a new year

so brazil is essentially on a different calendar than the rest of the world, well than the US, anyway! january is "vacation month" for quite literally, everyone. including my hair dresser and the university food court that sustains me. it was a rough time. but its march and carnaval has come and gone and life has returned to normal...as normal as my life ever is...

with my remaining 5 months in mind, i put a lot of thought and prayer in the my 2011 plans for CADI. in addition to 2 bible clubs, i've started an art class for 9-12 year olds and i'm really excited about that! its a little more like VBS 'craft time' than saturday mornings with bob ross...but i am all about some pipe cleaner and glitter treasures! my bible club is the same as last year, but i thought offering it to younger children would be more successful...what did not occur to me was the possibility of ten 7-8 year old boys in one club; which is exactly what i have. yeah...whoa. the first week turned into "soccer club" as soon as the story was over, they had fun, though! if you remember, please pray for me on wednesday afternoons! and most definitely pray for those little boys, that they'll be able to hear how much God loves them in the midst of wrestle mania!

in addition to my classes, CADI is offering sports, guitar, and recreation (for little tiny friends), so you can also pray for the the kids in those activities and especially the volunteers who come to teach them!

oh yeah, before i was saying that i thought very specifically about my plans for this year, because i only have 5ish months left. i only have 5 months left! when that occurs to me i get panicky because this phase is completely defined and boxed in and i have no idea what the next phase will be...and then i get excited because i love starting new things...and then i get sad because a new phase means i'm leaving and i really love CADI and my friends and the ministry here, well, and all of brazil...and then i get excited again because i haven't seen any of my favorite people (american people, that is) for a really long time...and so clearly, i'm quite in touch with my emotions these days. all of them. its good, the Lord is showing and teaching and so on and so forth and i'm really grateful for this time of seeing and learning and so on and so forth!

thanks for your prayers!