A lot happened in the past three months, by God´s
grace we´ve been able to experience many different things. So here are some
pictures to update you all in a creative, visual way about our life and work
here in São Paulo, Brazil.
June of 2012
SuperWoman program
In June, towards the end of the first semester of the SuperWoman program
for teen girls in community center Casa Semear, we organized a special beauty
day for the girls.
A long Saturday full of beauty workshops (hair, nails
& make-up) and for each teen girl an individual photo shoot with the theme:
Believe it, you are beautiful!
Adoption
On the 12th of June we received a long-expected, super important phone call
with some great news: we were approved as adoptive parents by the local
authorities of São Paulo.
This means that we´re on the waiting list for a baby
now and that, one certain day, we´ll receive another phone call with the news
that we´re going to be a mommy & daddy! Super exciting!
Also in June, community center Casa Semear received a big group of teenagers from a church in
Texas, USA.
A 12 day long mission trip brought this group of
excited young adults to us to help us finish some of the building work and
paint the newly build staff house at Casa Semear. We and they, I
believe, had a great time!
Holidays in Holland
A bit later in June we, Caio and I, went on a short holiday trip to
Holland and London. It was very good to spend time with our family and friends
there and just be away for a bit, relax and regain our energies while enjoying
Holland.
We also went on a short city trip to London in honor of our fifth wedding
anniversary which we celebrated last year (05/08/2011).
July of 2012
Teen camp
In the beginning of July we flew back to São Paulo, well rested and with
new strength. As soon as we got back here, we started the preparations for the
yearly teen camp of community center Casa Semear which we always plan in July,
during winter holidays.
We had some amazing days with a great group of kids
during camp. We had lots of fun during the many sport activities and (night)
games and a lot of time to really invest in our friendships and trust bonds
with these kids. Together we studied and lived through Joseph´s life story and
talked much about family relationships and forgiveness. It was a good,
special time!
Spare time...
At home, in our spare time, we´ve been busy improving our office space
and creating a creative arts & crafts corner for me (Dot). As Caio is most of
his time working at home now for the Christian publishing house, working on
text revision, translation and investing in his theology studies, it was about
time to improve his office space a little.
Caio´s been busy making a new office table, book
shelves and a book case out of used pallets and wooden crates. Here´s the
result!
I love to be creative in my spare time and so, when we
were in Holland, I bought my very first sewing machine. After reorganizing the
office, I now have my own arts & crafts corner where I can spend all my
spare hours and relax.
August of 2012
On the 5th of August we celebrated our 6th wedding
anniversary! Going through life together and building up a life together has
been and will always be a great adventure we both greatly enjoy; we can clearly
see God´s guidance, presence and blessing upon our lives and we´re just so
thankful to Him for these past years and the future that lies ahead of us!
SuperWoman program
In August the SuperWoman program for teen girls started once again for
the second semester of this year. I now work with a quite stabile group of
around 20 girls between 11 and 15 years
old. Every week there is another dynamic, creative and interesting meeting in
which we talk about all kinds of interesting topics for teen girls and study
the Bible together and seek God in prayer.
It is so encouraging to see how much these girls have
grown in the past year; they are a close group with good friendships, trust
bonds and openness among each other. In the past couple of weeks we´ve been
talking about a woman´s body, sexuality and dating.
We think it´s very important to talk about these
topics with the girls and try to guide them and teach them Biblical principles.
Especially when you realize that actually many girls who come from the lower
social classes in Brazil get pregnant during their teen years…
September of 2012
Since the beginning of September we have two new family
members: Jip & Janneke! Their names refer to a famous children´s book from
Holland that is all about the adventures of two little friends named Jip &
Janneke.
ABBA staff retreat
Also in September we participated in the yearly staff
retreat of our missionary organization ABBA. The retreat consists in a long
weekend away with the whole ABBA team (from various different ministries), it´s
a time to rest, to seek God together, pray for each other, develop and
strengthen friendships and just hang out and have fun. And this time it was
even better because my sister, Joseline, and her Brazilian boy friend, Bruno,
went along too!
The ABBA team is a great bunch of people, they´re like
a second family to us, so we always enjoy it very much to be able to spend a
few days with them.
We enjoyed all the free time, the fun during the many
games, the camp fire on a lovely, warm evening and all the laughter and jokes
involving the costume parties during dinner time...
We are very grateful to God for giving us such great colleagues,
friends and brothers & sisters!
God bless you!
Caio & Dot
