Cabo Frio

Staying in Carole's family home was like heaven for us. We were incredibly blessed by members of her church bringing food in excess for us. We are a big group so we go through food etc at a very rapid pace! It was a little squashy, picture 9 mattresses touching top to bottom, side to side, with 2ft of free space, and that was just one of the two bedrooms to sleep about 17 girls, but somehow her parents managed to source mattresses for all of us. This is the first time we've stayed in the family home of one of the member's of our team. Such an honour. 

Me with Carole and her family 

Church that night at her church completely rocked, it was crazy anointed. Below is a link on YouTube of Ben preaching:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=bXh8Eda2hqE

Our team being introduced to the church

The week was filled with ministry - homeless ministry, dedicating a new church, street ministry, youth services, hospital ministry, ministering in a gang area, etc. One day we were ministering with a pastor of a church which was only about 2 months old in a poor rough neighbourhood. Turns out a man had given them this brand new church building built and paid for ($150,000) out of his pocket for the pastor to do with as he pleased. So we prayed over the pastor and the building, asking God for vision etc as to how to best use the building. 

Blessing the pastor 

We also prayed for people in a nearby hospital, people we just met on the street, at bus stations, everywhere. A tiring but good day. What I'm learning in street evangelism with other churches is that it's not so much about us, it's about the church we're partnering with - many of them do not know how to connect well with people in this way so they learn a lot from us. So that makes it worthwhile because honestly, handing out tracks is definitely not my style of evangelism!!

This is how we travel - for our day off we went

to the beach, 7 people in the back of the car

(3 in the front!) plus two surfboards!!! 

We're off to Rio, Rio!!

Friday we set off for what should've been an 8-12 hour drive to Rio. Well, when 2 hours into the journey we have to pull over us the break pad in our car cracked and broke into many pieces, and it took us about 5 hours to fix it, we decided perhaps we wouldn't make it to Rio that day. Plus when after setting off less than an hour later the A-frame of our trailer broke... another hour later of fixing it on the side of the road (good thing we were right next to the sea as this made it way more picturesque!) and we were off again, only to have the whole trailer collapse while driving down some cobbled roads in the next town. Ok, definitely time to call it a day. While the breaks were getting fixed that afternoon when we knew we wouldn't be getting to Rio that day a couple of us starting praying asking God for a good hostel to stay in. Which He gave us. Honestly one of the best hostels we've stayed in. Plus at only $10 a night and $2.50 for a delicious buffet breakfast, hot showers and comfortable beds God had blessed us more than we'd asked for.

Saturday we had to decided what to do with out trailer. Thing is we need it to carry like a dozen bags, but having being trawled through 19 countries we can honestly say it's seen better days. We decided to leave it right where it was, on the side of the road in the town of Paraty where the council guys (we spoke to them) would get it to the church we'd just passed a block away who had someone who would like it. So now are down to no trailers, having left the other one on the side of the road in Chile. The rest of the day was smooth sailing with very few car troubles (just a little overheating of one of the cars) with us arriving at Carole's house in Cabo Frio (just north of Rio) in time for a delicious braai prepared by her parents. Carole is a member of our team and from Rio so for the next couple of weeks we'll be ministering with her church and other contacts. 

God is present in the details of our everyday lives

Never a dull moment... so on Thursday I headed off to the beach with 2 friends from my team (Taylor and Josiah) to go hang out. When we got there a vendor was talking to two girls from our team so we checked in on them to check they weren't been hassled, which they weren't, so after saying hello to the guy off we went. A few minutes later Taylor feels in his heart that we should turn back and bless the man, so he asks me how much Portuguese I speak so I can translate. Err, none. Spanish? A little bit, although I'm feeling a bit rusty as I haven't spoken it for a couple of weeks. So back we go to speak to him (me speaking broken Spanish, him speaking Portuguese and me doing my best to translate for my friends).

What we wanted to share with him was that God was with him, God's been with him in the past, is with him now and will be with him in his future, that he is experiencing angelic encounters and he can expect to have more heavenly encounters from now on. Turns out the vendor (he looked about 40 years old) was an ex fighter and gang member, he travelled to many place fighting (like North America, Spain, Italy, Ibiza, and others). He said he'd served satan for 20 years but 5 years ago he met Jesus and now he's been serving Jesus for 5 years. It was incredible, he started playing/singing his favourite worship songs on his phone, praying and prophesying over us. It was crazy, before we knew it we were holding hands, praying, worshiping and prophesying over each. There on the beach outside Sao Paulo. Incredible. Talking about heaven meeting earth in one encounter that day. 

And afterwards the boys took me climbing (barefoot!) straight up the mountain. It was so fun, exploring the forest, climbing trees and rocks, to get to the top and overlook the city and see. What a day of contrasts!

Another action packed adventure just getting to our next destination, Sao Paulo!

Well for one day rest that is. Friday we were back in the cars again driving down to Sao Paulo. 

Things that now seem normal to me: Instead of leaving at 8am for the expected full day of driving from Foz do Iguacu to Sao Paulo, we leave at 1pm as Stephen needed to go back to Paraguay to get a part for the car and then fix said car before we could leave. Lucky Kimmie had left a note on the door communicating this change in information, changed from leaving at 8am to "when Stephen gets back". An hour or two into driving and we wonder why we smell burning rubber. While driving to Sao Paulo, we pull into a truckers gas stop on the side of the road at 3am, sleep in the cars, wake up in the morning and walk into a restaurant which isn't even open yet to go wash my face in the restroom, then fill up my water bottle and wash my fruit and veg in a gas station's bathroom. After driving all day we pull into a parking lot next to the beach to sleep our second night on the road (in tents, cars, or wherever...) in the town of Salvador, an hour outside Sao Paulo, also known as the most dangerous suburb in Sao Paulo... Yes. Only we would choose to live like this and not really think anything of it!! :)

How do I know we have angels with us everywhere we go? When at 2am in the morning after driving for 12 hours we discover that the reason for the noise in our car is that we'd been driving without any nuts holding one of trailer tyres on... Plus the holes where the bolts go were so well worn they were the size of 50c coins instead of 10c. How on earth did the tyre not fly off? Thank you to our angels for working overtime holding it on until we figured out the problem :)

Sao Paulo was a time of rest and recuperation for us. We were super blessed by a family who gave us the use of their beach house to stay in for 4 days just to rest, especially as many of us were either sick, recovering from being sick or just downright tired. Or a combination of all 3!

Crazy travels, brace yourselves...

And now onto the crazy travel week back to Brazil... From Uyuni we got on the train at 2:30am for 10 hours to Villazon where we walked over the border to Argentina. From the border town of Quiaca we took a 9 hour bus ride to Salta where we arrived at 1am. Being tired and sick of travelling while on the bus I prayed asking God for it to be easy for us to find a hostel, for the hostel to be cheap and for us to be able to get on the next bus the very next day at 4pm or 5pm as this would get us back to Brazil at a reasonable time the next time. When we arrived at Salta at 1am we were met at the bus station by a hostel manager who offered us a good rate for a really nice hostel, free taxi ride to the hostel, good breakfast included and the next morning we got bus tickets for 4pm all the way back to Brazil. Thank you God :)

So 4pm and back on the bus for 13 hours to Resistencia, arrived at 5am. Quick change onto the next bus which left at 5:30am. Without my friend Aleeza who I was sitting next to for that bus journey. Err. I shout out has anyone seen her back on the bus? No. I shout for a friend who actually speaks Spanish to help by asking the bus driver to stop so we can find her, but he was too far away so I had to run down, by down I mean I literally fell down the somewhat steep stairs practically onto the bus conductor only to ask him in not very good Spanish to please stop and wait for my friend. Alls well that ends well and Aleeza was back on the bus, to us singing Happy Birthday to her as she climbed up to her seat! What a way to start her birthday!! I bet she's glad she wasn't left to celebrate her birthday alone in some random Argentinean town :) 

5 hours later and we arrived at Posadas, still in Argentina, ready to change buses yet again for our 11 o'clock bus to Foz do Iguazu, the border town of Argentina and Brazil. Arriving at Foz 5 hours later we were marginally disappointed to find the bus stopped on the Argentinean side so we still needed to find a bus to take us to the border, which we did, and then a town bus Into Foz, dinner and taxi ride and we were FINALLY back with our cars at the retreat we'd stayed at the month before by 10pm. Tired, sweaty, sick but very happy to be off that bus. 

Salar de Uyuni (the Salt flat of Uyuni)

Tuesday I had to face my fear of getting back in a bus (due to the last ride resulting in me being extremely carsick) and take a 2.5 hour taxi ride to the town of Tarija. And with all the bends carsick I got! But not as bad as the last time :) Tarija was a beautiful town, after two weeks of living in tiny rural villages it felt like a metropolis!! Overnight there and then on the next bus to Tupiza, another long bus ride to arrive at about 4am, freezing cold and very tired, not a great time to be finding hostels for all of us! Overnight there and then on the train (great to mix up with a different means of transport, but this stage we were all getting very tired of buses).

Tupiza

Some of our group waiting around at the bus station

Another late night arrival (1:30am) and again the fun of finding a hostel for 20 people at that time of the morning. The good news is we found a hostel, the bad news is it tried our grace at 2am in the morning - it had a bit of a dodgy feeling about it, our room didn't lock, there was more window than wall which means everyone walking past could see us, weird that people can watch you sleep. Not to mention showering not being included, we'd have to pay separately for that luxury! Needless to say next morning come check out time we all headed straight out to find some more pleasant accommodation. All this travelling around was our "rest" time - no ministry, just some sightseeing time of going to the Mirror of the World, the largest saltpans in the world, near the small town of Uyuni.

Some interesting facts... Salar de Uyuni (Salt Flat of Uyuni) is the world's largest salt flat and is found in the south west of Bolivia. At 4,085 square miles it is the world's largest salt mirror when covered in water. To add in some more random fun, there is also an antique train cemetery in the area which of course we had to check out, if nothing else than to get some fun photos!

Some of our team on top of a train

Because the Salar de Uyuni is so flat, NASA is able to use it to calibrate some of their satellites. For the bird lovers out there, while the Salt Flats do not have any wildlife, it is used as the breeding grounds for some species of pink South American flamingoes once a year in November. 

The salt pans were such a fun family day out. So many team photos were taken, between us and all the other tourists it was like being on a photo shoot! Highlights were having fun with trick photography taking advantage of the large flat white salt pans. 

Fun with trick photography

An extra gift from the Lord was meeting up with my friend Tarryn from London. I knew she was in Bolivia on a missions trip at the same time as me but she was in a rural town far from me and given our impossible to plan ahead lifestyle I knew there was absolutely no point in trying to meet up with her. That Saturday morning before we headed out for the Salt Flats I felt I should go have breakfast where I'd gone the day before, so off I went even though I wasn't really hungry and I had no one to go with as no was up yet. I'd been there not 10min when I heard "Elizabeth" being called from the doorway, and there was Tarryn!! What a blessing to see a friend so far from home, definitely a God appointed meeting of two friends all the way from South Africa in a small mountain town in Bolivia. So breakfast was enjoyed with my friend :)

Jumping for joy!

Entre Rios

Wednesday we left by bus to go 6 hours away to the village of Entre Rios (means between two rivers in Spanish) to minister in some rural villages in the mountains. I absolutely loved Bolivia, I could have stayed there no problem. Unfortunately the very windy roads, high altitude and dodgy buses meant I got very carsick, very often. So much so that I was too sick to go to the villages with the rest of my team. No problem, God works all things for good and I landed up staying with a pastor (Guido) and his wife (Macedonia) and 3 year old boy (Mati) for 3 days in Entre Rios. It was an amazing unique cultural experience for me to live with a local family in a rural village in Bolivia, and of course a perfect time to learn some Spanish seeing as no one in the village spoke English!! God also used this time to remind me that one of my dreams that I'd asked Him near the beginning of the trip almost a year ago was for me to be left alone (without the safety net of my team) in a village with locals to learn the culture and language. And here He was, answering my dream/request in such an amazing way. God is good. All the time. And His timing and ways are always perfect. 

Main Square of Entre Rios

The first day (Thursday) I was a little nervous, I won't lie. First I was a bit anxious as my team left at the thought of being without them - let me explain, I am used to sleeping with at least half a dozen people squashed in one room every night, there are ALWAYS people around me, the joys of living in community with 30 odd people. Personal space is a thing of the past. Then I realised that I didn't actually know where I was (I was too sick when we arrived the night before to notice where we were). And I was alone in a missions house where Spanish was the only language option. Hmm. God is so amazing with taking care of me though, as I stepped out to "ask" (in broken Spanish) Mace what I should do she invited me into her home saying I would eat with them and live with them for the next few days, they were my new family, we live and eat together now. This blessed my heart so much, knowing I was in good hands I knew everything would be okay.

Guido, Mace, Mati and me

In fact it was more than okay, it was awesome! I had so much fun. The first evening Mace and I had coffee in her lounge, in Spanish. We then walked two blocks down to fetch her husband Guido from his football game. The local guys commenting on me, being blonde and sticking out like a sore thumb, trying to figure out where I was from, it was quite fun as I don't think they thought I understood!! Dinner was in a local restaurant down by the main square (there are only about 3 places to eat the town is so small!!) followed by tea back in the house before I retired for the night, exhausted from trying to communicate in Spanish for the last 5 hours but very happy. 

God also likes to push us out of our comfort zone. For example, Friday started off nice and chilled with me having breakfast with Mace, followed by a lovely wander down to the local market before having lunch next door with Rachel, a local missionary, and two of her daughters. All went well until I was asked to preach that afternoon at her daughter's bible study. In Spanish. Without a translator. Err. Those who know me well know that I am quite shy and not a fan of public speaking, so leading even just a bible study requires me to be bold and step out in faith, let alone doing it in Spanish! Let me explain, my Spanish is at a conversational level in that I can get by socially, but definitely not to the level where I can preach the word of God! I can confirm that God is faithful and when we step out in faith He meets us there and enables us to do things that far exceed our expectations of ourselves. My audience were very gracious with me though as even though my Spanish is no where near good, but they were able to understand what I was trying to say and I can honestly say that I felt the power of the Holy Spirit giving me the language. 

Saturday was another day of being pushed out my comfort zone, this time I was asked to lead Mace's ladies bible study. Err, no pressure, leading a bible study for a pastor's wife. This time I was more challenged in that I really didn't know what to share with the ladies, even as I went to meet them I still didn't know what I was going to say. Again I can say that God is faithful and as I went out in faith He started giving me words and testimonies to share with them. It was such a fun afternoon, we took a taxi out of town to have bible study in an old ladies farmyard with ducks and geese clacking around us all afternoon. The bible study was a great success with the ladies being truly blessed, we really felt the presence of God there. And in true Bolivian style we finished the afternoon off with mate (a tea) and bread. 

Mate and bread

By Sunday 4 of my team members had returned so we led the children's church service which was a lot of fun. The kids have such a boldness and faith in God, it's beautiful. 

The kids singing to us!

Roberta and Bridget leading the bible story, but first we had to sing happy 7th birthday to Safi,

my little friend from next who took a shine to me and insisted on me going everywhere with her :)

Safi and I

This little guy was lost in the Lord's
presence while praying

And in the evening we led the adult's service. This was a fun time of seeing how God talks to all of us - 3 of us heard a word from God to share with the congregation, and without talking to each other before the service, we all shared the same word!! The same scriptures and everything. Isn't God supernaturally great. And fun - the testimonies He had me share were very entertaining and I had the whole congregation laughing at my embarrassing stories!