Rogerio Biking

I love this picture of Rogerio on his bike. This is his good friend Rogerio in the red shorts who is training for a triathlon. This day some of the people were running and some were biking. Here they are in the dry red dirt!

Rogerio's Day Helping the Poor

Rogerio, Simone, Priscila, Tais and Mateus went two Sunday ago with a group to the Favelas (slums) to serve food, play and share the gospel. Here are some pictures. Rogerio loves to go. He is great with kids. He always says it reminds him of how much he has. With this basketball he is sharing about Jesus. The basketball is different colors and each color has a meaning like with the beads on a bracelet. The houses are made of boards all together. Some of them do have bathrooms and electricity. Are you ever worried that your house is too small?????

Here are the four young people that work with us all the time. They are like our older children. We love them like they are. God has changed their lives thanks to all of the people involved in the ministry here.

Not An Ordinary Bike Ride

This is Timothy and Mateus his friend. They are out with Rogerio on a bike ride but not an ordinary bike ride as you will see from the pictures. I went with then on Saturday. It was fun??? We went 20km. The goal was 30 but we ran out of time. I think with me and some others it took them longer them before! We call this ministry Beyond Limits.

I told Rogerio this is why I do not go fast down hill!

I put the pictures in the wrong order but could have been over the river and through the woods! On Sat we were actually so thankful for this refreshing stream.

Game pictures

Timothy's team

This is the team that Timothy is playing for. They won another game on Sunday.. We did not go we were at church. You can see that he is not one of the biggest guys. His coach is Rogerio good friend. We pray that we can have a chance to share with these young guys. Warming up

Rogerio and Rebeca watching the game. She is eating some crackers. At this one moment she is quiet but she is usually running around.

Timothy's First Basketball Game in Americana

Timothy is playing on a team in American with boys his age and they and had their first game last night. He did a good job. The boys are his level and some better. There are about four really big guys. He is playing on the wing and did a good job passing into the posts. He played about half the game. They won the game by about 20. Rogerio will not have teams playing in the leagues until after January so this is good for Timothy to play. He will be really challenged. He will be busy so prayerfully he can keep up practicing everyone day school and games on the weekends. We will begin prayering too for all the boys and families from the team in Americana. We are thankful for the opprotunity to get to meet and share about Jesus with them. Pictures to come!

Soares Girls

Weekend Work

Rogerio spoke tonight at a church in our city about the basketball program encouraging people to be involved and kids to come play basketball and bring their friends. Our family was there with four of the other kids. He introduced them al as his children so I am sure the people were shocked!!! 9 KIDS

Here we are headed to church Rebeca is with us in the front. The group also went to a slum area this morning to help feed and share with the kids.

This was our Saturday night campfire night with the first group from basketball. The kids loved it and one new boy that we just meet has joned the group. We had hot dogs and cookies. They all lovedd playing hide and seek. rogerio had been working aat the club all day with the kids constructing the rooms. The kids all were helping then they played basketball and then came to our house.

Fun Pictures

Timothy is studying but here he is falling over in his chair!

Rebeca is wanting to go on the bike she has her helmet on and gloves.

Rebeca wants to go to school

This is Rebeca today crying because she did not get to go in the van to school with Tiago and Stephanie. She had her backpack and was ready to go. She is all worked up!! Well she can actually go with me two days a week to the school in the afternoon. I have not taken her yet because Jessica and Timothy are home with her and she sleeps. I know that she would cry if she really had to stay in the class with the two year olds. On Tues I gave English class to the class she would be in. I love the two teachers they are Christian but.. Can you imagine about ten 2 year olds in a class room all day. Some just stay for four hours for school??? It is not really easy to comtrol all of them and really what kind of school can you really do with a group that big of 2 year old. Rebeca is better off here at home, but I will probably take her sometimes. As many more moms work and the pressure of society especially here in Brazil to put kids in school at younger and younger ages. Babies and llittle kids rarely get to stay at their home any more. Many cases here too home is not a very good place for them to be either. I will write more about school in Brazil for those interested to hear about it.

Gojng to School

Here are Stephanie and Tiago going to school on Friday of their first weeek. hey have the school shirt on I thon the sun was in their eyes so not a great picture. Stephani is happy to sit in the front with her dad. Rogerio goes back and forth in the morning and afternoon. He set up an office for himself at the basketball club so he stays in town. His practices will start soon

Here is Jessica's school book. This is the English part. Which is easy for them

This was the history that we were reading yesterday. It is good and challenging for me to as I help them. She is studying about the history of Greece, the Romans and Spartan etc....

This is the set of workbooks the school uses. The private schools use them in Brazil. In the puplic school the kids just copy from the board.

School

Timothy and Jessica were up at 6am this morning getting ready to go to school the school is called Instituto Educ de Sao Caetano. They were nervous and excited at the same time. They did not have there uniform shirts so picture later. Rogerio came back and told me that there was lots of wierd kids at the door of the school. Well that made me even more nervous for them. I was praying. They made it home at 12pm and said that it was not too bad. Jessica has about 10 in her class and Timothy 13. The teachers rotate like high school. Stephanie and Tiago are in school now so we are waiting to hear. We are doing about 11/2 hours of English stuff them to keep up some. I will go tomorrow to teach English. Tues I teach the really little kids starting with 2-3 years olds. Then Thurs 1-4 grade.

Saturday Bike Ride

You are thinking we are always on bike rides. this was last Saturday. The group rode 30 km. Jessica and Stephanie went for 18 and then rode home. In the middle of the picture with the red shorts is Rogerio's friend his name is Rogerio. He is a triathlon guy. His family is one of the few Brazilian families involved in our ministry here. He is the one getting everyone going! Yes Rebeca Tiago and I stayed home. Rebeca actaully loves to go on the bike but three hours maybe too much and Tiago loves to go to but has a little bike so hard to keep up. Next week he wants to go 50km. He might be by himself????

Simone was Baptized

We are praising God that Simone was baptized last night at church. This was so exciting for all of us. Simone has been helping Rogerio with the basketball program now for a couple of years. She is such a talented young women and wantes to use her talents to serve God. We had a lunch after church and gave her a new Portuguese English Bible that she had been wanting because she is studying English. This was from a special offering for Bibles from Mike and Rochelle thank you guys! Simone is not able to help as much as she wants now because she has to work do interships and goes to college at night. Our prayer is one day that she will have her full support so she can be a missionary and work with us.

She is giving her testimoney to the church with our pastor.

This is another family that we have known for years that was baptized yesterday at another church. Both of their kids played with Rogerio just the son was baptized we are praying for the daughter. This is another miracle. Paulo and Lucilene and Alexandre were very involved in the Catholic church and Rogerio sepent many hours talking to them about the Bible and who Jesus is. This was an exciting day for Rogerio. They are going to a different church them we are and we are thankful for God using different people in their lives

Covering on the Court

The is the club in Nova Odessa where Rogerio has been coaching for the last few years. He is praising God for this miracle. Can you see what the miracle will be ... A covering for the basketball court. The city is putting it on for him because it is a club that the town using. They should be finished in the next couple of weeks and he can begin his basketball programs!! These are the two room and two lockerrooms that they are providing the material for for him to build. A friend of ours is building it with the help of all the kids and Rogerio. They are waiting for some new material to be order to continue.