This last Friday our family went with our church on a retreat. This was an interesting experience for us. We had some really good praise and worship time.  Our friend Baia was the preacher for the weekend. He speaks very clearly and slowly and is easy to listen to and understand.  It was a blessing having him share with us each night.

They even blessed us during the recreation time by playing music in English one day.  Rachel, Rebekah and Sarah  had some really good times in the pool where they were forced to speak Portuguese. Joshua made friends with many of the teens and young adult (jovens) girls.  Abigail was spoiled and loved on everyone.

Some of the unusual events were as follows.

• We had one room in which to sleep. So many of us slept in hammocks on the porch.
• We had to bring our own plates, cups and silverware to use at each meal and then we had to wash them after we ate.
• This was a retreat that was mainly for Youth and young adults (jovens). Joel teaches once a month is the young adults (like our college and career in the states) and Rachel and Rebekah are in the youth class. But people of all ages were there.
• A member of our church paid for the soccer field to be cut (by a man with a weedeater) after we arrived so that we could play on the field.
• Our pastor shared that the reason that Brazilian Baptists don´t celebrate Easter is because it is a Catholic holiday and that it is not the “real” Easter. This has given us something to think about, but we did celebrate Easter at our house.
• Brazilians love competition between girls and boys.  They really take it seriously.  In the end after three days of competitions the guys won and boy did they celebrate.

Over all we had a really good time. We enjoyed being with our church family.