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...

June Birthdays: 17

In June we celebrated 17 birthdays at Living Stones, and finally started celebrating birthdays at the trash dump as well (that is a separate post).
In Cajueiro Claro, we celebrated with Mariana (June 8), Jailson (June 9), Felipe (June 13), and Jon-jon (June 17)

 (Mariana turned 7!)

In Mussurepe, we celebrated with Aline (June 2), and in Carpina with Daniel (June 3)

In Guadalajara, we celebrated with Amanda (June 4), Alan (June 30), and three other boys.

In Paudalho, we celebrated with Rodrigo (June 4), Vera (June 6), Leandro (June 6), Estephania (June 10), Rosilda (June 21), and Joseane (June 27)

 

 

 

 

May Birthdays: 19

We were very happy to celebrate with Eduarda (May 24, turned 3)

And Igor (May 8) at Cajueiro Claro.
In Mussurepe, the three lovely ladies celebrated (Michaele--May 6, Patricia--May 12, and Eliza--May 11)

(Eliza turned 11)

In Carpina, we celebrated with Ingrid (May 23), Natali (May 7), Nathalia (May 9), and William (May 29)

 

In Guadalajara, we celebrated with Carolina (May 28) and Suelle (May 15)

 (Carolina)

And in Paudalho, we celebrated with Mercia (May 1), Isac (May 1), Eduardo (May 9), Emerson (May 10) Erastmas (May 12), Karla (May 27), and Cleyton (May 31)

 (Erastmas with the glasses)

Thank you so much for supporting us--helping with birthdays is creating a new culture for these children, one that says "God made me, God sees me, and God has a plan for my life: and today, I celebrate that."

currently, no money has been coming in for birthday parties. We have barely been receiving enough for our general budget, which goes to food and the daily program. I (Rachel) have been using my own funds to continue this, because I see the great need for it, but I would love to have partners in this: www.wribrazil.com/10forthem

 

 

 

Fifteen April Birthdays

In Cajueiro Claro, we celebrated the birthdays of Caua (April 10), Paulo s. (April 20), Andreia (April 20), Jo-jo (April 26), and Milena (April 30)

In Mussurepe, we celebrated the birthdays of Deyvilla (April 3), Geovane (April 9), Artur (April 18), Cloves (April 24), and Maria Paula (April 24)

We also got to celebrate Koral's birthday (April 25) while she was visiting from the USA. In Paudalho, we celebrated Morgana's birthday (March 29), and Rafael Jose (March 26)

In Carpina, we celebrated Vitoria's birthday (April 19), and Kevin's birthday (one of the helpers)

In Guadalajara, we celebrated Joao Vitor's birthday (April 1)

 

40 Birthdays Celebrated!

Thank you so much for your continued support! We have many more children now, and are in desperate need for more people to support a child's birthday through www.wribrazil.com/10forthem

The boys at Living Stones Carpina didn't know what was coming when I brought out the birthday glasses:

This is Edekennedy (Feb.20) . Lucas (Jan 27), Deivison (Jan 10), Igor (Mar 4), and Antonio (Mar 27) (along with two boys I didn't get their names) celebrated with us.

Rita (Mar 6) was our only girl to celebrate her birthday, and got a little shy.

The boys at Living Stones Guadalajara lined up like a jail sentence, until they learned there was cake invovled!

This is Wertsosonese (yep), who wasn't sure what day his birthday was, but was sure it was in March. His mother gave me some cake and goodies from his own party, because he was so happy to celebrate with us too! Alex (Mar 22), Wilamy (Jan 9), Jeffiter (Jan 22), and Wemerson also celebrated with us.

The girls in Guadalajara got their poses on.

This is Kerssia, who also doesn't know which day in March is her birthday, but we will only celebrate it once, so now is the time. Jaciara (Jan 9), Elizabeth (Jan 7), Vitoria (Feb 20), Stefany (Jan 14), and Livia celebrated with us.

In Mussurepe, Viviane (Jan 21), Joel (Mar 23), Joelma (Jan 30), Laysa (Mar), and Eline celebrated their birthdays.

I would have expected nothing less from Viviane than this pose:)

In Cajueiro, we celebrated Leticia (Feb 4), Laiza (Jan 25) Anginha (Dec 30), Flavio (Jan 20), Mercia (Feb 23), Camila (Mar 24), and Vitor (Mar 18).

What a lovely couple!
In Paudalho, I was able to visit the some of the familys, and celebrated with Cesar (Jan 7)

I stopped by, but did not get the picture of Glabison (Jan 24), Luana (Jan 24), Lucy (Feb 25), and Roberto (Feb 12). Rafael Jose (Mar 26) and Morgana (Mar 29) will soon be visited.

Leandra was all smiles about her 16th birthday (Mar 12)

My little sweetheart Josefa (Mar 21) turned 6! She shares a birthday with my nephew who turned three, and my friend Joyce who turned...not telling:)

I gave her her first book:). She just started going to school. Thank you for giving! We are scraping the bottom of our resources, and cannot continue to provide for these birthday parties without your help! Please give to our $10 FOR THEM program at www.wribrazil.com/10forthem