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Published: August 14th 2008
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AJ and Barbara's new house
Some of the guys working on AJ and Barbara's new hosue I just arrived back in São Paulo after spending this past Friday thru Wednesday back in Caraguatatuba. This trip was a bit different than my last trip. On Friday I actually took a bus to the international airport to meet the American missionaries from Caraguá, AJ and Barbara, as well as a group of 10 adults from Virginia Beach who were coming to visit for a week. These adults were from another church in Virginia Beach who were coming to see what Brazil is all about and decide if they want to take their youth group here next year. Among the group members were two men that I knew from the church I grew up in, one was my former youth pastor and the other was a man who I went to Brazil with twice before and was my Sunday school teacher when I was a senior. I had a blast being able to hang out with them again because both (as well as the others in the group) are hilarious and kept me laughing the entire time.
This trip was much more focused around ministering than my previous trip to Caraguá. We had 2 church services on Saturday and
Santo Antonio
the mountain where I jumped for parasailing Sunday each, and one on Tuesday evening. Between services the guys spent the majority of their time helping AJ with the renovations on the home they just bought and the ladies worked in the church nursery or went out to deliver food baskets to various church members.
As for me, ever since the last time I was in Caraguatatuba I have been dying to go hang gliding. I had seen a travel show about a year ago about people doing it in Rio de Janeiro and I always thought it looked like great fun, so when I went to Caraguá a month ago and saw that they also had hang gliding and parasailing…I put it on my to-do list. This Tuesday I got my chance. Three other adults from Virginia Beach also said they would do it with me so we called and scheduled a time to go and we all drove to the beach to meet the instructor. Without much hesitation he told me to get in the car and we were off on our way up the mountain to where we were going to jump. I decided to do the parasailing over the hang gliding because the
The ramp
This is where I jumped from instructor said the parasailing was more fun because you can do spirals and more acrobatics while in the air.
When we got up to the top of the mountain it occurred to me that none of the men who were up on the mountain with me spoke any English. Any important instructions or warnings would have to be given in Portuguese…not the best time to have a language barrier! But I gave it a try anyways, I got all strapped up and hook myself up with the instructor and when he counted to three, we were to run as fast as we could off the side of the mountain. Ideally by the time you are to the edge of the mountain the sail would have caught the wind and you are carried off the mountain and fly from there. Unfortunately that did not happen for us. The wind wasn’t too strong so when we started to run, the sail did not catch the wind and so when I was about 3 feet from the edge I hear him yelling “pare, pare, pare!”….”stop, stop, stop!” So the only thing I knew to do was fall on my butt with literally
Ready to go
the instructor and me about to go my legs dangling over the sides…awesome. We had to set the sail back up and try again and thankfully this time we were successful and were able to take off. The ride was fantastic…he let me steer for a while as well which was pretty cool. All in all I am just stoked that I can say I parasailed in Brazil. One more thing to cross off the bucket list.
Caraguatatuba, as I explained in the entry about my first trip, is an awesome city. Without exaggeration, each day I spend in that town I fall more and more in love with it. Leaving this time was surprisingly hard. Not only is the scenery beautiful, but the people who live there are amazing. In just the little time I spent there I know I have friends that I will keep in touch with for a very long time. Also, the ministry that AJ and Barb created there and their vision for the future really is incredible. AJ is working on creating a full-time vocational school to teach teenaged boys different skills such as carpentry, woodworking, key making, etc, but also the school will mentor the guys in how to
Landing
It is a bit hard to see, but you can see my shadow of us landing on the beach be responsible, pay bills, manage money and fine tune computer skills. Barbara is working with many young or single mothers in the community and teaching them how to take care of their kids, health and hygiene, and other marketable skills. In addition to all of this AJ and Barb as well as other dedicated members of their church are setting up mission churches all over the city of Caraguá.
So for my things I learned in São Paulo factoid: God is doing some awesome things in Caraguatatuba through the ministry of AJ and Barbara Hensley. For those who believe in the power of prayer…please be praying to just exactly how I, if at all, fit into their ministry there. If even just financially, I want to continue to be apart of the work that AJ and Barbara are doing.
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Heather
non-member comment
I love the pictures! I really the one where you can see the shadow of the parasail! :)