Heya everyone!!!!! Ok, I ahve been rubbish with this so sorry!!

We finished our second project in Friday which was building foundations for a church next to a Catholic church, (bit of background; Catholis church over here is not like Englod, it has A LOT of spiritism and people wouldn´t call it Christian and this Catholic church was very quickly built when they realised a protistant minister was moving in-Adriano). It seemed to have an amazing impact ion the community-we have people coming with popcorn and sitting on the bricks watching us! lol.

We all turned into human moles digging and digging in rain and mud but challenging as it was the people were amazing and our team (now 11 with David and Andrew wwho were so amazingly encouraging and hard working and...sent from God) although clashing on occasion worked together to get stuff done and most of the time the building site was filled with banter and many mud fights-Chris chucked me in a mud puddle-do not mess with guys, lol!!

We lead a church service which was very challenging (Austin did his frst sermon- in Portuguese as well) and we sang and prayed for the community there. Father Abraham didn´t realy work and so it ended up being in English half of the time and random actions! lol.

We went on a hill treck in the pitch black to go to a church in someone´s house where we sang and messed around with the kids there (they love catching grass hoppers and putting them on people during prayers and stuff-mischievious!) Please pray for the people in that community, there is a lot of stuff going on there but Adriano amd his wife Adriana are amazing and we felt like their family.

We are now on holiday on a beach in a youth hostel (very luxurious in brasil) which is a bit odd having been working with local people and stuff so it´s a big adjustment but also great to have a matress and time to ourselves to relax. We have had evening walks along the beach and birthday celebrations for Amy. We girls went to the beach yesterday and enjoyed being swept along by such powerful waves!! Our bodies are slowly recovering but we really miss the people we have met over here. ALthough, I think now I am really looking forward to going home as well as enjoying being here, it´s quite weird sometimes. I miss you all and please continue to pray for prtection, flights home and also for continued fellowship with people we meet here as well as with each other, it´s going to be very odd leaving everyone! Please pray for adjustment back to the UK. I think we will be ok but it is going to be strange for a while.

Hope you are all enjoying summer, hope not too wet and floodie

Katie xxxxx

Heya everyone-just a quickie until I get on the internet next week...everything here is amazing, the poeple here are so overwhelmingly generous and loving-a real challeneg for us Brits sometimes! We travel on a big truck with many many Brasillians and have songs and jokes all the way to the churches we visit and everyone is really pleased to have us here!

The work has been hard some days but God has given us strength to keeop going every day with some quite hard labour-especially for us girls but we have held our own I think!! So much has been built and done and we have a party/;service on Thursday!

On our days off we have been swimming with the locals and done face painting and playing with bubbles with the kids while the guys have played football-they won a game on Sat but we were playing with Brasillians as Inglaterha!!

The team is fab and although we are tired and don~t get a lot of time together sometimes God is really doing fantastic things with us all and we are gelling really well. Us girls are really close now and have been able to have a gilrie night with Cadburys chocolate!!!!!!!!!!!!

The food here is fantastic and we never want for anything-the guys are so funny, they pile it on-the women here love it!

Ok, I guess I had beter quickly go as there´s a class in here in a few minutes but next project we are in the city so we will be able to get to the internet easily:o)

Prayer requests

For Pastor Nets and his wife and all the work in Fonte No Deserto
For Pamela (our Brasillian sister and team mate who leaves us on Sunday)
For safety, continued protection and team realationships to grow and strengthen

Ahuge thank you for everything so far, we have be so so blessed in everything!!

Until next time
Tchau

Katie xx

Day before departure

Heya! Ok, so we had the orientation weekend spent in the mud and partly in a horse box-sooo funny! My team are fantastic, I think we are in for a great balance of lots of laughs and also doing everything we need to and focusing on God. This week has gone by in a bit of a blur of lists and packing materials but now it's finally here and I leave home in an hour for the airport!! We fly at 6.30am and I am getting excited! It is a little bizarre because the build up has been for a while.

Thank you to everyone who has sent me little notes, encouragement etc, I have now made a lil scrap book for myself with all of that in plus memorable pics so I think that will really help. Anyway, weird that I will be so far away from you all in a day (what a difference a day makes-ok, dad joke sorry!) Please stay in touch, your e-mails/ comments etc will mean so much to me.

I have a few prayer requests:

For team unity, protection, openness to God, discernment and language and culture learning in order that we can be of use to God in Brazil and come back in one piece!

Pray that this adventure will draw us all close to God, that we can come back as changed people and more like the people God wants us to be.

Pray for a new and fuller experience of God, a fuller understanding of him and a refreshing of our relationships with him.

Also, for fun, that we can be real with each other and that many amazing memories and fun times will be created

Thank you, I will write again soon from Brazil (hmm! woo!)

Katie xxx

Brazil prep

Heya! Ok, I have pretty much got everything I need for Brazil...I think, and am now finally getting excited because it's getting pretty close!! (7th July departing)

I will be in a team of 9 who I have no doubt you will hear of as I blog over the 7 weeks but for now I haven't yet met them so...! That will be this weekend where we stay on a farm and meet up and play games and get to know more about South American culture and what we will be doing while we're there. We know so far that we will be in three places:

Forte no Deserto - first 2 weeks building a retreat center
Ribeiro do Mel ll - 2nd 2 weeks building a church
(These are both in Pernambuco state in north east Brazil
Recife - the final 2 weeks which is a city on the coast

During this time we will be doing outreach stuff and things too but we will know more about that after this weekend...oh so close!

My address will be:

c/o Vanda Smith Dziuba
Rua Dona Balbina Menelau, 15
Edificio Alameda das Orquideas, 1202
Candeias
Jaboatao dos Guararapes - PE
Brazil

also, for our whole team's blog go to www.stepteams.org

Ok, that's all for now, feel free to get in touch, I would really appreciate hearing from you!!

Kate