VISION XX

Back row: Zach, Mark, Dayna. Priscilla, Lizzy. Emilie

Front Row: Mr. Wilson, Donny, Trish, Chantelle, Rebeka, Mike

Intro...

Welcome to my 2012 Brasil mission blog! :D Please note, although Brasil is spelled with an "s" in Brasil (and will probably be spelled that way through most of this blog), I spelled it with a "z" in this blog's url (trishasbraziltrip@blogspot.com) because I figure that more Americans will be visiting it than Brasilians. :) Now that that's been explained, Here's an explanation of what/who the VISION team is, and what we were doing in Brasil! VISION is a singing/drama ministry team at San Diego Christian College. Its members audition to join the team at the beginning of the year, then we spend all year learning songs and dramas together twice a week. Usually toward the second semester, we begin to learn songs in the language of the country we are going to, and we perform more often in local churches to raise support. This year we went to Brasil, so we learned several songs in Portuguese, the native language. We were able to utilize these songs along with our dramas (which are silent and set to music, and thus break the language barrier) to present the love of God to the Brasilian people through over 30 performances in four different parts of the country! Our team went through several member changes throughout the year, as a couple of people had to drop out because of work conflicts or financial reasons, and others were brought in to take their place. By the time we got on the plane though, this was our final team roster:

 Mike Alvarez - primary sound equipment man, third year on VISION
Mark-Anthony Beltran - first year
Donny Bueno - first year
Lizzy Byrd - drama trainer, third year
Trish Guinn - second year
Dayna Johnson - first year
Emilie McDonald - this year's student leader, third year on VISION
Chantelle Mckenzie - first year
Rebeka Mellado - first year
Priscilla Norman - second year
Zach Shipley - secondary sound equipment man, first year
Larry Wilson - SDCC Music professor, and VISION leader for all 20 years

 Last year we went to Israel (which you can read about at trishasisraeltrip.blogspot.com), and two years ago the team went to the Ukraine. That's all for the intro! Keep reading for the interesting stuff! :)

The Photo Situation...

So, I have a little splainin' to do. To be perfectly honest, I hate taking pictures during mission trips, because I feel like I get stuck behind the camera and end up missing out on the real world beyond the lens. My friend Mike, on the other hand, loves taking pictures/video of pretty much everything! I have a camera, he doesn't. Thus, we made an arrangement at the beginning of the trip that my camera would be his for the trip, and he would provide me with some awesome results after the trip! Most of what he took was video rather than photos, so I have posted here the links to the two-part video about our trip that he made for his church. :) Be warned, it's almost a half hour long total - but it gives a fantastic view of our trip and what we do as a mission team.

Brazil Part 1 of 2
Brazil Part 2 of 2

Now, I did take a few photos on my ipod, and several other team members and our team leader took some magnificent photos. I am going to be compiling those into albums of my own and posting the links here so you can see them, but unfortunately, that undertaking won't be possible until at LEAST the end of August, probably later. For those who don't know, I was hired at Forest Home Christian Camp for the summer, and staff orientation starts tomorrow!!! I won't have my computer with me there, or be able to access wifi at the camp, so I won't be able to work on the picture uploads until I get back in mid-August. Sorry! In the meantime, watch Mike's videos, read the rest of my posts, and have an awesome and blessed summer! :D

 ~Trish

Day 1-2, May 9-10, Wednesday and Thursday

Hurrah for long plane trips... haha! The flight was about thirteen hours total, and we were met at the airport in São Paulo by Valdir Santos(Val-jeer San-tohs), our ministry coordinator for the trip. He took us to the Di Guilio hotel, where we'll be staying off and on for various nights of the trip, and we checked in and dropped our stuff off. To ward off jet lag, he took us out to keep us awake. First we went to a mall to grab some lunch, which is where I had my first experience with Guarana (the token soft drink of Brasil). It's something like a mixture between apple cider and a blue raspberry icee - at least that's how I see it. It's pretty fantastic! Then we drove to the top of this mountain with an incredibly beautiful view and hung out there for a while enjoying the splendor of God's creation. After that we went to a little part of the city that reminds me of The Village in Big Bear. We walked around for a while there and then ate an amazing dinner, and headed back to the hotel for some... FINALLY... sleep! :D

Day 3 - May 11 - Friday

We spent most of the day in our bus/van thing... we drove from 11am to 9pm with about an hour's worth of stopping for lunch and a snack. The biggest highlight on the ride was an incredible lightening storm that we saw at a great distance about an hour after darkness fell. When we finally arrived at the church in Tupã, we got debriefed by the pastor there, Sillas (See-luss) Campos, and his wife Wanger (Vahn-jur). The youth pastor, Renato (Hey-nah-too)also talked with us briefly. Even though we have just met these people, they act as though we have been friends for years! I love it! :D They took us out to get pizza and guarana at a nearby restaurant, then we got dropped off at our respective host homes. Mr. Wilson and Emilie will be staying with the Campos family, Mark and Donny are staying with one of the church families and Mike and Zach with another, and all of us girls (minus Emilie) are staying with the Scarpelli family, who are also members of the church. Our "Dad" and "Mom" are named Eduardo (Ed-war-doo) and Rosangela (Hose-ahn-jela), or "Doo" and "Ho" for short, and we have two "sisters" named Juliana (Zhoo-lee-ah-na) and Mariana (Mah-ree-ah-na). We also have a fluffy little grey poodle named Maggie. :) Juliana is the only one in our family who speaks English well enough to translate for us, although Ho can say a few phrases, and Doo can say "the books are on the table". :) Apparently it's one of the phrases that Brasilians first learn when speaking English, and he loves to say it to us. He's a really funny guy! Ho loves to mother us in every way possible... she set up our rooms for us (we're sleeping in two different rooms - Lizzy and I are sharing a mattress on the floor, and Chantelle has a bed next to us, and the other three have the other room), made sure we had all of our stuff settled in, gave us a tour of the house, offered to make us food, talked a little with Rebeka (who is fluent in Spanish, so they can communicate a little), etc. Juliana translated for her parents and was very welcoming, and Mariana seems sweet, although she's shy around us because we can't communicate at all. So far, I love living with our host family! :)

Day 4 - May 12 - Saturday

We got to sleep in really late this morning, which was a huge blessing! We went to Sillas' church to perform for a group of young children, and all of the little kids wanted autographs from us afterward! It was really cute. Our mama made us this incredible spaghetti with sausage instead of meatballs, then we had an evening performance for the adults and youth of the church. Everyone wanted to practice their English on us afterward, so we stayed at the church for a long time talking with the congregation. After that, Juliana and a bunch of her friends took us out with them to have dinner at a nearby restaurant. I spent most of the time talking with a girl whose English was fantastic - she thinks she might want to be a translator. :)

Day 5 - May 13 - Sunday

Today we performed at Iglesia Baptista Segunda in the morning, the Iglesia Baptista Tupã this evening. Both of those performances went really well. Also, in between those, Chantelle and Lizzy and Rebeka and I had a really great girl-to-girl talk about life, the universe, and everything. C.S. Lewis once said, "Friendship happens when one person says to another, 'What, you too? I thought I was the only one!'" Our friendships definitely grew through that this afternoon. :) Also, there's another thunderstorm going on tonight! Hurray!

Day 6 - May 14 - Monday

Today we got up super early to perform at Sylvio De Guilli School. After a little mix-up with administration, we finally found a place to set up and performed for two groups of middle and high schoolers. The school provided us with a "snack break" (more like a whole lunch), then we went on a walk around the area near the school. We visited a small church taht had another building being added on, and Sillas told us about it. This church had been praying for a way to expand for a while, and they finally raised enough money just to lay the foundation. The mayor randomly stopped by the project and asked how many bricks they would need to finish the project, then provided the bricks for them! Soon after that, a church member called and asked how much the roof would cost. The pastor said that it would cost about $20,000, and the member donated $30,000! When told that he had given more than they needed, he just told them that he knew they would need it for something else later. :) So cool how God provides! We continued on to a restaurant where we ate lunch, then came back to the school for two more performances. It was really tiring doing four vigorous performances in such a short amount of time, but it was so incredibly worth it! One really strange thing that we realized here is that were are "celebrities" because we're from America. Every kid wanted a photo with us, our signature on their schoolbooks, or even just a hug. After one performance, we even had to go "hide" in a nother room because the kids wouldn't leave us to go to their classes! We did have some great interaction with a few of the more quiet kids though, and our dramas even left a few girls in tears. Wanger took a couple of kids aside over the course of our performances to talk with them further because they were so moved. After our performances we went back to our homes and took a nap, which actually turned into in-depth soul baring time for some of us girls. I love how God keeps drawing our team closer together! I love these beautiful girls so much. :) After dinner in our respective houses, the boys went to go play soccer with some youth kids, and all of us girls went to Sillas and Wanger's house for a girls' night with ice cream and a "Thou Shalt Laugh" dvd. It was so much fun hanging out with Wanger and my "sister", Juliana, who came with us!

Day 7 - May 15 - Tuesday

This morning we went to CoC school and performed for high school and college students, then again for elementary, middle, and high schoolers. From there we drove to a city called Varpa, which means "corn on the cob". If I understood Wanger correctly, it was started by a group of Lithuanians and Russians who were fleeing their government for religious freedom. We performed at a poor school there for a bunch of kids aged 7-14, then we drove back and stopped along the way to see Brazil's first Baptist church, and also at a beautiful little river running through Varpa. After a short break once we got back, we headed back to Sillas' church to prepare for a special youth service led by Renato. Youth from all over had come out for the event, which we started with a silly icebreaker before moving on to the main setup of the evening - an interview conducted by Wanger and Renato. All of us VISION members sat across the stage, with mics spread around for us to use to answer questions. The interview started out with fun questions, like what our favorite part of our time in Brasil was so far, or what it was like to be treated as celebrities by the school children we ministered to. We shared a couple of funny stories about life in America too, then they started asking more important questions about spiritual matters. Finally Renato asked for a few of us to tell them why we came to Brasil, or how we met Jesus. Mike, Dayna, Zach, and I all shared our testimonies (even though I hadn't planned on talking at all - that was definitely a Holy Spirit thing), then Renato and Wanger shared more with the kids, and the program was over. We hung out and talked with the kids afterward - everyone here loves to practice their English skills on us! Super fun. That was the end of our day. :)

Day 8 - May 16 - Wednesday

We had one performance this morning at a sort of ghetto school with about 500 kids in the audience, then we had a goodbye barbecue with all of our host families, Sillas, Wanger, and Renato. It was so sad to say goodbye to everyone! We've really come to know and love these people here, and I'm going to miss them a lot - from Renato's passionate preaching, to the way Wanger talks to us like we've been friends for years, to the way our Brasilian mama Rosangela calls us her "beautiful daughters", everyone has contributed something special to our time here that we're going to remember for the rest of our lives. The rest of our day, from 3pm to midnight, was spent on the bus back to São José dos Campos (except for a couple of stops). Nothing much interesting about that... except that Mike introduced me to an incredible album by Gungor called "Ghosts Upon the Earth". It basically goes through the whole story of God's work with us, from creation through the fall to His ultimate plan for salvation and redemption. If you get a chance to listen to it, do! Now that we're back at our hotel from last time, sleep!

Day 9 - May 17 - Thursday

Today we had a free day, so we went to the beach somewhere near a city called Ubatuba. This was my first time swimming in the Atlantic Ocean! It's surprisingly warm for an ocean... really nice! Pretty much all of our day was spent either at the beach or in transit to/from it, so there's not really much to say about today.

Day 10 - May 18 - Friday

Today we had to get up early to catch a plane to Foz do Iguaçu, which is where some of Brasil's biggest waterfalls are, and where we would be working with a pastor named Flavio. I woke up with my throat bothering me and a stuffy nose, so I felt pretty miserable for most of the day. It was sort of a blessing though, because it was a great reminder to me of how perfectly God created our team. Over these ten days, we have moved from being just friends to being a family! People I didn't even hang out with outside of VISION rehearsals during the school year were checking on me to make sure I was okay and taking care of me. I've seen that kind of unity acted out so many times over these few days with everyone caring for our other sick team members, but it's an entirely different experience receiving that care myself. I am so blessed to be working with this incredible group of people!

Day 11 - May 19 - Saturday

This morning we stopped for a little tourism at Iguaçu Falls. We got to walk a path through what looked like a miniature rainforest, then came out at an overlook of the falls, which are even larger than Niagara Falls. The view was absolutely incredible! I took a panorama shot with an app on my ipod called Photosynth... you can see the result here. http://photosynth.net/view.aspx?cid=bf0e2dd1-751b-46ad-a000-144d762e6c3b There were also a bunch of coatis at the falls (sort of like a cross between a brown raccoon and an aardvark), and they were so used to people that they would trot right up to us to beg for handouts! Speaking of that, funny story: Lizzy was looking for something in her bag, and her mini pack of Kleenex fell out. She hadn't noticed, and Mike was about to point it out to her, but a coati got to it first - after one quick poke with its nose, it snatched up the tissue and ran off! He sat down several feet away and started ripping the entire thing apart. :) After that we skipped over to Argentina to check out a souvenir shop, then came back to Brasil for lunch. This evening we performed at a church service that was held for all of the Baptist youth in the area to get together. The service itself was three hours long and completely in Portuguese, with no translation. Let's just say that God was teaching us a lesson in patience. ;) That's all for today!

Day 12 - May 20 - Sunday

We performed at a church, then went to another church's barbecue for lunch. The building that it was held in used to be a meeting place for some satanic cult group, complete with animal sacrifices and everything. Today it is a thriving new Christian church! Yay God! We had a few free hours this afternoon (did I mention that the hostel we're staying at has hammocks hanging out front? Definitely took advantage of that...), then we had another performance this evening.

Day 13 - May 21 - Monday

All of our performances for today were scheduled for the afternoon, so this morning we went to Parque das Aves - a huge bird park! :D Basically it's set up a lot like the Wild Animal Park back home. There are a several enclosures with various birds (and a couple with marmosets) on display, and three big enclosures where you can walk in and be among the animals! The first was filled with a lot of different kinds of birds, the most exciting being a few species of toucans. The second was a butterfly enclosure (where I got to hold a blue morpho butterfly!), and the third was a macaw enclosure (though I think there were a couple of Conures in there too). Near the end of the park we each had the opportunity to hold a blue and gold macaw and - my favorite - an anaconda! It was such a neat experience! We left the park in the afternoon to perform at a school for handicapped children, then at two other elementary schools. After a short break at our hotel, we performed in a park, and that was it for the day.

Day 14-15, May 22-23, Tuesday-Wednesday

So sorry there isn't much to put for this one! Sometimes there's so much going on or I'm so tired by the time we get back to the hotel that I forget to journal. Here's what I remember about these two days: Tuesday: Performed at three different schools. Wednesday: Bus ride, plane ride, bus ride, dinner, hotel.

Day 16 - May 24 - Thursday

We left the hotel this morning and did two performances at a Christian school, had lunch, then went back for a third performance. Then we moved into our new home, which is the uppermost rooms of the church that Valdir attends. It reminds me so much of the apartments that VISION XIX had in Tiberius! The girls have two rooms and a kitchen, and the boys' single room is right across from us. Since we had no other performances tonight, Valdir took us to see a movie - The Avengers!!! Or, as they call it in Portuguese, "Vingadores"! I had seen the movie twice already in the States, so I was extremely excited when I found out that we were going to be seeing it again... and that the only English version was in 3D! It was strange seeing Portuguese subtitles below everything. :) Shameless plug: if you haven't seen The Avengers yet, go see it! It's incredible! Oh, and there are two short clips after the movie, so be sure to stay until all the credits are completely done. ;) Just sayin'.

Day 17 - May 25 - Friday

Today was a very Catholic day. We started of our morning with a performance at a Catholic school, then we took a really long drive to see the Basílica de nuestra señora Aparecida, which I think is the largest Catholic church in Brasil. The church contains a museum where the walls are covered with pictures of people who prayed to Mary and had some great thing happen in their lives because of it. The museum is filled with little trinkets and trophies sent in gratitude for answered prayers, and ribbons and banners hang everywhere praising Mary. It was a very disturbing visit, but also a very sad one. The weight of all these people who are so totally lost from the love and mercy of Jesus hung heavy on the hearts of the entire team. What a concrete reminder, though, of why we are here doing what we do. We can only pray that the worshipers we saw here today will find the love of Jesus.

Day 18 - May 26 - Saturday

All morning and afternoon, we worked at an English camp for kids! We performed a couple of dramas and a couple of songs in English, then we led some group games with the kids. After that we split the kids into three groups; some of us VISION members were team leaders, and some were game leaders, and the teams rotated to different game stations. Mark and I were in charge of a game station where we taught the kids a variation of the shipwreck game. We were playing in a field marked out into a square, and when I called out "front", the kids had to run past a line marked at the front of the square. When I called "back", they had to run to the back, and same for "left" and "right". Whichever kid crossed the line last was out, until there was only one kid remaining. Two groups rotated through the game, then we stopped to eat lunch. We spaced ourselves out so that each table had a VISION member, so the kids could have an American to practice their English with during lunch. It was so much fun connecting with the Brasilian girls who sat at the table with Rebeka and me! Their English was surprisingly good, and it was great to see how readily they helped one another when someone couldn't figure out what English word to use. After our lunch break we played our game one last time with the third group, then we went back to our home at the church. We had three hours to ourselves, then we had a performance there... our last performance with dramas. :/ Tomorrow morning we will only be singing. Some of the kids there showed up to church for our performance just because we had been at their day camp this morning! It was so neat to talk with them afterward.

Day 19 - May 27 - Sunday

Today we had our very last official performance: an all-singing presentation at the church Valdir attends. After church we had lunch with the people there, then left for the same hotel that we've stayed at a few times already on this trip. We had a three-hour break to ourselves, then we went to Valdir's house for dinner and fellowship. The highlight of tonight was probably the music - Emilie played the violin along with Valdir's son Johnny, Mr. Wilson played the piano, Mike played the guitar (sometimes as a cajon), and Valdir played the cello. Live performances are even better when it's your incredibly talented friends playing! After a delicious dinner of chicken and French Toast (yes, breakfast for dinner!), we presented the Santos family with our sound system for use in their ministries, along with some extra team shirts and jackets. We didn't get back to the hotel until almost midnight. Tomorrow we go to Rio for a couple of days of tourism before we fly home!

Day 20 - May 28 - Monday

Most of today was just spent in the van traveling to Rio de Janeiro. Long, but not very eventful. After we checked into our beautiful hotel, we took a walk on the beach of Copacabana before eating dinner, then headed back to the hotel to sleep.

Day 21 - May 29 - Tuesday

This morning we took a cable car (two cars, actually) to the top of Sugarloaf! The view was absolutely incredible. We could see what looked like all of Rio from the top of that peak! There were little monkeys (kind of like marmosets) all over the place, so that was pretty neat. After we left there, we stopped for a picnic lunch at a nearby park right next to the beach, then we drove to visit the "Cristo Redentor", or Christ Redeemer, statue. It is similar to our statue of Liberty in that it was given to Brasil by France (and it's absolutely HUGE), and it has become one of the major icons of Rio. However, as Valdir so perfectly put it, it's even better because it is the TRUE statue of liberty, since true liberty is only found in Christ. :) After a one-song performance, we went back to Copacabana and strolled along the sidewalk by the beach to do some souvenir shopping for a couple of hours. We ended our last night in Brasil with a team dinner at Carretão, which was an experience in itself. There is no menu, no ordering of any sort. Instead, there is a little double-sided card on your table; one side is green, the other is red. As long as the green side is up, waiters will come by your table and offer you various kinds of incredibly delicious meat, cutting it straight of the skewer. When you are full, you turn the card so the red side faces up, and they stop coming. After we had all eaten our fill, we had our final team activities. We shared at random, first various experiences we had in Brasil that changed us, then things that we love about one another. We passed around a quote book I had been keeping full of funny things people said during the trip and read them aloud, then performed one of the VISION traditions - the boys' and girls' song. Every year, all the girls get together and write a song about the boys on the trip (usually to the tune of one of our VISION songs), and the boys do the same for the girls (usually to a popular tune). Then, at the end of the trip, we sing them to one another. After that, our evening ended with prayer and a short drive back to the hotel. Hard to believe that our time here is already done! Tomorrow we fly back to the States. :/

Day 22 - May 30 - Wednesday

I don't really have much to say about today. Mr. Wilson stayed in Rio to catch a different flight (he and his wife are taking their yearly vacation, so they're headed to Europe),so our tearful goodbyes began before we even left. The rest of us had a total of thirteen hours flying time, all on the same plane, although we made two stops between Rio and LA. Chantelle got picked up at LAX, so the remaining nine of us went to Chic-Fil-A for breakfast (mmmm American breakfast!), then drove for two hours to get to the college, where our families picked us up. It was a great trip, and I'm really going to miss my VISION family. I was so blessed by all that God did to and through us during our time in Brasil! For me, however, the adventure doesn't end here - on June 7th, I head up to Forest Home Christian Camp to work as retail staff. Can't wait to grow even closer to God and influence lives up at camp. Further beyond that, looking forward to joining VISION again next year! Over and out for this year. :)