Aahh, Home Sweet Home!

Well, we made it home. Sorry to anyone who was looking for this blog earlier. We were pretty tired yesterday, and spent much of the day visiting with our families. But we did make it home safely and were very glad to be back on American soil again. I am going to Good Springs, AL in a bit to see my nephew! I can't wait! It was really good to see our parents and we are looking forward to seeing the rest of you soon!

We had a great trip and definitely encourage each of you to consider going on a mission trip of your own. There is money to come up with, new things to get used to, and family to miss, but it is well worth all of this for the chance to share the love of Christ and the good news of the gospel truth with those who seem to have not heard or have never experienced the fellowship of believers together. There are no words for the joy you will have after being Christ's hand to help someone in need. Of course, you don't have to travel thousands of miles to make a difference in someone's life. There are many different people, God has woven into the web of our daily circle, who could use your touch, your smile, or your words of encouragement. Let us be true to the call of our Lord to share Him with those who do not know Him. So, we want to just send out much encouragment to keep your eyes open and your hearts ready to serve others and share Christ with those around you each day and if you sense the call to go outside your circle to reach others for Christ, please surrender to the call. You will not regret that decision. Don't put it off either! Don't wait until you are old and realize that you have not been faithful to share the inheritance Christ has blessed you with.

Thank you for your many many prayers and much support for Britt and I!! We feel so grateful to have such wonderful friends and prayer partners to count on! We ask that you continue to pray that God will use us all to carry His love to those around us each day and that we would remain faithful servants to Him.

Thanks again...and I hope to blog again sometime soon. Check back if you like and see what we are up to.

Love you all greatly!

B & L

ROLLLL TIDE!! Saturday

Hey,
Much thanks to Linda Fikes for keeping us posted about the game. My sister said she would tivo it for us to watch when we get back. Can't wait. A bit about today and then I have to go pack. We have to be checked out by 8:00 and if you could see our room you would laugh really hard about that! Britt just anounced daylight savings time was tonight and that we would lose an hour of sleep. I guess it is the opposite here because they are going into spring here. So about today.
It was a good day, however, it was already raining when we arrived at the clinic. So it was noisy in the chapel. But we saw around 68 or so patients still. We didn't get too wet. I believe there have been around 350 decisions for Christ made this week. One of the boysthat Britt gave a harmonica to came back to the clinic and had worked on something for Britt to hear. It was good. Britt was able to give him another quick lesson. That was a lot of fun.
Tonight we went to downtown Sao Paulo to another mall. Also fun. Tomorrow we are going to church then back to downtown to something called "hippey feta?"..not sure about that name, but it is where they fill the medians I think, with various crafts and original works of art. etc. then to the airport. Our flight leaves at 10:55 pm Brazil time. Hopefully we can sleep a little and wake up in Atlanta! I suppose this will be my last blog for the trip. I had a blast and hope it was informative to read. I had some great responses all week and we really appreciate it! Who knows I may blog every now and then after we return! You'll have to check back to see.
Ok, I've got to help Britt with the packing. Can't wait to see everyone when we get back!
Love you all!
B&L

Friday, A Chili Day!

Chili sounds good.. Hello once again,

Today was a windy day, I suppose I encouraged too many prayers for better weather. No, really it felt good much of the day. The sun hardly shown its face. We had a great day today. Britt was able to do some fun stuff. He went on another in home visitation. He enjoyed that. Also, he was able to make two separate trips to a school that we were invited to visit. They shared a bible story and presented the gospel. He played the harmonica to get their attention. He said they loved it. The morning crew were younger kids. He said they were more attentive than the afternoon who were teenagers. But he said that the teen girls were all telling him, he was beautiful...lol... its getting worse by the day..lol!!

Because he was gone all day, I had to triage everyone. That was a little tiresome, but good. We saw 177 today and had 46 decision made at the clinic. There have been several home visits of presenting the gospel all week that get added to the total later, so there may have been more. Also, they were not allowed to pray with the children at school, but the gospel was shared with somewhere between 800 to 1,000 children/teens today. Praise the Lord!!

We bought some cheap harmonicas from the Cracker Barrel to give away and we gave those out this afternoon. Britt was able to give a 5 sec lesson to a very talented child here today. I was able to video that and hope to be able to share it when we return.

We are about to clean up for supper now. We can either eat at the hotel or go somewhere around here with an interpreter. We ate off of the dinner buffet a few nights ago here at the hotel. It was pretty good. But it was $68 in Brazil money, so about $32 American dollars for us both to eat. (It wasn't that good!)

We hope everyone had a good day, and we can't wait to see you!

Love,

Brittany and Lindsay

Thursday, a good day.

Hey everyone,

Today was a good day at the clinic. The Lord provided a nice little breeze for us this morning. We were pretty organized and everything seemed to go smoothly. I haven't mentioned our meals much, I don't think. We have a continental breakfast each morning on floor E (still don't know what that stands for). For lunch, there are a few women taking turns making meals for us. They are quite tasty. We have more variety in our lunches this trip. Last time it was the exact same thing everyday. I was a little panicky then..lol. Everyday for lunch they bring rice and beans, but we have a different type of meat and veggie with it. Three times for supper we have gone to the big mall to eat. Britt had sushi again tonight. It is cheaper and just as good as at home. (It is hard to type these blogs now, because I spend all day trying to speak portuguese). It makes my head crazy! I think this blog will mostly be random thoughts tonight. Sorry and I hope you can follow. Britt is doing my counting for me tonight, so I can blog and get my devotion ready for in the morning.

This afternoon started slowing down all of a sudden around 3:00, and we didn't know why. Then about 15 minutes later a thunderstorm came up and it started raining, and lightening. So, the Lord was doing a little traffic control for us before He sent some much needed rain. Britt along with Vial and a few others were helping take the tents down, when the loudest clap? of thunder I have ever heard roared, and then lightening filled the sky above them, and had to strike no more than 20 feet away. Vial and Britt were holding an arm load of metal poles and Vial just dropped them. But Britt? No. Just held onto to his as if to say,"Bring it on!". Thank the Lord no one got injured. We had a few patients to come even though it was raining so we saw those and then came back to the hotel.

This should hand you a laugh. I don't even know who it would be, but for some reason the children think I look like an actress from Grey's Anatomy and that Britt looks like Brad Pitt..lol. This may be one example of why they all want eyeglasses..lol

Britt just told me that we saw 156 today. We have been having lots of fun with our intepreter in between patients. He is very eager to learn English and it is really funny to hear him try.

I think that is all I have for tonight. I still have to get my devotion ready. Thanks again to all of you with encouraging words for us. They have been well absorbed each day. Please pray that the rain will not come too early tomorrow if at all. And thanks to whoever threw in the prayer for the breeze!! Good night to all and God Bless each of you!

love,

b&l

Wednesday in Sao Paulo

Hey Hey!
Good to be here doing this....that means we're a little closer to crashing! Sorry to sound so tired all the time. It is very hot here and we can't seem to get to bed til 11:30-12:30 each night, then have to be up by 5:45. We aren't the type! It was great to hear from my cousin Chris in Gulf Shores! Thanks for the response and prayers Chris! Hello to Amber! Hope you guys are doing well. Also, for the responses from Joyce, Linda F., Brad & Mandy and parents, thanks so much for each encouraging word! Each response/email was extremely uplifting to both of us. It is funny to see us drag out of bed...we are sooo tired but the first thing we do is go to the computer to see if anyone has contacted us..lol. We can hardly open our eyes, but we have to check before we go out for the day. So thank you. (Hope I didn't miss anyone.)
Today was good. We have three tents that we use each day outside for eyeglasses/evangelism and for some reason the pastor of the church insists on taking them down at the end of everyday. So, that means we have to put them up each morning as well. YEAH! (really gets your day going, ya know?) We saw about 155 today and 200 yesterday. Britt and I treated about 1/5 of those. But we triage all but about 35 of those. It was beginning to rain this evening, so PLEASE pray that it won't rain tomorrow! It will make things very hard for us. There is only a small amount of space inside the church and no air flowing. This is where Britt and I work everyday.
Britt was a little sick last night.. but better today, just weak all day. I think he has felt better this evening. Just tired now. He is in the bed now, telling me this is enough typing for now..lol. I think he is right..I have asked him how to spell a few short words already...lol... That is about all I can think of right now. Suppose I will climb on here again tomorrow night sometime. Thanks to everyone again, and we love you all!
B&L

Tuesday at the clinic

Good Evening,
Hope all of you are too tired to read a long blog, because I am definitely too tired to write one! We had a big day at the clinic. It was a little warmer and we saw more people than yesterday. I am in charge of counting patients we saw and I haven't done that yet. But we saw a lot and had many more decisions made today. Britt only went to one in-home visit. The city people did not show up to take him around. So we are sad that we have lost two days of in-home ministry, but perhaps they will come tomorrow. I was actually on time this morning to lead the devotion for our group this morning yeah! (must have been Daddy and Donna's prayers for my punctuality, thanks!) :) Britt and I worked together again today for a while and we were given an interpreter, but I think it took longer. Britt got to treat the patients more today. I think he had a better day. Our flow as a team seemed to improve as well today. We had a little more order to the chaos today.
For the ones who requested a postcard; we want you to know that we have been working on it. We have been in two different places that we thought we could purchase one, but they didn't have any. We are still looking. We may beat them back home, but hopefully we will be able to get them out soon!
I hate to say this, but I think I miss Camden Reid the most. I cannot wait to squeeze him!!!! We are treating many children at the clinic and some babies. They seem to be a little malnurished and it is hard to see that and not really be able to help them. I hear the doctors telling the people here that they need to eat better and more often and I wonder what the people are thinking. (We would like to!) maybe? The dogs are pitiful. They lay around in the sun all day and can hardly move. There is one on across the street from the clinic and it is eye level with us and we have to watch it all day...pretty depressing...now that I'm a dog lover of course!...lol
Ok..I have to get those sheets counted out before I can go to bed. I had better go.
love everyone,
the tired crew

First Day of clinic -Monday

Hey again!

I am at least starting this blog earlier tonight. It is 6:15 here and we have to be on the bus in 15 minutes to go to the mall and eat. I hope I am able to upload a few pics from yesterday and today when we get back. Britt is sitting on the bed watching a portuguese speaking movie, staring into the screen as if he understood every word. I think he may be a little pooped.

Today was the first day we saw patients at the clinic and it went pretty well I thought. We saw about 178 patients at the clinic and many more were visited and treated in their homes. That was one thing they asked of us while we were in the area. The city officials here were anxious for us to visit some of their shut-ins. Britt will get to do this tomorrow. He had a boring job today. Because of lack of room, he did not get to see patients (as a doctor) today. Instead he helped me triage. I saw the patient first and asked them all the questions on our triage sheet and then I passed them to him and he took their blood pressure, temp, glucose reading etc. He didn't like it very much because I did ALL the talking. We had an enterpreter for half the day and then they took him, and I believe I will be without one again.

Ok, I'm back. Just been out for a bite to eat at the mall...very large and nice. Britt had Sushi and I had a form of McDonalds. They have a roller coaster in the mall and a few other carnival type things. Britt is in the shower now and I am laughing because I am listening to him practice his portuguese...lol. I found out that I have to do our group's devotion tomorrow so I really have to hurry on here tonight. A devotion at 6:30??? These people are nutso. j/k

There were many decisions made to follow after Christ today, but I don't know the exact number yet.

Britt was able to call his mother from a satellite phone while we were at the clinic. We will elaborate about that very cool thing when we get back. Ok, I am going to send some pics tonight I think, so I am going to try to work on that now. We are having a blast, but miss home as well. We love everyone and hope you have a great day tomorrow!

I just tried to send some pics and it would only load one...sorry..I will try more tomorrow.

Britt and Lindsay

Sunday in Guarulhos

Hello folks and greetings from Guarulhos!!
Hope everyone had a great day today. We are back in our rooms. Britt is studying right now, he has to lead his devotion group tomorrow morning. We will have to cut this blog short, because we have to be showered, fed and devotioned up before being on the bus at 7:00 (Brazil time). So if you know Britt and I at all, then that should tell you we are probably going to be in big trouble. My devotion group all but applauded me this morning for being only 3 minutes late...and that was our first devotion meeting...ugh!
Okay, now for a quick recap of our day. We went to a baptist church in Guarulhos for their worship service (3 hours long). Yes, Britt played his harmonica. And yes, everyone loved it. This was the church that does a lot of caring for the poor and orphans in their town. So it was through them that we were able to come. After lunch, we got to come back to our hotel for about an hour for a nap. Then we loaded all of the medicine on the bus and went to the church where we will be holding the clinic. Wow! Tiny! It will be very interesting to see how it will all work tomorrow. We organized the place and the medicine and then took a supper break. Then it was time for the next church service (lots of singing). The children from the church sang a song that was awesome. They were so into it. They knew every word.
We or maybe just I am picking back a lot of the portuguese I left behind last time. I had about a ten minute conversation with an excited little boy after church without a translator. That was fun.
Britt and I are both very excited to find out what tomorrow holds. They believe we should see anywhere from 500 to 1,000 people this week. We did some prayer walking and talked with a few of the people on the streets today. They seemed very empty inside and eager to know more about why we came. Hopefully they will show up to the clinic and hear about the love God has for each of them. I weep thinking of the look in their eyes because of the hopelessness they feel. Our clinic is on a huge hill and we can see for miles and miles. I think I am too tired to upload any photos tonight, but maybe I can get several of them on here tomorrow evening.
Continue praying for us...we love you all dearly!
Britt and Lindsay

2008 Mission Trip to Guarulhos, Brasil

Hello everyone,

We feel so overwhelmingly grateful to be here! We first would like to say "Thank You!!" to everyone who loves us and the Lord enough to support us with your prayers and thoughts as well as all of the generous monetary gifts given to us. We arrived in Sao Paulo this morning around 7:00 (5:00 in ttown). We were really tired from the 9 1/2 hours on the plane, but survived. Thanks to all of the prayers we were able to get through customs with not one bag being searched. Praise the Lord!! Now hopefully we can give all of that medicine away. We met the missionaries Tony and Karen Gray at the airport and they got us to our hotel. We had a good breakfast and a quick meeting and then went to our rooms, which we were surprised to see had so many nice amenities. We didn't need a converter for power this time and we have hot water that is heated before it gets to us! We even have a tv with a few English speaking channels.

After a nap, and skipping lunch we went for a short walk around the city. That was pretty interesting. The streets were very cluttered with trash. But the people were nice. There were lots of them walking around shopping. After our walk, we went to eat with our team at a restaurant several blocks away. We all had pizza and ice cream.

We are in our rooms now and we are winding down. Depending on how tired we are and what time we get to our rooms, I will try to post something on here everyday. I will try to post a few pics from the day as well. Hope everyone is doing well. If you need to tell us anything, you can post a comment on here or send us an email at Brittbricken@aol.com

We love each of you very much and please continue to remember us in your prayers each day!

"Uncle Jac"

Hey Everyone reading this first pitiful post of mine! (which will probably be no one, but I need the practice) I thought this blog thing looked like something fun for me to get into. So at 1:35 a.m. I am sitting up spilling out the thoughts in my head while my hubby snores.

I am sad tonight over the loss of "Uncle Jac". Britt's Uncle Jac passed away and his funeral is tomorrow or uhhumm...today (yikes..this first post is going to have to be ridiculously short..I gotta get some sleep!) Oh well, many are sad now, over our family loss, but Oh! how we are rejoicing also!! This was indeed a wonderful man who knew he served a Great God! He was sort of the patriarch of the family I guess, always leading with kind words. He will be missed dearly. And only because of the assurance we know he had in his Great God can we rest peacefully tonight and arise joyfully in the morning to honor the legacy he has left behind.

I will leave it at that for now, because of the time. Perhaps I will share more later.