Hello all! We find ourselves nearing the end of the Childrens camp week. Just like last week, the farther along we get, the better we get to know the kids. Its a little easier to interact with t hem now that we know them on a more personal basis. The kids are getting tired and so are we. The students are really enjoying the personal teaching time we have each morning. We are paired up and each pair has a group of about ten campers who seem to be listening really well. Each group is sharing the gospel every morning along with a study of one of the ten commandments. PJ is still speaking in the evenings about the other commandments we haven't covered. There were a few campers who raised their hands for salvation and many others who have asked for prayer related to specific commandments. Please pray for the counselors and other leaders to follow up on these decisions. There are pictures in the other posts of teaching times, games and activities, and the campers in general. We've also included some pictures of our staple meal - rice, pasta, and beans. There is a picture of the girls' bathroom and shower so you can see what we've been using the past few weeks. Also there is a picture of the church the 1994 WCBC team helped to build, which we mentioned in the last post. Hope you are enjoying the pictures and updates as much as we enjoy your comments. This may be our last post depending on our schedule this weekend. Camp ends Saturday morning and we have a full day of site-seeing and shopping planned. Sunday we are visiting two different churches and hope to see more campers there as well. Sunday night we will be at Sommers' church Bessa, which we are really looking forward to. We plan to leave early Monday morning and arrive in the Chicago airport at 5am Tuesday morning. Thanks for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers, we will do our best to finish strong. We have so much more to share with you when we return. We love you all!

Teaching in the mornings.

The Commandment Trains in progress.

The sinks in the girls' bathroom.

The FREEZING showers!

Bible Trivia matching game.

Some of the campers.

Rice, beans (not in this picture), pasta, and chicken... the lunch of champions! And our lunch every day for the past two weeks.

We had a bunch of tournaments today - 50m dash!

A local pastor brought in a group of kids from a very poor neighborhood to spend the day at camp.

The Church in Mongabeirra that our 94 team built.

Session - They love to have us go up front and do the motions to their songs, even though we dont know what we're even singing!

Balloon tag - tie a balloon to your ankle and try to pop everyone else's... this was fun and very,very loud.

Hey! To the Harrelds - sorry we never responded to your comment about Thiago. We havent heard from him yet. Hopefully we will before we leave! The campers all left Saturday morning after signing all of our shirts. It was sad but exciting to know that we still had another week of camp. We had a great wrap up session where students shared decisions they had made throughout the week, though there were no salvations. There were several unsaved kids that heard about the gospel so please pray that we planted a seed and God will continue to water it. Saturday afternoon we all got ready to go to the beach but by the time our bus driver showed up we decided it would be best to go out to lunch first, then to the market, and then possibly to the beach late afternoon. We had McDonalds for lunch, a big change compared to our rice and beans lunch everyday. Then we headed to the market and bought many souvenirs and presents - for you guys! It was a fun day and a good cultural experience for all of us. Shopping went longer than planned - after all, there are 7 girls here... - so we decided to skip out on the beach and just head home. We had several people come to the Lan House to call home - as most of you know - and it was so great to hear from you all. The internet connection went out due to a pretty big storm so we all headed out to dinner. We went to a place called "Thenda da Pastels" where we ate pastries filled with different meats, cheeses, and our favorite, CHOCOLATE! There are pictures on the other post. We headed back to camp and went straight to bed. Some of the boys lit off a few fireworks, but us girls were too tired. Sunday we went to the Taylor's church in the morning where we saw many of the teens from camp. It was really nice to talk to them again. We said our final goodbyes and then set out to lunch at a really cool place called Coelhos - "Rabbits" - where they came around with meat on swords and offered it to each table. It was quite an experience. Shelby and Laura, along with a few other brave souls, tried out Chicken heart... it was not so good. After lunch we went out to the beach, where it was very windy. The boys, Hannah, and Kelsey met up with Brian - a kid from camp - and watched an American football game on the beach. Luke played and now he is a legend. They took it very seriously. Each team had a jersey, there was a referee, and a full sized field marked off with ropes. Meanwhile, Shelby, Laura, Jessi, Michele, and Julie layed on the sand, played in the water, and got some ice cream. We left the beach a little late so we rushed home, ate some sandwiches that the Reiners had prepared, showered off a whole lot of sand, and then headed out to the evening service at Mongabeirra with wet hair. This was the church that the 1994 WCBC team helped build. They still had a prayer card of the team, which was very entertaining to look at. They still express their gratitude. Sunday night we were all pretty tired so we went to bed early in order to prepare for the upcoming camp. Monday we cleaned up and prepared for our campers to arrive. We played soccer, basketball, and volleyball with the little kids and then got ready for our first session, which went very well. The little kids enjoy screaming and talking through all hours of the night, so a few of us are very tired today. This morning a few of us taught the kids about Moses and the first two commandments. We also had a craft and all went well. We miss you all, love you, and hope you continue to keep us and the kids in your prayers. We trust you will. We should be updating again on Thursday, so until then, bye!

Pastor David leading our "Glory Bowl" on Friday night.

The WHOLE group on Friday night, all wearing their brand new t-shirts they received from our church's Thanksgiving offering. They loved them!

The market. There were lots of stores just lined up next to each other inside a big, two-story open building.

The team with some of the teens from camp... plus the 30 year old Agusto in the front and center.

The servers came with swords to serve us our meat, bread, and grilled pineapple with cinnamon. So good!

Shelby and I tried chicken heart...! We also tried rabbit, and that was actually really good.

Laying down in the ocean - it was so warm!

A palm tree at the beach... so pretty!

Fabiana - a pregnant cook at camp who paints nails for R10 in order to get money for her baby. Believe it or not, it was rainy and cool today, the reason for Nicole's blanket.

This is where we are everytime we update the blog.

The inside - pretty different huh?

Eating at Thenda da Pastels

American football at the beach with superstar LUKE!

A pretty view of the ocean in the background.

American football with Luke.

Basketball

Soccer.

Craft time - they made Commandment Trains.

The kids have a lot of energy... rain or shine!

It's so good to hear your teen week went so well. I am so proud of you all in your bravery to talk and interact with the teens dispite the language barrier!! I remember how hard it is. I am curious if there was any salvations this week?? Also, PJ, I was wondering if Berto is the same driver that drove for the 1997/1998 group? Wasn't he the one who was saved after our team left Brazil. How did it go with him this weekend?

Shelby, we are sooo sorry we missed your call!! Dad and I were up in Traverse City for the GFS spouce weekend and the boys were at other houses. Try again on my cell when you can. I will try to carry it with me everywhere!! Dad and I didn't like the coconut juice either. Josh said he loved it in India though. Do you like the cashew fruit?

Keep up the great work all of you! God will continue to bless your efforts. We miss you all!

Love,
Mrs. Beimers

Hello! Thank you all for leaving comments, it is so nice to hear from home! Today is the last day of camp, and that makes me really sad. These kids are so amazing and i've truly enjoyed getting to know them this past week. Since Wednesday we've seen a big change in how our group is relating to the Brazilians. Everyone is reaching out, sitting by themselves at a table full of Portugese-speaking teenagers, and it's so encouraging to me to see God working in our lives. The past two nights our group has been singing special music at the night sessions, and its surprising to see how many teens know the songs "Blessed Be Your Name" and "Give us Clean Hands" in English. We have also been giving away our Gospel color bracelets - yellow, black, red, white, green - because the teens here love them! Everyone wants their number to be called during Prize Giveaways so they can get a bracelet. One boy - Mateos - actually bought a bracelet from one of the other campers. Its really cool to see that they are so excited to have a bracelet that can help them share the gospel with others. Tonight we'll be having a wrap-up session where we will be giving away t-shirts that say "Os Regras de Vida" (Rules for Life) on them and having a time for the campers to share what God has done in their lives this past week. For those of you who are familiar with Lake Ann, it will be similar to their Glory Bowl. I'm very excited to see and hear how God has been working in their lives this week as it is hard to discuss such topics without a translator. We will also be announcing the team that has received the most points throughout the week. And we'll be having PIZZA for dinner! - which has us all very excited. Again, tomorrow the entire team will be coming to Lan House to check personal emails and will be able to call home or use Skype in order to touch base with all of you. We also have not heard from Thiago (He was an exchage student who lived with the Harreld's for two years) yet; we hope to see him while we are here.We miss and love you all and look forward to talking with you tomorrow!

In response to the comments... Mike and Carol - Yes that is corn on the hot dogs... they put peas and corn on lots of things! We are truly sorry that Mike didnt get the job. We will continue to pray for your encouragement and God's provision. We haven't seen the bus driver - Berto - this week because we only travel on weekends. We will be seeing him tomorrow so please keep him in your prayers.

Nathaniel - the cold showers are great! Just kidding. Some people have seen monkies but not many, and we certainly havent caught any!

A few of the girls on the Pink e Cerebros team before night session.

Gunga - 33 yr old at camp playing Frisbe Bowling for Bible trivia.

Richard the Rooster - he just struts around camp all day. We like him alot.

Ethan and Brad playing soccer with the Brazilians.

Pastor David and Sharon's baby Gabriel. So cute!

A few girls from David's church sang Special Music.

We've been singing a song each night at session and Pastor David puts the words up in Portugese for the campers.

Shelby trying coconut water... she didnt like it and spit it out shortly after this picture. :)

Jonatis with his face in flour trying to find papers with the books of the old testament written on them. Each team had to get all 39 books one by one with only their face and then put them in correct order.

Gustavo after the Flour game

Julie giving her testimony in the morning session

Bible Jeopardy - Pinky and the Brains won!

Love the picures!!

You make me laugh everytime I see your pictures! I love the "no smoking" and "proper dress" photos! You know Ethan, Kaase and Brad, you will NEVER live those pictures down!!! Its so great to see all of you having fun with the Brazian kids and using the talents God has given you. We are proud of you guys and cant wait to hear more of the work God is doing over there! Hi Shelby girl, I LOVE AND MISS YOU!!!

Love,
Mrs Beimers

Oh and to Mrs Bradley - almost everyone is planning on bringing their hammocks home so you can count on borrowing them for the Amazon Jungle... as long as we get them back!!

Spectators for volleyball.


Water balloon volleyball


Cheering for teams and making a LOT of noise!


We had fun illustrating the rules of camp. Dont disrespect the counselors.


No drinking or smoking.


No immodest clothing... the boys borrowed our clothes for this one!


Eating lunch in the cafeteria.

Skit night!

Yes... that's a tarantula outside our cabin...!

Making a team flag - Pinky and the Brains!

Playing dominoes - me giving the infamous "thumbs up"!

Brazilian hot dogs!!

The eastern-most point of South America

a buffet we went to for Lunch on Sunday

Some more kids and our team

Antonio and the other kids at Igreja Batista Regular - the first church we visited