To the clang back home, this is just an update of how the team is doing and our experiences in Rio De Janeiro.
So after saying a few teary goodbyes to our new friends in Sao Paulo, we, the green te6am, travelled by bus during the night to Rio De Janeiro. We were all very excited to embark on this leg of the journey, experiencing the city known for it's famous carnival, gang rivals and tourist attractions.
But on our arrival at first glance the city did not fully meet our expectations or match the pictures we painted for ourselves. You cannot compare reality to what you see on movies. In fact at this stage of our journey I gather that mostly every member on the team have realized not to create expectations and in fact not to expect anything but just just to take each day as it come.
We spent our four days in Rio at a church situated in the more slumy area of town and yet the church itself was very grande'.Our man of peace, Lucas and a few other church members, welcomed us with open arms. Their hospitality and generosity rocked ourboats, especially the ladies who volunteered to cook our meals for us every day. We adopted them as our moms. I cannot even begin to explain how much they spoiled us, cooking us Christmas meals that reminded us of typical Sunday lunches. They have what is called s "snack" in between lunch and supper which in actual fact is equivalent to a proper meal.So in actual fact we ended up having four meala each day. Jesus really poured out His blessings upon us and we are so grateful to our ""moms". They treated us like royalty and altough we had a language barrier our spirits communicated and we could understand each other.
Our time was spent doing a few house visits and praying for people as well as praying for the church where we stayed in. We also made a trip to the international IHOP house of prayer, which was located in a very dodgy part of town, where we had an amazing time of worship.
The team finally re-united after two weeks apart and we spent our last day in Rio sightseeinf together, acting like real tourists. We were blessed and sponsored to go and see the Jesus statue. We ended off our day in Copacabana beach, soome braving the cold water.
One thing is very clear to us at this point:the Lord has taken over the planning, acting as our food team, travelling team, looking after our finances and calling the shots.