Aguas Claras (Clear Waters)

Just wanted to update y'all on what has been going on the past few days! We've been staying with church families and it has been an amazing experience. Some are staying with the missionary families (Kevin and Benay Blume), while others are staying with Brazilian families. Although we may not speak Portuguese, we get by even if we have to use hand signals and revert to English (people can understand English a bit but more understand Spanish) So long story short... we've been having a blast! The past two days however, have been really inspirational for us. We have been working at a chacara about an hour away from Porto Alegre. This chacara, or halfway house for men, used to be nearby but due to numerous robberies, they have had to relocate and start from scratch in the country outskirts. Their new location has much potential though. They are looking forward, working hard everyday to help build so they can admit more guys to their location. This was the 3rd time that Aggies had been fortunate to help with the chacara, now called aguas claras (clear waters). The AFCers helped build a dormitory in 2007 and we saw that they had pictures of them. On Wednesday, the girls dug some holes for electricity connections while the guys helped level the ground, haul bricks(they were being recycled from the old building that AFC helped build in 07), worked with roofing, and shoveled sand. We ended up doing similar work on Thursday. What was more important than any work we could accomplish was the quick relationship we got to establish with some of the guys. These men are there on a 9 month stay, where they use the word of God and teamwork to help them realize that they don't need drugs in their life and also that God loves them and frees them from their addiction. Some of the guys were shy and didn't really try and chat with us. Others, like Anderson, Fabian, and Emerson were with us, talking to us and asking us questions. We really enjoyed their company. The main guy that AFC has come to know and love is Paulo Renato, who had been an addict but now helps out a lot with the work in Aguas Claras. He is so loving! he knows English and is learning Swahili on his own because his dream is to go to Africa someday. We got to hear some of their stories and you wouldn't believe that these fun, normal men were once crazy addicts. You can really see the transformation Christ has had in their lives. Everyday before lunch, they have a 15 minute prayer time (they actually pray about 13-14 times a day!) and they always share their favorite verses right before lunch. They have scheduled worship, prayer, and fasting times and they enjoy every minute of it. After we started singing some songs on Wednesday to pass the time, we ended up singing them some of the songs we knew in English. On Thursday we had little devotional with them in a little chapel where we sang some more songs. One amazing part was when we sang Lord Reign in Me (Over all the earth you...) in English while they sang it in Portuguese. We loved their joy for singing to God and they liked our harmony. There is so much more information that we could tell you guys about so hopefully we will be able to update y'all in the next few days! Here are a few pics from our time in Aguas Claras.

More to come!

The Few

They are still working on their bathrooms

Alex, David, and Kevin Blume haulin' bricks

People praying in the chapel before lunch

The Portuguese side singing during our little devotional. Notice Emerson on the top left singing his heart out! Paulo is the guy with the green shirt.

Right before we left. On the left is Fabian and the right is Anderson.