Toothless!

Ok. So, random title I know. Well, that's me. We'll not really, but that's how I feel like. Invert this guys missing teeth from top to bottom and that's where I am right now. My orthodontist told me that I had to remove my front bottom tooth. "Front?" You ask. Yes. Front. So off I went with my roommate Clara before our slum ministry to see my dentist who yanked off my bottom tooth. Supossedly the hole will soon dissappear as my orthodontist pulls the other ones together.

Well, after the dentist Clara and I rushed to the Umuarama and it was quite hard to sing all the songs with the little kids because I could feel myself swallowing blood the whole time! I kept pushing myself to sing, I felt awkward just looking at the words and felt like I was being a bad example or something...

We soon split up and I was with the teenage girls. I could barely speak, so I asked Juliana to read a bit of a book on purity that we are reading together. She did a great job reading about some of the myths that teenage girls believe about sex and their bodies. The girls listened with interest, although some could not help but giggle nervously. I think some might be too young for this talk, while others are visibly aged before their years.

When we were done Duane asked us to pray for her friend who had died this weekend. She had tears in her eyes when she explained that her friend had had some weird marks all over her body, had been taken to the hospital, and had died within 24 hours. I told Duane that we didn't pray for the dead, but that we could pray for the family and for Duane too. Wow, what a powerful reminder to these girls that life is so short.

After the prayer I sat with the girls and chatted a while but soon we were encouraged to leave (I found out that there had been a shooting and the moms were trying to desperately pick up their kids and take them back home).

Aline (my sister-in-law) looked at me and said that I looked like the Joker. (I guess my gum had bled so much that I got blood all over my mouth!)... that must have been an interesting sight for the girls to look at!