First New Year in Brazil

And after you have suffered a little while,

the God of ALL GRACE [Who imparts ALL BLESSING and FAVOR],

Who has CALLED you to His [own] ETERNAL GLORY in Christ Jesus,

will Himself COMPLETE and MAKE you WHAT YOU OUGHT TO BE,

ESTABLISH and GROUND you SECURELY,

and STRENGTHEN, and SETTLE you. - 1 Peter 5:10

A week later after Christmas, it was New Year! Time sure flew and the baking continued. This time, Bella and I made brownies and cookies. And Neide made a chocolate cake and the chocolate fountain. We were thinking maybe we didn't need to make so many desserts, but we were all glad we did because the kitchen only provided fruit jello-ish desserts that were yummy as well. We also had churrasco, which is Brazilian barbecue!!! Super delicious! We had a lot of guests. Though not as many as Christmas, but there were still about 50 to 60 people. Everyone finished the brownies, cookies, the chocolate fountain and the chocolate cake. We had a wonderful dinner though before I could get seconds, the food was taken away already. Sad... but it's okay. I know that in the future I will have more opportunities to eat yummy food like that.

Later on, Aunt Corenne gave a little talk on welcoming 2024 and led an activity for the boys and kids to ponder about. The activity was to write something you wanted to let go and let God take care of. So everyone wrote something on the little piece of paper and put it in a container, then we later on burned it! It was fun to watch. I can tell that everyone listened attentively. I'm sure that God was working in all of our hearts. Then each of us grabbed a beautiful champagne cup with alcohol-free champagne, which all of us enjoyed very much. Then we went out to a grass area on the campus, counted down together, enjoyed the beautiful and fun fireworks, and celebrated the New Year!

Honestly, at that moment, I had a profound and deep feeling of gratitude toward the people around me. I went to huge people and said, "Happy New Year." I was homesick once again thinking about all my friends and family watching the astonishing fireworks back in Taiwan. Everyone has their traditions that they preserve from their cultures, homes, or families. For me, fireworks was a big thing. You could imagine living in Taiwan, there was no way the new year wasn't taken seriously with fireworks. If you knew the Taipei 101, which used to be the tallest building in the world, they have had a humungous annual firework show that last about 5 mins, and every year there was a theme since the zodiac animals are different every 12 years. This year was the year of the dragon and it was a BIG deal in the Chinese culture. Sadness and the sense of longing for home quietly creeped up on me as I watched the fireworks with all the boys and guests on the large soft grass. But I'm reminded that HERE is family. LIVING IN THE MOMENT and allowing my heart to accept that "there's no place like home" is true but it doesn't always have to be that way. There is a place like home, and that is HERE, at Montanha da Esperança. Remaining in thankfulness replaced the negative thoughts and emotions with contentment and joy. Jesus must've felt homesick as He was traveling everywhere and doing ministry. He understands, therefore I just need to look up to Him and learn from Him.

My dear friend shared this Bible verse with me as we were on the phone. 1 Peter 5:10. This really spoke to me in many ways. It mentions God's grace that He lavished on me, my purpose in Christ Jesus, and that God will complete the work He started.