Long blog after long silence

This blog will be a little bit of everything as it has been SO long since we have updated you and SO much has happened since our last blog! But before we start, we are delighted to tell you that we FINALLY both got our visas for one more year!!!

First thing was a flying visit home, again!! My brother proposed to his girlfriend at Christmas and they booked their date for the end of May 2018! God is good and provided us with enough money to fly back for the glorious occasion! We stopped off in France first for 5 days to celebrate Nico's dad's 60th birthday and retirement party! And then we arrived in N.Ireland! We feel so blessed to see that God takes care of all these details and although we had just been home we could go again and not miss out on these events happening in our families.

"The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness." Lamentations 3:22&23

Back to Brazil, again and getting stuck into the work, here is the latest on how it's been going:

World Cup Madness

As the Brazilian temperatures drop, hearts and heads are heated with the excitement surrounding the World Cup!

Brazilians are crazy for football and the World Cup showed this once again. Normal life stops when Brazil is playing, children don't have school and shops close down during the game. Every goal is loudly celebrated with horns and lots of shouting. We joined with some teenagers in our house to watch the games together. It was a lot of fun to watch and celebrate together when they made a goal, and of course make fun of Neymar falling! Unfortunately, Brazil didn't win, but Nico is over the moon that France are champions!!!

Watching the final on a big screen with some teen boys and other YWAMers

New Staff

We are super excited because at the end of June we received two new full-time, long-term staff members; Daniel and Elise! A couple from The Netherlands. We have been praying a lot about the expansion of our team and have big expectations for this year. The first two have arrived, so we are a team of 7!!! Please pray for them to adapt quickly and feel at home here! Here you see a picture of a staff outing!

Girls, fun girls!

This month we had the privilege to take our teenage girls to camp. It was an awesome time to bond with the girls and we have noticed a big difference in their behaviour, being more open and receptive toward us. The girls were encouraged to conquer their fears as they were experiencing things they had never encountered before (living the outdoor life). There was time to go deeper in conversations and to get to know each other outside of the Rock House. Such a great weekend!

This month, we had a party with the girls and we invited their mums to join us. One of the mums told us how she was so happy with The Rock House and the change she had seen in her daughters' behaviour since she started attending our group!

Boys will be boys!

The teenage girls group is flourishing.. and the boys group is doing well too. We have a good group of boys attending the evening group. Some boys are very faithful, others come and go but it has been a good season of creating relationships with them.

The afternoon group has had some more difficulties with boys not showing up (this is the15 year plus group), so we started praying and asking God for direction. This resulted in us  stopping the group and going into the community with the focus of reaching the teenage boys - same focus, different strategy. As you can see on the pictures below, we have had some good groups of boys interested in hearing more about what God has for their lives! The coming weeks we will keep going into the community specifically to build more relationship with the boys hanging around in the streets in the afternoons. Our goal is to start a weekly 'small group' in the house of one of them. Please pray with us as we meet the teenagers and for real heart-to-heart connections with them.

Blessing the community
This year one of our desires was to spend more time in the community. Consequently we changed some things in our schedule. One of the things was having a weekly time of intercession in the community. It's been very good to be more visible and pray for specific things while walking around the community. Below you see us proclaiming/singing God's truth over the community!

Challenge 2017 completed - within a year and a three months!

Do you remember that we shared last year about our challenge for 2017? We wanted to do some much needed construction work in/around the community centre. The last day of June we were able to let the construction workers go home because all the work we had for them was finished!

Thank you so much for your prayers and contributions in the finances we needed to be able to complete the work. We are still amazed at how God provided the HUGE amount of money we needed and helped us to succeed all the work just in time for us to have a space to receive our two new staff members!

We did some calculating and discovered that last year when God asked us to do this work, we only had R$3,000 in the bank account. We payed R$35,500 for the construction work, and still have some left over!! With the money left, we will be able to do some (also much needed) work on the walls around our house which are mouldy because of the water that entered into the walls, and freshen up the place by painting.

Isn't it amazing to see how God blesses if we follow Him where He leads us, trusting He will provide all we need?! God gave us enough to be able to do even more than what we had planned to do! We thank you again for your faithfulness in partnership to have made this happen.

Cool experiences!

This week Nico had a cool experience as he went to get his hair cut. He usually cuts his hair with a barber from the slum (our goal here at the Rock House is not just to preach the gospel but to live it, as we 'live' in community). But this week, Nico had his hair cut by the barbers son! He is now 17 years old but when Nico arrived in Brazil he was one of the kids in the groups here at the Rock House!! Today he is studying, working and completing courses, and now cutting hair, following in the steps of his father. His father is a Christian with a testimony that shows that nothing is impossible for our God! Praise Him!

Normal day to day life!

One of our family visits

In the Rock house we also continue with our normal day to day life as we have our kids groups, the classes (violin, jujitsu, english, guitar, drum, maths etc), visiting the families, street outreach to the drug addicts etc. All of which we love to do, continuing to be with the community and sharing with them about God's love for them.

Beginners guitar class!

So, as you have read, it has been a busy time but we have been receiving so many blessings. As the verse above in Lamentations reads, 'Great is His faithfulness!' We have been witnesses to that here at the Rock House, and we are sharing these stories here because you are our partners! Thank you

A last personal point, I am now just over 6 months pregnant! So far it is going very well, but I am starting to feel that I can't keep up with the pace that I could before! But God is gracious! For those who haven't heard, it is a boy! Still no name! It is wonderful to feel him moving around and giving a few kicks! Our team is super supportive and also so excited for his arrival! They are all happy that they also can feel him kicking! What a miracle! 

Please pray for the last trimestre, that I will know my limits and be able to stop when I need too. Pray for the delivery as well. We have been blessed with a discount by a very caring doctor, so it will be possible to go to a private hospital. This was a huge prayer request of mine after we visited the public hospital where I was supposed to give birth, the shock of the lack of privacy and the overcrowded rooms, made me ask for yet another miracle! God is so good!

A friend from YWAM is pregnant, 7 weeks more than I. Here I am with her (and Mireille)
at the baby shower for her baby girl who will be named 'Ana Mel'.