Update and Thank yous

Having Birthday parties for the children was one of my (Rachel) projects while in Brazil. It was an amazing tool to use to share with the children how special they are, and to use for home visitations for the children who hadn't come to the Living Stones program for awhile.
This year, Birthday parties have continued in Cajueiro Claro, where they celebrate around the church service with Pastor Flavio. But in the other communities, it has not been continued, due to lack of resources and volunteers.
Two churches from the USA decided to help with this problem: Lifepoint and Brookville Road Community church. Both churches had a children's project to make cards for all of the kids in the Living Stones program. They presented me with over 400 birthday cards to take to Brazil!

We were able to give the cards to the leaders of Guadalajara and the Trash dump ministries, who are so excited about giving them out this and next year:

To Pastor Ricardo, for Lagoa de Itaenga:

And to Pastor Flavio and his wife Mercia, who will pass them out in Mussurepe,and continue to do so in Cajueiro Claro. 

They were all so grateful, because even simple birthday cards in Brazil are expensive. 

We didn't have long in our trip to Brazil to celebrate and visit many homes, but the ones we were able to were priceless, especially with this family:

Eight girls (7 at home this day), with the oldest being 15. (The girl in the front with a yellow shirt on is Josefa, she was the special veil holder at my wedding.) We had an amazing time--thank you to everyone who made these cards!

November and December Birthdays

This is late coming, I know. Excuse is, I got married and changed countries. But still. We celebrated 5 birthdays in Lagoa

One in Paudalho, 16 in Guadalajara

Twenty birthdays at the Trash dump

Six in Mussurepe, and nine in Cajueiro Claro

What a successful year! We celebrated 250 Birthdays! (meaning we have about 80% of the children's birthdays, and made sure each one knew they were special!) On to 2014!

Calendars

We are excited to announce that our 2014 Living Stones calendars have arrived! Each month has information about Living Stones, as well as stories of two of the children who have birthdays that month. Throughout the month, you can see pictures and pray for the children on their birthday. If you would like to provide a party for them, you can here. If you would like to receive a calendar, write to amobrasil99@hotmail.com

September Birthdays:70

In Mussurepe, we celebrated 10 birthdays from August, and September, including Vitor Hugo (Aug. 2), Gisele (Aug. 6), Gustavo (Aug. 10), Lucas Geronemo (Aug. 15), Manuela (Aug. 27), Deivide (Sep. 13), Manuel (Sep. 19),  and Lidiane (Sep. 20)

In Paudalho, we celebrated 9 birthdays, including Alexandra's very first birthday (she lost her birth certificate, so does not know her birthday. We decided to make one up to celebrate her 18th birthday officially!) 

Alexandra turned 18 on September 20!

We also celebrated with Cesar (Sep. 3), Rosane (Sep. 4), Diane (Sep 18)

Neto (Sep. 20), Precilla, Larissa, and Rosana. 

Emanuela, who turned 1 on September 28, wasn't sure about those birthday glasses.

In Lagoa, since we just started, we celebrated all the birthdays (31!) from January-September with lots of cake and smiles: 

In Cajueiro Claro, we celebrated 3 birthdays, with Ivanilson (Sep. 13), Weverton (Sep.18) and Henrique (Sep. 20)

At the Dump, we celebrated 12 birthdays

Miguel (3/9/11), Josiane (4/9/05), Rodrigo (4/9/96), Izaquiel (5/9/02), Diana (6/9/97), Ana Flavia (13/9/01),Vanessa (13/9/07), Glebison (17/9/99), Princess (25/9), Marcella (27/9/99), Izequiel (30/9/02), Moises Jose (30/9/00)

And in Guadalajara, we celebrated 5 birthdays from July, August, and September (since the program had been on hold).

July and August Birthdays: 24

Summer holidays make it more difficult to organize birthday parties, but they are continuing to bring joy to the children! We celebrated Daniel, Paulo, Jasmine, Leandro, Ricardo, Alexandre and Edivaldo's birthdays in Cajueiro Claro:

Paulo (M) was shy about taking a picture. This was his first birthday party ever. His mother had lost his birth certificate, so we were not sure when his birthday was. His mother and I (Rachel) made up the date as close as she could remember. We are not sure if he turned 12 or 13. 

We celebrated five birthdays in Guadalajara

And 12 birthdays at the Trash dump:

Mussurepe, Paudalho, and Lagoa birthdays still to come! 

Living Stones Paudalho: Rosineide's Birthday Picnic

Living Stones Paudalho: Rosineide's Birthday Picnic: We are so grateful to the two short-term missions trip groups that left us with party supplies--and a whole bucket of double bubble gum!:) ...

Living Stones Trash Dump: Birthdays Arrive at the Trash Dump

Living Stones Trash Dump: Birthdays Arrive at the Trash Dump: Due to the extreme difficulty of the situation at the trash dump, we hadn't been able to celebrate the birthdays there until now. Gather...