have had some study of english but
haven't had too much practice with conversation. It's hard with
this class because of the language, but we have fun. Several of
my students have told me that they enjoy the class, or their
parents have told me how much fun they have. They (and my other
classes) really love to sing, so that's awesome that I am able to
use my limited guitar abilities to teach them english worship
songs and thereby present a bit of the gospel...
Half an hour later, I have another advanced class. They're
a lot of fun as well. Many of them are church members, so we
can have lots of fun together with our inside jokes and stuff.
I also do Bible study in english three times a week. I
have chosen to study Philippians (great book, eh core?) because
it is easier topicwise for discussion than say, Romans or James,
it is one of my favorite books, and that being about having joy
in all circumstances will be very applicable to my experiences
here. Please pray for the study, as it is very difficult in
English! This is the very first time it has been done here.
And of course most of you must be wondering how I am
doing because I'm here by myself. Well, it has been an awesome
blessing. It's been great because it forces me to rely more on God
and not on a partner or team. It's also been good because I need
to get involved with the church people. Already I feel like a
part of the church, I know so many people and the college people
have been
welcoming to me. They have taken me out to eat, we hang out
together (like a birthday party or the mall), and try very hard
to communicate with me and give me the Brazilian experience. I
am also forced to learn the language! I am picking it up
okay, I am now able to form basic sentences and commands and my
vocabulary is expanding. I am even learning Brazilian slang, so
you'll hear that when I come back. I am so disappointed that I
have not been able to use my english slang. You Davis people
know how much I love that stuff.
Being by myself is hard too, especially because there is nobody really
that I can share with and relate with. A pleasant surprise was going to a
wedding a couple days ago. We happened to be going to the Holiness church
in Suzano (8 hour bus ride away, near Sao Paulo) and there was a team of
fellow JEMS workers there! Their ministry is to 400 kids in school, so they
have six people. Even though they're from Washington, I know all of them
through this trip and it was so sweet to be able to pray with them in a
corporate body. I appreciate all of your prayers beyond what I can even
start to say, but praying with them, I realized how much I missed having
people pray for me and praying for others in a group. It is such a gift.
Well, this is way long, I gotta end now. Sorry for the
length... Anyway, I hope that all of you are doing well and to
you RAV people, hope your prep is going well! I've been praying
for you during the week! Okay, one phrase prayer request to end
this. PERSONAL TIME. Pray that my qts can be good, sometimes I am
too tired or too busy to not feel rushed. It should not be this
way. Christine Konno (UW AACF staffer) reminded us that our
ministries should be an overflowing of our own walk. How true
that is. Take care and thanks for your support... Ate mais!
See you later!