Tonight we went to The Cheesecake Factory for dinner had a great meal and some killer cheese cake. She asked what else I had planned but I really didn't let her know. We went to downtown Ft. Worth to a parking garage that I always used to visit her on her lunches where we always parked for dates and one for one date that gave us hope when we hit a bump in our relationship and I thought it would make for a good setting for the picture. It was extremely cold but we took our jackets off for the pictures. I took a few with the timer and played around till I got it around where I wanted it. For this picture, I had the ring already in my back pocket, I waited for the timer light to get to the last 2 seconds I said "oh wait" and looked at the camera to distract her. knelt down and asked her as the flash went off. She was so surprised and she said yes.

I know early early on in this relationship that this was the girl that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. I thank God for putting such a beautiful, strong, loving, Godly woman in my life. I'm blessed more than any man on this world and cant wait for the wedding. Thanks to everyone who has supported and loved us through these past wonderful 3 years.

it was a good day. check out the Projects>Whiskerino tab for the new shot. It's pretty fun.

My site is starting to look one of the ways I wanted it. If anyone has any ideas or suggestions please feel free to tell me.

It's technicley 4:35 in the morning thanks to daylight savings so good night and keep checking back for new pictures and updates and fun things.

1) With the soon arrival of Photoshop in the mail and on to my hard drive I will began to clean up the site and making it more presentable.

2) Just in case Cole isn't the only person who gets up set with the fact that I haven't updated since the last day of the Brazil Mission Trip, I promise to update almost every day never exceeding 2 days with out posting.

3) I will stick to my "life training schedule" of getting up at 9:30-10, making coffee, reading the word, do some homework, and then begin the day. This one doesn't pertain to the site but I figured I would put it up for some accountability.

Everything went very well, better then I could have asked for. Pray for safe travels tomorrow and I'll be glad to share more in depth my time here with anyone just give me a call or lets go spend some time together. Open Invitation.

Love you all.

After the VBS was finished we said our good-byes and told them to come back at 6 with their families for a service. In between the time after the VBS and practice for the service at 4 we went out for ice cream. Oh it was so good.

... I'll update later tonight is tough. everything went good though. Had a lot of fun.

After the VBS ended it came time to take the kiddos home. My group had about 6 kids and headed to Sao Camillo. The slum was busy with people today. We past by a group of younger guys smoking some weed again, it wasnt the only time today.  We pass by them quickly and headed to the houses of the kids. As we dropped them off we talked to the parents to let them know about tomorrow and the dinner we are having and told them how good of kids they had, and for the most part they all were. after we dropped off our last kid we started to head out we where getting around one of the last corners and on the corner adjacent to us there where some big booms. They lit about 6 big fire crackers, not directed to us. Our translator was telling us that when they do that its for either of two reasons. One, the police where coming, two, drugs had just been brought into the slum. When I asked which was better for us she said neither one really, so we walked a little faster.

Once we got back we all headed off to our host homes to get ready for the house churches. We had plenty of time to kill so my host mom asked if I wanted to go with her to see her music school and also to get her cello from her moms. Her music school is so awesome. It's for little kids and adults. There are separate rooms specifically for drums, piano, cello, guitar and other things. She's been doing it for over 10 years now. Afterwards we went to her moms right across the street and i got to meet here mom dad sister and niece. They are a very sweet family.

We were supposed to go to our families house church but mine had theirs on Thursday so I went to another. They met up at the new Burger King. That place was bumpin and really nice. It was funny to think of the Burger King in Weatherford and compare it to this one. I got the triple and had some good fellowship. Afterwards we headed out to Alexendra's house were the college age group meets. We had some awesome conversation about what it takes to change the world. Our results afterwards turned out so simple. So much was said that I really took to heart.

I'm about done typing its getting late and we have another early morning. Keep praying, tomorrow is our last day in Sao Camillo and really the last day of going out to witness. Please pray we use our time wisely tomorrow.

God is good.

So Sao Camillo. Where exactly do I start... Maybe I'll start at the point when we where beginning our walk to the hill when we didn't even get 100 yards from the salon. As we started up the road a few police men drove by and got out of their car in front of a house and told us to turn around and head back in. We were all so confused, turns out the the police were making an arrest in Sao Camillo and when they do everyone there spread like ants so they block the streets to make sure no one gets out. Ma and Cathy I know ya'll are loving this already, but wait it gets better. so we headed back to the salon and we got into a huge circle and began to pray. For Sao Camillo and the Brazilians they mentioned how they don't do as much outreach as they should with that neighborhood and we prayed like crazy. all this prayer really got us going and ready to get back out when the police gave us the ok. Ya we went in still, told you you'd love it. we had a list of kids who we went to talk to. These kids are part of the churches project where they come every Saturday to eat and play and be in a nice safe environment. We found the first house and they invited us in. We sat with them and told them about tomorrow and asked if we could pray with them. They were a very sweet and kind family. As we went to find the next house we past by a group of guys in a little corner in the steps one guy had a walkie talkie and was talking to someone about us it was kinda scary. We later passed by another group of guys very closely and the were smoking some weed. The smell filled the area we were in so we kept walking we didn't really want to catch a contact high on a mission trip. We ended up only talking to three families because we ran out of time we did get the chance to pray with them all so that was good and all their kids are going to be at the salon tomorrow.

After all this we headed back to the salon had a snack and heard a message from the head pastor. He spoke about the church and how it's suposed to be. a great message for Cole and I considering we want to start a house church in Denton. I would be more elaberate but it would take a lot of typing, I'll save it for another day. Right after all us guys Americans and Brazilians were ready to go play soccer. We finally got to actually play. We hadn't had a chance yet becasue it's been so wet and rainy.

We went to the court by my host home from last year. We didn't play America vs. Brazil this time we just mixed people up two teams of 5  and we played till 7 minutes or the first team to get 2 goals. Let's just say my team played four games in a row. It was such a blast. later on during another game I was blocking Taylor and my toe made contact with his shin mid kick. It might be broken but it may also just be really sore, I'm hoping for sore. We ended up playing for an hour and a half and it was funny because the neighborhood watch remembered us from last year.

Victor dropped me off at my condo and I had a nice light lunch with the folks. They are so awesome they honestly make me so jealous. I want what they have so stinkin bad. Just the contentment that they have and love that they have in their voice when they talk to each other. One day.  Anyways I'm blessed to be here and thank the Lord we were kept safe today. I don't believe we are going to Sao Camillo tomorrow but we are Sunday. Things are always changing though so we will see. Keep praying for us and if you're reading these thanks for reading I hope I'm capturing my experiences here well enough for you.

Anyone want to put money on wether I'll be late or on time tomorrow morning?

Love the Lord, all you godly ones! For the Lord protects those who are loyal to him, but he harshly punishes the arrogant. So be strong and corageous, all you who put your hope in the Lord.

Psalm 31:23-24

My host mom dropped me off at the salon at about 10:30 and we all spent a few hours hanging out reading our bibles and praying. Lunch again was incredible, especially because non of us ate breakfast because of the fasting. We all had been praying for safety and our time came to head off to Sao Camillo. We piled into the cars and went up the road a ways. On the way there they told us that we weren't headed to the slum part of Sao Camillo, that is the hill side that is extremely poor and ran by the drug lord, we were headed to the neighborhood below that was a lot more safe to walk around. So my crew and I started walking down the street ready to tell the world.

The first house we came to we talked to a man who believed in God but couldnt really grasp the idea of having a relationship with Jesus. He gave us his time so we gave him all we could we really left him thinking, which to me is a whole lot better then him completely blowing us off. we had so many groups in that neighborhood it was kinda hard to find people that haven't been talked to yet. We saw some kids down the road so we went and talked to them. It started with one and ended up being 6 once we started handing out bracelets, it's funny how that always seems to happen. I was telling them the story of Jesus and how it started with God and man and they were happy man sinned Jesus came you know the rest. It held there attention and some of them fully got it some didn't but since we were in the neighborhood below the drug lord I felt like I had to leave them with something more. It was a thing where I knew I was never gonna see them again so you try to tell them so much at once. Everything about making good decisions keeping away from drugs and making something of their life's. I'm really hoping that it would be one of those memories as a kid you just don't forget. We also gave them some really sour candy and watched them eat it, if anything when they eat something sour it will hopefully remind them of us.

We talked to another man and he gave us all his attention which was crazy, he also was one of the first people we have talked to that wasn't standing behind their gate. We told him the story of Jesus gave him a bracelet and a lot to think about. Lance really knows how to leave people with a lot to chew on. I'm very happy and blessed to have Lance in my group. He is so on fire for God and always has the right thing to say, when I get into a bind with my words he is always there to help. We managed to talk to one more guy. It basically went the same as the other man, we left him a lot to think about. We managed to only talk to a group of kids and three men. Today was strange though all three of those men gave us the time of day, listened intently and when we left they weren't glad we were walking away the stood there thinking hard and you could tell. I pray that they saw the love that we had in our wards and our concerns and I pray they saw a part of Jesus in us. At 4 we had a production thing in a near by park. We did our drum line, a few of our skits and witnessed to the people that came and watched. It went very well.

I have eaten so much tonight. Let me rephrase that, I've been eating so much these past 5 days. We don not stop eating here. When we got back from Sao Camillo they had a ton of corn on the cob waiting for us at the salon. when I saw it I was excited, until I took a bite out of it. It was tough and dry and I'm not sure it was cooked all the way but I ate it anyways because I didn't want to be rude. My host family picked me up and took me to get some more food. We went to this cafe in the mall that had a huge menu of sandwiches soups desserts and a ton of different coffees. I got a chicken pesto sandwich on a baget and it filled me up. I wasn't even really hungry but I of course finished it. I can't let food go to waste. After wards we picked up Kaylan, Paula and our translator Gabriella and headed to this little ladies house named Maria Jose. She does all the cooking at the salon for us. Wouldn't you know it we ate more at her house. She made the weird hot dogs and mashed potatoes I talked about a few days ago. 

at her house she invited her neighbors there friends and her family. We all sat around and the three of us Americans had a chance to share with them about whatever we felt like. I talked about how I try to show the love of Christ in all I do and how we all should. they asked me questions about me and my life. Kaylan and Paula had the chance to do the same. It was a lot of fun.

Thats really about it. Today was very eventful. However, tomorrow should be extremely interesting. we are walking kids home after a vbs we are doing to the rough part of Sao Camillo. We are all going to wear our Brazil Mission shirts so they know we are all together and don't panic when the see a bunch of strange Americans. Keep us in your prayers please. I'll update tomorrow.

God is Love and Love is REAL.