Random Happenings

We had to prepare Thanksgiving in the dark because we had a power outage through the whole evening.  Thankfully we have a gas stove and oven so the goodies could continue cooking. 

I had the pleasure of having my parents, the Sneeds, here for a couple weeks in December.  They got to know a lot of the city as well as the people and churches I'm working with.  It was lots of fun and a huge blessing. One night I accidentally got us on the metro during rush hour; we were all crammed in and uncomfortable and afterwards the guys at church reprimanded me for putting them through the craziness, but we all survived. 

We all had lunch at our good friend Riso's house.  

We had a Christmas party with some of the young people at our apartment one night complete with a white elephant game.  We asked them to bring silly, cheap gifts but most of them didn’t grasp the concept, but it was still fun. 

 We also put up a paper tree on our ceiling

Bio's daughter, Hannah had her 15th birthday! Fifteen is a big celebratory year in latin america so her party was all decked out with butterflies and everything was pink and green. 

Amar, Amar, Amar

Last Sunday, our friend Rafael was baptized and this is what happened next...enjoy :)

It was such an honor to celebrate with this group and this has quickly become one of my favorite songs. 

New Years

Happy Belated New Years!

As you can imagine, New Years is celebrated a little differently here in Brazil.  New Years is actually more anticipated and much more celebrated than Christmas.  

While a majority of Brazilians celebrate New Years on the beach, watching fireworks and jumping over 7 waves for good luck, we stayed in the country with about 45 youth from church.  

New Years Eve started with a lot of cooking.  There were probably 10 people in the kitchen from 2 or 3 pm until midnight.  Everyone else just rested, hung out in the pool, and helped cut vegetables when they requested help.  

At 11pm we had a little devotional.  At midnight, we shot off fireworks, everyone hugged and said happy new years.  Then we had a secret santa with chocolate and then we all ate dinner!

Look at all that food! It was delicious!

Then we all stayed up for a few more hours and some people even stayed up until the sun came up.

You may have noticed all the white? It is traditional to wear the color of what you hope your new year will be filled with.  White represents peace and is the most traditional.