Brasil 2014

Intensive English Seminar

Jocum base Almirante Tamandare in Curitiba Brasil.The IES was held at the Jocum base from 20 January - 8 February 2014. 

The teaching team consisted of Ken Tuck, Beth Neuberger, June Dixon, Gail and myself. This was June's first trip with us. Here we are at the airport.

What a cheery looking bunch. Here is the brochure for the school and the base director Cotchy and his wife Raquel.

The school is a joint effort between our team (mostly MCC members) and the Jocum (Brasilian for YWAM) base in the Curitiba suburb of Almirante Tamandare.
Cristina Bettini (one of our 2005 English School students in the USA) led the school.

Felipe Delfin actually did most of the leg work since Cris was just ending another school on counseling. Felipe spent a lot of time interpreting from English to Portuguese for the students.

Classrooms varied as the days went on. We had four levels of classes. Gail taught the beginner  level Beginners and met in a corner of a large room.

Beth taught the upper level Beginners.

I taught the Intermediates.

Ken had several meeting places: someone's house, a corner of the cafeteria (many bees) and a garage.

June helped out in several classes and it was her birthday one day and she was a bit surprised by the semi-rocket birthday cake candle.

The cafeteria where each person washed their own dirty dishes, unless we could get students to do it for us.

We had great chapel services where several of us spoke including students.

We had some students that were just on fire for the Lord and after our evening student led service, a group would go to a local park and witness for Jesus until 2 AM. God bless them.
We had great times during game night (games provided by MCC) at least once a week where teachers and students could meet people in other classes. When we gave the students a choice of receiving one of the English Bibles we brought and one of the games, they chose the Bibles until they ran out.

We also had intercession classes once a week where many things were prayed for. After one session where Gail shared the Wordless Book (provided by MCC) with colors signifying the steps to salvation, the students went down to a small pond and led one of my students to accept Jesus as her Lord and Savior. She radically changed. Praise the Lord.

We visited the English Church service which is actually inside the First Baptist Church in Curitiba. This was our fourth time to visit there since 2007.

Gail, Ken and I were invited out for lunch on a Sunday by a former student, Francelli. Once in her car she popped the question of which one of us would preach that night in the youth service. Ken volunteered. 
Before the evening service we attended a street ministry meeting led by Francelli's sister. Only the people leading the street meeting attended this time but God blessed it.

We even ate out at McDonalds which had better food that the one here in Mechanicsville. I was asked to speak in the church of two of my students. God blessed again.

Pastor Miziare pastored Grace Community Church where I preached on Sunday 9 Feb.

 We showed these great thought provoking and spiritual compelling movies.

My students are pictured here:

Milly Domingues 

Adriana Miziare 

Veronica Morrone 

Z' Paulo Morone 

Hyago Dinemarques

 Jesiel Venancio

Virgilio Cardoso

 Jonathan Schutz

Maria Celia Basilio

Pastor Vanderlet Negrettie

 Leomax Santos

 My complete class.

 The base has prime ministries of counseling and ministering to people with severe addictions. For these ministries there is always a heaviness that hangs over the place and Felipe told us that our group was a breath of fresh air and that God's anointing came with us. There is a home across the street from the base and is part of the Jocum base. It houses several men who are dealing with serious addictions. Our teaching team toured it one morning and spoke to several men. One man could no longer return to his home country without being arrested. We had a sister of one of these men in our apartment building. She spoke no English but Gail helped her get settled and always invited her to eat with us. She wrote us a note of appreciation for our care for her. Please pray for her since she is a Jehovah's Witness. Gail is pictured with the young woman who just took over leadership of the home, Project Crer (Project "to believe").

 Because we lived off base we met several great families and really enjoyed spending time with them.

We also visited a park with a waterfall before the school began and were taken out to eat at a country club by a student.

We were blessed to be in a Calvary Chapel service translated into English on the base one Sunday night. 

When overseas you get to experience different events like having your refrigerator door coming off in your hands and constant door lock problems. You also see unusual product names.

 What a blessing to be able to meet and minister to so many wonderful children of our Father. God please continue to be all that they will ever need!

 Beth doing a photo bomb in my picture.

 What is the value in going on mission trips? It shows the people that you care enough to travel to them and endure hardships and inconveniences for their good. I preached about Paul telling the people at Corinth saying that he was: three times beaten with rods, pelted with stones, shipwrecked three times, been in danger of the open sea and rivers and bandits and from Jews and Gentiles and false believers, etc. He told them this so that they would see with their own eyes what he endured for their good. 
   Our team had hardships, June had bug bite whelps all over her body, Beth could not scale some stairs because of her leg, Ken had hip problems, Gail and I carried heavy backpacks every day up and down stairs and up and down a hill just to get to and from school. My knee had a hard time with high steps. During our second week, we left our apartment and got to the road at the bottom of the hill and Gail stopped and said that her body did not want to go any further. I grabbed her heavy backpack and with my own, took her hand and said that we had no choice but to continue to school and dragged her up and down the hill to begin our day. When I shared this experience with some of the students, they began to understand just how hard it was on our bodies just to be there. When they looked at the team they could SEE how much God loved them and so did we. Often we MUST endure hardships to PROVE our genuine love and concern for them. Gail had to sleep all day Saturday and almost all Sunday to recooperate.