Carnaval Camp Update

Hello everyone,

I sent this report out Monday but I don't think it went through. If it
did then I guess this will be the second time you are receiving it.
God bless you all.

I am sure most are wondering whether or not we made it to and from
our destination, Cajazeiras, during carnival. Well, thanks to God, who
has always protected us we made it back alive and, well, tired.
It is about a 7 hour trip to Cajazeiras. We left our apartment a
little later than we had hoped so we arrived after dark. There were 45
people at the retreat, and we all enjoyed our time together.
Joe McKinney and I taught three classes each during the retreat.
Joe McKinney taught on "Spiritual Gifts in the Body of Christ." I
taught on "The Kingdom of God" and about using our gifts to draw people
closer to our King and Savior. I was edified in the study, preparation,
and teaching of this subject. I prayed and still pray that it edified
all who heard.
There were a couple of adventures that always make these get-aways
memorable. The first: climbing a small mountain. Joe McKinney,
Nicholas, my 10 yr. old son, and 3 other adults climbed the untamed
beast. They asked me to go, but I looked out at the almost cloudless
sky, at a temperature of what had to be close to 96 degrees that felt
like 110 and said, "No, I think I'll go tomorrow." When they arrived 3
hours later, they looked like they had swam the widest ocean and then
had climbed mount Everest. I was glad to see everyone back and o.k. I
asked Nicholas if he had fun and he almost started crying. You see, he
had been stung by yellow-jackets, bitten by flesh-eating ants, and had
come within feet of a rather large snake. It wasn't just him, this
happened to everyone on this quest for the modern-day, caveman manhood.
The next day they were all fine. The adults were talking about going up
the mountain again next year, Nicholas said he would stay behind. How
nice it must be to live without an ego. The second adventure happened
the day after. We decided to go to a lake, actually, a reservoir that
supplies the city's water. It took us almost 50 minutes to go 6 miles
down the holey dirt road. We climb a steep bank and arrived at the
reservoir. Some of the group took a quick dip in the piranha infested
lake. (That's what we were told. I have never heard of piranhas in a
lake, only in rivers, but hey, I'm not taking my chances; I've been
attacked by fish before. I was having a Psoriasis crisis and fish in
the
ocean started ramming me and biting. One drew blood and it wasn't even
a
piranha). We saw the storm coming but did not imagine that it would be
so bad. The drops of rain felt like needles on our backs from the wind
blowing so hard. We had to walk 1/3 of a mile to get back to shelter
and then drive back down an extremely muddy holey road for another 50
minutes or so.
To go along with these adventures I also found out that the
pictures I had on my SD card were not copied onto my Hard drive. I am
sorry but I don't have any pictures to share with you on this trip. I
will try to get some from someone else who was there.
Hey, adventures like these are what we tell stories about. They
are memories that we can tell our children, grandchildren and share
with all of you. You would have loved it, I know we did.

May the grace and peace of God live within you,

Jeremy, Monica, Nicholas & Dylan Newlin