The name of our Fellows Brazil team, GUSTO, is an acronym of our five team values: Grit, United, Sacrificial, Teachable, and Optimistic. Each of these values has a deep meaning for our team.  

  • Grit reminds us to work hard and not give up, even when things are hard 
  • United means being a family that works together and takes care of each other 
  • Sacrificial means giving up our own desires to serve others 
  • Teachable means both accepting correction and being flexible when plans change 
  • Finally, we want to be Optimistic: to have fun and be full of the joy of the Lord!  

Through the power of the Holy Spirit, our team has embodied all five values of GUSTO this past week in various service opportunities.  

For four days this week, GUSTO and our Lifeshape Brazil team members staffed an overnight camp for teenagers. Fellows and Lifeshapers served as counselors, led worship, and coordinated activities and competitions for the campers.   

“Getting to serve students at an overnight camp was such a blessing! The Lord is at work in teenagers across the world.” -Zoe Hill 

What surprised me was how many campers spoke English, which allowed us Fellows to get to know them. We learned about each other’s language and culture and conversed about Jesus. A language barrier was still present, though, seen most obviously in us Americans’ struggle to memorize and pronounce several camp songs and chants in Portuguese! Every Fellow in GUSTO is extremely grateful to the Lifeshapers who have continually translated for us, whether it’s a sermon, song, or conversation.  

Following a rest day after camp, our Lifeshape + Fellows team has been working with a local church. Four of us Fellows had been asked to teach some of what we’ve learned at Impact 360 to the church. We presented some of the methods for spiritual conversations to the church youth before doing street evangelism together. Even though we couldn’t participate much in the conversations due to the language barrier, we could pray over the conversations that others were having. Our team also helped deep-clean the church building and brighten its nursery and hallways with murals.  

All of us on team GUSTO can hardly believe we’re already halfway through our time in Brazil. Something we’ve talked about as a team is trusting God during this trip. Every person has had to rely on God’s strength rather than his/her own this past week. Whether it’s energy to engage with campers when we’re tired, healing from sickness, or having peace amid changing plans, we see Jesus sustain us as we depend on Him. 

Zoe Hill
Class XIX Fellow