Valentines Day

ants in my pants


what compares to bubbly laughter, wide grinned smiles, and speaking broken portuguese over cafe com leite with two brasilian women in a river village? it's perfect



...as we stood around the kitchen i lifted a cup to my mouth when suddenly discovered there were ants in my pants! lucky for me, the 'ants-in-my-pants-dance' is universal and it didn't seem to matter that in my confused and shocked state i couldn't possibly translate my experience to them. so i danced a bit then ran straight into their bedroom and killed every last one of them.



the laughter it brought made the pain worth it.



Happy Valentines Day



I am so blessed to have gone on this most recent river/jungle trip. I made amazing new brazilian friends as we shared in this adventure.



this valentines day i woke up and spent time before the Lord with the team, the afternoon i visited with the people in the village, watched the men slaughtered a water buffalo, helped cook in the kitchen, ate lunch, swam, got in a canoe and visited three nearby villages where we prayed a blessing over them and invited them to come to that night's small-group-like-service, swam and watched freshwater dolphins jump next to us, headed back to the mother ship, swam, had dinner, worshiped and listened to a teaching in a family's living room, and prayed for a couple women and a man who gave his life to God. it was a beautiful day...



that afternoon a mens small group was also held, at which point i was swimming with some brazilian women.



after the service we canoed back to our mother ship, yet not only did a huge storm come in, but our boat was stuck in the shallow. the boat swayed back and forth and the reality of it tipping increased. the men got out and pushed and pulled and one friend in particular had his arms wrapped around a rope, pulling with all his strength until the boat was finally set free and the propellor was able to spin. but the propellor caught the rope and pulled him down with it. a quick eye, a near by knife, and fast hands, set him free.



it was then that brin reminded me how that morning in our silence before God, particia shared how she felt that there was something wrong with the boat and that we should pray over it. our prayers were definitely heard that morning and God was faithful that night.



Prayer: that i may have no more eye infections, clarity, faith, courage, and strength.

peace begins with a smile--mother teresa

Let's see what happens

It’s something unpredictable, but in the ends it’s right. I hope you had the
time of your life.

This Sunday a few missionaries from Porto De Moz (PdM) came to Altamira to pick up Terry Price from the airport. Terry is our newest addition to the Xingu Mission and will be heading up the children’s ministry in PdM. (PdM is a ten hour boat ride from Altamira). The PdM people were here from Sunday till Wednesday and here are a couple ways I was blessed by their stay here…

Waterfall

On Monday, Luke (a PdM missionary kid, 15), Isaiah (living in PdM for three months, 18), Chelsea (a new missionary in Altamira, 20) and I woke up at 5am, and walked up a tower to watch the sun rise. At 9, the four of us and two Brazilians (Allison and Beto) drove an hour to a jungle. We parked the truck and walked through grass that was between waist and head high, then through a trail through the forest, and finally arrived at a gorgeous waterfall. It was absolutely perfect and we had an incredible time. I climbed to the top of the waterfall a couple times and jumped into the water. Wooh--talk about exhilarating! After that, the six of us and our one flashlight, explored a nearby cave. We wanted to spend more time there but had to leave since Chelsea and I had Portuguese class at 2pm and I had to teach at 6.

New community

The next night, Isaiah, Luke and I were walking along the pier when we decided to go exploring through the city. Isaiah said, “Let’s go down this road and see what happens,” and that’s exactly what we did. Slightly disappointed that this road seemed to offer no adventures, we decided to turn onto another random road and see where that took us--and there we had it, we had just begun a new adventure.

As we turned down this street we came upon a neighborhood that is entirely built on stilts. This part of Altamira (a part I had never seen), is built on stilts because the water comes up during the rainy season and it is where really poor people live. As we walked down this neighborhood we discovered a garage sized church were a service was currently being held. We decided to walk in the back and listen in for a little bit. The pastor had different words for people in the church and would call them up and pray for them, and interestingly enough, he had a word specifically for Isaiah and prayed a blessing over his family. It was such an exciting experience!
In fact, we were so in love with the people we met that night that we decided to go back to the community the next morning. At 8:30am we headed out, bought a few loafs of bread, and walked back into the community. We started off by walking to different houses and offering them bread, then spent some time sitting with the children, and then the real fun began.

We introduced to them the hand game, “My chica, chica.” It gathered a good sized crowd, a lot of smiles, and a bunch of laughter. Then Luke took out a camera and we had a great time taking pictures with different children and moms. We had an incredible time socializing and playing with the children. It was such a powerful experience, and definitely one of the best experiences of my life. It was so genuine and so much fun. I am so thrilled to go back to this community and continue to build a relationship with the families down there.

English

I have started teaching English at a non-profit organization. I teach an intermediate level with 11 students ranging from 14-34 years old. I have taught two classes so far and it is so wonderful! It’s a refreshing experience; I enjoy it so much!

Jungle

Tomorrow (Friday 13) I leave for a short River trip where I will travel out to the bush, and will be back on Sunday. The Pflederer family, Patty, and a few Brazilians and I are traveling to a village which currently does not have a church but they are interested in having us share about the gospel. I will give you more details about the trip after it happens!

Prayer

Your prayer is SO powerful!
Trust me!!! I am so thankful and so blessed to have the prayer support of my
friends and family. Keep it
up ;)

Financial Support

If you are interested in supporting me financially you are more than welcome, I won’t turn you down! I have been incredibly blessed by many of your generous donations, which I am very grateful for.

If you feel led to give, I would like to remind you that your money will spread far and wide down here. This is because the exchange rate practically doubles your money, and since the people we are reaching are poor, even a small amount of money will go a long way.

Financial support allows be to do simple things like buying a couple loaves of bread for a community, paying for a couple people to go to a conference ($15 per person), blessing somebody by taking them out to ice cream, or paying the gas money so that I may travel on the River to unreached communities. If you are interested in supporting me on this mission trip, please email me at katesnow_07@yahoo.com or my parents at ksnow1@insight.rr.com. It’s very simple to do, as my parents would deposit it directly into my account which I have access from here.

Life is either a daring adventure or it is nothing. –Helen Keller

God Bless!

quick visa update

I'm officially aloud to be in Brasil till July 10th! (although i will leave july 6th, be home the 7th).

THANK YOU soo much for everybody's prayers!! Now that I'm getting settled in Brazil, I can't wait to tell you all that God is doing here. :)

Prayer requests:
1. That I can learn Portuguese (speak, understand, and write)
2. Physicall strength and protection of my health
3. That I may build strong relationships with the other missionaries and the brazilians here
4. More wisdom

I start teaching English next Monday and will teach till the end of the semester (feb-june). My classes are on mon and tues from 6.15-7.30pm. I'm so excited!!

Love,

Professora Kate

please don't pet the animals

When we lived in California my sister and I liked to catch frogs and play with them (and snails and daddy-long-legs...). So today when a frog jumped into our house it was hard to resist the urge to catch the frog...that is, until Steve reminded me of the poisonous slime they wear.

Today Chelsea, Patty and I started our Portuguese classes which are three hours a day, five days a week. It was a great class and I love our teacher. I'm so excited to learn more of the language so I can move past asking somebody their age and how many children or siblings they have. :)

I will hopefully be visiting the federal police tomorrow to request a visa extension. Please pray for God's grace and that my request will be granted.

"Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable... Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals." -Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.