Preparations are under way!

We are down to 2 weeks and 3 days before we leave...woohoo! God has brought together an awesome team...a little smaller of a team than we had planned (5 people instead of 10) but yet, I know that He has a plan and has hand-picked those of us here and and believe He has a great purpose for the team that He has put together.
I'm hoping all of our team members will get a chance to post here before we leave on the trip. But I've taken this chance to start things off.
Who are we? Our team of 5 consists of David Boothe, George Valencia, Michelle Morales, Pam Jimison, and me....Diane Slusher. Of this group, I'm the only one who has been to Brazil before. I was given the privilege of going on a trip to Sao Paulo in January of 2007 to get to know the people and goals of Restoration Ministry. This ministry reaches out to children who live in 4 of the worst favelas (slums) of this city of 18 million people. Then I was co-leader of a team of 9 from Lakeside Church (located in Folsom, CA) that went to work with Restoration Ministries in June of 2007. That team did pretty much the same thing that we will be doing with our group this June. We ran (and will be running) 2 weekend camps for the kids, ran a VBS type program during the week, toured the favelas, prayed with families in their homes, helped with English classes, participated in capoiera (a Brazilian dance/martial arts/music/dance experience), became greatly attached to the staff and volunteers of the ministry, ate great food, and fell in love with the kids and people of Brazil. This summer's trip will be more of the same with even some improvements. The founders of Restoration Ministries, Paulo and Ireni Mota (www.themotas.org) were back in the United States and visited Metro Ministries in Brooklyn, New York. They have taken what they learned there and built a new and better program model for the ministry in Sao Paulo. I also participated about a month ago in a leadership training retreat for the Restoration Ministry staff and volunteers. 6 of us, including 2 of the pastors from Lakeside, traveled to Sao Paulo and taught, fed, trained and encouraged the team there. Our team in June will definitely be benefitting from the changes brought through the lessons the ministry learned from Metro here in the states and the training they were given by our pastors.
So for now, our Bible lessons are being prepared (thank you, Pam), puppet skits are being written and the puppets are being outfitted (kind of fun to go into Goodwill looking for puppet clothes!)....games are being planned, crafts and samples being prepared, airline tickets are bought....visa applications will go in this week....lots to do. We covet your prayers as we make these preparations. The theme for our lessons there will be "Dream Big" (Sonhe Alto! btw...they speak Portuguese in Brazil!). The lessons for camp will center around Paul...however, he will be represented by a modern day ex-gang member. The VBS program will be based on the story of Joseph and his brothers and be represented by a modern day runner. Both will have an Olympic theme (cool with the summer Olympics coming up just a few weeks later!)
I want to write more later to introduce you to some of the stories of kids in the favelas. For now, let me just say that these kids live in a world that NO ONE should ever have to be exposed to....drugs, prostitution, killings, crime...horrible living conditions...lack of sanitation....open sewage running through the streets....
We'll introduce you to some of the specifics later. In the meantime, once again, please pray for us! Pray for the people that we will come in contact with...that their hearts will be open to hearing the gospel and that they will feel love and hope through the message we will bring to them.
Obrigada (thank you in Portuguese).....Tchau! (And good-bye!)
Diane