On our first Sunday we make use of the kind offer of the lady whose shed we are living in, to use her washing machine. We wash all bedding and clothes which dry in about 5 minutes. Fabulous!!

We have had a great lie –in and feel almost human again. Later that day we are invited to go to the Church that Gildo and his wife Lucienne attend. They have a great band and lively worship in the style of Hillsong so we loved it. The sermon is on Jeremiah 31 v 31 onwards, all about God wanting to be reconciled with us. Afterwards they had a stall set up cooking pop corn, which they sell to raise funds for their mission team who are working in north Brazil with the natives of a fishing community. Really great idea, as no one can resist the smell and are all queuing to buy it!!

Monday we move onto feelings and teach the kids ‘If you’re happy and you know it stamp, clap, shout’. They are still so enthusiastic they give us an energy lift which we need. We tell Andre about the mutiny on Saturday so he gives the kids a ‘team talk’ about why John and I are there, and that if they disrespect us by their behaviour we will be unhappy. This seems to do the trick as he gets all kinds of admissions from those responsible and all morning we have kids coming up to us and saying ‘sorry’ in English !!! They are learning new life skills every day.

Gosh, totally forgot to give you update on cell groups. These are meetings which take place in people’s homes like a mini church service. A group of people meet once a week to share any problems, or discuss questions they may have about the Bible, where songs are sung, Bible passages are discussed, questions are posed and answered. It is like a mini community, and it offers great support for each other. Well the youth cell group has four young male volunteers from a local church who are running it now. The street kids love it because these lads have had life experience with bad experiences and now good experiences with their faith in Jesus. The lads play rock guitar, and talk the local street slang so the kids love to listen to them. The lads explain to the youth about making choices in their behaviour and their life, and the consequences of those choices good and bad.

The adult cell had 9 adults attending. Sadly there are no regular attendees from the street any more. We do not know why this is yet, but next week the kids go back to school in the afternoons, so, we plan to visit all the adults and have a chat to see how they are doing since we were last here. But it was still great that 9 people attend regularly, and seem to get involved in the meeting. They tell great stories of answered prayers, of wonderful stories of new hope in their lives. These people are also new to the area, but have not been rehoused like our children and their families. It is so encouraging that the idea of the house group has brought them together, and they find support and encouragement by talking together and sharing what they have.

Andre runs the adult cell group. This week he talks about strong foundations in relation to the disaster of the rain and the effects it has had on buildings near Rio. He uses Luke 6 v 46-49. We talk about hearing and living. Do we hear the word of God, and then live it? When we do this we create a strong foundation in our lives, so when problems occur we don't give up because we have the inner strength to call upon. He explained that the foundation is one of the most expensive parts of the building so many people don't bother to spend the extra money on it. So when the rain comes the house washes away, as the foundation is weak. It's like living our life as God wants us too, it is hard sometimes and takes a lot of effort, but when we come up against problems, like sickness, death, money worries etc we don't fall apart.