Orphanos Foundation

Back to Lar Batista, Brazil!

posted by Jennifer Ragland — July 13th, 2009

July 19, 2009

Our last few days at Lar Batista went by very fast.  We are now in Sao Paulo visiting Lar Tia Edna (details on that in a minute).  The kids have been a lot of fun as we went into each room and installed their photo/message boards.  We chose colors approprate for girls rooms, and then for the boys we had camo to put in their room.  It was a delight.  Grace had brought ink/paper for a photo printer we gave them recently, so we took tons of photos of the kids and us and then printed them right then.  It's so cool to go in their rooms now and see the photos they chose and important stuff they have put up: pins, notes from a friend, awards, etc..

On Friday night we enjoyed a short service in the new chapel.  Wayne Sneed spoke again, this time from Hebrews 11 about how things get done through Faith.  Then from Hebrews 12 he challenged them to not loose hope but to continue on the their service.

Late that night some of us got to go to see Cristina play in an indoor soccer match.  Her team won by a huge margin: 5-1.  Of course, we were all thrilled that Cristina scored 3 of the 5 goals!  Maybe having friends from America watching helped motivate her to new heights.

Saturday morning we left Lar and went to Iguassu for a short day of viewing the waterfalls.  As we were driving away we were stopped by a human barrier across the main road.  A group of the kids had run down the street ahead of our bus and linked hands across the road to stop us from leaving.  We were so blessed by their display of love, and also so saddened by the reality that indeed we did have to leave them.  It was a moving gesture on their part.

Iguassu Falls is an incredible place full of the beauty and glory of the Lord.  We enjoyed a short amount of time at the falls because we went to bed early last night.  Why? Because we had to get up very, very early this morning to catch a 6am flight to Sao Paulo!

Today, Sunday the 19th, we have spent our day with the family of Lar Tia Edna.  Henry and Nilma are the "mom and dad" of this wonderful little home for children.  They are in downtown Sao Paulo and have 16 children living with them.  We were so inspired by how organized and clean the home is.  After attending church services with them in the morning, we took Henry and Nilma out to eat to a very special restaurant (it is Nilma's birthday).  Then we went back to Lar Tia Edna to spend time with the kids and watch some futbal and home videos.  Later in the afternoon Henry took us back to the airport where we are waiting on our flight home now.

It has been a wonderful but very fast visit to Brazil.  We've seen Rio, Iguassu, Sau Paulo, Assis Chateaubriand, spent time with the kids at Lar Batista and Lar Tia Edna. As much as we enjoyed "seeing" Brazil, what stands out in our minds are the kids we have spent time with.  We're amazed at how much we are able to communicate with them and bond with them even though we speak different languages from our tounges.  Our hearts speak the same language of Christian love, and that is what matters.

All in all, we've had a blessed visit.  Thank you so much for your prayers and support.  You've blessed us and hopefully the kids through us.  Thank you.

July 16, 2009

Today was filled with a lot of laughter and fun.  It's late, and we're tired, so here goes a quick update.

We spent the majority of the day working on the photo/message boards for each of the kids rooms.  As you can see in the picture, everyone was getting involved. The team brought all the materials for these except for the wood backing, which we purchased last night at the hardware store.  We used bright happy colors for the girls rooms, and camo material for the boys.  They love it.  We had originally planned to make 15 of these, but we had enough material to make about 18.

Later in the evening the kids put on a "No-Talent Show" for us.  What a huge riot that was.  From Micheal Jackson wanna-be's to coordinated jump roper's to kids dancing to songs from India: we laughed and laughed.  Then we had a huge party with cake and soft drinks. What a great night.  The fun thing is that we are making "family memories" that these kids will enjoy for the rest of their lives: just like a normal family!

The weather was really nice for most of the day, but late this afternoon we had some showers.  It's still not super cold, so that's good.

Thanks for all your prayers for us.  Clearly it's working.

Doug and Betsey Enoch / Jennifer Ragland / Grace Fragoso / Wayne Sneed

July 15, 2009

After a long and basiclaly uneventful 30 hour trip, we arrived safely at Lar Batista late Tuesday night. The team was mostly exhausted but in good spirits.  We had left Memphis Monday night and flew to Atlanta.  We had nice little dinner at a little Bistro in the Atlanta airport and then boarded our flight for Rio de Janeiro.  Unfortunately, someone in First Class got sick as we were about to take-off, so the pilot returned to the gate and we waited 2 hours while they cleaned up the mess; and it was a smelly mess!  (We felt sorry for those up in First Class who had the worst of the smell.  Well, not too sorry.  There were still in big seats that actually reclined to a horizontal position.  I bet they slept well!).  Anyway, after spending 11+ hours in the plane we finally arrived in Rio.  Since we had about a 5 hour layover, we had decided in advance to hire a driver to take us around Rio to see the sites.  We rode the train up to the Corcovado (the famous Jesus statue overlooking Rio) and then drove by the beach at Ipanema and Copacabana.  We arrived back at the airport in plenty of time to catch our next flight to Foz do Iguassu.  After arriving in Foz around 7pm, we decided to eat a quick dinner at Boi de Oro (a really great Brazilian Steak house).  The bus ride to Lar Batista took us about 2.5 hours.  When we arrived, all the kids were zonked so we quietly unloaded our bags and headed to bed.  None of us complained!

Today we got up and spent the entire day playing with the kids (who are on a week long winter break from school) and getting to know the place again.  Some of us have never been here, some of us haven't been here in two years, and some of us were here three weeks ago.  So it was a nice day to be with the kids and the family of Lar Batista.

Tonight we went to church with the kids.  It was a great service of singing and worship.  Wayne Sneed (President of Orphanos) brought the evening message from Matthew 28.

The weather has been really, really nice. Last night it got down to about 50, but today its been in the 70's.  Sunny and perfect.

The food has been plentiful and great!

The kids are a delight.

July 13, 2009

Today a team of 5 will travel to Brazil to visit two of our partner homes, Lar Batista and Lar Tia Edna.  Please pray for safe travels for the team as they will not actually get to Lar Batista until 10 pm Tuesday night!  The team is excited and can't wait to see the children. They will be making photo boards for the girls and boys dorms while they are there and just have fun playing with the children.  Check back Wednesday for another update! 

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