The anticipation rose minute by minute. Thirteen students from the junior class and three chaperones had almost finished with the ten hour long flight from Dallas, Texas to Sao Paulo, Brazil. Some of the studetns still felt drowsy and sick, and for others, the nerves and excitement had just started. Finally... a touchdown in Brazil. After the unending hours sitting in planes and airports, the juniors had made it to Brazil.

After arriving in the airport, our ACSI contact, Valerie Gill, met us as we exited customs with all our bags in tow. We climbed in the bus and began our trek across the city to the school. We watched in awe as the city and its sights rolled past us. Moving from a wealthy area of town to the slums in a matter of minutes, we arrived at the school. As we stepped out of the bus, the smell assaulted our noses. Right across the street from the school, an open river-like sewer ran and behind that, yellow five story apartments stood. Once we got our bags inside, Valerie took us upstairs to get settled and ready for orientation.

Sunday morning arrived with our first official journey into Sao Paulo. We toured the city on our way to Embu, an open air market, which consisted of several streets with numerous shops, where we collected many treasures. When we returned to the school, we used our time to prepare for the church service that evening. Church at the school definitely became one of the highlights of the week. Brazilians, both young and old, joined together in one song praising and worshiping God. Their passion and the pastor's moved us all.

Monday through Friday consisted of our VBS work and the maintenance that we did on the school. Within one week, two murals appeared on the walls in the school and all the new classrooms had a flowery appearance with the painted flower borders. Saturday, we traveled by bus to the coast of Brazil to hang out at the beach for the day. It was a lot of fun as many of the students had never seen the ocean before. That night, we got to spend the evening with a youth group from a sister church and quickly realized that our trip was coming to a close.

Sunday, full of packing, cleaning up, and many good-bye's, probably became the toughest day of the week. Some tears flowed, but God stood right there by us as we wished our new-found Brazilian friends good-bye. None of us will ever forget the impact the Brazilians had on us. We are so grateful for all the prayers and financial support of our trip to Sao Paulo. The faith and hard work required to make this journey was well worth the lives changed forever by what we saw there.  

-- Kayla Lemon (Graduate 2009)