Hello family and friends!
good news: after starting this blog, I went onto live! I'm alive!
I suppose the point of having a blog is to update it. Sorry I haven't done the best job thus far-but know that, in spite of my ability to keep my blog alive, I am more alive than ever before.
BRAZIL. did you hear that? BRAZIL. BRAZIL BRAZIL. Three weeks ago from today I was on a 10 day mission trip in Brazil. I can't even begin to describe all the joyful smiling faces and beautiful sunrises/sunsets that I was lucky enough to experience with my two little eyes. I should have just recorded the entire thing, especially the alligator hunting :) There is so much to share, so much to try and remember, and there's no way I'll get it all, but I'll do my best at touching on some of the best parts.
About 15 Baylor students flying from America to Brazil, all alone, and floating the down the Amazon on a huge boat for 10 days. No adults to hold our hands and tell us what to do when "catastrophes" happened (like getting split up into two different groups and one group (mine, imagine that) missing the flight from Miami to Brazil by 2 minutes and having the spend the night in the Miami airport (thanks for nothing American Airlines)) or to lead the way as we aimlessly followed. It was just us 22-year-old kids on an adventure to share love with with the world. THE WORLD.... ah! Finally, after all the chaos, we all made it to Manaus, Brazil. From there we all loaded up on our huge ship of boat and had roughly a 22 hour boat ride down the Amazon to where most of the villages were located.
Once we arrived in these villages I was crowned the "head of VBS". This meant I got to decide what skit, craft, and what other fun things we got to do with the kids all day. KIDS. ALL. DAY. KIDS! All day, I got to play with kids. All day, I got to run around and act like a little kid. All day, I got to BE a silly little kid again. A child. At the end of the day, I had become a child again. His child. How quickly we forget that we are nothing more than children of God. A simple, beautiful, beloved child! What a sweet little thing.
Being detached from American ways for 10 days will do the soul some good. The people in these villages live lives that are so simple, so joyful. Hardly having anything, one man reminded us over and over again that the new house he was able to build (with his own bare hands) didn't really belong to him. That if he lost it and everything else he owned, which wasn't much, God had provided for him in the past & he truly believed He would provide again. and again. and again. Wow.
So many more stories, so little words the English dictionary restrains me to. so here are some pictures. each worth 1,000 words. so 28,00 words. and you thought my last blog post was long :)
 | 
