Santos

This afternoon (and yesterday afternoon), we spent a little time in Santos, a city very close to Cubatao. Aaron wants to show us around to help us gain a little understanding of the area and culture before our classes start. The two photographs above were taken yesterday on the beach in Santos. The bottom one is Eddie and Aaron checking out the water. No matter where we are, if there's water, Eddie must put his feet in! The beach was basically deserted although it was in the upper 70s here. This is the "cool" time coming into winter, so not many people hang out at the beach this time of year.

In Brazil, the biggest meal of the day is lunch. So today, Cris made a traditional Brazilian dish of rice and beans for us along with a dish that is similar to creamed corn. Both were very yummy!

The photograph below was taken today in the port of Santos which I'm pretty sure Aaron said is the busiest port in the world. It stretches all up and down the coast.
We saw the mission house (owned by the church), the church (Vida em Cristo) and the youth house called "The Rock" (A Rocha). The church building is a work in progress with repairs and updates occurring as they can afford it, but all of the current work is being done by the church members. This is good because then they can see that it is possible for them to "build" a church and they can also then consider the option of planting a church in the future. According to Aaron, if some outside group just paid for everything, then they would probably consider church planting impossible. In other words, "If we couldn't do it, how could we help someone else start a church?"

Aaron told us a little about the kids that will be coming to our classes at A Rocha, including 2 or 3 that have been coming to church regularly and are starting to get involved more, so he was excited that they signed up for the classes. The school schedule here is pretty weird since there are basically three options for attending: some go in the morning from about 7 or 8-12, some in the afternoon from around 1-5 or 6 pm, then some in the evening from around 6-11 pm or so. There are also three types of schools, the "state" school (or the worst), the city schools, or the federal schools (which are the better ones). The education the kids receive in school doesn't seem to be of a very high standard, and they are only required to attend in order to pass. They do not have to do any work or anything else. As you can imagine then, there is a lot of disrespect for the teachers.

Our classes at A Rocha will start next week at 6:30 in the evening. It gets dark here around 5:30 or 6, so I'll have to work around the darkness for photography somehow! Some of the kids in our classes go to school in the morning and some in the afternoon. Aaron has worked hard to create an atmosphere of respect at the youth mission. This means there are certain rules, etc that the kids have to follow. It means less kids are attending now than when it was initially opened, but it also means that they (the missionaries) are seeing actual life change occur in the kids.

The initial idea for A Rocha was to have a safe place for the kids to go and hang out or play video games or ping pong. Because of the relatively short school day, and nothing else to do afterward, having a place for the kids to hang out and not get into trouble is the goal. Apparently there are all sorts of activities the kids can sign up for in town, but they all cost money. We will be the first to offer free classes to the kids at A Rocha, so we're excited about that opportunity and what may come of it!

I'll post photographs of the church and the youth house at some point, but that's all for today! Thanks for reading and thanks for your continued prayers.