STJ is here!

Today has been such a great day! I got up this morning and had a wonderful breakfast of coffee, papaya, bread with cheese, and fress orange juice! yum! then I read a little and went for a run on Copacabana beach! They have a little mini road that goes along the big walkway that is just for runners and bike riders, there are always plenty of people working out. After my jog I came back to find out that Wilson was there to pick me up to take me to the hotel where STJ was. I quickly took a shower and when I arrived at the hotel I saw Lester Spencer sitting on the coach. It was so good to see an American that I knew! I chatted with him for a while and then a few more of the guys in the group came down. Most of the group was resting, they were really tired from there flight all night! When we got back to the hotel the rest of the group was there, it was so great to see everyone. Some of the group members go to Trinity where I teach and others I know from church. Destree is one of the youth leaders and is also in my small group so I was really excited to see her! If any of the parents are reading this blog, you will be happy to know that your kids are here safe and loving every minute!!! After the group was all down stairs we went to go and change money and eat dinner at one of the many pay by the weight places here (you fill you plate with whatever you want and then you weigh it, i guess you could have figured that out on your own). Then we headed back to the bus for the Christ Redeemer statue. It was a short ride on the bus to the train that would take us to the top of Corcovado Mountian. The train ride was a little scary but totally worth getting to see one of the new 7 wonders of the world! I can not describe what it was like looking up at this huge statue. I have seen pictures of it but it is totally different in real life! The first thing that I noticed was a heart right at the center of his chest and then I saw a hole on each of his hands where the nails went through. And then to think about how big this statue is and then how big Jesus is and then what He did for me on the cross, it is just amazing! After we spent some time looking around and taking some pictures we made the train ride back down the mountian to where the bus was. We then stopped at the store and got some snacks and things for dinner. After a little hang out time at the hotel we had a group devotional. Some people shared some thoughts about their experience at the Christ statue. This is a great group and I am really excited to see how God uses them!!! One of the coolest things about today was that this morning when I was running and praying I was praying for my time with STJ and that it would be okay for me to join along with their group. God totally answered this prayer! They made me feel so welcome and told me I was apart of the team! I am really glad they are here and I am going to get to spend time with them! God has been so faithful in answering my prayers! well, I am pretty tired so I think I am going to go to sleep soon! oh i forgot to write about my basketball experience yesterday at the center, I bought a basketball at the mall and brought it to the center to try to see if I could get some kids to play. After some acting I got a few kids to follow me to the basketball court (which is really used for soccer and other activities at the center) they shot a little but were not really interested and started to play soccer. However, a couple of girls came down and they passed back and forth with me for a while and played this game we made up where I would do something with the basketball like dribble around my leg or through it in the air and clap a couple of times and then they would repeat. I thought about my basketball girls (by the way I love you basketball girls and I am praying for yall! I think about you often!) when I was doing some ball handling with the girls, I knew if they were there they would laugh at me because they know I love any chance to do some ball handling :)
please pray for the STJ group, I feel like God has big things for them here, so keep them in your prayers! tomorrow they will be joined with youth from all over Rio at ICP for some mission work, and then they will start doing worship at different places on Sunday night! thanks so much for your prayers!