My travel and first day of the great adventure!

Oi Gente,
Thanks for reading this! What an adventure it's been already! I just want to start out, with WOW, we serve a faithful God! He has been so good to me, so much better than I deserve! Just traveling here has made me want to know more about him and take my praise to the next level! I'm so grateful because before I left, I had peace, but in the back of my head I was like, "Oh Lord, you better come through because even though I have peace, it doesn't mean I'm not scared." And oh boy did he ever!

So here were my issues:
My bag was 7 pounds overweight (because I loaded it with peanut butter haha!)
I was trying to bring an American food into the country to sell.
I had to switch Airlines in Rio of all places.
I was nervous about my language skills.
I was flying on a Brazilian only airline.
In Rio, I thought I had to bring all my bags with me because I was switching lines!
And In Rio I only had an hour layover!

So I think I had some good reasons to be a little bit nervous... but It's just ridiculous how amazing Jesus is and how much he loves his kids! (Even when they're 18 lol...I think I felt more protected and babied on this trip than ever before in my life, and I LOVED it!)

Ok, lets start from the top:
I brought my bag up to the scale, they weighed it and saw that it was overweight, but the woman was just like...shhh...it's ok.

When you fly to a different country, you have to fill out an immigration form, and on the form it asked me if I brought any American food, and I promised myself I would be honest (and the Lord honors honesty yall'...learned that first hand) So I said I brought "pasta de amendoim" and I get to the customs officer in Belo and he DIDN'T ASK FOR THE PAPER! whattt?! So I got through with absolutely no problems!

When I checked into my first out of 4 flights, the woman said...of this changed...your switching airlines in Miami not Rio anymore!!! HAHA!

When I checked in and everything on the Brazilian airline, I was sitting next to this lady who was seriously so sweet, I think she might have been an angel. I won't know until I get to heaven, but I would bet on it! She spoke perfect english and portuguese, we had so much in common, and she even got me to my gate from Rio to Belo!!!

When I arrived in Rio, I was early and I didn't go through customs there so my 1 hour layover that I don't think I would have made turned into a 2 hour chill time. During that chill time, I had one of the best God times I've had in a long time! I really believe that he showed up so strong for me in the middle of the airport surrounded my people and chaos...because he had my full attention because I had no other option. I really was like a baby again, everything depended on the Lord. And once again, he proved himself faithful!

Something cool I just wanted to share:
When I was flying over Rio, and it was the most beautiful thing I've seen in my entire life.  I was just overwhelmed by His presence and how much he really cares for us. I was looking down at the clouds and they were completely soft, they looked like water. I was just admiring and then I saw a little patch of clouds and the Lord whispered to me, "I love you this much." I was kind of like uhmm... thats a really little patch of clouds...i'm kind of offended...but then I looked a tad bit farther.... and I was completely surrounded by clouds, all I could see for miles were those clouds! Those are the kind of things I live for, and it just reminds me that I serve a REAL God. I'm just still completely overwhelmed.

I got here to BH safely and I've spent time with my family, then I went to kids worship team practice, and it was wonderful! The kids are so precious and I just find it funny that children's ministry is what the Lord keeps opening up right now! I'm really enjoying it. The kids here in Brazil are especially important to me because since I'm American and speak English, they want to be just like me so it's a constand reminder to keep a good witness. The Lord definitely gave me a new circle of influence already! Then I faced a big fear of mine tonight...the dreaded SMALL GROUP haha! I was dreading it because I didn't want people to think I was a fool if I miss understood the question or didn't get it or whatever, but I made a decision when I came here to not let one opportunity go by, especially if it's fear related!

SO I DID IT! It was wonderful! The people are so sweet, I already have friends, and I really know a lot more than I thought I did! I'm already having full conversations in Portuguese and I've only been here a day!! It's amazing the things you can accomplish if you just let it go and fly with the Holy Spirit!

Well I'm exhausted and I start school and teaching english tomorrow, so I'm gonna hit the sheets!

Love you all so much and thanks for keeping up with a Brazilian Bug! <3
-Gabriella Sanches