Here is a shot from our church offices/ministry space, which is a house. We call it the C.A.S.A which we use as an acronym that stands for House of Support, Service, and Activities. We had just concluded a bar-b-cue and Bible study with our adult ministry when this photo was taken.

We had a new family visit this past Sunday (Ricardo and his wife Jaqueline, and their two kids Marine and Pedro). I was very impressed that the kids were so well-behaved. Please remember them in your prayers.

This is from our most recent house church meeting. And yes, we put up our Christmas tree in early November! There is no Thanksgiving here, so we can do that!

We praise the Lord that it was a tight squeeze in our apartment this Sunday.

Felipe gave his first adult Bible lesson on a recent Sunday morning. This young man is talented in many ways, and teaching is one of them. Oh yeah, he´s already an English teacher at a language institute the age of 19!

This day the youth discussed three aspects of the theme- The Meaning of Life. We shared about commitment, significance, and pleasure in light of Colossions 3:4-5 that says, ``When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death therefore whatever belongs to your earthly nature...``

Here is our Celebration worship service. The theme was Unity in The Body of Christ. Several people encouraged us about how this theme has helped them mature.

Here is our German friend Oliver. He recently arrived from Germany to study what it is like to be a foreigner so that he can go back to Germany and help resolve the segregation challenges that exist there with the foreign churches and the domestic churches. His goal is to find a solution that will unite these churches. We are glad that Oliver is here and he has already shown his caring heart. He likes soccer but had never been to a match, so I invited him to go to one- the best socer team in the world- Internacional. Da lhe Colorado!

This day we learned how to make chocolate cake, which here they call "nega maluca."

Here´s Marcio gently guiding the cake mixture into the pan.

Needless to say there were no leftovers after this taste test!

Part of our youth day consisted of decorating a picture frame for each family in our house church. We put a photo of our house church in each one. Ana made it interesting since we drew names to see who would get which frame. Here is Felipe working diligently.

Raquel looking for just the right color.

The final products! What a talented group of individuals!

One of Ana´s friends recently graduated from college and she asked me to make a cake, so this is how is turned out! It was quite a bit of work but well worth it!

On this youth day Ana´s brother Vitor taught how to make the Brazilian version of flan. It´s made with condensed milk, eggs, and milk. The broth is make of pure sugar! Goes perfect with that afternoon cup of coffee!