The Swimming Pool

For the last one and a half years our swimming pool looked like this:

Thanks to your donations we were able to repair the swimming pool. After such a long time of having an empty pool, it felt like a party to see our swimming pool filling with water. 

 

It is great to have a swimming pool in your backyard, but it´s even better to see it used in the ministries here. Several groups of children, teenagers and adults are using it on a weekly basis. The girls, radical boys and photography there are other groups that use the swimming pool occasionally these are the floorball, basketball, jiu-jitsu and soccer groups. It’s a fun activity for all of them. 

The kids are very enthusiastic. They even want to swim when it is raining or cold, that really means something. Normally when it rains in Brazil you stay inside. It even can be a reason to not go to school or come to our groups.

Besides these children’s groups we have a two groups twice a week that practice water aerobics. Each group consists of fifteen women, a total of thirty and we have a waiting list of over thirty women who are waiting for a place in the groups. For many of the women they have medical issues that require them to do light exercise, but not only is it good for their health it’s also a fun activity.

A church has use our pool for baptisms and we expect more to happen here in the future. It’s amazing to see in how many ways the pool is being used!

We are so glad to have our swimming pool functioning again!

Vacation Children's Program

It is officially the "winter" vacation time here in Brazil.  For the last 2 weeks children have had time off from school, so the Lighthouse Community Center offered an intense fun-packed children´s program called Colônia de Ferias!

 Last week, the doors were opened here at the Lighthouse to the many children living in the slum.  Daily around 80 kids came to participate in various games and fun activities, and every time they came they heard the good news of the gospel and encountered the love of God.

Here are some photos of the awesome things that were going on here last week!

Singing praises to the King!

After a fun children´s worship service the kids broke up into groups and rotated around to play games and do different activities in the classrooms. 

 

This precious little one even participated!

The youngest group of children participating in the week.  

It was a great time with the kids from the community!  

May they remember the truths they learned at the Lighthouse Community Center and grow in the grace and the knowledge of Jesus Christ. 

Photography Exhibition

Last Sunday we held a Photo Exhibition for the Kids With A Camera photography group, that is run here at the Lighthouse Community Center.

 

Since you couldn't make it to the exhibition, we would like to invite you to come to it now...  Do you have some time?  Just take a quick look at the exhibition and some photos of our afternoon through this blog post.  You won't regret it! Enjoy the show!

The kids were super proud to show off their photos! 

Vitor was especially excited about this day.  He was the first kid to arrive at the Lighthouse at 9:30 Sunday morning,  pumped and ready to get everything prepared for the exhibition.  Vitor really has valued the photography group and has become a very talented photographer.  We are proud of this guy!

The Photography Exposition took place in a big square at the top of the slum.

The children's photos were hung on this fence surrounding a soccer court in the main square.

 

 

 

 Here are some shots of the the photos on display.  These photos were especially selected for the exhibition and are some of the best pictures the children took.  They really are impressive!

This description about the project was also hung up (in Portuguese) to to explain a bit about the photography project to those passing by.

 

Kids with a Camera – Villa Cafezal 2012
 

The Kids With A Camera project was established by a God-given desire within one girl, Louise McWilliam, who has a real passion not only for photography but also for what can be voiced through captured moments.

Louise has led the Kids with a Camera Team alongside Felipe Matias, who is an amazing photographer and has been the chief translator for the group! Without him this project would not have been possible! Together they have spent the past two months working alongside 9 children from Villa Cafezal...Felipe, Raphael, Carlos Daniel, Webert, Raine, Ana Precila, Larissa, Sabrina, and Vitor. Today we see the finished results of their work in the form of the Kids With A Camera exhibition! Here is the story so far from Kids With A Camera...we hope you enjoy the exhibition! 

The project's vision was to bring light to the lives of the children in this neighborhood...to teach them something new...to develop their skills...to draw out their potential and to highlight their lives through the moments that they capture on a camera! And that is exactly what has happened.

 

Week by week we have come to see a true commitment from these children to come to class regularly each Monday and Wednesday morning. They have listened, they have learned, they have understood and the team behind the Kids With A Camera project have been truly blessed to see them not just develop their skills in photography but also work together as a little team!

 

It has been a privilege to be involved in something like this and to meet with and spend time with this talented group of children. We hope you enjoy the results of their work as much as we have enjoyed discipling them in photography!

 

With love from The Kids With A Camera Team 2012

Many people passed by to admire the beautiful images that were put on display.  It was nice to talk with the various children, teens and adults that came by to look at the photos.  The square is situated right across from a main bus stop so many people stopped to look at the photos after getting off the bus. 

 

A few boys from the photography group enjoyed playing soccer (to pass the time). 

 

The girls just hung out...

 

And Felipe (a YWAM missionary and one of the leaders of the group) enjoyed playing around with his camera and taking photos during the exhibition.
Here are some shots he captured during the afternoon.

 

We are especially thankful for these two special Lighthouse Community Center volunteers, Louise (left) and Ellie (right).  They worked hard to put together the Kids With the Camera photography group.   They actually helped to make this whole project happen and because of this, these children's lives have been deeply impacted through this whole experience!  Thanks girls!

 

 We hope you enjoyed visiting the photo exhibition and seeing a bit of our day through this post.   
We are extremely proud of the accomplishments the kids have made!