Off to a Great Start

Welcome one and all, live from Brasil! Well, I didn't leave a laptop on a plane or make any "Rob Lauter Guarantees", so I'm already off to a better start than last year. In all seriousness though, it's been a great start! On the first day, Almost immediately I got to be in a prayer meeting at Groupo CEO (the church right next door to the house). Pastor Eudes, its pastor, led the group. We spent a good 25-30 minutes praying and singing. It does a man's soul well to pray and sing, because we all need to learn to depend more on God and less on ourselves.
After playing some guitar and a yummy dinner, we all watched the World Cup opening ceremonies! Quite exciting! Afterwords, we went over to Children's Worship Hour at Groupo CEO and had a blast dancing around with all the kids. That night, I learned what my job was going to be in the morning most days. From 8-10, I'll be hanging out with a small group of teenage boys, having a short "Bible study" and time for singing, and then either play basketball, soccer, or swim.
The next morning, I did just that. From 8-12:30 (yeah... we ran a little over), I met with Thiago, Evair, Bejamin, and Fabrisio. The 5 of us played guitar and sang and played a couple of different basketball games. Just as they left, the gang came back from school and Jordan and I played some more basketball. Later on, we played some soccer and I played with some kids on the playground shortly before going to Children's Worship Hour (for different age group). After that, we showered up and went to a Chuhaskeria (a brasilian style restaurant, like Fogo de Tchau in Chicago) for a kid's birthday party. I didn't know anyone other than Jordan and Patrick, and therefore couldn't speak to anyone, but the food was good. The one person Jordan and I did talk with was the English teacher at Jordan's school. He was a really nice guy.
Anyways, I did the same thing the next morning with the guys (and Pastor Eudes this time too). Later that day after the crew got back from school, we watched USA tie England in the World Cup 1-1. Not great, but ties are better than losses I suppose... Very soon Jordan and I will be starting to teach our lessons with the kids.
If you want to pray for me, pray for a few things:That Jordan and I will be an example with the mission field we've been given (me with the boys, her with her school, and both of us with the teens overall). Also, pray for protection from temptation and distractions. With the potential of what can happen down here, Satan's gonna try to be all over this next month. Don't worry though, our God is greater!!!
Well, I'm going to try to post every Sunday and possibly Wednesday or Thursday depending on the schedule.
God Bless!
Rob Lauter