PAC's Teams in Brazil: Day 8

In the morning Phillip Smith gave us a tour of the brand new children's Daycare Center which has just been completed within two blocks of the Roselina Favela in Campinas. Soon there will be 435 children from the community who will receive care and schooling there. The facility was provided by the local government with a mandate to Hope Unlimited to staff and manage the operations. Our group took the opportunity to give the facility a prayerful dedication.

Today was our last scheduled work day. We had plenty of work yet to be done to finish the projects because of rain delays throughout the week. The weather forecast had called for 70% chance of rain this morning, but God answered our prayer for good weather to enable us to complete our work. There was not a drop of rain all day.

Team leader Marc Isabelle was ill and could not work with us today but he was on-site to give us his moral support. Assistant Team Leader Kevin Robertson ably continued as project leader to see the work to completion.

All three projects were completed just in time for the farewell service with the boys and girls in the chapel. All three show the favorable result of the effort and care which was invested by the team all week.

The chapel service was the team's opportunity to bid farewell to the children and staff. There were many hugs, kisses and tears shared by all. We gave each child a bag of candy treats and also presented them with a collection of brand new soccer balls, basketballs, and footballs which Jonathon had brought down. Team members were individually presented with handwritten letters from the children, and many of the children took turns at the microphone to express their love and appreciation for the time we had invested in them. After a gray, cloudy day the sun cam out in time for our busride back to the hotel.

All of us leave this experience changed. God is at work in big ways at Hope Unlimited and we all feel very blessed to have been a part of this trip. Some of us have even felt a calling to go back. Please continue to pray for this fantastic organization and the people involved in it. Thanks for following our blog!