Camp-in with the young kids!

Two weeks ago it was national children´s day here in Brazil, and at community center Casa Semear we organized a very special party for our group of young kids (5-7 years old) who participate daily in Casa Semear´s program. 

For the first time, these Super Little Ones (a name they themselves came up with for their group) had their very own camp-in party at Casa Semear! The group of more or less 20 kids arrived on Friday morning around 10am and they had a lot of fun during the whole program that lasted till Saturday 1pm. 

 

The kids had a great time together: lots of fun during the many games; they did lots of arts and crafts, had barbecue for lunch, decorated their own piece of cake, participated in a photo-shoot, jumped a LOT on the big trampoline we set up right in the middle of the house, watched a movie, worshipped God and slept in real tents!!

What for us as a team became two extremely exhaustive days (this couldn´t be any different of course ;0), for the kids became two days filled with joy, fun and friendship! When we look back on it, we say: It was definitely worth it! It´s so great to be able to offer these kids a different environment for a bit, a day full of laughter and joy, a time to just have fun and to forget for a while about the problems they, although still very young, already face in their lives…

We want to thank every one of you who cooperated with us to make this party happen! Be it through your prayers or by giving us a hand: Thank you so much! We specially want to thank uncle Walter and aunt Rose: thank you so much for your presence and support!

The team of Casa Semear

Teen camp

It is the best week of the year according to the teenagers… A 5 day camp in the countryside of São Paulo, in the middle of the woods. A unique chance for most of the teenagers, because the majority of them never has the opportunity to get away from the slum where they live and have never left the concrete jungle of this huge city. Five full days in nature, away from the poverty and problems of every day; five days of friendship, laughter, (night)games and teachings about the Bible and the life of hope God wants to give us. Every year in July, during the winter holidays, we organize a teen camp and take 20-25 teenagers with us into the woods to spend some wonderful days together. And we know that these five days can be life changing…

The whole group

This year’s teen camp was once again a success! We spent five days in the woods with a group of 20 teenagers, learning together about the life story of Joseph. We lived out Joseph´s story through bible studies, walking trails, treasure hunts, night games and drama.   

At Jacob´s place



Obstacles in the way

We talked specifically about family relationships and forgiveness, and how God used all of that to safe many lives in Joseph´s family. We learned that family life is God´s plan for us and that He is able and willing to help us live well and with joy in our families. We also thought about the forgiveness that God offers us freely and that, if we receive this forgiveness, we´ll be able to also forgive whoever offended us.   

Time of Bible study and conversation

Games!

We had several good moments of reflection and important conversations together, besides, of course, all the fun we had during the various games and challenges: throwing Joseph in the pit, trying to escape from prison, crossing an ice cold swimming pool to reach our dream, walking trails and more trails full of obstacles, in the dark; falling into the river while trying to cross it and conquer dinner: barbecue! And lots more!

Throwing Joseph in the pit

Ice cold swimming pool

Fun games

In prison...

We had a great time with a wonderful group of teenagers who really enjoyed nature, the free time at the swimming pool, lots of good food and all of the games and activities. We´re very thankful for the time God gave us together. Every one of these teenagers is so precious and it is so worth it to invest in their young lives! We pray that they will have learned some important lessons during camp that will help them to make wise choices and live their lives with God. 

A BIG THANK YOU to every one of you who supported us in some way, sending generous donations or investing your time and efforts working alongside us, to make this teen camp happen! May God bless you richly!


The Casa Semear team

The SuperWoman program

At community center Casa Semear we spend Mondays and Tuesdays teaching bible stories, Christian values and giving bible studies to each of the different age groups of kids we work with. At the beginning of 2011, as part of this biblical teaching program, we started a weekly program called SuperWoman especially designed for our teen girls (11-16 years old). It´s a very dynamic, interactive program which includes all kinds of subjects relevant & interesting to teen girls and tries to combine bible study with practical issues they have to deal with in their daily lives.

During the past year, we talked about family relationships, inner & outer beauty, feelings, talents, friendship, sexuality & boys, our life stories & our future among other things. During our devotional times, we´ve been talking about God as our Creator, our Savior, Father and Lord. We read the Bible together and studied God´s plan of salvation. The majority of the girls didn´t really know the gospel yet and only a few of them come from Christian backgrounds. It has been really good and important to be able to study the Bible together, so that these girls will have the chance to get to know Jesus and experience their lives being transformed by His power, in the end that is our great hope and our daily prayer for these precious girls.

Right now we have an excited group of 15 teen girls who love to participate in the SuperWoman program. Even though it wasn´t always a very stable group (sometimes girls would drop out and others would be added to the group), together we managed to create a positive and more importantly, a safe atmosphere. Slowly openness and trust developed, new friendships were created and old ones strengthened. We have had some great times together, lots of fun, but also some serious moments and challenging conversations.

It is such a privilege to be able to invest in these girls´ lives and to share a little bit of our lives and experience with them. The time we´ve been spending with them has been really good and slowly we see God starting to work in their lives, transforming them and giving them hope for their day-to-day lives & for their future!

The Casa Semear team

Fridays are fun!

According to the children who attend Casa Semear, Fridays are the best. Why? Because it´s playing time! On Fridays we spend the full two hours of the program just playing with them. 

Normally, in the context these children live in there´s not much room or opportunity for them to play. Most of the time their parents are out all day, working to provide for their families and they´ve very little quality time with their children; there isn´t much conversation, interaction or playing around. As this seems to be the reality they live in, we think that a very effective way of working with them and building friendships is exactly by playing with these children. 

Card games, table-tennis, cars & dolls, board games, puzzles, table football, drawing & painting, we use all of these activities to create a fun program where these children get the chance to really be children and play around; play together, play with us, the staff of Casa Semear, and develop positive relationships and friendships. 

This playing time also gives us an excellent opportunity to teach and guide the children and correct inadequate behavior. During the bible lessons given at Casa Semear we always try to teach them about the biblical values and principles of life; how we should behave, how we should relate to other people around us, what our character should be like etc. On Fridays, during playing time, we clearly get to see the children´s real behavior, the way they talk to each other, the (lack of) patience and goodness towards each other, the competition that goes on between them, the friendships and much more. Whenever they play around, they just are who they are and that is great, because it gives us the chance to talk with them and show them very practically where their weaknesses and mistakes are and teach them how they can change their behavior and treat the people around them better. And besides that, it´s a good opportunity for us, staff, to be an example to them in everything we do and model adequate, biblical behavior and character; so that they will grow and develop themselves into well intentioned, well educated, stable adults. 

The Casa Semear team

Thursdays: Arts & Crafts!

Every Thursday at Casa Semear we fill our time with the kids doing arts & crafts. We do our best to find a fun type of arts & crafts for every different age group. Here are some pictures of what we´ve been doing:

Every week we try to think of a new, fun way to do arts & crafts with the youngest kids. Last week, for example, they made little turtles using EVA foam and the bottom part of a PET bottle. It is great to see how these simple, creative activities help them to obtain several new skills like using a scissor, drawing, painting, gluing and they also learn the different colors and shapes of different objects. 

We´ve been teaching some of the teenagers to make beautiful patchwork, Christmas balls using Styrofoam balls, glue and nice, colored fabric. Some of the kids really do have a talent for these kinds of arts & crafts which require quite some creativity, patience and perfection. They do it very well and the Christmas balls are just beautiful! 

 

The animal key rings which we make using colorful beads are the oldest and most popular type of arts & crafts we do at Casa Semear. Even the younger kids are already capable of making the different animal key rings, they are great fun!  

We also use both these patchwork, Christmas balls and the animal key rings to raise support for project Casa Semear. If you would like to support the work we do, one way you can do this is by buying some of the arts & crafts products made at Casa Semear. All resources are used for the work with kids and teenagers. If you are interested in supporting the project this way, please, do get in touch with us (email: projeto.casasemear@gmail.com)!

God bless you!

The Casa Semear team