Here I am!

(In the picture, it's Christian Billman, a little Brazilian girl who lives on the base, me, Forrest Billman, a little boy who lives on the base, and Rebecca who is apart of the team)
Well, after many hours, lay-overs, flights, and people, I'm here in Brazil!:) My trip wound up being over 24 hours but God was so good through out the WHOLE thing. From the first person I talked to in Norfolk, till my greeting with the Billman's, Cody, and Jonathan in Curitiba, God was there and faithful the whole time. In Miami, I felt like I was in a foreign country, with the spanish being thrown back and forth, I had no clue what was going on. Thankfully, since it was STILL the US, they spoke English after they spoke spanish... I was pretty confused, considering it was still Florida, but whatever..:) While I was waiting to board the flight in Miami, a family from Sao Paulo, Brazil came and sat next to me. I couldn't understand them, and (I thought they couldn't really understand me) but they offered me Pringles, smiled and laughed with me and I just fell in love with them:). They wound up flying to Bogota and then to Sao Paulo with me. They took me under their wing, made sure I went to the right place, they played UNO with me, and just had fun with me. The family included the parents and three kids. Gabriel, Rebecca, and Samuel. Gabriel was closer to my age and thankfully, he was very good at speaking English:). So we hit it off very nicely. He would translate for his younger sister and we just had so much fun. I got to know the different bands they and I liked, they'd ask me how to say certain things in English and I'd ask how to say certain things in Portuguese. It couldn't have been a better couple of flights from Miami, to Bogota, then to Sao Paulo, if I could have asked for it.... They made that long trip, so much fun. I love that family so much:).
I wound up getting to Sao Paulo and found out that the airlines had lost one of my bags:/. Big bummer, but I'm trusting God is going to bring it back to me:). It's got important stuff in it. So I'm praying hard:). haa. But my flight from Sao Paulo to Curitiba, was wonderful and fast. Part of the team was there to greet me and I couldn't be happier that I was there.. From there I've been going ever since. I got to go to a local grocery store yesterday afternoon, which was great:). And then at night, was the best part, I got to go out of the streets to talk and love on the prostitutes and transvestites. It was my first time ever, doing it, so it was wonderful. I had so much joy, excitement and just anticipation. God met us on the streets and it was a great night. The processing of the whole event has taken me some time, but God has been so good. It was a harsh reality when meeting some of the prostitutes on the streets. You can tell when they really don't want to be on the streets, but last night, I didn't experience that too much. What I experience last night was different. Almost all of the girls/guys I talked to last night, WANTED to be out on the streets, selling themselves. I know, deep down, they didn't. But there biggest reason for wanting to be out there was the money. These two we were talking to last night get paid around 6000 or 7000 dollars a month! The initial fruit of their job, is so rewarding but I know for a fact, it won't be rewarding long term. We (Shores of Grace team) is in the process of making a place where they can go to start over and get out of it. It's called, Project Bethany, http://shoresofgrace.com/about-us/project-bethany You can copy and paste that into your browser to get more info on that. It's amazing and seriously life changing. But it's still in the work. God was breaking my heart even more, last night, for His beloved, his princes and princesses. So it's been different, but SOOO good. I'm loving it already:).
Tonight, we will go to the ministry school and work with the students. Which will be my first time, but this is the second day of the school. I'll update more on that later:).

But yeah, as far as prayer requests, just be praying for my last bag to come. I know He is faithful:). So be praying for that. God is good and will continue to be good:). Also, if you could be praying for Project Bethany. Money is a huge issue right now for all of that and we are just waiting on that to come in, so we can start the project. All I know, is when it goes happen, it's going to be amazing:). Thanks for reading and praying! I'll try and post as soon as I can!

Know Him
emma