We are Coming to America!

Here is a somewhat detailed schedule of our time in the US.

We are planning to arrive on the 10th of July and leave on the 24th of August.

July
10-13-Atlanta,GA
14-21-Orlando, FL
22-25-Bluffton,SC
26-Greenville,SC
27-Atlanta,GA - Perimeter Church
28-Birmingham,AL - Briarwood Presbyterian Church
29-31-Birmingham,AL

August
1-24-Atlanta,GA


The dates for July are pretty set, August is still up in the air but Jack and Abbey will be spending the majority of August in Atlanta.

BOLD EVENTS: These events are designed for supporters, friends, family to connect with the entire Campus Outreach Belo Horizonte team.

Paulino's Testimony

The Story: Paulino and I (Brian) met pretty early on when we arrived in Brazil. He had contact with the staff before we arrived and contact with the Cross Cultural Project that we host every summer. He was not a Christian when we met, but was interested in studying the Bible, particularly the life of Christ. Through the study of the Word, experiencing the Christian community of the campus ministry and the church and living with a believer Paulino's life was changed. God used all these things at different times in his life to remove the scales from his eyes and allow him to see his need for Christ and to accept Christ as his savior.

Trouble: If you are having trouble understanding him, listen to it twice. He says the word "culture" towards the end that will be hard to decipher with an untrained ear. We also have the Portuguese version available as well.
 

What Happens in Bahia, Stays in Bahia.

Last week we traveled to Vitoria da Conquista, Bahia. Bahia is the state directly north of us and Vitoria da Conquista is one of the larger cities in the state. We traveled there to visit with Caio (baiano) and his family. We stayed in Conquista for two days and then traveled to a beach town called Porto Seguro with his family, it was a really good time for us, strengthened our relationship with Caio and his family. It was also very refreshing to have people care for us.

Caio's family is different than the majority of students we come in contact here. His parents are Christians, married, living together and seem like they really respect each other and are friends, which is uncommon here. Caio has one brother, Victor, who is currently in the USA as an exchange student in Washington state, and a sister Gabriella. We really enjoyed our time with this family.

Below are a few photos of our travels.

On the airplane, just in case we go down in the jungle.

Caio's father has three farms, we visited one of them that has cattle and mandioca.

Mandioca. Its like a potato. Grows underground and you can prepare it many different ways.

Downtown Porto Seguro at night.

Porto Seguro by day.

Us with Caio and his sister Gabi.

Brazil flag on left, Bahia state flag on right.

Thanks for reading.

-brian

Shootout in Serra

I cut and pasted an article from TV Globo a Brazilian news source about a shootout between the police and some people in a favela in our city. Our church has been working in this favela with a group called Luzeiro, they mainly work with children in this favela. The plan is to serve the children in hopes of connecting to their parents/guardians.

Two men robbed a bank and fled into this favela, the article does not say if these men are from this particular favela. One person ended up dying during the shootout. The occupants of the favela responded by burning a city bus which is pictured below. 

NOW: Please pray for wisdom as how we should approach the situation. Our church was already planning on serving with Luzeiro this Saturday. Also pray for the staff of Luzeiro, which is a staff team made up of different nationalities serving here in Belo Horizonte.  

-brian


26/11/2012 17h20 - Atualizado em 26/11/2012 22h19

Policiais e suspeitos trocam tiros no Aglomerado da Serra, em BH

Às 17h10, PM confirmou que uma pessoa morreu no tiroteio.
Um ônibus foi incendiado e ficou completamente destruído.

 

Polícia Militar ocupa o Aglomerado da Serra, em BH,
e troca tiro com suspeitos
(Foto: Reprodução/TV Globo)

Policiais e suspeitos se envolveram em uma troca de tiros, na tarde desta segunda-feira (26), no Aglomerado da Serra, na Região Centro-Sul de Belo Horizonte. Às 17h10, a Polícia Militar (PM) confirmou que uma pessoa morreu durante o tiroteio, que aconteceu nas proximidades da Vila Nossa Senhora de Fátima.

Toda a região foi isolada pela PM, que ocupou as ruas do aglomerado. Um helicóptero da corporação também foi utilizado na operação.

O clima ficou tenso na área. Um ônibus da linha 9031 foi incendiado e ficou completamente destruído, mas ninguém ficou ferido, segundo o Corpo de Bombeiros. Após as chamas terem sido controladas, algumas pessoas, muitas delas crianças, invadiram o coletivo. Elas arrancaram o cofre que fica embaixo da cadeira do cobrador e saíram carregando o objeto pelas ruas.

Ônibus ficou completamente após ser incendidado no Aglomerado da Serra (Foto: Reprodução/TV Globo)

An Afternoon with Galo

Clube Atlético Minero is one of the soccer teams in our city, somehow Abbey and I chose to cheer for them. They are not that good, they've won 1 Brazilian National Title/Brasilierão in the history of the club and that was back in 1950. The mascot of the team is the galo or rooster, but roosters here are a little more intimidating as rooster fights were very popular here in the past.  This year Galo has done fairly well, currently they are in 3rd place in the league standings. They also have a guy named Ronaldinho Gaucho who played for Barcelona and A.C. Milan earlier in his career, he is two time FIFA player of the year, which means at the height of his career he was voted the best soccer player in the world. Ronaldinho is past his prime yet is still one of the best players on the field.

Galo fans exiting the metrô

Proof we actually attended the game

Estádio Independencia

These people want Ronaldinho to stay with the team, rumor is he will leave Galo for another team.

Galo!!!! This section was the craziest of all.

This is soccer in S.America. Security is a must.

The stadium was nice, Galo is playing here while they renovate the Minerão for the World Cup.

Ronaldinho!!!

Galo fans love R49.

Is that Ronaldinho?....nope just some cheap mask.


 Galo tied that day 2-2 but almost on command Ronaldinho scored the game-tying goal as the game was nearing the end. We actually didn't see it, we just heard the noise of the crowd as we left early to make our way home.

Shout out....

I want to give a big shout out to Mary-Frances Bowley and give a plug for her new book The White Umbrella. Not only is Mrs. Bowley an amazing woman of Christ, and a supporter of us, she is the founder of an organization in Atlanta, GA called Wellspring Living. Several websites have been reviewing her new book and I wanted to make sure the three people who subscribe to this blog know about it and what the Lord is doing through her and her organization.

Check out the book here: The White Umbrella and here

White Umbrella campaign: here

Check out the organization here: Wellspring Living

Looking Ahead

The last month I (Brian) took part in four separate meetings/retreats/conferences per say. The first was a church retreat we had at the beginning of September, the second was our annual Staff Stimulus in the middle, the third was Campus Outreach Campus Directors Training in Birmingham, Al and the last and most recent was the Catalyst Conference in Duluth, GA. Not only did I take part in all of these but Alan Andrioni, (Campus Director at UFMG) did as well. It was a avalanche of ideas, practical ideas on how we can do our jobs better and large abstract ideas on how we can move the ministry forward.  Here are some of the big take aways: (none of these are my original ideas)

• If we feel bad or get down when things are not going well/growing, we will take the credit when things are going well/growing. 
• Tradition is not the mission.
• Don't worry about resistance, worry when there is no resistance.
• Focus, focus, focus.
• God has given us bigger responsibilities than our work. 

Alan and I have been meeting once a week to discuss in detail more of what we learned and what we are learning. We are excited at where God is moving us and are excited for the future.

Abraço & Thanks 4 Reading.

-brian