Tony and Laura Lewry

Brown grass hopper

You may or may not be aware that for many years I had a sort of phobia of Prawns. I thought they were ugly looking evil things and I had never really eaten them ( well maybe one in an attempt to overcome the fear!) but I just didn't like looking at them and thought they tasted bad. I also once had a bad dream that involved prawns.. but I wont go into that! So anyway this Christmas I smelt them being cooked fresh on the beach in garlic oil and then a splash of lemon. I succumb to the smell and realised I loved them!  This is one our best friends Wel trying to teach me how to peel them.

We recently needed to a video to show at one of the churches that supports us and so we thought we would also share it with you lovely people too!

We have been involved in several campaigns against exploitation against children here in Brazil. They were quite hard hitting but Brazil is a very desensitized place ( in my opinion!) and so it needs something quite shocking sometimes to draw the public's attention to this increasing problem. We have also done some campaigning ( on a smaller scale) with the teenagers on the camp and will hopefully post pics of that soon. Our practical outreach group, Wel, Laura, Tabea and Tony. Several of the group wore signs about the reality of sexual abuse. Statements such as "I am not a TOY", " I will not stay silent"  and "the abuser does not have a face". Tony's sign reads "my abuser is a friend of the family" trying to raise awareness that 85% of child abuse is committed by people that know the child. This campaign was held at night and involved leafleting and freeze frame dramas indicating abuse

Right now it is 27 degrees C here in Recife and 27 degrees C in London!!!

This is my tea tin. It holds my precious teabags. it was given to us by a good friend of ours for our engagement. Unfortunately several weeks ago there was a tea drought and the tin was empty. It lasted a few weeks and many of you faithfully sent tea. I wanted to thank all those that helped and reassure you that I now have a small reserve enough to last for a few more months. So thank you to all that helped, and thank you Sue for the lovely tea tin!

The other week our Dog found a terrapin!! so we adopted him. he is called Jeff and he likes raw fish and pork

One of the highlights of the school for me ( Laura) was hearing from Matt Roper who runs a charity called Meninadanca (dancing girls) which aims to promote the welfare of girls here in Brazil. He has written a couple of books. His first is about his work in Belo Horizonte, in the south of Brazil, working with girls form the slums and giving them opportunities to have a safe place with activities to affirm them, especially focusing on dance. I read this book about 10 years ago, before I knew Tony, before I felt I knew I was going to be a missionary, and even though it was not a grand, well known book, it was pivotal in my life and so it was a priveledge to hear his stories first hand and meet him. Matt is British and it was great fun getting to know him and Charlotte, the UK Co-ordinator for Meninadanca, during their time with us. His second book is about the problem of child prostitution on one of Brazil's busiest motorways, the BR116 and the work that he is starting in Medin...

Our time studying was great and we learnt so much. Our topics included street children, sexual abuse, the needs of children, discipline, child counselling, child prostitution, how to teach about sex education and contraception, and many more. It wasn't very exciting in the way of pictures though! There was a lot of sitting and listening and reading! I think we are both glad it is finished and we are back to doing practical work!   Learning in the chapel One of our assignments was to give workshops. Here Tony is speaking on discipline and I (Laura) am speaking on Children at Risk   We did a few sessions with the kids at the primary school.  I love that this kid has three plastic watches on!

We Passed the lecture phase!!! Last week we had our graduation service which was fun remembering all the funny things that had happened over the last 3 months with our friends

For we first 2 weeks of our practical we are helping with a camp for teenagers with a focus on missions and child exploitation The kids are from a very diverse background, some are from middle class Christian families  and others are from shelters and foster homes.  They are an amazing bunch of kids!!! The first week has gone well all the kids are loving it! all the staff are ready for a holiday. Next week we will be going out onto the streets to work with the street community! it should be a good experiences for the kids

A few weeks ago one of the dogs here had some puppies. Laura was besotted with them until she smelt them!

We went to a churrascuria!!! where they serve BBQed meat on swords and you can eat as much as you like! we where very excited as we don't usually get to eat much good meat! it was a fun evening with our friends after the meal we played on the beach!!

Every month of our lecture phase we had a special dinner. Our first one involved fancy dress Laura came as a hippy I came as a Samoan, unfortunately you cant see my skirt in this shot!!