Day 12....
Last night Conrad & I received quite possibly the best Anniversary surprise ever!! Thanks to Julie & a couple of our teammates, they through together a very romantic, candlelit dinner for us! :-) They banned us from the dining hall for a while, and when we were allowed back all the campers were lined up clapping & creating a tunnel for us to walk through. When we got inside, there was a small table in the corner, complete with a candle, candy, roses & gifts!! with the view overlooking the city below. Before dinner for the whole camp, they gave us a few minutes to enjoy the music and scenery and dance a bit before everyone else came in to join us. (Somehow they even had some of my favorite music playing, Ella Fitzgerald!) Even after the campers joined us, they still left our side of the room lit only by candlelight. Ben & Josh were very gracious and served us dinner while we just sat! They even had a couple of the campers come serenade us with guitar & an English song. How very sweet & thoughtful of Julie to do this for us!! We were very surprised and blessed!! Thank you Julie!
Other festivities of the night included worship late into the night, & a very long game of Capture the Flag. Most of us got approximately 3-4 hours of sleep, being wakened several times by our lovely campers enjoying a late night! (I think I can finally admit I might be too old for this many late nights!)
Apparently it is an Abecar tradition for the boy campers to serenade the girls late at night, then the girls to return the favor a while later....I didn't realize this tradition until about 2:00 am when the girls were singing outside my window! :-)
This morning was an American Breakfast for our campers. Our team pitched in and made Pancakes with Home-made Vanilla Syrup (there isn't a single bottle of Maple Flavoring here, and IF you can find Maple Syrup, it's $10.00 a bottle.) scrambled eggs, and home-style potatoes. This was an interesting process for us...from figuring out how to start the burners, to recomputing the measurements into Kilos / ml...it took us a few minutes to get our rhythm, but when we did we cranked out 7 dozen scrambled eggs, 40 large potatoes diced up & pan-fried, and around 400 pancakes!
Pancakes are very few and far between here. Brazilians who have visited the US might have had or might make pancakes at their homes, but otherwise most have never had pancakes! It was fun to watch their expressions! We received many compliments...hopefully they really did enjoy them!
Following breakfast was a time of chapel & worship, a last English Conversation group, and right now the campers are enjoying more American Game Time. Some of our games have been a bit difficult to explain, but nonetheless they seem to enjoy them anyways!
The campers are expected to leave after lunch time, around 3:00 pm. Our Team will be going to Suzano (a neighboring city) tonight to hear Conrad preach.
I think it is finally hitting most of our group that today is our last full day in Mogi. :-( It has been a very full couple of weeks of ministry & traveling, and with the exception of desperately wanting to see my kiddos, I think we are all a bit bummed that we will be leaving tomorrow. There are some wonderful people here doing ministry, wonderful people to minister to, and many things to be accomplished here. We are very blessed & happy to have been a part of Camp Abecar & the life of Julie & Leandro for a little bit.
Hopefully more tomorrow before we board the plane, but just in case I cannot get online, please pray for our campers...that some of the truths in the Bible passages we've used in the English Conversation clubs would pierce their hearts, that Ryan makes it home safely today, and that the rest of our group will have safe travels tomorrow as we head home, and for Josh & Ben as they enter into their final week here in Brazil....that they would finish strong and also have safe travels home.
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