December Newsletter

Read our Family news in our December Newsletter, just click on the link below!

Leal Family Newsletter December 2013

Baptism Next Week

Josh has been thinking about getting baptised here in Brazil, and has recently decided he wants to go ahead ASAP. So it's going to be on Tuesday - next week, that's the 17th December!!

If you are in SJC, it will be at the outdoor baptist pool at PIB, Campus Colina at 7pm.

If you can't be there, please remember to pray for Josh!

There will be photos!!

New OM Video

New "About OM" video below (also on our "About OM" tab)

View it here:

Ballet no Center Vale!!

Oi!

Para quem mora em São José ou perto, vou estar dançando junto com minhas colegas la no shopping Center Vale hoje a noite, e depois mas duas vezes em dezembro!

As datas são:

28 de Novembro 

13 de Dezembro

E o horario é as 19:30!

Website: Center Vale

Ballet - O Corsario

Hello, It's Louissa here. 

A couple of weeks ago it was my ballet performance. After lots of practising - up to 3 times a week, the performance was finally ready. On the 10th of November we arrived early in the morning at the Municipal Theatre in the centre of town for the final dress rehearsal.  Then, we spent some time doing hair, makeup and final adjustments. Shortly after 8 o'clock the curtain was raised and we took to the stage. There was hardly time to rest between scenes, and we had various quick costume changes. I had 4 different costumes! 

Back in May, I took my Grade 5 ballet exam, and received the certificate, just before the performance. We have already started to prepare for the grade 6 exam!

Starting tonight, we are now going to perform some of the dances from the show at one of the shopping malls here in the city as part of their Christmas program. 

HRBC Magazine

For those of you who haven't seen it - I wrote an article for the Holland Road magazine - follow the link below:

HRBC Magazine

Back-ache

Mike writes:
I can just manage a few minutes at the computer - did something odd to my back last Friday, had a lot of pain; off work at the moment - x-ray showed nothing wrong, waiting for MRI scan results. Improving daily, thanks for all the prayers.

Happy Birthday Nélia!

Happy Birthday for yesterday Nélia!

Thanks to all of you who called/emailed/sent etc

Now on Instagram!

We've opened an Instagram account so that we can be more - well - instant.

Just click on the camera below:

Thank you Northstar!

We just wanted to say a quick "Thank you!" to NorthStar Worldwide.

We are currently passing through a period when God is challenging and teaching us about generosity and giving. We are often taught that it is better to give than to receive, and that God rewards generosity.   We have certainly received plenty - often from unexpected sources. Often we receive without asking, but sometimes we have to ask; this can be embarrassing - it can be our pride, or it can be not wanting to put the other person in a situation where they feel obliged to give.

When we do receive something, of course it's good to say 'thank you'. So, we'd just like to mention Northstar Worldwide, which is the organisation we use for Louissa and Joshua's home-schooling. Louissa is half way through her 2 years IGCSE in English Language and English Literature, and Joshua has just started Year 8 English. Northstar is a Christian organisation, and has several other missionary families using its services. As with the schools here in Brazil, we explained our situation as being volunteer workers and asked if they could help us. 

We were very happy that Steve, Lyn and the team agreed to offer us  a special deal in view of our circumstances. We're sure that this generosity will not go unnoticed by God ...

For more information about NorthStar check out their website at http://northstarworldwide.org

October Travels: England!

Mike writes:

After two nights back in Brazil, it was on the bus again to Saõ Paulo's Guarulhos airport, to take a flight to Manchester via London Heathrow. To be honest I was pretty weary of travelling, and I wasn't really looking forward to eleven-and-a-half hours in an economy (or "World Traveller") seat. So on the bus journey I prayed "God, if possible, an upgrade would be really great!"

When I checked in at the desk, the lady said "Good news for you Mr. Leal, we're upgrading you!" Thank you Lord!

British Airways 747 with my World Traveller PLUS seat waiting for me

So from Heathrow after a 40 minute flight to Manchester, and a 2-hour train journey, I arrived in Carlisle. On Monday (14th Oct) we started our annual IT Meetings, which finished at lunchtime on Friday. I then took the train down to Shrewsbury to spend the weekend with my mother. Another meeting, this time in Birmingham on Monday (21st), and then down to Brighton to visit our home church Holland Road Baptist Church. After a bit of shopping for some essentials (like Coco Pops), I headed back to Heathrow for a flight back to Brazil, where I arrived quite weary early on the morning of 25th. Phew! 

A pretty tiring but worthwhile trip! I thank God for safe journeys, great meetings, the chance to visit family, and to talk to several friends at our great church!

No big trips planned for November or December!

October Travels: Latin America together

Mike writes:

October is being a really a big travel month this year. At the beginning of the month it was Costa Rica for the annual meeting of the area leaders for Latin America. 

The Costa Rica Servers
(OK, I know that's not so exciting ...)

I arrived a couple of days early so I could help out with some IT changes in their office.

Because of this I stayed in a couple of different places, both a little outside the capital San José, and both really beautiful.

The first place I stayed ... 

The second place I stayed

For the first couple of days of our meetings we had the new international leader Lawrence Tong taking part in the meetings, giving us his enthusiastic vision for the role of Latin America in world missions.

Susan and Lawrence Tong (and the world)

Lawrence with the world - and some other bloke

It was a really good week, with some great presentations and discussions. My Spanish has improved a little too!

Former and current Brazilian Leaders in full voice ...

Latin America Today

We've just uploaded the latest Latin America Today publication -

Click here to download ...

 

 

Central America - Road Trip to Panama

In case you were wondering what a Bongo is - well there's a picture of one below.

We travelled in the OM Costa Rica Bongo from San José to Volcán, Panama, where OM Panama is based.

The journey took about 9 hours in total, and we passed through some really beautiful countryside - both coastal and mountainous.

A part of the experience of the journey was the border crossing. It was definitely the most disorganised border crossing of my life! The crossing point was a mess of trucks, dust, puddles, shops and stalls. 

The process consisted of queuing up to leave Costa Rica, then carefully picking our way through puddles, trying not to be splashed or run over by trucks, and making for the Panama end of the crossing. There we had to queue up again and present various papers and proof of sustenance in order get the stamp to allow us into Panama. 

The Bongo had to undergo some degree of scrutiny too, and whilst this was going on we took the dance to grab a burger. Eventually we were on our way, and started to climb up into the mountains of Panama. After an hour or so, passing through some wonderful scenery, we arrived at Volcán, Panama.

The next day I became a monkey - but more about that later ... 

Costa Rica - First Impressions

Continuing on the trip to Central America…

First of all an apology - there aren't going to be any personal photos. A few weeks before travelling, my mobile phone was stolen, so I was using an ancient one, which has only a very poor camera. So any  photos I include will be from the internet.

My flight out of Sao Paulo was scheduled to leave at 6.20am, so I arrived to check in at around 4.00am to discover that the flight was delayed until 9.45am. (I could have slept more!). They switched me instead to a different route, going through Bogota, Columbia. When I eventually arrived in San José, Costa Rica, I was met at the airport and taken for Pizza. As we drove from the airport, I had the impression that the city was more Americanised - or I should say North-Americanised than Brazil. I saw more shops and restaurants with names in English, and many that you would find in the USA - like Dennys, Taco Bell, Popeyes (which I've never seen in Brazil), plus of course the obligatory McDonalds, Burger King, KFC, Dominoes. Right in the centre of town, it looked a little more colonial - with the squares, churches, and municipal buildings. On a later trip to the suburbs, it felt much more Latin-American - and might easily have been in Brazil. 

It made me think about the "globalness" (if that's a word) of the world today. Costa Rica was a completely new country for me, but there was a lot that seemed familiar. 

I spent three days in San José, most of it working hard inside the OM offices. I was made to feel very welcome by the international team, and it was great to meet more people from more countries. The next part of my stay was a trip to Panama by Bongo. More about that next time …

Trip to Central America

At the end of July I took my first ever trip to Central America - to Costa Rica and to Panama. I thought it would be good to relate some of my experiences, so I will do so in the next few blog entries!

Geography

For those of you who don't know - if we think of Central America as the thin strip of land that joins the large land masses of North America and South America, then Costa Rica and Panama are the most southerly two countries of that strip. They are both small countries; here are their sizes in square kilometres: 

Costa Rica: 51,000 

Panama: 75,000 

By comparison:

UK: 244,000

São Paulo state: 248,000

Costa Rica borders with Nicaragua to the North and Panama to the South, with Colombia also bordering Panama to the south-east. The Panama-Colombia border is closed to all ground traffic; you can only travel between the two countries by air or sea. I spent my time in Costa Rica in the capital, San José, and stayed just outside the small town of Volcán in Panama (too small to show on the map). More about those cities in subsequent blog entries.

Operation Mobilisation has bases in both countries, both of which are looking to expand their activities and grow their teams. To do this, they need to make the best of IT technology for their offices, which is why I, as OM Area IT Officer for Latin America was invited to visit their bases. 

This was really a great privilege,  and a very successful visit. Watch this space for more posts …

Newsletter - July 2013

Our July Newsletter is ready!

Just click here to download

Great Quote from Mark Driscoll

In Christ: 

Justification makes us externally new. 

Regeneration makes us internally new. 

Glorification makes us eternally new.

(Taken from https://twitter.com/PastorMark)

A church with vision

Our church in Brazil (PIB) has been on its new site for just over a year now. The church has a vision to reach out to the local communities – and is already doing so in several ways. One of the longer term goals has been to build a school and college on the new site, but not until completion of the new main church building, which is still several months away. A couple of weeks ago, though, a local businessman offered to fund the entire costs of building the school. This is an amazing gift, and the groundwork for the new building is already underway, and the school will be able to open next year.

'Colégio Inspire' - Artist's Impression

Praise God that he has prompted this generous gift, and this opportunity to bless the lives of many children and students in the future.Pray that the construction will go ahead without problems, and that God will provide the right teachers and staff to run the school.

Twitter!

Just to let you all know that Mike has started tweeting!

@MikeTheLeal

Formatura

Last night (Saturday) was the "Formatura" - the Graduation for the current students at OM Brazil, who have completed their missions training.

Carlos - Director of Training

Vitor - Director of, er, everything

This term was especially significant as the first with our new Director of Training, Carlos, who opened  proceedings, and our new Field Leader, Vitor, who led worship. 

A very smart graduate

Most of the students will be returning  in August for the English Short Course, before joining their fields overseas. Some of the countries chosen include India, Bosnia, Israel and Egypt.

Another very smart graduate

The training base will seem very empty for the next month, but this will give us a chance to continue with some renovations and improvements to our facilities. Some of the staff will be taking some holiday, as all schools and colleges take a 4-week break.

We pray the the students will have an excellent time of rest back home with their families and churches, and that they will return refreshed and ready to conquer the English language!

Winter Warmer

Well, the official start of winter here in Brazil (21st June) is just a few days away. So far it hasn't been too cold, but we've already started eating some of the traditional winter foods. (With temperatures plummeting into the low teens at night we need to warm our tummies)

Not-so-little broths - take your pick

At OM Brazil, we generally get the whole team together once a month for a "confraternização" to celebrate birthdays or anniversaries, and of course to eat and talk. If there aren't any birthdays or anniversaries we think of some other excuse. Last Friday we had a wonderful selection of "Caldinho", which literally means "little broth". Caldinho can be any flavour you like, but some of the typical ingredients include beans (feijão), and cassava (mandioca). 

For this month's get-together we had some caldinho-first-timers - visitors from OM Ecuador and from Finland, who like everyone else sampled a little of each one. My favourite was "Canjiquinha" which is a brazilian type of corn grits. We are very grateful to the kitchen team who worked hard to get all five caldinhos ready on time. 

Friends Connection

Preaching - in English!

Friends Connection is the name of the English Service at PIB São José dos Campos. It takes place every Sunday morning at 10:00 in the 'Café Inspire' at the main PIB campus. It's a very relaxed and informal meeting, and a great place to meet people from all over the world who have a desire to praise the Lord and hear from his word in English. As it's relatively small gathering, we have got to know several people quite well, but there are always new people every week, either just passing through or living in the area. 

Worship - in English!

 We all play our part in the service - Mike usually doing the sound, Nélia with the welcome team, and Louissa and Joshua with the multimedia (PowerPoint operation). Each term, the OM students taking the Intensive English Course also come along, sometimes helping to serve as well.

Chatting after the service - might be in English ...

If you live locally, please come along and see us; if not, please pray that God will grow this ministry and that many more people in the city will discover and be blessed by Friends Connection.

Newsletter April 2013

Our April Newsletter is available - just click HERE

Adventure Camp

Last weekend (13th/14th April) I went on a race in the mountains with my cousin Samuel! It was in a small town called Cunha, which is also where some of my distant Brazilian relatives live. The race was 25km -  Part bike, part running, and the other part was in type of inflatable canoe called a "Duck".

Two boys and a Duck

    

Made it!

I borrowed a bike from a friend, and it felt great because I hadn't ridden one for over 2 years! 

The day before the race there was training. We trained in the Duck; we trained map reading, and how to plan our route; and we learnt some safety rules, and tips.

    

Winners!!

My cousin Samuel (right) and I (left) came in 3rd place, in the teens category, and my older cousin Neto (centre) came 2nd in the pro category, which was 50km.

I really enjoyed it and I am looking forward to the next stage, which will be in another city, in June!

A Passage to Bangkok

(Mike Writing)

OM's new International Director elect

Last week I got back from my first ever trip to Bangkok, Thailand. The purpose of the trip was the OM annual International Leaders meeting (ILM). The ILM includes some official 'business' meetings, but also daily bible studies, worship, and plenty of times for arranged or spontaneous meetings with other attendees. It was a great time to make new acquaintances and renew old ones.

Our gleaming hotel

What were my impressions of the city of Bangkok? Well, it was VERY hot - at least outside; I (and several others) actually felt a cold in the hotel and had to wear a fleece at some of the meetings because the air conditioning was so severe. We spent the majority of our time inside the hotel, but did manage a few brief outings. As the internet in the hotel was very expensive, most of us ventured out to buy sim cards for our mobile phones in order to get internet connections. The shopping mall we used for this, had one floor almost entirely dedicated to mobile phones and associated technology. I had been expecting prices to be very low, but was surprised when this was not the case.

Bangkok is clearly a city with wealth: there are many gleaming hotels and office buildings, and plenty of expensive cars. But intermingled with this, under viaducts, down smelly side-streets, behind the elegant facades, there were ramshackle shacks and filthy grey apartment buildings. It saddened me (although I knew about slums and poverty in the city), and made me feel so thankful for the daily luxuries that I take for granted. One one of the evenings we had a presentation from Dr Ash Barker, who is involved with the International Society for Urban Mission (ISUM). I would encourage you to check out their website here for more information.

Sunset from the Logos Hope

Apart from the ILM itself, we also had the opportunity to visit the Logos Hope, which was docked in Bangkok at the time. This was significant for me, both because our visit to Logos Hope in London in 2010 had been a positive influence on our joining OM in the first place, and also because I got to be reunited with some of the students who had come through the training school back in Brazil over the last couple of years. 

Engine Room on board

So a great trip, and I'm very thankful for the experience.

TeenStreet Brazil - 2013

Hello everyone, it’s Louissa!

Exactly a week ago I had just got back from TeenStreetBrazil. (I actually arrived at 3 in the morning!) For those of you who don’t know, TeenStreet, a ministry of OM, is a Christian camp for teenagers. The first TeenStreet took place in Germany in 1993, and since then, TeenStreet’s have taken place in other countries such as Uruguay, Australia and South Africa. This year, TeenStreet took place from the 21^st of January to the 26^th of January, and it was held in a university in Maringá, in the state of Paraná. Paraná borders with São Paulo, but still it took a 12h coach journey to get to the conference but it was worth it!

This year, the conference was called ‘New Song’ and it was based on psalm 40, the name of the conference coming from verse 3, “He has given me a new song to sing, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see what he has done and be amazed. They will put their trust in God.” The preaches went on to talk about getting rid of the ‘old song’ and singing the ‘New Song’ that God has given you.

 

Illustrating Deuteronomy 11:18-21 

On most of the days the timetable was like this:

We would wake up at around 7:40. After breakfast we all headed to the ‘Throne Room’ Where we would worship and listen to the main preach for the day. There was always a game, that would help to illustrate the message and after that we would get together in our small groups, where we would discuss the message and do the study for each day that was in our manual. After that was lunch and then we could chose from 18 seminars or workshops, which were various things such as dance workshops, seminars about subjects like tattoos, that interest teenagers, and also seminars about various ministries of OM. Next was dinner, followed by ‘Throne room’ which was a time with a lot more worship and a little to add on to the morning message. That was followed by a chill out time and then another group time, just to share what had happened during the day and then finnaly bed at midnight or even one o’clock!

The Throne Room

 

On Thursday we had a big celebration because it was the tenth TeenStreet Brazil. The first TeenStreet Brazil took place in 2004, with around 200 people participating. This year, there were around 2000 people participating.

 

On Friday, there was a ‘missionary journey’ where we would, as a group, visit various points around the site where a illustration would help us think about the world around us. There were some points that had a more missionary focus and others that were more about things that we face such as materialism. After this, those who wanted to could take part in a race called TNT, to raise money for Freedom Climb, a ministry of OM that works with human traffic.

 

Try to spot me - I am at the far right

It all happened very quickly, and before I knew it, I was already sitting on the bus going home. But even the coach journey was different. We were all tired, of course, but instead of the Brazilian nursery rhymes (the teens in the back really did have nothing to do...) we all sang the worship songs that we had sung during the conference.

 

I am already looking forward to TeenStreet Brazil 2014, where I can see my new friends again and learn much more about God.

 

 

January Newsletter

Our January Newsletter is now ready!

Click here to view in pdf