Brazil: Thursday

On Thursday we started the day early, again, and we went to a Tribal Ministry Headquarters. We got to learn all about tribal ministry; the good, the bad, and the ugly. It was really interesting, however, it was the first time we really slowed down all week, the first and only time we were in an air conditioned room, and we were all falling asleep. The president of the ministry thought that someone drugged us. How rude of us!

This was a drawing of a traditional Brazilian tribal man. The tribes actually gage their lips, and place flat wooden pallets into their lower lips. They also shave off all their eyebrow, eye lash, and the middle of their head hair. They then paint designs onto their faces. Not for religious reasons, but for fashion.

This is a technology advancement that the tribes use. They may not have Internet or computers, but they still have "technology"!

This is an idol from a remote tribe. This is a design of one of their gods. You can't really see it, but on the back is a Roman Catholic design. The tribes didn't want to get rid of their ancient held gods, but they also didn't want to throw out all of Roman Catholics ideas, so they combined the two.

Unfortunately, Catholic sacraments will not get you to heaven, and that is all they practice.

The Brazilian Government makes it illegal to go into tribes, they want to preserve people groups. However, missionaries can go to villages where the ultimate destination village trades. The missionaries stay there, make friends with the village they want to visit, and eventually get an invite. Once the tribe invites them to come to their village, Brazilian law cannot save them.

It is a slow process, but God wants us to share His Gospel with everyone!

After we went to the Tribes Headquarters, we got to go SHOPPING! It was cool. This is a picture of downtown Belem as we headed into to go eat. After that we went to a local market, and got to barter for the items that we wanted, I got a lot of cool things for friends and loved ones.

For myself, I wanted a knife. That was the one thing that I wanted. So I looked all around, and I found a cool one for about $13 USD. However, upon getting back to campus, I found out that the six inch swithch blade that I bought... was illegal.

I really didn't know.

While we shopped a storm swept in. You could see it coming for miles!

After we got done shopping we got to go to this ministry for getting boys off of the streets. It is surprising how many children are reduced to living on the streets! Either because of bad home conditions, or because they have no home, this ministry works to help them!

They do a fantastic job!

It was a long and tiring day.

I didn't drink enough,

and I have to drink a lot!

So I got a headache and felt sick.

But God definitely was at work that day!