Snowboard - Queenstown

O snowboard aqui em Queenstown foi muito show de bola. Dois dias de muitos tombos e descidas sensacionais nas neve. As montanhas aqui sao enormes, sem arvores ou pedras, entao da' para ir para qualquer lado a qualquer hora. Muito legal desbravar novos caminhos e ir desviando dos outos... Conheci uns caras muito legais no onibus e estamos viajando juntos a 10 dias e ja' somos bons amigos. Matias (alemao) e Anders (sueco, paraquedista) estamos fazendo todas as aventuras juntos. Muita adrenalina, muito legal.

In English
Snowboarding here in Queenstown has been fantastic!! Two full days of awsome rides and some pretty tough crashes too (off course). On the first day I had a new (lowest) record of only two crashes! The second day I had many more than that, but I also had better runs too :) This mountain (Coronet Peak) was not as long as the ones in Colorado, but it had many more paths, and much more snow. The conditions were really good. Actually the whole mountain was good to ski. There were no trees or rocks, and you could basically go any where, any directions you wanted, and make your own trails. Really fun this way, so many options, loads of variety! I've met some cool people on the bus and we've been traveling together for about 10 days now and we've become good friends. Matias (German), Anders (Sweed), Claire (Engl) and I had a blast at the mountains. Anders and I have really hit it off with the adrenaline crazy stuff, doing bungy's and what not together :) - he is a certified skydiver (so a good friend to have in NZ) ehehehehe. Cheers - JP

Xtreme week / semana aventura

As if skydiving wasn't enough, latter that day I went on a super hike on Franz Joseph Glacier. Very cool. Huge walls and caves of ice every where. Two days latter I jumped off the original bungy bridge!!!! Bungy jumping was invented here in NZ, I got to jump off the bridge where it all started! It was a perfect jump, head first with the classic water touch up to the waist. The best part is shooting out of the water, flying high upsidedown. Sooooo much fun! Today I got to ride the luge, which is a track going down a big mountain We ride on little go carts racing down the mountain. When we get to the bottom we catch the lift back up and do it again. Good fun! Tomorrow I am going snowboarding on the mountains of the Lord of the Rings! for sure this is the most Xtreme week of the trip!!! Love it!

em Portugues


Por aqui tudo certo. Mae, antes de ler ser ultimoemail ja' tinha pulado no ioo ioo humano. Muito doido mae!!! Deu tudo certo e' claro. O bungy jump foi inventado aqui na NZ e eu pulei justamente da primeiraponte onde o Bungy foi inventado! Sensacional, 43metros de altura! Cheguei a tocar na agua!! Tudoprecisamente calculado. Pulei de cabeca e' claro e oelastico deu so' para eu colocar a cabeca dentro daagua e me jogou la' pra cima de novo. A melhor partee' quando vc sai da agua, molhado e voando pra cima decabeca para baixo. Muito fera'! Eles fazem isso aqui a17 anos mae e ninguem nunca morreu... mas agora podesficar tranquila pq ja' fiz todos os salto que queriafazer mesmo. Agora e' so' snowborad... yeeeeaaaaaaahhh:) Aqui a alta temporada e' o verao, mas o invernotambem e' temporado, pq aqui o ski e snowboard saomuito fortes. As temperaturas aqui no sul estao entre0 e 13 graus, entao nao ta' tao ruin nao. Da' prafazer tudo e tolerar numa boa. Agora a agua la' do riodo bungy tava fria viu! Que gelo meu! A agua fria foipior do que o pulo. Creio que a Australia no verao seria melhor sim, porcausa das praias. Mas tambem seria mais caro e todasas praias ficam lotadas e nao sei se seria tao bomassim. Aqui na NZ sao duas temporadas bem diferentes.Aqui tudo e' radical. No verao e' a temporado de surf,caiaques e barcos nos lagos e rios. No inverno e'escaladas no gelo, e ski e snowboard, e o bungy e' oano todo e' claro. Mas pra mim deu pra eu fazer detudo, pq peguei uns dias bom de praia e surf la' naAustralia e aqui a neve esta' de boa. Agora viajar naNZ e' bem mais caro por causa dos passeios eaventuras, mas tambem e' mais legal pq tem maisaventruas, opcoes e beleza para ver. - JP

Skydive / Para-quedas

12000ft, open the door, smile at the camera, and FLYYYYYYYYYYYyyyyyy... 120mph for 45second of free fall - crazy adrenaline.... very very cold. I did the skydive over Fox Glacier - the only place in the world where you get to see glaciers, tropical forest, ocean/beach, rivers and lakes - all in one jump. It was unbelievable!!!





Em Portugues


12000 pes de altura, abre a porta, sorriso para a camera e fuuuiiiiiiiii..... voando nas nuvens da Nova Zelandia. Pulei de para-quedas mae!!! Nao se preocupe - estou bem. Pra falar a verdade nem deu medo! Serio mesmo! Foi tao surreal que nem deu medo, mas foi show de bola. O salto foi sobre o Fox Glacier, o unico salto no mundo que se ve montanhas glacias (?) rios, praias, lagos e floresta, tudo de uma vez so'. Foi sensacional!!! Bom de mais!!! 45 segundos de queda livre e mais 4 minutos de paraquedas. Aterrisagem nota 10. No problem... :)

Nova Zelandia - Sul/ NZ south island

Alegria!!! Muitas montanhas e praias sensacionais aqui na Nova Zelandia!!! Antes de sair de Sydney passei um dia nas Montanhas Azuis e foi muito joia (foto abaixo). Montanhas e vales incriveis. 15 vezes mais velho do que o Grand Cannion. Espetacular. Mas com certeza a NZ e' o pais mais espetacular de todas as minha viagens. Estou vendo todas as montanhas do Senhor dos Aneis, muitas cachoeiras e praias fantasticas! Sai da Australia a uns 5 dias atras e aterrisei em Wellington (capital da NZ). Passei a tarde e a noite por la' curtindo as vida urbana. Na manha seguinte embarquei em um super navio para atrevessar da ilha do norte para a ilha do sul. Esso passeio foi um super cruzeiro. O navio (enorme e muito chique, com tudo que tem direito) faz um verdadeiro zig-zag entre varias ilhas pequenas, e e' montanha pra todo lado, e todas as fotos parecem ser cartoes postais. Chegando em Picton peguei o onibus do Kiwi Experience e estou fazendo o tour da volta completa em torno da ilha do sul. Amanha vamos escalar montanhas de gelo! Muitas aventuras em todas as cidadezinhas que nos passamos. Bem legal. Depois tento escrever todas as paradas e atividades... Vamos passar duas noites aqui em Frazier Glaciers e depois vamos para Queestown, a capital mundial da adrenalina e esportes radicais! Vai rolar o snowboard com certeza ;) herheheherheh. Ate' a proxima. - JP

prai na NZ - NZ beach

FOTOS - as novas fotos sao 4 albums da Australia. O primeiro sao as fotos da base da JOCUM, o segundo das ilhas Whitsundays, o terceiro do trabalho de evangelismo feito na praia de Airlie, e o quarto da minha super viagem de Melbourne a Sydeney (na estrada/ off the beaten path). Espero que gostem das fotos... :)

In English

Wooohhhooouuu!!! Aki aora!!! (hello in NZ). New Zealand is amazing! Certainly the most scenic place I've ever seen!!! Huge mountains every where, amazing beaches, waterfalls, glaciers plus wild life. I am in awe of all. Just before leavinng Sydney I got to spend a day in the blue mountains (pic) and it was fantastics! HUGE! 15 times older than the Grand Cannion. I arrived in Wellington (capital) 5 days ago and just spent a day/night there. The next morning I got on a big ship to cross over to the south island where I'll be in the next 2 weeks. This trip was great. What a cruise! The ship had to make some zig-zags around islands of mountains and huge rocks coming out of the ocean. It was amazing! Every thing looked liked a post card. On the other side, in Picton, I got on the Kiwi experience bus I'll be doing the south island tour that goes all the way around. So far we've been going down the west coast, checking the mountains from the Lord of the Rings, Waterfalls and amazing beaches. Tomorrow we'll go hiking on the glaciers! Moving mountains of ice!!! so cool... The New Zealanders (Kiwi's) are great too. Very laid back, huge on rugby! The All Blacks (national team) play tomorrow and the whole country stops to watch that (including our driver – Jarrad) ;) Should be a good game. We'll sepend two nights here and then we are headed to Queenstown which is the Adrenaline capital of the world (loads of eXtreme sports). Snowboarding for sure!!! Big time!!! Love it! It's very cold here, and it will be even colder there... see ya then - JP

PHOTOS - There are 4 new albums from Australia posted on the links on the left. The first one is the YWAM base, the second is the Whitsundays island/beach, the thrid the evangelism work at Airlie beach, and the last is the trip from Melbourne to Sydney that I did with OZ experience.

Working / Surfing / Learning (Eng/Port)

Well so much has happened and I’ve been so busy that I haven’t had time to update the blog, so fasten your seat belts because here comes a quick review of the last 10 (very full days). To catch more details you will have to catch up with me next time I see you (it would be too much stuff to write).
I am still at the YWAM base in Brisbane and last week I got to work VERY hard. On my typical Thursday I wake up at 5am to watch the world cup, around 7am had breakfast and after that worked in the kitchens cutting some fruit for the morning tea (which we have every morning here and it’s an excellent idea that should be implemented worldwide). Around 10am I was doing construction work, mainly digging a whole and mixing concrete for new laundry set up that we’ve been working on. After lunch I helped the crew clean up the kitchen (one of my daily duties here), then back to the construction to nail some boards, move washers and what not. After that I worked on the garden planting some ferns and watering tons of plants with bucket, picked up a huge sack of leaves for the clean up of the front of the property, and then put away all the tool that were used in all the jobs. After all that, play a little volleyball on the park down the road, eat dinner, clean up the kitchen, ping pong and crash into bed… no time for internet you see. Oh, and today I was the cheff in the kitchen and we made Brazilian food. It was sooooo good. Everybody loved it!

Last weekend I went to Byron Bay and it was excellent. This is the most popular beach town of Australia and the beaches there are really amazing! As soon as I got there I signed up for a surfing lesson and it was fantastic. Greg and Dominic (picture) were the aussie coaches that my group had and they were great. I am not going to lie, I crash countless times and I’ve never been flipped so many times in one afternoon, but by the end of the day I had the surfing thing down pretty good : ) It was soooooo much fun! The waves of 1.5 meters were great! Perfect conditions!
I spent the night at the Arts Factory which is a very cool, crazy hostel. Definitely the coolest one I’ve been to yet. Lots of surfers, musicians and artists here. There was art everywhere. The counters were made of surfboards, one of the dorms was made out of a bus, the other one was a circus tent. Very cool and different. The next day I did lots of walking and running and swimming on the beaches. I reached the most easterly point in Australia and got to see some dolphins from the lighthouse look out. Amazing place!!!

This week I’ve had the privilege to be a part of the Sports DTS school here at the base and it has been a blessing. The first half of the week we were away in a ranch house in the country. So peaceful there. Nothing around to bother us. Great teachings on the character and nature of God. I am learning so much! We also played tons of volleyball and I introduced foot-volley, which was a major hit too! We came back yesterday and the lectures will continue until the end of the week. Oh I wish I could stay for the whole course. It’s sooooo good.

This weekend I’ll try to see the city of Brisbane, since I’ve only been on the base thus far, and on Monday I leave for New Zealand! Better go now. The sports group (the one I am in) has 6am work outs on MWF, so it’s going to be an early rise… cheers – JP

don't know how to flip this pic so...

Em Portugues - Trabalho / Surf / Aprendizado

Alegria!!! Eu tenho feito tanto coisa por aqui que nem deu tempo de eu atualizar o site, mas ai vai um resumo do que se passa por aqui…
Ainda estou na base da JOCUM em Brisbane e tenho trabalhado bastante por aqui, fazendo de tudo. Lavo prato, corto fruta, limpo a cozinha, trabalho na construcao cavando buraco, fazendo cimento, pintando, martelando, removendo movies e maquinas de lavar roupa, jardinagem plantando samambaias, regando palmeiras, catando folhas, e mais… Hoje fui o chefe la’ na cozinha e fizemos comida brasileira. O arroz e feijao fizeram o maior sucesso e todos adoraram.

Fim de semana passado fui a Byron Bay, que e’ a praia mais frequentada da Australia. Muito show de bola. Chegando la’ peguei uma aulinha de surfe com uns professores (foto) muito feras. Depois de varias tombos e caldos peguei a manha da parade e no fim da tarde estava arrebentando nas ondas eheheheheheehhehe. Muito show de bola, bom de mais! Duas semanas atras estive no ponto mais sul da Australia e em Byron estive no ponto mais leste do pais. Uma vista incrivel da praia, do oceano e de baleias!!! So’ que nesse dia eu nao vi nenhuma baleia nao, so’ golfinhos. Show de bola esse lugar.

Essa semana eu tive o privilegio de participar das aulas do curso do DTS de esportes. Fomos para uma fazenda, longe de tudo para ter as primeiras aulas sobre o carater e essencia de Deus. Muito bom, aprendi bastante. Foi muito legal, bem tranquilo o lugar, muito volley e baralho com os amigos. Introduzi o futevolley e foi o maior sucesso! Todos adoraram : ) Amanha eu assisto a ultima aula dessa serie aqui na base mesmo e no fim de semana eu vou visitar a cidade de Brisbane, porque ate’ agora so’ fiquei na base. Segunda eu pego meu voo para Nova Zelandia!
Vou dormir porque amanha o pessoal do esporte tem que correr e malhar as 6 da manha, entao tenho que ir dormir cedo. Aquele abraco - JP

Evangelismo com a JOCUM na praia de Airlie

Ai ai… as coisa que eu nao faco para o reino de Deus. Ok Senhor se e’ mesmo da sua vontade eu va' para praia Airlie fazer evangelismo eu vou… ehehehahehe
Pois e' um dia depois de chegar na base da JOCUM aqui em Brisbane eu sai com uma equipe deles para Airlie beach para fazer evangelismo por uma semana. Foi uma viagem muito longa (15horas) mas valeu muito a pena. Esse lugar e' um ponto muito estrategico porque e' ali que estao os corais e as praias mais bonitas da Australia!
Na nossa equipe de evangelismo tinhamos cerca de 70 jovens que vieram de 3 bases diferentes da JOCUM. Formamos um grupo muito unido e fomos muito abencoados. Tivemos muito tempo de louvor e consgracao e tudo isso foi muito forte. Estar em volta de crentes de verdade, tementes a Deus e’ outra coisa viu. Outro nivel meu. Muito boa essa experiencia.

Na praia, montamos uma barraca enorme que parecia um circo. Cabiam mais de 200 pessoas. Dentro da barraca montamos um palco para shows a noite, e varias mesinhas de café para os convidados sentarem em volta e jogar baralho, conversar e desfrutar do ambiente. Tambem tinhamos uma barzinho de cha’ e café que fez muito sucesso.

O grupo todo foi dividido em varias areas especificas e eu cai logo na area de esportes. Nosso objetivo era conectar com as pessoas durante o dia e convida-las para a barraca a noite. Entao todos os dias jogamos futebol e volley na praia, fizemos muitos amigos e a maioria deles passaram pela barraca a noite para tomar um café ou escutar a musica. Dai a gente conversava e compartilhava nosso testemunhos e nossa fe’ com os novos amigos. Foi muito bom. Conversei e compartilhei com muita gente, a maioria jovens que estao de viagem. Tocamos e impactamos muitas vidas.

No meio da semana tivemos um dia especial para o esporte e fizemos um torneio de volley de praia e eu fui o diretor do torneio. Fizemos um churrasco e com 3 quadras na praia tivemos um super campeonato com 48 participantes. Foi sensacional. Eu organisei tudo igualzinho a um torneio de tennis e deu tudo certo. Foi show de bola.

No ultimo dia eu ganhei uma passagem de graca par ir visitar as ilhas da Whitsunday onde estao as praias mais bonitas do mundo! Bom nao achei que era mais bonito que Fernando de Noranha nao, mas o lugar era mesmo espetacular. Fui com um alemao que estava visitando a barraca e nois demos a sorte de sermos os escolhidos no meio de todos que estavao la’ na barraca naquela noite. A viagem foi sensacional e o alemao (Frankie) que era muito doido e nao sabia de nada acabou aprendendo bastante coisa sobre cristianismo ;) orem pore ele!

Depois do jogo horrivel do Brasil contra a Franca voltamos para a Brisbane (mais 15 horas - no sentido sul dessa vez). Hoje acordamos tarde e depois do almoco tiramos e guardamos todo o equipamento da barraca e lavamos os onibus. Durante as proximas duas semanas vou estar trablhando aqui na base. Vou trabalhar com construcao, jardinagem, cozinha e limpeza de segunda a sexta das 8:30 as 18h. Semana que vem vou assitir as aulas do DTS de esportes e ver como e’ o treinamento deles aqui. Estou bem animado para ver essas aulas - esse era o DTS que eu estava interessado em fazer. Vamos ver como sera’… - JP

YWAM outreach in Airlie Beach

Ai ai... the things I'll do for the Kingdom of God... Ok Lord, if you really want me to go to Airlie beach (the most amazing beach on the western hemisphere) I'll go.
So one day after I arrived at the baseI got on the bus and came with the YWAM team from Brisbane to Airlie beach to do evangelism for a week. It was a looooong 15 hour trip straight up north, but it was worth the drive. We had 3 YWAM teams there with a total of about 70 YWAMers. All these people were amazing and we had lots of deep, quality, worship and spiritual time together. Very intense and very real. Very powerful too. It was great.
On the first day we got there we helped the others teams to finish setting up our tent. This tent was huge and could easily fit 200 people. Inside it we had a stage, a few coffe table that were used for board games, cards, etc, and a free Chai tea table (which was a major hit). I was put in the sports ministry team and all we did was play soccer and volleyball at the beach all day in order to meet people and invite them to the tent at night. At night we would all be at the tent and hang out with the people that came in for the free Chai and to hang out. Almost every night we also had live music and one day we all got really crazy and had an amazing jaming night. Some how me and these other 5 guys with drums, guitars and trompete sounded really good. It was sooooo much fun. In the middle of the week we organized a volleyball tournament and I was the tournament director. We had a free BBQ and a great tournament. 48 people signed up and participated! Lots of them stopped by the tent at night and we had a chance to share our lives and testimonies with many of them. I ran the tournament like the tennis pizza parties and it worked out really well :)
I had lots of great conversations and many powerful experiences this week. God was so real, present and evident in this tent. It was amazing! Very humbling in times. Most of the people that came into the tent were backpackers from all ove the world, mostly Canadians and Europeans. With most of these I had to talk and listen to them for 1 hour or more before we talked about God and Christianity, but it was always worth being patient. Some times the subject didn't even come up, and it was ok, we had a good time together. So many of these young people were glad that the tent was there and that they could come hang out with us intead of going to the bars and get drunk again... (there is not much to do in Airlie beach). We made many friends and handed a few bibles too. I believe many lives were changed.

On friday, after the amazing jamming session, somebody gave our leader a free trip for two to the Whitsundays Islnad and she ended up giving it to me and another dude that I met that night. This guy (Frankie - from Germany- on the picture above) was so happy! He just walked into the tent, talked with me for like 20 minutes and ended up getting a free trip to the most amazing island and beaches in Australia! I ended up spending the night with Frankie and Michael (Australian dude) whom I had also met that night. Our whole group stayed in an elementary school 15 minutes away from the beach, where we slept on the floor with our sleeping bags. I couldn't go to the school at night because I would have no ride to catch the cruise in the morning, so I ended up crashing with Michael in a really nice hotel right by the beach. It was so nice to sleep in a bed (even though it was only for 5 hours) - I had been sleeping on the floor for a week... Early the next day Frankie and I got on the boat and had to the Whitsundays. The food on the boat was amazing and the beaches and islands were spectacular too. The water was crystal clear and the sand was white as snow and really really thin and soft. We spend the afternoon there swimming and playing frisbee and other games. Loads of fun.
On many nights I was on security duty and I had to stay awake at the tent to watch the sound equipment and make sure no drunk people would sleep or pass out in the tent. It wasn't too bad, specially with the world cup games being at 1am and 5am (we showed all the games on a big screen in the tent and this was also an evangelism tool). After 2 nights with very little sleep and a full day on the boat I was put on security again and my shift was suppose to end at 4:30am. By 10pm I was almost a sleep but I drank lots of coffee and managed to stay awake until the Germany Argentina game at 1am. The game was great but afterwards I was dead, and needed desperately to sleep. Everything went wrong, the van that was suppose to pick us up broke down I was stuck there until 6:30am! It was awful! When the next crew finally arrived we had no car so we had to take a taxi back to the school. After I slept for 3 hours I had to wake up and pack my bags to leave the elementary school. I ended up missing the bus was stuck there for another 3 hours (that I wish I was sleeping)... the rest of the day was pretty rough but it slowly got better. We had a good dinner and a fun last night. The next morning at 5am Brazil played awful and lost to France. Horrendous! After that we cleaned the house and got on the bus again. 15 hours latter we arrived in Brisbane.

For the next two weeks I'll be doing construction work, gardening, moving luggage and helping in the kitchen, from 8:30am to 6pm Monday - Friday. Next week I'll be able to watch some of the Sports DTS (Discipleship Training School) lectures and I am very excited and looking forward to it. That's the main reason why I came to Brisbane and Australia in the first place. Below is a picture of us jamming in the tent :) - JP