Brazil Outreach

Community Garden Underway!

2009-05-26T18:37:00.000-05:00

Yayyy! The garden is coming along quite nicely! My big project I choose for this internship was creating a community garden. It is located behind the church on land that is not currently being used. The idea is to involve both church members and the community, giving half of the garden plots to people in our church and the rest to people in the surrounding community. I am hoping to use the garden

Regional Retreat

2009-05-21T13:52:00.002-05:00

The retreat the youth are planning are for youth in the surrounding area. So proud of them! All of them have been working so hard at planning it all out. They have decided it will be a weekend deal in Itu. Host families will keep the kids at their houses and get them to the daily activities. The theme is relationships with others and God. Besides lessons and break out discussion groups there will

Staying in igloos by the beach, what?!

2009-05-21T13:29:00.002-05:00

Our youth group has been blowing me away with all that they have been doing! Our hopes for the group were that they would get to the point of pouring into others instead of just being on the receiving end. They have definitely taken on the challenge and are loving it! Here are some events that have been happening...Mission Trip to Praia Grande: Goal to reach out to new youth group there and

Part II

2009-04-22T20:34:00.002-05:00

Then immediately head to the meeting, which had already started. Realized I forgot toothpaste, ewww dirty teeth. Reached the church and meet everyone, so warm and friendly! The meetings all day were sooo great, Jerry and Gail are kind of like the mentors for these three missionary couples, all from Sao Paulo. A lot of the meetings are about teamwork and leadership qualities, everything I learned

Birthday Bash

2009-04-22T18:39:00.003-05:00

Bus trip to Brasilia

2009-04-22T18:24:00.000-05:00

I am so glad I was able to come here, it has been really uplifting so far, feeling a bit recharged. The bus ride here was quite an adventure, good and bad. So Phyllis wasn’t able to take me and I had to take the bus from itu to campinas. Ali dropped me off and right before leaving Thomas insisted on going as well. When we got to the bus station he helped me get all my luggage and such to the bus

Brasilia Team

2009-04-21T18:06:00.001-05:00

April 7th! Birthday!!

2009-04-07T13:10:00.002-05:00

Today is the wonderful day I was born and also the FFA land judging contest. Good luck to Texas FFA especially MP and Chapel Hill :) I have to share my birthday with FFA every year since my dad has to take his team to compete. Something came to mind this morning when I woke up, how wonderful it is I have had another year to live. My friend Corey had such a short time here and I am very blessed.

Carnival- Camp

2009-03-19T12:44:00.002-05:00

As many of you know, Carnival is a huge deal in Brazil and supposedly a thing that pops into your head when you think of Brazil. In Brazil when Carnival comes around most churches go on a retreat somewhere away from festivities. I have to admit I was a bit sadden to not get to go see Carnival but I trust every single person that told me it is incredibly crazy party and there are lots of things

Whoop!

2009-02-18T17:28:00.005-06:00

Carol is here!!! I've been waiting a month for this girl to get here and God finally sent her my way :) We picked her up from Sao Paulo at 4 am this morning. Oh it was an adventure! haha The hotel we stayed at looked like it belonged in an airplane. You had to back your way into the bathroom, shower was see through, and the shower door opened up right beside the double bed which had a single bed

View from my apartment window! 4th Floor!

2009-02-17T08:36:00.006-06:00

Mark & Ali- the couple I work under!My place is right by a hospital so I get to hear sirens all the time haha Also even though I am a dog lover there are a couple of dogs I would like to ship off to the other end of the earth! The front desk staff is so sweet! Btw my roomie gets here late tomorrow night!! Whoop!

The Lar

2009-02-17T07:04:00.004-06:00

I'm so so excited to have the opportunity to serve at the orphanage, The Lar, that is about 20 minutes outside of Itu! We went to visit to talk about getting some people from church involved and while we were there I had so much fun. The kids didn't care if I wasn't able to speak Portuguese and they weren't looking to have an in depth conversation, they just wanted someone to love on them, play

Clarify

2009-02-08T15:29:00.002-06:00

Okay guys, especially a great uncle of mine who loves to pinch me, if you look at the map I don't live by the beach. The beach pictures are from a weekend I went with the Yuppies (young professionals group) to the beach. So Uncle John you get an extra pinch from me next time you see me. I heard about your comment ;) I do love you!

Beach Pics

2009-02-05T06:17:00.003-06:00

Beach group, most of them, plus fanny pack pic!The view from outside my window

Questions from Stephanie...

2009-02-04T07:27:00.001-06:00

My roomies from last semester each chose a day to write me every week. I know, they are pretty fantastic! One email I got this week had a list of questions and I thought they would be great to blog about.1) how are you? Well Im doing great! No health problems except a slight sunburn at the beach, mom and dad dont kill me. I actually used the 70 sunscreen or whatever ridiculous strength, and the

Just have to add

2009-01-23T13:51:00.002-06:00

Okay so in Brazil fanny packs are in! Wow i could not believe it, fanny packs, really... every time i see one it makes me laugh on the inside hahaha

My Supervisors ;)

2009-01-20T18:36:00.002-06:00

Alright everyone, I have officially met the couple I will be working with 24/7, Mark and Ali! Anddd they are fantastic! Both of them are fun, incredibly passionate about the church and the youth, up for change and new ideas, and all about mentoring/ encouraging the interns. Today we just bonded and Ali and I are kind of having a girls night. Yay! I'm crazy excited about the next six months. I

First Few Days

2009-01-17T11:25:00.006-06:00

So I am here in lovely Brazil where the temperature is just right for me and everything is green. I arrived with no problems and Ali and Mark's (my missionary family) best friends were there holding a sign with my name on it. They of course were incredibly sweet and fun to be around. Barbara spoke a little bit of English but she was the only one. Not too bad but I was definitely wishing I had

Panic Attack

2009-01-08T16:09:00.002-06:00

I completely forgot to finish about my panic attack until Juan called to tell me he was still waiting. Haha oh what will my life be like without Juan, a little less exciting :) So on to the panic attack. So I'm sitting in her office, looking at Morgan's desk and 50 billion quotes when I started to freak out. Its a little desk in a little office with another girl about a foot away and if she

Flight Adventure!

2008-12-17T14:03:00.002-06:00

Burrrr! Yup it is freezing cold in Washington. haha and I wanted to move to Chicago after graduation, I would have died! Well I just arrived into Portland this morning at approximately 10:40 am. I told my sister I'd rather her fly me to visit her then her fly to my graduation and that way I could spend tons more time with her. She's a big girl now with a job that she can't take off from, Spring

Last Day of Work/ Career Goals

2008-12-07T12:57:00.000-06:00

Today is my last day of work at Vineyard Court Suites! Sad but glad. It was a good experience working at the hotel especially since it is in the field of what I want to do as a career. Hotel and Resort Management :) Coming into college I was unsure of what I wanted to do. Well I thought I knew what I wanted to go to college for while in High School. Being the huge animal lover I am, I wanted to

How you can help- Donations

2008-11-26T14:20:00.000-06:00

The A&M Church of Christ has set up my bank account for the internship. All donations are tax-deductible. If you have decided to assist me financially, please return this completed form (copy and paste) to: A&M Church of Christ c/o Paige Robinson 2475 Earl Rudder FWY S. College Station, Texas 77845 Please make sure you write Mary Lou Thompson-Brazil in the memo

About the Trip

2008-11-26T13:47:00.000-06:00

My desire to be involved in missions started with my first trip to Honduras, thanks to many of you. I absolutely fell in love with the people and the idea of bringing others to Christ by being a servant. Because of the length of my upcoming internship, I hope to form deep and lasting relationships with the members of the church and community. A&M Church of Christ has given

Brazil

2008-11-26T13:20:00.000-06:00

As many of you know I have always had a heart for missions. Going into this semester I had the intentions to take less hours and graduate in May 2009, but 2 weeks into the school year things changed. I was sitting in class and all of a sudden I thought to myself, "What in the world am I doing, its silly to wait until May, I don't want to take another semester of classes!" Keep in mind this is

AGGIE RING DAY

2008-11-26T12:35:00.000-06:00

This semester has been crazy! To catch everyone up to speed, I graduate Dec 12 from Texas A&M University! Whoop :) A couple of weeks ago I got my Aggie Ring and my dad presented it to me. Such a sweet moment. If you don't know already both my parents went to A&M which is where they met and my sister just graduated from there. My grandpa also graduated from A&M and 50 billion other relatives