The Last Blog of 2012

This year has been filled full of almost every emotion possible. Good, bad, happy, sad... wait a minute. Let me stop rhyming like I’m in some type of Dr. Seuss book. I’ll start over... 

This year has been one of the most rewarding and yet one of the most difficult years of our lives, hands down. And the problem is, that when things are difficult in our lives, it’s easy to only see the difficulty and lose sight of all the great things that have taken place. And this was soooo evident to me the other day. Here, I’ll tell you how it happened...

I was putting together a video for all of our supporters who’ve allowed us to do what we do here in Brazil. I wanted it to be a re-cap of all the things that have happened in 2012 through their prayers and financial support. And I wanted it to be a tangible way for them to know what an impact their partnership with us was making here in Brazil. So, I went through all the events that occurred and looked at the photos from each event over the last 12 months. And while I was doing it, I was amazed and encouraged. 

Amazed, well because it seems like most of our life consists of just trying “to live.” And a lot of the time it feels like we do things that don’t really mean a whole lot (i.e., maintaining 110 acres of property and several buildings, weed eating for hours on end, fixing the water, burning our trash, etc.). So when I was able to see all the ministry we’ve been able to do, it was a huge eye-opener to the reality of what had happened in 2012. 

And I was encouraged because, well... to be honest, I was feeling very discouraged at the time. And, because of all the difficulty we were in the midst of, we were even doubting that we were making any difference at all here in Brazil. Pain and struggle have a way of doing that (making us lose sight of reality, that is.). It’s like you can only see the struggle and not the results of the struggle. But after I finished putting together the video, it helped bring everything back-in to focus. Sure, there were major battles and painful things that happened this past year. But there were also major victories that occurred as a result of the battles. 

God was so faithful to us in 2012. And we’re humbled that He’s even allowed us to be involved in His activity here in Brazil. So, here’s the video. We hope you enjoy it and that you and your family have a very Merry Christmas and a Blessed and Happy New Year! See ya in 2013: )

Click HERE for the video.

Love Ya,

Jim. MJ and the Whole Dunn Clan

We Had a Field Day!

Well when I say, "we had a field day" I literally mean we had a field day: ) 
Sorry, cheesey I know. But I couldn't resist. I've used that as an expression before but never literally (so I didn't want to miss the opportunity, lol!). But that's exactly what we did in Columbo, a suburb of Curitiba, a week ago. There's an orphanage that we've been able to minister at several times this year. I think we've been with either the kids or the house mothers at least 7 times since April. Which is a lot in this type of ministry. But that's what we want. We don't want kids to just see us once then we're gone. We want to  be able to really develop deep relationships with them as we love on them and as we share the Gospel with them. They're an amazing group of kids (around 40+) and house mother (6 ladies).
We've visited them at their facility and we've had them out to the camp this past year. And every time has been great.

What we did this last time, was allow the younger kids (9 and under) do a paint project with one of the girls that was here on the missions team while all of the older kids (10-19 years) were outside for a field day that we put on for them. Amber Berkley (one of the girls that was with us for 3 months on the missions team) was the coordinator of the field day and the kids had a great time! We divided all the kids into teams and had them compete against each other. It's was a blast. We also had a few of our brazilian friends helping us (and one friend from Argentina, haha!). This was the last big ministry event we're going to be able to do before Christmas and it was a great note to end the year on.

Thank you to all of our supporters who allow us to do what we're doing here in Brazil. We couldn't do it without you: )

Love Ya,
Jim

Art and The Gospel

MJ and one of the girls from the project. These kids are soooo cute: )

In case you didn’t know it, we’ve got a couple college aged girls here with us here in Brazil for 3 months. Both of them have been on short term mission trips to Brazil before. But this time they’re here with us so that they can experience what it’s like living on the foreign mission field as a full-time missionary. Both of them have just finished high school and are searching for what God’s will is for them as they launch into adulthood. 

We’ve known one of the girls (Amber) since she was about 7 years old. Her and Maryssa are close friends and grew up in church together. MJ and I actually served on staff at a church in Atlanta with her parents for a few years. It’s amazing to see what a solid woman of God she’s grown-up to be. She’s been a HUGE encouragement to Maryssa (being here in Brazil) too. We’re actually thinking about “not” letting her go home. Sorry Dean and Monica (that’s her parents). lol!

Amber a two of the girls on week 4 of the project.

Amber giving her testimony to all the kids as Ruan translates.

The other girl that’s here with us (Anna) is from our sending church (Crossroads Church of Walton County) and is a very talented artist. She also has a vision for using her gift to help orphans and children here in Brazil. So we’re trying to help her, as much as we can, to get her ministry started. We have friends in different parts of our state (Parana) that have ministries that are actively helping orphans and at risk children. We’ve been working with a couple of them by going and teaching art to them. One of the ministries has a day program for street kids that we’ve just finished doing a project with. What we did was assign each child one of the 6 days in the creation narrative. And, whatever day they were assigned, that’s what they painted. They were all given a canvas to paint on and that canvas was placed together with all the other canvases to create one huge painting. It actually turned out great and is going to be displayed on a wall in the main sanctuary of the ministry. Here’s how the project happened:

Anna and a couple of the girls from the project on week 1.

Anna explaining to some of the boys how to paint and rinse their brushes.

The first week that we met with the kids we read Genesis 1 and talked to them about  creation. Then we gave each child a blank piece of paper and asked them to draw the thing that stuck out to them the most in the story. Then we collected all the papers and took them back to the Camp so Anna could see what the kids drew. This was so she could assign a day in the creation story to them the following week. There were 55 kids and we met with them all in groups of 10-15 at a time each week. So it needed to be planned out perfectly so that the finished product was square (or rectangular). 

Anna and Ruan explaining the project to the first group of kids on week 1.

Week one began with each student sketching their interpretation of creation.

Before each child was given their canvas on week 2, Anna laid out all the canvases together and wrote “Jesus” across all the ones in the middle of the group so that when the canvases are placed together you can see “Jesus” written across all of them (which ties them all together as one piece of art). Then we passed out all the canvases so that everyone could draw and paint their interpretation of their particular day. The kids had no idea that some of their canvases contained part of the word “Jesus” on it either. We just told them not to paint on the areas that were marked on their canvases and they would see why later. We wanted them to all be surprised when we finished.

One of the boys as he began sketching on week 2.

Week 3 the kids started painting!

Jim and one of the boys building the frame for the art project.

Week four and all the paintings are almost complete!

Amber talking to the kids as they completed their paintings on week 4.

Starting to attach all the paintings to the frame.

Here's all the paintings after we attached them to the frame.

Amber and MJ touching up the paint on the "Jesus" part of the painting.

 Jim and 2 of the girls after the project was completed.

The project took 4 weeks to complete and was a great way for us to allow the kids to show-off their art skills. But, more importantly, it gave us an opportunity to share the Gospel and hang out with kids who definitely need to experience the love of Christ. The girls, Ruan (our translator-and Anna’s Boyfriend) and I all had an opportunity to hang out one-on-one with most of them. And, one week, Amber was able to speak to all of them about what Jesus has done in her live as well. It was an honor being able to hang out with such an amazing group of kids the last four weeks and the project turned out great!

The finished project. Fifty Five kids painted 55 paintings that once
 the paintings were all put together... created one beautiful work of art.

I know that I say this all the time, but “thank you to all of our supporters who allow us to do the things we do here in Brazil.” You guys are impacting children and teenagers lives in ways that none of us will ever fully understand until we see Jesus. But I know that we’re making a huge difference for the Kingdom, so thanks!

Next week we start another art project for the house mothers at an orphanage in Columbo. Then the following week we do one with the 40 kids that they take care of. We’ll keep you posted on our progress: )

Love Ya,

Jim

Real Facebook Status Updates

Me and MJ this past weekend. The dog tags have the name of one
of our closest friend's (Jono and Heather Long) newly adopted
child on them... Sawyer Vitya Long. Even though we're not there
to celebrate with them (in person) we have something that helps us
 feel connected (thanks Kelley!) all the way from Brazil.

Our little house in the jungles of Campina Grande do Sul, Brazil.

I was talking to a friend of mine several weeks ago (whatup Jono!?) and we were talking about how bogus (do people even use that word any more?) a lot of Facebook status updates were. You know what I’m talking about, right? It’s where all people do is post things that make their life look more appealing and better than yours. Or it’s where they say things to people they care about publicly on Facebook rather than just getting off the computer, going into the next room and telling the person ‘in person!’ It goes something like this: 

“Hey baby, today’s our anniversary and I just want to tell you how much I love you and that I’m sooooo blessed to have you as my lifelong friend and partner and I couldn’t imagine being with anyone but you and I still can’t believe your mine! xoxoxoxo”

Seriously? Why do people say that stuff on Facebook and not just do it in person? Is it because they’re too lazy to get out of the chair and walk across the room? Is it because that’s just the day and time we live in and technology is king (rather than communicating face to face)? Or could it be that we trying to create the illusion that our life and our marriage is better than the next person and that we’re soooo much in love and we have no problems? Because if we’re just stating the truth why don’t we post the opposite side of the coin too? I can’t ever remember reading a status update that said: “today’s our anniversary and we just argued for the 17th time and it’s only 9:00am! I can’t believe we’ve made it this far without killing each other! PTL!”

And probably my all-time favorite post is when someone posts what they’re eating. Really? Is this what we’ve come to? Posting a picture and a status of what we’re eating? Do we really think people actually care that we’re eating Tetrazzini Alfredo with a side of asparagus spears tossed in a homemade garlic sauce? And do we actually think that people are so interested that they want to see a picture too? For some reason I don’t think so. And, why we’re on the subject, why not post the picture of you eating  PB&J or Ramen noodles because you ran out of money and Friday’s still 2 days away?

Or rather than only posting the picture of the beach you’re at and how relaxing it is, why not post the picture of you sitting at your desk (at work) buried under a mountain of paperwork and moments away from quitting. Then you could post the caption under the picture- “my boss is such a jerk and he’s lucky I don’t come back here with an uzi and mow this whole place down.” Where are all of those status updates? 

Now I must admit I’m just as guilty too. I don’t think I’ve ever been totally truthful either. I mean, who wants everybody else to think that your life is crappy? And who wants to admit that their life isn’t all about eating awesome food, hanging out with the coolest people, being at the most amazing vacation spots, being so much in love with your spouse that anyone within an 8 mile radius has to take a shot of insulin just to avoid going into diabetic shock because your relationship is so sweet? Not me. 

And when it comes to statuses, I’m only posting the wins, not the losses. You’ll never see the post (with the picture, of course) of me emptying out our change jug to buy groceries because not enough support came in that month. You’ll never see the picture posted of me sitting with my head in my hands (all depressed) as I’m trying to figure out how we can get back to the U.S. ad out of this place because it’s so stressful. And you won’t see me posting a picture of one of my kids report cards where they’re failing almost every class accompanied by the caption that reads “ 3-F’s, 1-C and 1 D... I think my kid may be  retarded!” And scriptures? Forget about it... because I’m only posting the encouraging scriptures that talk about how victorious and blessed that I am rather than the ones that talk about persecution, trials and the hardships that Jesus “promised” we’d face. Because Facebook is all about how awesome my life is compared to yours. And I’m not stupid, right? Why would I want to post stuff that makes my life look less exciting and less glamorous than all my friends lives?  I mean, they’re all my “friends” and I’ve got an image to uphold, right? haha!

What would Facebook statuses look like if we were all being truthful all the time? Sure, there’d be good stuff, but there’d also have to be negative stuff sometimes too. Because life isn’t always good, right? Just a thought.

Now just because I ranted for the last 5 minutes doesn’t mean that I’m gonna start posting stuff that makes me look like a loser and that my life isn’t as amazing as I want you to think it is... I’m too much of a wuss to do that : )

Living My Awesome Life,

Jim

Camps, Camps and More Camps

In case you’re wondering, yes. We’re still alive. Our internet has been down for almost 2 months. It has worked sporadically but only enough to basically check emails and most of the time it won’t even let us send any emails out. So, posting blogs has been out of the question. It’s sooooo frustrating. But a lot has been going on nonetheless. Over the last 2 months we’ve hosted several camps. One was a camp of kids from a church in Piraquara, one was a group of kids from an orphanage in Colombo and the one we just finished was a 3 day camp with kids from a church in Curitiba and kids from the mountain here in Terra Boa.

A group from a church in Piraquara we hosted in September.

A group of kids from an orphanage in Columbo we hosted in September.

A group of students from a church in Curitiba and some of the students from the mountain.
 This camp was a couple of weeks ago and was a 3 day camp.

One of the main things we do here in Brazil is hold camps for children and teenagers. When we were given the property back in 09’ (click HERE if you have no clue what I’m talking about) a camp had already been established here but had been sitting idle for a couple of years. Daniel Van Dyk (a pastor from Canada) and his wife Ligia had bought the property and started building a camp for kids here and they actually had the same vision that we have for reaching students for Christ (to use  camps as a way to further the Gospel). And that’s exactly what we’re doing.

This happens in one of three ways:

Option 1 - This is where we just host the groups (only church groups) and they bring in their own programing, food and activities. They pay a small fee (R$10 per day, per person) for our services and the use of the camp.

Option 2 -  With this option we host the groups at no cost (FREE) and we take care of all the programming, food and activities. The cost for this type of camp is taken care of by our generous supporters and these are our favorite camps to hold.

Option 3 - Is a new type of camp we just started. It’s where we host the group and charge a small fee (R$10 per day, per person). They take care of programming, activities and food. But the difference in this camp is that we only charge for the “church kids.” We encourage the “church kids” to invite their unsaved friends and we let the unsaved friends come for FREE. The only stipulation is that the church has to commit to discipling the kids once they get back to their churches. Our goal is to get students involved with the discipling process rather than just experiencing a camp and then just going home to wait until “next time.” (And the cost for the unsaved kids is taken care of by our supporters!)

With the last 3 camps we’ve held, we’ve been able to hold all 3 types of camp too. All 3 were successful, Jesus was lifted up, the Gospel was preached and kids lives were changed in all 3 camps. So, if you’re one of the people who prays for us and if you you’re one of the people who gives to us financially... “Thank You!!!!” We literally couldn’t do this without you. We’ve been here over a year now, we’ve completed so many building projects to improve the facilities and make it so that we’re able to attract more children and teenagers, and it’s all because of you. So, “thank You!” I really wish you could be here to see the kids, to look in their eyes and to know that they’re experiencing- not just a camp- but they’re getting an opportunity to meet Jesus. It makes all the struggles and all the difficulties worth it: )

Love Ya,

Jim and MJ