“Ain’t No Rock” is the only cool song that I can play on the guitar.  It is, however, a huge hit in Brazil.  As soon as we began to get ready for church on Sunday I had several of the regular Brazilian kids come and ask me, or motion to me, “are we doing the rock song” (said in Portuguese with a pounding fist into the palm of their hand).  They remembered it from the past two trips.  Ain’t no rock is the most interactive song of all the songs that we do.  Every time that we play it it is like we have started a small party.  They love it. 

One of my favorite additions to “Ain’t No Rock” this year was the drums piece.  Jared Shingleton played the drums and they were great.  We got the opportunity to play this song in front several hundred Brazilian students and we had a blast.  It is always cool to be rock stars for a day.  Not to mention that hundreds of lost Brazilian students are dancing, singing and hearing songs that give praise and honor to our God. 

Everybody praise his holy name, as long as I’m alive I’ll glorify his holy name.

In honor of the college service taking its summer break I decided to post a quick blog.  Last week we had about 100 college students partake in our, now traditional, pancake dinner.  This dinner was in the middle of their finals and a huge success.  If there is one thing that I have learned, if you want to grow a college ministry you must have lots of food. 

We had a team of about 15 college students and leaders cooking, cleaning and setting up for this meal.  The night would not have happened without them.  Above is a picture of their most brilliant creation.  Illuminate is the name of our Wednesday night college worship service.  When we named it I never imagined I would see it written in pancakes.  This is the sole reason I believe this ministry can truly change the world.  They are amazing.  I say most brilliant because they also created what I call the “beast mode” pancake that was about the size of my thigh.  It was huge.  I must give props to Seth Hood for conquering that beast in one sitting.  He is a man’s man.  This was quickly followed by the syrup chugging contest.  College students will eat whatever they get their hands on. 

This year has been exciting for our college ministry because of the amazing growth we have seen.  In about a 3 month span we quadrupled in size.  Praise God!  Our college students are amazing and I look forward to serving with them in the future. 

PS. Brazil top ten will continue very soon.

One of the primary goals for our particular team is to gain influence in many of the local schools.  Because we take a team of juniors and seniors in high school the local public schools are very open to us entering their facilities for a “cultural experience”.  This allows us to make God famous among the many unbelieving Brazilian students and it also allows for us to get the ministry of AMO more publicity.  Brazilians are fascinated by Americans.  This encourages many of the students to come to the property for church and to see the Americans. 

One of the local English speaking schools actually came to our property during the middle of their school day.  There were about 50 students coming to practice English and to hang out with Americans.  They also heard the gospel through multiple worship songs as well as through many of our students testimonies. After singing and testimonies we played countless games of both soccer and basketball.  Except for most of the girls. 

Samantha Scott, our dancing pro, definitely got the opportunity to use her abilities in dancing to impact many Brazilian girls.  Sam had about 30 girls packed into the small porch area of the house teaching them how to do the electric slide.  Now you can just imagine a hip hop culture trying their best to do some country line dancing.  It was quite a site.  By the end of the teaching session, Sam had those girls all dancing in sync and enjoying the great electric slide.  It was amazing.  I know it will be a day that those Brazilian girls, as well as our girls, will not soon forget. 

 In honor of Bret and Susie returning home I am beginning my Brazil blogging escapades with a top ten from our latest trip.  Number 10 (though Susie would demand to be number 1) is the collective time spent with Susie (and Bret). 

Upon our arrival Allen Kimble passed out a pack of oreo’s (Susie’s favorite) to each student and adult.  The entire team got on the bus and individually handed Susie each pack of Oreo’s.  The end result being an entire trash bag full of Oreo’s.  Susie was beyond ecstatic about her much awaited gifts.  I don’t think she shared any with Bret. 

Shubie Shubies were the most amazing popsicles that you have ever put in your mouth and Susie and a ton of them.  Susie did not mind sharing these amazing treats with her many guests.  I definitely ate more than my share.  So if you travel to Brazil plan on eating a shubie shubie but you better keep your hands off of Susie’s cookies.

On a more serious note, it was amazing to be able to spend that amount of time with Bret and Susie.  Bret commented that his old teams would have a goal of encouraging the Brazilian missionaries and he felt that was exactly what are team had done.  Bret said that it was the hardest that Susie had laughed it quite awhile.  It was a privilege to be used by God to encourage the great work in Brazil through our family, the Cox’s.  I know that God has been doing a great work through the Cox’s ministry.  God has used their submissively placed “Yes” to draw a people group to Himself.  It has been great to see Bret and Susie this week.  Just seeing them has greatly warmed my heart.  Continue to pray for how God uses them and if you haven’t gotten the privilege of meeting them please make it a point to do so.  Bret and Susie (in case you read this) you are greatly loved by your church family, by the many traveling students, and greatly my wife and I. 

Let’s also pray that I actually blog the other 9 of the Brazil top ten.