sofa shopping, family visiting and fire breathing

Last weekend I went to a town called Riacho do Meio, a 6 hour journey away in The Sertão (the really dry inland area of NE Brazil, which regularly suffers severe droughts - in this town it hadn't rained properly for four years). It was a "Viagem missionária" (or Church Mission Trip) made up of thirteen of us, from various different churches and we spent the weekend running events for children and teenagers, sharing the Gospel, laughing a lot and attending the town's Saturday service that a Presbyterian church from the nearest city puts on each week. We had great and really encouraging weekend and here are a few highlights...

The Bus journey - 6 hours at night with 13 of us in a little van piled high with mattresses, food donations, toys ended up being hilarious and noisy and really fun. There was lots of singing with a guitar, lots of shouting every time we went over a bump in the road, some great debates and lots of laughing!

Activities for lots of children - we went all round the town inviting families to take part and then had an afternoon and a morning of Bible teaching, games, singing, eating and acting. I was a bit nervous about how it was going to work out with just two of us running it and lots of children of different ages but it went well and we had lots of fun! The children were very excited and confused to hear a foreign accent and they kept saying "You speak funny!" I even got a proposal from an 8 year old boy who genuinely got down on one knee and said "Will you marry me and take me to live with you in France?".., slight country confusion! The children loved standing outside the school where we were sleeping and chanting "Auntie Flo, Auntie Flo, Auntie Flo" until I went and spoke to them in my "funny" foreign accent!

Reading about The Feeding of the Five Thousand

Saturday night in the town square - we took two guitars to the town square and sang while two guys in the team did juggling and fire breathing. People from the town came to see what was going on and we walked up to the church service still singing with lots of children. The service was great and lovely to meet the pastor and his wife and some of the congregation.

Night for teenagers - After the church service we had an evening with teenagers from the town, with lots of dancing (I'm working on the Brazilian hips!), drama, games and dinner. The theme of the veening was "Brega" which kind of vaguely means dressing ridiculously/mismatchedly. The next morning while we had some more kids' events, one of the guys ran a Bible study for these teenagers, which was really exciting.

The Bible study was on New Life in Christ (hence the dummies!)

I also spent two days sofa shopping recently for one of the families in the community, I feel like I went to every sofa shop in the city with my Brazilian Dad and sister but it was good fun and a useful learning how to haggle lesson. We ended up finding a nice sofa at a good price, on which I'm already enjoying reading with the children! 

In other news my theology classes have started up again and I'm loving being back at them and I'm really enjoying getting to know some of the new children at the project in Barra, see the photos below!

Pug update - for those of you who have been asking the puppies are now huge and love biting feet and three of them are going off to their new homes tomorrow :( Here are some photos...

In other news, I awkwardly didn't realise I was meant to weigh some ice cream in a cafe and so got chased by the waiter for not paying, which my friends found hilarious, some electricity thing blew up at church on Sunday and then caught fire just before the service, which was a bit dramatic, although you'll be glad to hear the service went ahead anyway, in the dark (!) and my parents arrive TOMORROW! 

Hope you're all well and sending all my love xxx

Some classic outfits (bringing style to Brazil!) with two of my closest friends here.