The Brazil Team is preparing to leave this Friday. Members of this team are Michael & Marcilla Gross, Tim Martin, Dawn McLendon, Amy Rowlen, and Tsopei Robinson. Our team verse is James 1:27, ” Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” As a team we have been reading Max Lucado’s new book, Out Live Your Life. This book talks about the church in Acts and what we can learn from them today and make a difference in the world. Simply, life isn’t about us but showing the others the love of Jesus. We simply want to be the hands and feet of Jesus on this trip and look for ways to minister to all that we come in contact with.
We will be leaving Friday, May 20th, and should arrive at home on Monday, May 30th. While in Brazil we will be spending time at an orphanage in Maringa, Brazil. We will know exactly what we will be doing once we arrive. We believe that our activities will range from painting to yardwork. But most importantly, we will be spending quality time with the children. That quality time may simply be playing soccer with them, letting them braid our hair, hugging them, coloring with them, or eating a meal with them. We have established a relationship over the last decade with this orphanage. Each year there are new children but there are always children who remember us from our prior visits. I cannot put into words what it means to these children for us to come back. They are not concerned with the actual work we might do, all that they know is that a group of people in Alabama love them and are committed to them. And for many of these children, that action in itself speaks more than anything we could ever say or do.
Our prayer requests include the following:
- Team members would stay healthy this week as we prepare and while we are gone
- Safety in our travel
- The Lord would show us opportunities to minister to others throughout the entire trip
- Team unity
- Those that we will come in contact with
- The orphans we will be in contact with
- Our families while we are gone
Thank you for your prayers and support.
Serving with you,
Marcilla
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