I am currently participating in the most exciting, dynamic evangelism effort I have ever been a part of in my life. I have grown up my entire life evangelizing on the streets, in school, at work, and on mission trips, but I have never seen anything like this before. We are literally planting a church in one week. For real.
About 40 people are here evangelizing all seven days while a total of about 80 people are coming here for one day or more to evangelize. We are in a small country town named Goianapolis with a population of about 15,000. The city lies between the major cities of Goiania and Anapolis and, thus, the name. There is a small Presbyterian congregation already existing here with about 20 members. We came here to evangelize the city and help establish this church as a potent, permanent presence in the city.
Before ever arriving to Goianapolis tons of preparation was done for the one-week outreach. The local Presbyterian pastor, Pastor Aldo, and our pastors from Goiania all met with the mayor of Goianapolis many times in order to gain his permission and assistance in the city-wide outreach. The mayor, who is a Christian and who’s name is Mayor Jehovah (I thought Mexicans were extreme by naming their kids Jesus, but now I’m discovering that a common name Brazilians give their kids is Jehovah!) gave the pastors the key to the city. He allowed us to be based at the nicest public high school of the city; gave us permits to perform music, dances, skits, and preachings at the main plaza of the city; and openly evangelize in the city. I believe he allowed this because we were not only going to evangelize, but we were going to offer many social services to the people of the city free of charge.
Summary of Events
Here is how our week went.
On Monday we spent the whole day driving to the city, getting situated at the locations we were sleeping at, and preparing for all the activities that were going to take place throughout the week. All the men and boys were sleeping in the classrooms of the high school, while all the women and girls stayed at homes of people from the Presbyterian congregation. All of our equipment, materials, Bibles, food, etc., was based at the school. Half of our activities were going to be held at the school and half were going to be held in the downtown area of the city. We prepared everything for the Vacation Bible School that was going to start the next day and ate our first meal together. Then at 8 p.m. all the members of the local Presbyterian church showed up and we had a church service with our team and their members. We got to know each other, received some orientation about the week’s activities, and prayed together for the outreach. We went to sleep by 11 p.m. because every day we would have to wake up at 7 a.m. to begin the day early.
Throughout the outreach there were several ways that we reached out to the city.
On Tuesday, we had a special culinary class with a professional chef teaching exquisite recipes that were cooked and eaten on the spot. We had a class for parents on drug prevention, the reality of drug addiction, and drug rehabilitation.
On Thursday, we showed a Christian movie in the main public square and about ten people accepted Christ. Throughout the whole week we had table tennis classes twice, two soccer classes, and a soccer tournament. At the end of the tournament everyone won Bibles and chocolate. We also had a class on how to raise your children correctly and discipline them correctly. We had another class about how to grow your business from being a small business to a large business.g
On Friday and Saturday night we had live worship bands each night, 2 dance teams, evangelistic skits, and a 5 minute preaching with an altar call each night. This was all done at the central plaza of the city. On Saturday night it was especially packed because they were having a Feira (open market) at the plaza. While the groups performed I preached to people one-on-one at the market. One of the guys who had been saved earlier that week tagged along with me as I evangelized. He loved it. It was so cool cause he came to Christ, was given his first Bible, went to church, and learned how to preach the Gospel all in one week. His name is Ronaldo. Please pray for him for God to continue to guide and use him.
All morning, afternoon, and night of Saturday we had free medical care for the public. We tested their blood pressure, their triglycerides, and gave them consultations. We had two doctors on site from our church. It was really amazing.
Also, all Saturday afternoon we had a bazaar where we sold tons of donated items for anywhere between 50 cents to 5 reals. It was basically a one-day super thrift store. It was super intense and fruitful. Hundreds of people came and virtually everything was sold. During Saturday afternoon we also had a dentist from our church teach a class on proper dental care.
All of these served as ways to bless the community, show the love of God, build relationships and trust with the people, and directly preach the Gospel to the people as well. We never heard one negative comment during all of these activities. The community was extremely grateful and open to our love and the Gospel.
Also, I was really impressed that we had great turnouts to all of the above events described. When I first saw the schedule I thought to myself, “Who would want to attend a culinary class, table tennis lessons, or watch a Christian movie that they’ve never heard of?” Despite my doubts great numbers of people attended all of our activities. A couple of the classes only had about 10 people attend and one business class had no one attend, but most of the classes and activities had a larger attendance. Hundreds of people attend our activities, were touched by them, and gave their lives to Jesus through these events.
Door-to-Door Evangelism
However, the main forms of evangelism that we used to reach Goianapolis was daily door-to-door evangelism every morning and afternoon and a daily Vacation Bible School for kids ages 3 to 13 every afternoon. Both forms of evangelism were highly effective and great fruit came out of both of them.
At first, I was very intimidated by doing door-to-door evangelism in a small country town. I am an urbanite. I feel very comfortable evangelizing in an urban context, but I have never evangelized in a small town before. Also, door-to-door evangelism is one of the most difficult styles of evangelism and I have always thought that in the country people would hate for anyone to knock on their door to witness to them. This city is the tomato capital of Brazil.
So I thought that the residents here would be very suspicious and closed to outsiders knocking on their doors, especially since this city is strongly Catholic. However, I was proven wrong. This has been, perhaps, the easiest, most pleasant evangelism experience I have ever had in my life. I am not exaggerating. Nearly everyone we visited gladly opened their doors to us and invited us in to share the Gospel with them and almost all the people we shared the Gospel with ended up giving their lives to Jesus.
Someone might think that they accepted Jesus because they were already Catholic, yet nearly everyone I spoke to said that they had no idea where they would go to once they died and they believed that it was impossible for anyone to have assurance of salvation. The few people that did think that they were going to go to Heaven said that the reason they would go to Heaven was because they were good people who didn’t harm anybody. Thus, when we preached the Gospel to them many of them were hearing this Gospel for the first time. They had never heard of a Gospel of grace that is attained by faith, not by works, and promises eternal life to all who believe.
We were all given a really nice booklet that had beautiful images on each page with a scripture on each page. Each scripture and picture explained the Gospel in a very natural order. So every time we flipped the page we knew exactly what to say because there was a scripture already explaining the next part of the Gospel message. This made it very easy for everyone to share the Gospel even if they had never evangelized before. Furthermore, the beautiful pictures made it much easier for the people to pay attention to the message, especially since many of the people we spoke to were illiterate and the scriptures on each page made our message irrefutable because the people saw that what we were preaching was straight from the Word of God. Thus, by the end of our message most people received Jesus into their lives because they saw that we were preaching was straight from the Bible and because they wanted to have assurance of salvation.
Moreover, one thing we made clear to everyone we spoke to was that we were not here promoting any religion, we were not here to convert them to our denomination, and we were not here to bring them to our church. We were here only to share the Scriptures with them and tell them about the message of salvation that Jesus preached. Before making this statement many staunch Catholics hesitated in inviting us into their homes, but once we made it clear that we were here to talk about Jesus and the Bible and not our church they almost always invited us in.
In total, we knocked on the doors of about 570 homes, we were invited into and presented the Gospel in over 400 homes, and over 200 people prayed with us to commit their lives to Jesus! It was amazing!
Deliverance
Also, during the evangelism, several people were delivered from demons. I know of three deliverances that took place in our group and one with a friend’s group. The first day we went witnessing there was a man who said that he was seeing demons and hearing voices. Mamesio prayed for him and he immediately felt relieved. The second occurrence was when three young adults decided to give their lives to Christ. As they repeated the prayer to accept Jesus into their lives one of them started getting a strong headache, feeling dizzy, and nearly fainted, but he was able to sit on a concrete bench right next to him. I asked him what was going on and he told me. I told Mamesio once the prayer was finished and Mamesio cast the demon out of him, explained to him what had just happened to him, and told him what he needs to do in order to prevent a demon from entering his life again. Thirdly, Ronaldo was delivered from a demon of depression, which I explain later on in this entry.
Lastly, our friend Zu preached the Gospel to a 15-year-old girl and when the girl was praying to receive Jesus in her life she began to say, “I’m going to die! I feel like I’m going to die! Jesus save me!” At that moment she fainted and lost consciousness. Zu grabbed her before she fell, but Zu’s hand got smashed on the brick wall that was behind the girl. The girl eventually gained consciousness again and Zu was able to cast the demon out of her. Zu then asked her what was it that had caused the demon to come into her life and the girl said that she has just had two horrible fights with her mother and her grandfather and she was going to move out of the house. When Zu told us the story she showed us her bloody knuckles that had been smashed against the wall. That girl went to the culinary class that same night. Zu walked her back home once the class was over and when they arrived at the home the girl’s mother came out and gave Zu a big hug and thanked her for what she had done for her daughter.
Worship Services
Furthermore, every day whenever we would have a really great experience with a certain family or couple we would ask them if we could hold a worship service in their home that night. We would ask them to please invite their neighbors and friends to the meeting and we would show up at 8 p.m. for a one hour meeting where we would sing 3 or 4 songs of worship, preach a 20 minute message, and pray for everyone there. Literally everyone we asked always said yes to having the meeting in their home on the same night and when we would arrive at their home at 8 p.m. their house would always be full of people.
We had seven different services in seven different homes. I participated in three of those services. In the first two I led the worship and in the third one I led the whole service. Each service was amazing.
The first service was probably the largest. There were about 8 or 9 adults, 8 or 9 youth, and 2 toddlers. We brought about 6 people from our group, so we were all squeezed in to the house very tightly. Everyone here loves Vineyard songs such as This is the Air I Breathe, In the Secret, and Pour Out My Heart, so I simply played the Vineyard songs that I knew in English and they sang the song in Portuguese. I only knew the chorus of each song in Portuguese, so I would only join in for the chorus. Pr. Beny preached and everyone gave their lives to Jesus, except for one woman named Perpeta. She was a backslidden Christian who had been away from God for 5 years now and she said that she knew that if she gave her life to Christ she wouldn’t be able to follow Him because her husband always fights with her about going to church and following God. After talking with her for a while she asked us if we could have a worship service at her house the next night, so that her husband could be there because he never goes to church.
Also, there was a 15-year-old boy named Ronaldo who was so depressed that he hadn’t stopped crying for about 3 days. He refused to life up his head and during the entire service he stayed in the kitchen crying, not wanting to be a part of the service. He was depressed because his family had just moved to Goianapolis and his girlfriend from his past town broke up with him. Pr. Beny prayed for him and encouraged him, but he still wouldn’t lift up his head or stop crying. Then I talked to him, prayed with him, and ordered the demons to leave him. He got a little better, but still would not lift up his head. He said that he would like to have a Bible to read.
So the next night we had a service at Perpeta’s house, which had about 12 people in total. Most of them were the same people from the past service, but there were a few new faces, including Perpeta’s husband. I led worship in the cell group again and this time Josie, a woman who had come from Sao Paulo, preached.
The third meeting was with a family that my group had evangelized and I had brought to Christ. I asked them about having the worship service in their home, so I was asked by Pr. Beny to lead the whole meeting. So on Friday I was able to rally 3 people from our team to come with me. About 8 or 9 people showed up for the meeting and since the host couple and a few of the others had already accepted Christ I felt led to preach a deeper message about being a disciple of Christ. I led worship and then preached on the rich young ruler and how Christ demands everything from us if we want to be His disciple. It was a pretty radical message for a new group of people. However, again, I was amazed. All of them stood up and prayed together with me to commit to be Christ’s disciple. It was so beautiful. They all wanted Bibles, so the next day I came by again and gave them all Bibles.
Vacation Bible School
The other main way we reached out to the city was through a free Vacation Bible School for the children of the community from ages 3 to 13. Every afternoon from Tuesday until Friday we held a VBS for the kids of the community. So during the morning everyone in our whole team evangelized door-to-door, but during the afternoon nearly everyone became fully involved at the VBS while only two or three teams of evangelism would go out to witness. I would usually go out to evangelize in the afternoon, but on Wednesday I helped at the VBS because I had never been a part of a VBS in my life and I want to see what it was like. I assisted Aderico in teaching the class for 11-13 year olds. We had a blast.
On the first day more than 80 kids attended, but from Wednesday to Friday we consistently had over 180 children attend. Each day we would start the VBS by singing some fun kids worship songs. Then we had a missionary story about a boy named Samuelito that was told as a series each day. Then everyone would be divided according to their age to attend their class. They were all taught several Bible stories. After the story they would have a good snack, usually soda, a hot dog, and homemade chocolate cake. Then each group would take turns participating in fun activities such as arts and crafts, jumping on a trampoline, playing in the playground, etc. Also, we had unlimited cotton candy during playtime.
It was a lot of hard work to set up, run, and clean up every day and everyone put in time to help. In total, over 70 of the kids made decisions to give their lives to Christ. Moreover, every day during VBS the parents of the children were able to participate in the classes being offered while they waited for their kids. Thus, including the parents, we had well over 200 people attend our VBS every afternoon at the high school. We were definitely the most happenin’ place in town.
Rest and Fun
We all worked hard during this week, but we all rested and enjoyed ourselves too. Every day we went to bed around midnight and we had to wake up at 7 a.m., so we all got about 7 hours of sleep a night. Morning evangelism would be done from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Then from 11:30 to 1:00 we would eat lunch, which is the main meal of the day in Brazil, and then we would all take a SIESTA!!!!!!!!!!! …until 2 p.m.!!!!!!!! Every day I would say, “This is the life! Preach the Gospel, eat good food, and have a siesta, then preach the Gospel again, serve the community with some social work, and go to bed! What a life!”
Furthermore, we had an amazing chef named Iran who, along with his comrades Humberto and Sandro, would cook us 5 meals a day!!!!!!! I’m totally serious! So let me explain. Breakfast every morning was French bread with butter, cheese, and/or ham and coffee and/or hot chocolate. Lunch was huge and always different. It was the main meal of the day and would always be served exactly at noon. Around 4 p.m. you had your “snack” in the middle of the day. This was usually a hot dog and a piece of cake, or ham and cheese sandwiches, or cheese bread and salgadinhos (finger foods). Then we would have dinner, which was almost always just as big of a meal as lunch. This was always around 6 to 7 p.m. Also, form 5 to 7 p.m. was another break time every day. Lastly, we would have a “snack at night before going to bed around 10 or 11 p.m. This snack would consist of lots of hot chocolate with cookies, or bread with butter and/or cheese.
I made a comment that I don’t know how people in Brazil could eat so much and still remain thin and my cousin Andre gave me a great answer. He said that in Brazil they eat 5 times a day, but the portions that they eat are much smaller. In America we eat 2 or 3 times a day (he said two because in big cities a lot of people don’t eat breakfast anymore), but we eat much larger portions. It is proven that it is healthier for your metabolism to eat more often throughout the day in smaller portions. However, when Americans come to Brazil they are not able to contain themselves and they eat large portions for all five of the meals and always end up gaining weight in Brazil. Great answer.
Moreover, Wednesday night was the Copa America game of Brazil vs. Ecuador and on Sunday was the Copa America game Brazil vs. Paraguay, which they lost miserably. We watched both of the games since neither of the games interfered with the scheduled times of our outreach. Also, we played soccer after the days activities three times. And
Thus, even in the midst of such amazing outreach, dynamic activities, and hard work, we were still able to rest well and have lots of fun. It was absolutely amazing! I have never been a part of such a powerful, holistic, well-organized outreach. Thank you Igreja Presbiteriana Maranatha!
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Monday, July 18, 2011
Projeto Amar Camp
On Thursday, Junior and Cidinha picked me up to go to the camp early. We needed to get there a day early in order to set everything up so that everything was ready when the kids arrived the next morning. We washed all the dusty dishes, pots, and pans; organized all the rooms; put together all the games and prizes; put away all the food; and much more. It was fun to see the adults and get to know them since during the camp we wouldn’t be talking to each other much at all.
On Friday morning, we set up a few more things and then I spent a good amount of time with God. The kids arrived around 10:30 a.m. and went straight to the chapel. We had our first meeting with Pr. Andre from Luz Para Os Povos and it was awesome!
I was given my group of kids. I had five boys that were 8 to 9 years old and one boy who was 11 years old. Their names were Kevin, Charlie, Rafael, Isaias, Guilerme, and Wiclif. I grew to love them so much. At the beginning a few of them didn’t like me because I had an accent, I stumbled on my words sometimes, and I was a little tough on them, but by the end of the camp they all loved me like crazy. Charlie and Isaias gave me the most trouble during the camp, but I learned that they were two of the kids with the worst families in the camp.
Isaias’s dad is a drug trafficker I forget now if he died, left the family, or is in prison. All I know is he isn’t around anymore and it has to do with his career choice. His mother was a crack addict and was in jail for 2 years. She recently got out of jail, but is still a very troubled woman. Isaias also has a growth problem. He is 11, but his body looks like he is 7 or 8 years old. He was the smallest kid in my entire group. So he is very insecure and tries to be tough in order to cover it up. Sometimes he would give me or the other kids an attitude or he would punch somebody, but most of the time he would just wander off from the group for no reason.
Charlie comes from an abusive home and his father eventually left the family too. He is the biggest and toughest of all my kids. He had a big problem with cussing, fighting, trying the other kids, and incessant lying. He was essentially a little bully. After a while though he really softened up and became very sweet with me and the other kids. He would wander off the most without telling me where he was going.
Kevin is totally saved. He is practically an angel. He always wanted to worship God and he loved the chapel meetings. On Saturday night we had a bonfire with worship starting at 1 a.m. and he was one of the only little kids that stuck around to worship. On Sunday morning I asked him if he had slept well. He smiled and told me, “I slept so well. The whole night I dreamed that I was in Heaven!”
Amazed, I asked him, “What did you see in Heaven?”
He answered, “It was full of angels everywhere!”
Rafael was the most obedient of all the kids. He was very sweet, but also really cool. This might sound weird, but he really really looks like me when I was his age. In fact, one of the volunteers saw us together and said “You looks a lot like you.”
Wiclif was also a sweetheart and he never did anything bad during the camp except that he would wander off sometimes. His right arm was broken, but he insisted on playing soccer, volleyball, swimming, and everything else. He never complained once.
Guilerme knew capoiera, knew how to dance real well, and was probably the coolest kid out of everyone in my group. He was a lot of fun, but I was also worried about his salvation. On Saturday night, however, I prayed with him to accept Jesus into his life.
In fact, all the kids accepted Jesus into their lives. It was really amazing!
Oh I forgot to explain. This camp was put on by Projeto Amar, which is basically a free after school ministry that has bases in two of the poorest, most violent neighborhoods of Goiania. They provide the kids with breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, games, sports, tutoring, classes, Bible studies, worship, prayer, and more. Both of Projeto Amar’s bases have birthed a church. It’s really an amazing ministry. Cidinha is the leader of the ministry. Thus, once a year they hold a camp for free for all of the kids from the program. So all of the kids in this camp come from the worst neighborhoods in Goiania and they range from ages 4 or 5 to 16 or 17.
This ministry has been around for 22 years and many of their kids have gone on to become pastors, missionaries, and professionals in other fields.
I loved every bit of the camp. We played tons of games and sports, we had several chapel meetings, we had daily devotionals, and tons of really great food! I fell in love with the kids and at the end Gulierme gave me a hug and said, “Teacher, don’t forget us!”
Throughout the whole camp I was struggling with my calling to raise up an army of itinerant preachers. I realize that I enjoy discipleship so much and it is so natural and easy for me to do. I love evangelism too, but I must confess that I get frustrated with evangelism because you can’t see the results of your work. Even if a person weeps and gets radically saved you don’t know if tomorrow they are really following Jesus or just back in the world again. But discipleship is so rewarding because you see the growth of the individuals. I would rather make 100 disciples than bring one thousand people to Christ who will eventually fall back into the world or live lukewarm Christian lives.
So after being a part of two amazing camps where I discipled two groups of young people and after tasting the joys and frustrations of both evangelism and discipleship for most of my life I was seriously questioning if I wanted to devote my life to evangelism more than to discpleship. Obviously, I can always do both, but at least for the next ten years or so evangelism would be the main thing I focus on.
However, on Saturday night Leandrio, the guest speaker, walked up to me after his preaching and said, “Look man, I don’t consider myself to be very prophetic, but I feel God wanting to say to you to not give up on the dream I have given you because this vision is not your vision. It is my vision and I have called you to fulfill. So don’t stop believing in your dream. It will come to pass.”
That prophetic word so encouraged me. It was amazing! It came at the perfect timing. Now I am 100% certain that God wants me to pour my life into GGM 100%. I will give it my all in Jesus name and it will be God Himself who will empower me and who will ultimately make it all happen! Because, after all, it’s His vision and not mine right?!
On Friday morning, we set up a few more things and then I spent a good amount of time with God. The kids arrived around 10:30 a.m. and went straight to the chapel. We had our first meeting with Pr. Andre from Luz Para Os Povos and it was awesome!
I was given my group of kids. I had five boys that were 8 to 9 years old and one boy who was 11 years old. Their names were Kevin, Charlie, Rafael, Isaias, Guilerme, and Wiclif. I grew to love them so much. At the beginning a few of them didn’t like me because I had an accent, I stumbled on my words sometimes, and I was a little tough on them, but by the end of the camp they all loved me like crazy. Charlie and Isaias gave me the most trouble during the camp, but I learned that they were two of the kids with the worst families in the camp.
Isaias’s dad is a drug trafficker I forget now if he died, left the family, or is in prison. All I know is he isn’t around anymore and it has to do with his career choice. His mother was a crack addict and was in jail for 2 years. She recently got out of jail, but is still a very troubled woman. Isaias also has a growth problem. He is 11, but his body looks like he is 7 or 8 years old. He was the smallest kid in my entire group. So he is very insecure and tries to be tough in order to cover it up. Sometimes he would give me or the other kids an attitude or he would punch somebody, but most of the time he would just wander off from the group for no reason.
Charlie comes from an abusive home and his father eventually left the family too. He is the biggest and toughest of all my kids. He had a big problem with cussing, fighting, trying the other kids, and incessant lying. He was essentially a little bully. After a while though he really softened up and became very sweet with me and the other kids. He would wander off the most without telling me where he was going.
Kevin is totally saved. He is practically an angel. He always wanted to worship God and he loved the chapel meetings. On Saturday night we had a bonfire with worship starting at 1 a.m. and he was one of the only little kids that stuck around to worship. On Sunday morning I asked him if he had slept well. He smiled and told me, “I slept so well. The whole night I dreamed that I was in Heaven!”
Amazed, I asked him, “What did you see in Heaven?”
He answered, “It was full of angels everywhere!”
Rafael was the most obedient of all the kids. He was very sweet, but also really cool. This might sound weird, but he really really looks like me when I was his age. In fact, one of the volunteers saw us together and said “You looks a lot like you.”
Wiclif was also a sweetheart and he never did anything bad during the camp except that he would wander off sometimes. His right arm was broken, but he insisted on playing soccer, volleyball, swimming, and everything else. He never complained once.
Guilerme knew capoiera, knew how to dance real well, and was probably the coolest kid out of everyone in my group. He was a lot of fun, but I was also worried about his salvation. On Saturday night, however, I prayed with him to accept Jesus into his life.
In fact, all the kids accepted Jesus into their lives. It was really amazing!
Oh I forgot to explain. This camp was put on by Projeto Amar, which is basically a free after school ministry that has bases in two of the poorest, most violent neighborhoods of Goiania. They provide the kids with breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, games, sports, tutoring, classes, Bible studies, worship, prayer, and more. Both of Projeto Amar’s bases have birthed a church. It’s really an amazing ministry. Cidinha is the leader of the ministry. Thus, once a year they hold a camp for free for all of the kids from the program. So all of the kids in this camp come from the worst neighborhoods in Goiania and they range from ages 4 or 5 to 16 or 17.
This ministry has been around for 22 years and many of their kids have gone on to become pastors, missionaries, and professionals in other fields.
I loved every bit of the camp. We played tons of games and sports, we had several chapel meetings, we had daily devotionals, and tons of really great food! I fell in love with the kids and at the end Gulierme gave me a hug and said, “Teacher, don’t forget us!”
Throughout the whole camp I was struggling with my calling to raise up an army of itinerant preachers. I realize that I enjoy discipleship so much and it is so natural and easy for me to do. I love evangelism too, but I must confess that I get frustrated with evangelism because you can’t see the results of your work. Even if a person weeps and gets radically saved you don’t know if tomorrow they are really following Jesus or just back in the world again. But discipleship is so rewarding because you see the growth of the individuals. I would rather make 100 disciples than bring one thousand people to Christ who will eventually fall back into the world or live lukewarm Christian lives.
So after being a part of two amazing camps where I discipled two groups of young people and after tasting the joys and frustrations of both evangelism and discipleship for most of my life I was seriously questioning if I wanted to devote my life to evangelism more than to discpleship. Obviously, I can always do both, but at least for the next ten years or so evangelism would be the main thing I focus on.
However, on Saturday night Leandrio, the guest speaker, walked up to me after his preaching and said, “Look man, I don’t consider myself to be very prophetic, but I feel God wanting to say to you to not give up on the dream I have given you because this vision is not your vision. It is my vision and I have called you to fulfill. So don’t stop believing in your dream. It will come to pass.”
That prophetic word so encouraged me. It was amazing! It came at the perfect timing. Now I am 100% certain that God wants me to pour my life into GGM 100%. I will give it my all in Jesus name and it will be God Himself who will empower me and who will ultimately make it all happen! Because, after all, it’s His vision and not mine right?!
Projeto Amar Camp
On Thursday, Junior and Cidinha picked me up to go to the camp early. We needed to get there a day early in order to set everything up so that everything was ready when the kids arrived the next morning. We washed all the dusty dishes, pots, and pans; organized all the rooms; put together all the games and prizes; put away all the food; and much more. It was fun to see the adults and get to know them since during the camp we wouldn’t be talking to each other much at all.
On Friday morning, we set up a few more things and then I spent a good amount of time with God. The kids arrived around 10:30 a.m. and went straight to the chapel. We had our first meeting with Pr. Andre from Luz Para Os Povos and it was awesome!
I was given my group of kids. I had five boys that were 8 to 9 years old and one boy who was 11 years old. Their names were Kevin, Charlie, Rafael, Isaias, Guilerme, and Wiclif. I grew to love them so much. At the beginning a few of them didn’t like me because I had an accent, I stumbled on my words sometimes, and I was a little tough on them, but by the end of the camp they all loved me like crazy. Charlie and Isaias gave me the most trouble during the camp, but I learned that they were two of the kids with the worst families in the camp.
Isaias’s dad is a drug trafficker I forget now if he died, left the family, or is in prison. All I know is he isn’t around anymore and it has to do with his career choice. His mother was a crack addict and was in jail for 2 years. She recently got out of jail, but is still a very troubled woman. Isaias also has a growth problem. He is 11, but his body looks like he is 7 or 8 years old. He was the smallest kid in my entire group. So he is very insecure and tries to be tough in order to cover it up. Sometimes he would give me or the other kids an attitude or he would punch somebody, but most of the time he would just wander off from the group for no reason.
Charlie comes from an abusive home and his father eventually left the family too. He is the biggest and toughest of all my kids. He had a big problem with cussing, fighting, trying the other kids, and incessant lying. He was essentially a little bully. After a while though he really softened up and became very sweet with me and the other kids. He would wander off the most without telling me where he was going.
Kevin is totally saved. He is practically an angel. He always wanted to worship God and he loved the chapel meetings. On Saturday night we had a bonfire with worship starting at 1 a.m. and he was one of the only little kids that stuck around to worship. On Sunday morning I asked him if he had slept well. He smiled and told me, “I slept so well. The whole night I dreamed that I was in Heaven!”
Amazed, I asked him, “What did you see in Heaven?”
He answered, “It was full of angels everywhere!”
Rafael was the most obedient of all the kids. He was very sweet, but also really cool. This might sound weird, but he really really looks like me when I was his age. In fact, one of the volunteers saw us together and said “You looks a lot like you.”
Wiclif was also a sweetheart and he never did anything bad during the camp except that he would wander off sometimes. His right arm was broken, but he insisted on playing soccer, volleyball, swimming, and everything else. He never complained once.
Guilerme knew capoiera, knew how to dance real well, and was probably the coolest kid out of everyone in my group. He was a lot of fun, but I was also worried about his salvation. On Saturday night, however, I prayed with him to accept Jesus into his life.
In fact, all the kids accepted Jesus into their lives. It was really amazing!
Oh I forgot to explain. This camp was put on by Projeto Amar, which is basically a free after school ministry that has bases in two of the poorest, most violent neighborhoods of Goiania. They provide the kids with breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, games, sports, tutoring, classes, Bible studies, worship, prayer, and more. Both of Projeto Amar’s bases have birthed a church. It’s really an amazing ministry. Cidinha is the leader of the ministry. Thus, once a year they hold a camp for free for all of the kids from the program. So all of the kids in this camp come from the worst neighborhoods in Goiania and they range from ages 4 or 5 to 16 or 17.
This ministry has been around for 22 years and many of their kids have gone on to become pastors, missionaries, and professionals in other fields.
I loved every bit of the camp. We played tons of games and sports, we had several chapel meetings, we had daily devotionals, and tons of really great food! I fell in love with the kids and at the end Gulierme gave me a hug and said, “Teacher, don’t forget us!”
Throughout the whole camp I was struggling with my calling to raise up an army of itinerant preachers. I realize that I enjoy discipleship so much and it is so natural and easy for me to do. I love evangelism too, but I must confess that I get frustrated with evangelism because you can’t see the results of your work. Even if a person weeps and gets radically saved you don’t know if tomorrow they are really following Jesus or just back in the world again. But discipleship is so rewarding because you see the growth of the individuals. I would rather make 100 disciples than bring one thousand people to Christ who will eventually fall back into the world or live lukewarm Christian lives.
So after being a part of two amazing camps where I discipled two groups of young people and after tasting the joys and frustrations of both evangelism and discipleship for most of my life I was seriously questioning if I wanted to devote my life to evangelism more than to discpleship. Obviously, I can always do both, but at least for the next ten years or so evangelism would be the main thing I focus on.
However, on Saturday night Leandrio, the guest speaker, walked up to me after his preaching and said, “Look man, I don’t consider myself to be very prophetic, but I feel God wanting to say to you to not give up on the dream I have given you because this vision is not your vision. It is my vision and I have called you to fulfill. So don’t stop believing in your dream. It will come to pass.”
That prophetic word so encouraged me. It was amazing! It came at the perfect timing. Now I am 100% certain that God wants me to pour my life into GGM 100%. I will give it my all in Jesus name and it will be God Himself who will empower me and who will ultimately make it all happen! Because, after all, it’s His vision and not mine right?!
On Friday morning, we set up a few more things and then I spent a good amount of time with God. The kids arrived around 10:30 a.m. and went straight to the chapel. We had our first meeting with Pr. Andre from Luz Para Os Povos and it was awesome!
I was given my group of kids. I had five boys that were 8 to 9 years old and one boy who was 11 years old. Their names were Kevin, Charlie, Rafael, Isaias, Guilerme, and Wiclif. I grew to love them so much. At the beginning a few of them didn’t like me because I had an accent, I stumbled on my words sometimes, and I was a little tough on them, but by the end of the camp they all loved me like crazy. Charlie and Isaias gave me the most trouble during the camp, but I learned that they were two of the kids with the worst families in the camp.
Isaias’s dad is a drug trafficker I forget now if he died, left the family, or is in prison. All I know is he isn’t around anymore and it has to do with his career choice. His mother was a crack addict and was in jail for 2 years. She recently got out of jail, but is still a very troubled woman. Isaias also has a growth problem. He is 11, but his body looks like he is 7 or 8 years old. He was the smallest kid in my entire group. So he is very insecure and tries to be tough in order to cover it up. Sometimes he would give me or the other kids an attitude or he would punch somebody, but most of the time he would just wander off from the group for no reason.
Charlie comes from an abusive home and his father eventually left the family too. He is the biggest and toughest of all my kids. He had a big problem with cussing, fighting, trying the other kids, and incessant lying. He was essentially a little bully. After a while though he really softened up and became very sweet with me and the other kids. He would wander off the most without telling me where he was going.
Kevin is totally saved. He is practically an angel. He always wanted to worship God and he loved the chapel meetings. On Saturday night we had a bonfire with worship starting at 1 a.m. and he was one of the only little kids that stuck around to worship. On Sunday morning I asked him if he had slept well. He smiled and told me, “I slept so well. The whole night I dreamed that I was in Heaven!”
Amazed, I asked him, “What did you see in Heaven?”
He answered, “It was full of angels everywhere!”
Rafael was the most obedient of all the kids. He was very sweet, but also really cool. This might sound weird, but he really really looks like me when I was his age. In fact, one of the volunteers saw us together and said “You looks a lot like you.”
Wiclif was also a sweetheart and he never did anything bad during the camp except that he would wander off sometimes. His right arm was broken, but he insisted on playing soccer, volleyball, swimming, and everything else. He never complained once.
Guilerme knew capoiera, knew how to dance real well, and was probably the coolest kid out of everyone in my group. He was a lot of fun, but I was also worried about his salvation. On Saturday night, however, I prayed with him to accept Jesus into his life.
In fact, all the kids accepted Jesus into their lives. It was really amazing!
Oh I forgot to explain. This camp was put on by Projeto Amar, which is basically a free after school ministry that has bases in two of the poorest, most violent neighborhoods of Goiania. They provide the kids with breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, games, sports, tutoring, classes, Bible studies, worship, prayer, and more. Both of Projeto Amar’s bases have birthed a church. It’s really an amazing ministry. Cidinha is the leader of the ministry. Thus, once a year they hold a camp for free for all of the kids from the program. So all of the kids in this camp come from the worst neighborhoods in Goiania and they range from ages 4 or 5 to 16 or 17.
This ministry has been around for 22 years and many of their kids have gone on to become pastors, missionaries, and professionals in other fields.
I loved every bit of the camp. We played tons of games and sports, we had several chapel meetings, we had daily devotionals, and tons of really great food! I fell in love with the kids and at the end Gulierme gave me a hug and said, “Teacher, don’t forget us!”
Throughout the whole camp I was struggling with my calling to raise up an army of itinerant preachers. I realize that I enjoy discipleship so much and it is so natural and easy for me to do. I love evangelism too, but I must confess that I get frustrated with evangelism because you can’t see the results of your work. Even if a person weeps and gets radically saved you don’t know if tomorrow they are really following Jesus or just back in the world again. But discipleship is so rewarding because you see the growth of the individuals. I would rather make 100 disciples than bring one thousand people to Christ who will eventually fall back into the world or live lukewarm Christian lives.
So after being a part of two amazing camps where I discipled two groups of young people and after tasting the joys and frustrations of both evangelism and discipleship for most of my life I was seriously questioning if I wanted to devote my life to evangelism more than to discpleship. Obviously, I can always do both, but at least for the next ten years or so evangelism would be the main thing I focus on.
However, on Saturday night Leandrio, the guest speaker, walked up to me after his preaching and said, “Look man, I don’t consider myself to be very prophetic, but I feel God wanting to say to you to not give up on the dream I have given you because this vision is not your vision. It is my vision and I have called you to fulfill. So don’t stop believing in your dream. It will come to pass.”
That prophetic word so encouraged me. It was amazing! It came at the perfect timing. Now I am 100% certain that God wants me to pour my life into GGM 100%. I will give it my all in Jesus name and it will be God Himself who will empower me and who will ultimately make it all happen! Because, after all, it’s His vision and not mine right?!
Drug Addicts in Brazil
07/10/11-07/11/11
After attending Videira on Sunday night I had to walk home because I had given all my money away in the missions offering. As I walked home on what would be considered a cold night in Goiania, I saw a young black man with no shirt on walking on the sidewalk in front of me. All he was wearing was board shorts and he was so skinny that he looked almost like a starving person in Africa. He was barefoot, his pubic hairs were coming out of his sagging board shorts, and he was filthy from head to toe.
As soon as he saw me coming he tried to hide himself by pretending like he was calling someone at a telephone booth, which are called orelhaos here in Brazil because they are shaped in the form of a huge ear. At first, I felt slightly suspicious that he was going to rob me, but then I thought twice about his condition and I was deeply moved with compassion for him. I walked right up to him and introduced myself and he told me that his name was Welton. I asked him if I could talk to him about Jesus and he quickly agreed by sitting down on the cement sidewalk. I sat down with him and we began talking.
Within one minute another street kid approached us and asked me with some attitude, “Hey, are you of Jesus (literal translation)?”
“Yes. I follow Jesus. Do you follow Jesus?”
He went on to tell me that he used to follow Jesus, but he stopped following Jesus a few years ago. His name is Caio. He was not nearly as sickly looking as his friend Welton and he was fully clothed with pants, a t-shirt, and some sandals. His clothes were extremely dirty and his hair was messy, but he looked like a normal young person otherwise.
“Where do you guys live?” I asked them.
“Right here,” Welton responded, “I sleep over there.” He pointed to a dark corner next to a shop. Later on I saw the mattresses and blankets they slept on in that dark corner.
Here are their stories:
Welton began doing drugs at a young age and eventually he started smoking cocaine. He became so invalid and crazy that he is no longer accepted in his home. He is only 19 and he can’t even remember how many years he has lived on the street. He still occasionally visits his family when he is sober to play some video games and spend time with them. They only live a couple miles away from where we were sitting. I was shocked. He said that his family can’t handle him and he can’t get off of drugs. He described cocaine as the living incarnation of Satan destroying humanity and destroying his life. He knew that it was killing him and he didn’t want to do the drug anymore, but he was helpless to be free from the drug. He was so so hopeless. He was starving for food. All I had was $1 real, so I gave it to him. He thanked me and bought some blow-pops with it. He came back, gave Caio one lollipop, and offered me one, but, of course, I didn’t want to take his only food.
He spent a short amount of time in a drug rehab program, but he eventually left because he couldn’t overcome his addiction.
Caio is 21 and he has been living on the street for about 6 months. He first smoked weed when he was 11-years-old. In high school, he began smoking heavier drugs and all of his friends warned him to not smoke hard drugs. He said that most of those friends all sell drugs and smoke them too. He has now been out of prison for a total of 4 years of his life and the jails here in Brazil are a much harsher, poorer reality than in the U.S. He attended Jovens Livres, my cousins ministry, for a year and two months and he was given the opportunity to study at their seminary to become a pastor. He chose not to go since it was 3 years long and in the middle of the country in another state. After getting out of Jovens Livres he stayed sober for five more months. His girlfriend liked to party and liked to drink, so she would always offer him beer. Eventually, he decided to drink a little bit. He soon began to drink regularly. This led to him to smoke cigarettes on occasion and eventually he began using drugs. Now he said that he is worse off than he was before. Part of him doesn’t believe that he’ll ever get off of drugs, but another part of him wants to go through a drug rehab program again and be set free completely.
We talked for about two hours. I shared the Gospel with them and told them about the power of God to set them free from drugs. I challenged them to get their lives straight and gives their lives completely over to Jesus. I shared Jay Koopman’s testimony with them to show them what God is able to do with an ex-drug addict who dedicates his life to God. They were extremely hungry for everything I shared with them and received everything wholeheartedly. They were amazed by Jay’s story and expressed their deep desires to truly follow Jesus. They hated the life they were living and they desperately wanted God to change their lives, but they felt so hopeless that nothing could deliver them from cocaine. Also, they said now they smoke Oxy too.
They described to me the drug scene here. It’s very different than in the U.S. They said crack just arrived in Goiania about four or five years ago. Since then, they claim that it has destroyed all of Goiania. There are certain alleys where the drug dealers sell drugs and they sell a rock of cocaine for $10 reals and a rock of Oxy for $2 reals. What was very interesting to me is that, according to these young men, the drug scene here in Goiania is not associated with violence. Gangs do not exist in Goiania. The only gangs here are the “torcidas organizadas” or organized soccer fans. The drug dealers here don’t have a reputation of killing people, harassing their clients, or of leading networks of organized crime. They simply receive the drugs and sell them to make money.
Also, the cops here are very violent and corrupt. They told me stories of several times that they were beaten by cops with batons for doing drugs. Caio told me that once him and a friend stole something and the cops caught them. In order to confess where they had robbed the items from they took them to the woods and put four tires around each one of them. They threatened to light them on fire to burn them alive if they didn’t confess. Finally, Caio’s friend confessed and they were immediately taken to prison.
Moreover, Caio described to me the situation of the jails in Brazil. He told me that jail is where drugs abound the most and where crime abounds the most. I asked him how it was possible for drugs to be so common in the jails if the cops are constantly watching the criminals. He said it’s because some of them get bought out by drug dealers, so that they allow him to bring drugs to the jail.
Lastly, I asked them how they survived on the street because they had mentioned that they never beg for money. They told me that they get paid to “protect cars” and that gets them lots of money. This is a very common, yet corrupt, practice in Brazil. When lots of cars park in a certain place for any event or even randomly on a street there is almost always a random guy there who tells them that he will protect their car from being robbed. The guy really does stand there for however long needed and watch your car for you. Then when you return to your vehicle you usually pay the person 2 or 3 reals. If he watches ten cars an hour he could get 20 or 30 reals an hour. That’s about 12 to 18 dollars an hour. That is really good pay for a homeless, drug addict. Most people here in Brazil hate this “service” but they usually have to pay because their car will get keyed if they don’t or the person with harass them with words and threats until they finally give them something. The authorities do nothing about this practice because they think that it’s good that at least the poor are trying to work and are providing a level of security to the city. Some of these people really are legit workers with uniforms, but some of them are homeless drug addicts.
Furthermore, they said there is a local restaurant that gives them free lunch every day. At night, they don’t need to eat because that is when they do their drugs and the drugs kills their hunger. Then around 3 or 4 in the morning they go to a local bakery and ask the bakery for bread. Every day the bakery throws them a bag full of freshly baked bread. Also, the cops don’t bother them at all for sleeping on the streets, but if they are caught smoking the drug then they get beat up and put in jail.
At the end of it all they both made of promise to God that they would go through a drug rehab program. Then I prayed over them both and cast the demons out of them.
It was already 10:30 p.m., so I called my grandma on the payphone to ask if someone could pick me up. Andre eventually picked me up.
The next morning I went to Videira at 7 a.m. for a prayer meeting and to meet with a Videira pastor to talk with him about GGM. The prayer meeting was excellent, but, unfortunately, the pastor never showed up. So I decided to walk home. On the way, I preached the Gospel to two more drug addicts. One wanted to go to a drug rehab desperately, but the other one didn’t believe in rehabs.
Videira has a drug rehab and since Jovens Livres is currently booked, I told everyone I talked to today and yesterday to go to Videira’s rehab program. Both of these addicts were young men too. One was a former computer programmer. None of the addicts that I saw were old.
After attending Videira on Sunday night I had to walk home because I had given all my money away in the missions offering. As I walked home on what would be considered a cold night in Goiania, I saw a young black man with no shirt on walking on the sidewalk in front of me. All he was wearing was board shorts and he was so skinny that he looked almost like a starving person in Africa. He was barefoot, his pubic hairs were coming out of his sagging board shorts, and he was filthy from head to toe.
As soon as he saw me coming he tried to hide himself by pretending like he was calling someone at a telephone booth, which are called orelhaos here in Brazil because they are shaped in the form of a huge ear. At first, I felt slightly suspicious that he was going to rob me, but then I thought twice about his condition and I was deeply moved with compassion for him. I walked right up to him and introduced myself and he told me that his name was Welton. I asked him if I could talk to him about Jesus and he quickly agreed by sitting down on the cement sidewalk. I sat down with him and we began talking.
Within one minute another street kid approached us and asked me with some attitude, “Hey, are you of Jesus (literal translation)?”
“Yes. I follow Jesus. Do you follow Jesus?”
He went on to tell me that he used to follow Jesus, but he stopped following Jesus a few years ago. His name is Caio. He was not nearly as sickly looking as his friend Welton and he was fully clothed with pants, a t-shirt, and some sandals. His clothes were extremely dirty and his hair was messy, but he looked like a normal young person otherwise.
“Where do you guys live?” I asked them.
“Right here,” Welton responded, “I sleep over there.” He pointed to a dark corner next to a shop. Later on I saw the mattresses and blankets they slept on in that dark corner.
Here are their stories:
Welton began doing drugs at a young age and eventually he started smoking cocaine. He became so invalid and crazy that he is no longer accepted in his home. He is only 19 and he can’t even remember how many years he has lived on the street. He still occasionally visits his family when he is sober to play some video games and spend time with them. They only live a couple miles away from where we were sitting. I was shocked. He said that his family can’t handle him and he can’t get off of drugs. He described cocaine as the living incarnation of Satan destroying humanity and destroying his life. He knew that it was killing him and he didn’t want to do the drug anymore, but he was helpless to be free from the drug. He was so so hopeless. He was starving for food. All I had was $1 real, so I gave it to him. He thanked me and bought some blow-pops with it. He came back, gave Caio one lollipop, and offered me one, but, of course, I didn’t want to take his only food.
He spent a short amount of time in a drug rehab program, but he eventually left because he couldn’t overcome his addiction.
Caio is 21 and he has been living on the street for about 6 months. He first smoked weed when he was 11-years-old. In high school, he began smoking heavier drugs and all of his friends warned him to not smoke hard drugs. He said that most of those friends all sell drugs and smoke them too. He has now been out of prison for a total of 4 years of his life and the jails here in Brazil are a much harsher, poorer reality than in the U.S. He attended Jovens Livres, my cousins ministry, for a year and two months and he was given the opportunity to study at their seminary to become a pastor. He chose not to go since it was 3 years long and in the middle of the country in another state. After getting out of Jovens Livres he stayed sober for five more months. His girlfriend liked to party and liked to drink, so she would always offer him beer. Eventually, he decided to drink a little bit. He soon began to drink regularly. This led to him to smoke cigarettes on occasion and eventually he began using drugs. Now he said that he is worse off than he was before. Part of him doesn’t believe that he’ll ever get off of drugs, but another part of him wants to go through a drug rehab program again and be set free completely.
We talked for about two hours. I shared the Gospel with them and told them about the power of God to set them free from drugs. I challenged them to get their lives straight and gives their lives completely over to Jesus. I shared Jay Koopman’s testimony with them to show them what God is able to do with an ex-drug addict who dedicates his life to God. They were extremely hungry for everything I shared with them and received everything wholeheartedly. They were amazed by Jay’s story and expressed their deep desires to truly follow Jesus. They hated the life they were living and they desperately wanted God to change their lives, but they felt so hopeless that nothing could deliver them from cocaine. Also, they said now they smoke Oxy too.
They described to me the drug scene here. It’s very different than in the U.S. They said crack just arrived in Goiania about four or five years ago. Since then, they claim that it has destroyed all of Goiania. There are certain alleys where the drug dealers sell drugs and they sell a rock of cocaine for $10 reals and a rock of Oxy for $2 reals. What was very interesting to me is that, according to these young men, the drug scene here in Goiania is not associated with violence. Gangs do not exist in Goiania. The only gangs here are the “torcidas organizadas” or organized soccer fans. The drug dealers here don’t have a reputation of killing people, harassing their clients, or of leading networks of organized crime. They simply receive the drugs and sell them to make money.
Also, the cops here are very violent and corrupt. They told me stories of several times that they were beaten by cops with batons for doing drugs. Caio told me that once him and a friend stole something and the cops caught them. In order to confess where they had robbed the items from they took them to the woods and put four tires around each one of them. They threatened to light them on fire to burn them alive if they didn’t confess. Finally, Caio’s friend confessed and they were immediately taken to prison.
Moreover, Caio described to me the situation of the jails in Brazil. He told me that jail is where drugs abound the most and where crime abounds the most. I asked him how it was possible for drugs to be so common in the jails if the cops are constantly watching the criminals. He said it’s because some of them get bought out by drug dealers, so that they allow him to bring drugs to the jail.
Lastly, I asked them how they survived on the street because they had mentioned that they never beg for money. They told me that they get paid to “protect cars” and that gets them lots of money. This is a very common, yet corrupt, practice in Brazil. When lots of cars park in a certain place for any event or even randomly on a street there is almost always a random guy there who tells them that he will protect their car from being robbed. The guy really does stand there for however long needed and watch your car for you. Then when you return to your vehicle you usually pay the person 2 or 3 reals. If he watches ten cars an hour he could get 20 or 30 reals an hour. That’s about 12 to 18 dollars an hour. That is really good pay for a homeless, drug addict. Most people here in Brazil hate this “service” but they usually have to pay because their car will get keyed if they don’t or the person with harass them with words and threats until they finally give them something. The authorities do nothing about this practice because they think that it’s good that at least the poor are trying to work and are providing a level of security to the city. Some of these people really are legit workers with uniforms, but some of them are homeless drug addicts.
Furthermore, they said there is a local restaurant that gives them free lunch every day. At night, they don’t need to eat because that is when they do their drugs and the drugs kills their hunger. Then around 3 or 4 in the morning they go to a local bakery and ask the bakery for bread. Every day the bakery throws them a bag full of freshly baked bread. Also, the cops don’t bother them at all for sleeping on the streets, but if they are caught smoking the drug then they get beat up and put in jail.
At the end of it all they both made of promise to God that they would go through a drug rehab program. Then I prayed over them both and cast the demons out of them.
It was already 10:30 p.m., so I called my grandma on the payphone to ask if someone could pick me up. Andre eventually picked me up.
The next morning I went to Videira at 7 a.m. for a prayer meeting and to meet with a Videira pastor to talk with him about GGM. The prayer meeting was excellent, but, unfortunately, the pastor never showed up. So I decided to walk home. On the way, I preached the Gospel to two more drug addicts. One wanted to go to a drug rehab desperately, but the other one didn’t believe in rehabs.
Videira has a drug rehab and since Jovens Livres is currently booked, I told everyone I talked to today and yesterday to go to Videira’s rehab program. Both of these addicts were young men too. One was a former computer programmer. None of the addicts that I saw were old.
Monday, July 11, 2011
Meeting with Pastors
07/10/11
Meeting with Pastors
On Monday of this week as I was fasting and praying the Holy Spirit spoke to me to hold a meeting of pastors, leaders, and friends from different churches to share the vision of GGM and see how we could work together to bring GGM to Brazil. Thus, much of this week has been spent getting the contact information of leaders, calling them, and inviting them to this meeting.
Today (Sunday) I visited two very influential churches here in Goiania, Sal da Terra and Videira. The former is very respected for how dynamic, mission-minded, and globally minded they are even though it is a smaller church of some 500 members or so. Videira is respected because it is the fastest growing church in Goiania and perhaps in Brazil. They began around the year 2000 and they’re mother church is around 20,000 members, they several more congregations in Goiania, they have a church in every state capital in Brazil, and they are attempting to plant a church in every city of Brazil.
So this morning I went to Sal da Terra. It was in an upper-class neighborhood where all the homes are mansions and they live in gated communities very similar to the U.S. They had the fanciest free breakfast I have ever seen at a church in my life and the sermon was awesome, full of deep theological concepts. After the service, I met with Pr. Paulo Junior, the senior pastor. I was amazed that he gave me his undivided attention after for about 20-25 minutes. I briefly explained to him the vision of GGM and my desire to bring GGM to Brazil. He gave me great advice about bringing GGM to Brazil.
He told me that, first of all, I need to get connected with Tribal Generation, which is an international network of crazy young leaders based out of Uberlandia, MG, Brazil. They focus on reaching urban cities for Christ and especially urban sub-cultures. He told me about their meetings in Brazil, but also that they have meetings in the U.S. too. I needed to find out where and when these are and go to them. Secondly, they have a one-year school for training church planters. Perfect! Exactly what I want to do in the U.S. and they already have it here. Thus, GGM Brazil will already have a place to send their preachers to after their six-month trip and I could learn from this already existing school and bring the same model to the U.S. Furthermore, he said that there is a DCPI, which is a two to three month course after the one year training where you learn different church planting models and strategies. The one year is more content and the model training is more hands-on. He told me that the model training was brought to Brazil by an American, so I should research it and find it in the U.S.
I didn’t invite Pr. Paulo Junior to the meeting because he is a very busy man and he already helped me so much in our 20-minute conversation.
In the afternoon, I bought some things for Brooke at the Ferra do Sol. It was a lot of fun. I love Brooke so much, I miss her, and I can’t wait to see her!
I went to Videira for their 5 p.m. service at the Praca da Biblia campus. IT was a great service with a super powerful message about Jesus being the cornerstone upon which the church is built. It was soooo good! I was supposed to have talked with the main pastor, but he is on vacation right now, so, instead, I spoke with Pr. Jose Carlos, one of the assistant pastors and also the pastor who preached this service.
Therefore, at the end of the meeting I went up to him and introduced myself. We talked for a bit and he became very interested in getting to know me more and GGM more. He apologized because he couldn’t meet with me another day because he was also going on vacation the next day. However, he connected me with one of his main disciples and I am going to meet with him tomorrow morning at the Videira prayer meeting at 7 a.m.
After the service, God moved on my heart to preach the Gospel to two men at a pit-stop. It turned out that they were both taxi drivers waiting for someone to ask them for a ride. I confidently walked up to them and began our conversation. I directly confronted them with life after death and the Gospel. They both said that they have no idea where they are going to go when they die, but they hoped for Heaven since they prayed and did their part here on earth. They seemed to be deeply thinking about everything I said to them and the Holy Spirit was totally flowing through me. I had no hear at all. It was amazing! They had to leave to keep working, but we ended our conversation with me challenging them to give their lives 100% to Jesus and they agreed that they needed to.
Meeting with Pastors
On Monday of this week as I was fasting and praying the Holy Spirit spoke to me to hold a meeting of pastors, leaders, and friends from different churches to share the vision of GGM and see how we could work together to bring GGM to Brazil. Thus, much of this week has been spent getting the contact information of leaders, calling them, and inviting them to this meeting.
Today (Sunday) I visited two very influential churches here in Goiania, Sal da Terra and Videira. The former is very respected for how dynamic, mission-minded, and globally minded they are even though it is a smaller church of some 500 members or so. Videira is respected because it is the fastest growing church in Goiania and perhaps in Brazil. They began around the year 2000 and they’re mother church is around 20,000 members, they several more congregations in Goiania, they have a church in every state capital in Brazil, and they are attempting to plant a church in every city of Brazil.
So this morning I went to Sal da Terra. It was in an upper-class neighborhood where all the homes are mansions and they live in gated communities very similar to the U.S. They had the fanciest free breakfast I have ever seen at a church in my life and the sermon was awesome, full of deep theological concepts. After the service, I met with Pr. Paulo Junior, the senior pastor. I was amazed that he gave me his undivided attention after for about 20-25 minutes. I briefly explained to him the vision of GGM and my desire to bring GGM to Brazil. He gave me great advice about bringing GGM to Brazil.
He told me that, first of all, I need to get connected with Tribal Generation, which is an international network of crazy young leaders based out of Uberlandia, MG, Brazil. They focus on reaching urban cities for Christ and especially urban sub-cultures. He told me about their meetings in Brazil, but also that they have meetings in the U.S. too. I needed to find out where and when these are and go to them. Secondly, they have a one-year school for training church planters. Perfect! Exactly what I want to do in the U.S. and they already have it here. Thus, GGM Brazil will already have a place to send their preachers to after their six-month trip and I could learn from this already existing school and bring the same model to the U.S. Furthermore, he said that there is a DCPI, which is a two to three month course after the one year training where you learn different church planting models and strategies. The one year is more content and the model training is more hands-on. He told me that the model training was brought to Brazil by an American, so I should research it and find it in the U.S.
I didn’t invite Pr. Paulo Junior to the meeting because he is a very busy man and he already helped me so much in our 20-minute conversation.
In the afternoon, I bought some things for Brooke at the Ferra do Sol. It was a lot of fun. I love Brooke so much, I miss her, and I can’t wait to see her!
I went to Videira for their 5 p.m. service at the Praca da Biblia campus. IT was a great service with a super powerful message about Jesus being the cornerstone upon which the church is built. It was soooo good! I was supposed to have talked with the main pastor, but he is on vacation right now, so, instead, I spoke with Pr. Jose Carlos, one of the assistant pastors and also the pastor who preached this service.
Therefore, at the end of the meeting I went up to him and introduced myself. We talked for a bit and he became very interested in getting to know me more and GGM more. He apologized because he couldn’t meet with me another day because he was also going on vacation the next day. However, he connected me with one of his main disciples and I am going to meet with him tomorrow morning at the Videira prayer meeting at 7 a.m.
After the service, God moved on my heart to preach the Gospel to two men at a pit-stop. It turned out that they were both taxi drivers waiting for someone to ask them for a ride. I confidently walked up to them and began our conversation. I directly confronted them with life after death and the Gospel. They both said that they have no idea where they are going to go when they die, but they hoped for Heaven since they prayed and did their part here on earth. They seemed to be deeply thinking about everything I said to them and the Holy Spirit was totally flowing through me. I had no hear at all. It was amazing! They had to leave to keep working, but we ended our conversation with me challenging them to give their lives 100% to Jesus and they agreed that they needed to.
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Following our Empregada
06/27/11
Brazil has an interesting cultural norm that is not so common in the U.S., the existence of empragadas. The U.S. definitely does have a similar practice because a lot of people do pay to have their houses cleaned, usually by Hispanic, lower-class women and the very wealthy have maids or butlers. However, here in Brazil the hiring of empregadas is much more common, much more pronounced, and not paid very well.
My grandmother's embragada is a middle-aged woman named Katiane. She comes to our house every Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday to clean absolutely everything. She washes everyone's (currently only 8 people, but usually more) clothes by hand and hangs them all to dry on a clothes line. Once the clothes are dry she irons, folds, and puts away all the clothes. She mops the floors of the entire house each time she comes. Every time she moves all the furniture of the house to mop the floor under it and she mops the two stairways outside of the house and the driveway once a week (carpet doesn't exist in Brazil. All the floors are tile and the house is 6 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms). She cleans the bathrooms, the kitchen each day she comes. She works each day from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. My grandma pays Katiane $450 reals (the name of Brazilian currency) a month, which is a good salary and above average than what she would be receiving somewhere else. Also, my grandma doesn't require her to cook, which most empragadas do as part of the package of cleaning someone's house. Normally, empregadas receive $550 reals a month for working six days a week in someone's house including cooking breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the family. For these kind of empragadas usually they are given a small room in the house to live in during the week and then they go to their "home" on Saturday evening and return Monday morning. $550 reals a month is the national minimum wage in Brazil although I just heard that it was recently raised to $600 reals a month. Thus, as an American I am very intrigued and perplexed by this cultural norm in Brazil that looks almost like having an indentured servant to me.
Last week, Katiane approached me when she was about to go home and asked me if I could pray for her. For about 45 minutes she told me about different problems going on with her kids, in her neighborhood, and in her personal life. I gave her some counsel and I prayed for her. She was deeply moved and broke down crying. I felt from the Lord that I was supposed to visit her 13-year-old son because he was going through some hard times and he had no father or male figure in his life to talk too. So I asked her if the following week I could visit her house to meet her son and hang out with him. She happily agreed.
So this Monday, after she finished her work at 5 p.m., I traveled with her to her house. I felt to do this for several reasons:
1. I wanted God to use me to minister to her and her children's lives because I'm not even sure if they are saved.
2. I wanted to see and experience what an empregada and, specifically, our empragada had to go through in their daily lives.
3. I wanted to learn about true poverty in Brazil and better understand the disparity between the rich, middle class, and poor.
The bus ride to her home took about an hour and a fifteen minutes. We had to stand throughout the entire bus ride, being smashed in like sardines. If you tried to have a conversation the five or six people pressed around you would shamelessly tune in to the conversation and even chime in here and there. So I couldn't talk much with Katiane during our long bus ride. Her neighborhood is in the most dangerous area of Goiania, so my grandma and uncle were worried that I was going to get robbed or killed because it was easy for people to tell that I was an outsider. Even if they thought I was Brazilian, the quality of clothes, jacket, shoes, and glasses I was wearing would be much better than theirs.
Once we arrived to the neighborhood I saw that it really was poor, although it did have electricity and running water, which many poor neighborhoods in Brazil don't have. Her house was the most humble house in the whole neighborhood. The plot of land it was on was all dirt, with no grass and only one small tree. The house was made of brick, but there was no paint or covering over the bricks so they were exposed both on the outside and inside of the house. The house consisted of two small rooms that were each about 12 ft. by 12 ft. The first room was the living room and kitchen combined. There was a small bathroom and then the bedroom where the Katiane, her son, and her toddler slept. I've seen tiny studio apartments in downtown San Francisco that are about the same size. However, her and her kids were all well dressed and well kept.
Katiane is a Christian, but she stopped going to church 5 months ago. She told me that it was because one of the worship leaders was flirting with her and trying to seduce her, so she left the church. Now she's trying to find a new church, but she is limited to churches that are walking distance since she has no car or bicycle. However, Katiane has her share of problems. She is one of the only single mothers in the neighborhood. She has three children and she has never been married, so the women in the neighborhood don't like her and are always gossiping about her. Also, her son, Alan, told me that up until two months ago she had been dating one of the local drug dealers and when she broke up with him the man blamed her son for the break-up because the son never liked him. So after school one day, the drug dealer and five of his friends ganged up on the 13-year-old skinny kid and beat him up real bad. Katiane called the police and the police went to the man's house warning him that if he ever came close to Katiane or her kids again he would immediately be arrested. The only problem is that the man lives 3 houses down from them on the the same street.
I took Alan for a walk to the grocery store to buy some things for his mom because I knew that he wouldn't open up to me about his problems in front of him mom. He was extremely shy, but once it was just him and I he opened up to me and told me about the problems in his family, his school, and his neighborhood. It was all very similar to poor neighborhoods in the U.S.. However I picked up several differences:
1. Here poverty is not a race issue. The poor are black, brown, white, indigenous, and everything in between.
2. According to residents I talked to, cops don't treat people differently because of race.
3. Virtually no one has cars. Most people walk, many have bicycles, and a few have small motorcycles.
4. The "gangsters" here have no colors they wear and they are all super skinny and small. Their only strength is that they have guns and they don't hesitate to use them.
5. Not all neighborhoods have electricity and running water and many of their roads are still dirt roads.
Once I returned to the house with Alan I had a short Bible study with Katiane, Alan, and her adorably 4-year-old daughter Ana Victoria. I encouraged them to live their lives for Jesus and truly follow him and to find a good church to be a part of. I prayed over them and then bid them farewell. The whole family walked me to the bus stop to make sure I left in safety.
My return to my grandma's house was great! I preached the Gospel to one man on the first bus, two people at the bus terminal, and to one person on the second bus. I finally got home around 11 p.m. My grandma praised the Lord that I was safe and sound and that no one had stolen my leather jacket.
Brazil has an interesting cultural norm that is not so common in the U.S., the existence of empragadas. The U.S. definitely does have a similar practice because a lot of people do pay to have their houses cleaned, usually by Hispanic, lower-class women and the very wealthy have maids or butlers. However, here in Brazil the hiring of empregadas is much more common, much more pronounced, and not paid very well.
My grandmother's embragada is a middle-aged woman named Katiane. She comes to our house every Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday to clean absolutely everything. She washes everyone's (currently only 8 people, but usually more) clothes by hand and hangs them all to dry on a clothes line. Once the clothes are dry she irons, folds, and puts away all the clothes. She mops the floors of the entire house each time she comes. Every time she moves all the furniture of the house to mop the floor under it and she mops the two stairways outside of the house and the driveway once a week (carpet doesn't exist in Brazil. All the floors are tile and the house is 6 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms). She cleans the bathrooms, the kitchen each day she comes. She works each day from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. My grandma pays Katiane $450 reals (the name of Brazilian currency) a month, which is a good salary and above average than what she would be receiving somewhere else. Also, my grandma doesn't require her to cook, which most empragadas do as part of the package of cleaning someone's house. Normally, empregadas receive $550 reals a month for working six days a week in someone's house including cooking breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the family. For these kind of empragadas usually they are given a small room in the house to live in during the week and then they go to their "home" on Saturday evening and return Monday morning. $550 reals a month is the national minimum wage in Brazil although I just heard that it was recently raised to $600 reals a month. Thus, as an American I am very intrigued and perplexed by this cultural norm in Brazil that looks almost like having an indentured servant to me.
Last week, Katiane approached me when she was about to go home and asked me if I could pray for her. For about 45 minutes she told me about different problems going on with her kids, in her neighborhood, and in her personal life. I gave her some counsel and I prayed for her. She was deeply moved and broke down crying. I felt from the Lord that I was supposed to visit her 13-year-old son because he was going through some hard times and he had no father or male figure in his life to talk too. So I asked her if the following week I could visit her house to meet her son and hang out with him. She happily agreed.
So this Monday, after she finished her work at 5 p.m., I traveled with her to her house. I felt to do this for several reasons:
1. I wanted God to use me to minister to her and her children's lives because I'm not even sure if they are saved.
2. I wanted to see and experience what an empregada and, specifically, our empragada had to go through in their daily lives.
3. I wanted to learn about true poverty in Brazil and better understand the disparity between the rich, middle class, and poor.
The bus ride to her home took about an hour and a fifteen minutes. We had to stand throughout the entire bus ride, being smashed in like sardines. If you tried to have a conversation the five or six people pressed around you would shamelessly tune in to the conversation and even chime in here and there. So I couldn't talk much with Katiane during our long bus ride. Her neighborhood is in the most dangerous area of Goiania, so my grandma and uncle were worried that I was going to get robbed or killed because it was easy for people to tell that I was an outsider. Even if they thought I was Brazilian, the quality of clothes, jacket, shoes, and glasses I was wearing would be much better than theirs.
Once we arrived to the neighborhood I saw that it really was poor, although it did have electricity and running water, which many poor neighborhoods in Brazil don't have. Her house was the most humble house in the whole neighborhood. The plot of land it was on was all dirt, with no grass and only one small tree. The house was made of brick, but there was no paint or covering over the bricks so they were exposed both on the outside and inside of the house. The house consisted of two small rooms that were each about 12 ft. by 12 ft. The first room was the living room and kitchen combined. There was a small bathroom and then the bedroom where the Katiane, her son, and her toddler slept. I've seen tiny studio apartments in downtown San Francisco that are about the same size. However, her and her kids were all well dressed and well kept.
Katiane is a Christian, but she stopped going to church 5 months ago. She told me that it was because one of the worship leaders was flirting with her and trying to seduce her, so she left the church. Now she's trying to find a new church, but she is limited to churches that are walking distance since she has no car or bicycle. However, Katiane has her share of problems. She is one of the only single mothers in the neighborhood. She has three children and she has never been married, so the women in the neighborhood don't like her and are always gossiping about her. Also, her son, Alan, told me that up until two months ago she had been dating one of the local drug dealers and when she broke up with him the man blamed her son for the break-up because the son never liked him. So after school one day, the drug dealer and five of his friends ganged up on the 13-year-old skinny kid and beat him up real bad. Katiane called the police and the police went to the man's house warning him that if he ever came close to Katiane or her kids again he would immediately be arrested. The only problem is that the man lives 3 houses down from them on the the same street.
I took Alan for a walk to the grocery store to buy some things for his mom because I knew that he wouldn't open up to me about his problems in front of him mom. He was extremely shy, but once it was just him and I he opened up to me and told me about the problems in his family, his school, and his neighborhood. It was all very similar to poor neighborhoods in the U.S.. However I picked up several differences:
1. Here poverty is not a race issue. The poor are black, brown, white, indigenous, and everything in between.
2. According to residents I talked to, cops don't treat people differently because of race.
3. Virtually no one has cars. Most people walk, many have bicycles, and a few have small motorcycles.
4. The "gangsters" here have no colors they wear and they are all super skinny and small. Their only strength is that they have guns and they don't hesitate to use them.
5. Not all neighborhoods have electricity and running water and many of their roads are still dirt roads.
Once I returned to the house with Alan I had a short Bible study with Katiane, Alan, and her adorably 4-year-old daughter Ana Victoria. I encouraged them to live their lives for Jesus and truly follow him and to find a good church to be a part of. I prayed over them and then bid them farewell. The whole family walked me to the bus stop to make sure I left in safety.
My return to my grandma's house was great! I preached the Gospel to one man on the first bus, two people at the bus terminal, and to one person on the second bus. I finally got home around 11 p.m. My grandma praised the Lord that I was safe and sound and that no one had stolen my leather jacket.
Monday, June 27, 2011
My Birthday! and Poverty in Brazil.
06/25/11
Today is my 24th Birthday and it was definitely an amazing birthday! I have always wanted to have a prayer meeting and evangelism for my birthday and today I got both. Praise God!
At 8 in the morning I met together with Kings Kids at Maranatha Church and at 9 a.m. we left to go witnessing at the Lixao (the city’s garbage dump). We didn’t go witnessing literally at the dump itself, but there is a community of families who work at the dump and live about a mile away from it. Their houses are built out of cardboard, tarps, sheets of metal, and some of them have brick or concrete. All the paths are dirt paths and they have no electricity, sewage, or other utilities.
As we drove into the neighborhood it was so poor and underdeveloped that it looked as if we were driving into a poor, rural village in Africa. All the dogs there looked like the sketchiest street dogs you could imagine, but they were actually pets of the residents there. A couple of the families had ponys or chickens and some had vegetable gardens. All of their clothes were filthy, raggedy, and many were ripped and falling apart. None of them had cars or motorcycles, so I have no idea how they go anywhere because they are several miles outside of the city. They have no supermarket, restaurants, or any other kind of service you could imagine.
The reason neighborhoods like this exist in Brazil is not because the government does not want to invest in development and infrastructure, but rather because these settlements are illegal settlements. Poor people from rural areas of Brazil come to the city and invade private or public properties illegally and build entire neighborhoods there. In this instance, I believe that the land they were on was public property since it was close to the city dump and a huge state prison. If the government doesn’t do anything about these neighborhoods then they form into favelas, which is what has happened in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. By God’s grace, this neighborhood has not yet been taken over by any drug-trafficking group like the favelas around much of Brazil have.
Thus, we found out from the residents while we were there that the government has constructed free housing for all them in a location within the city and that within the next few months all of them were going to be relocated into this government housing. Then the government is going to bulldoze their entire neighborhood, but only after they have successfully moved to the new neighborhood. Surprisingly, it seemed like all of the residents we met had a positive attitude about the relocation and were willing to move.
Once we arrived there it was awkward for the first five or ten minutes or so because all the church people stayed in their cliques close to their cars and all the residents just stood there looking at us from the other side of the road. I decided to cross the street and meet some of the people and, eventually, most of the church people crossed over too to talk with the people while the sound system was being set up.
I first met Joaquim, who works at a construction site at the top of a small mountain that is about 8 miles away. He rides his bike every day most of the way and then his friend gives him a ride for the uphill part until the top of the mountain. He told me how his cousin had been shot and killed there a few months ago while constructing a house by himself. I asked him about his relationship with God and he told me that he is an evangelico (Note: In Brazil, Christians call themselves Evangelicals in order to make a clear distinction between themselves and Catholics because Christians here do not consider Catholics to be saved. So for someone to say they are an Evangelical here is a pretty big deal. It’s essentially saying that “I have given my life to Jesus and I am committed to a Christian church”). However, he told me that he no longer goes to church because the pastor at the church he attended caused him to become jaded with the church. By himself, he built a cistern for the church that was 15 meters long in only two days, but the pastor only gave him half of the money that he had promised to pay him. For an impoverished man with little work, that is a huge crime.
All the workers here only receive minimum wage, which has just been raised to $600 Reals a month. In Brazil, minimum wage is not an hourly pay, but a monthly salary. Also, now that the Brazilian economy is getting stronger and the dollar is getting weaker now 1 American dollar is equivalent to 1.6 Reals, which is really good. Therefore, now the cost of living in Brazil is virtually equivalent to most parts of the U.S. and in some senses it’s more expensive. Land and food are cheaper in Brazil in general, but cars, clothes, technology products, and anything else you could ever find in a mall is much more expensive in Brazil. For example, a new Honda Civic in the U.S. is $25k dollars while in Brazil it is $80k reals. In light of the cost of living in Brazil $600 reals a month is nothing. It could barely pay the rent of a small apartment in a ghetto part of town. This is why South America is the continent with the largest economic disparity between rich and poor.
I later hung out with some of the kids. They told me that a van comes to their neighborhood every day to take them to school.
Moreoever, while we were there one of the residents found a skull in the forest and brought it for everyone to see. He called the police and they took it to investigate the death of the person.
Finally, the Kings Kids group performed several dances and, at the end, performed a simple skit. Maranatha’s head pastor, DJ, gave a short altar call and the majority of the people came forward to receive Christ. We prayed over all of them and praised the Lord for what He had done. Then we served lunch with soda to the entire neighborhood. It was awesome.
Furthermore, Pastora Maria de Jesus from the Pentecostal church Igreja Bom Pastor (Church of the Good Shepherd) was with us also. She is a pastor of a church and head over a drug rehab center and she ministers in this neighborhood weekly. So it was great to have her with us because we knew that she would continue the work after we had left and that we were partnering with her in what she was doing instead of competing with her. This is a miracle because evangelical and Pentecostal churches here hardly do anything in unity, much like in the U.S.
This was an amazing site for me to witness because all the ministry that was occurring in front of me is direct fruit from my grandmother and grandfather’s life. You see, my great great uncle founded the First Presbyterian Church of Goiania. When revival came in the 70’s my family was kicked out of the church for speaking in tongues. So they founded the church Igreja Bom Pastor, which today is one of the largest Pentecostal denominations in Brazil. As the church grew it became way too legalistic and the Presbyterian church was seeking to plant a new kind of Presbyterian church that would be more relevant to the culture, so my grandparents decided to return leave the Igreja Bom Pastor after founding it and help found the Igreja Presbiteriana Maranatha, which is now a spirit-filled, modern network of Presbyterian churches.
So here were both of the denominations that my grandparents had founded working together to win a slum to Jesus. Hallelujah!
Even in this small slum of about 70 families there is a huge division between them and one side of the slum does not mix with the other. Thus, we had to go to the other side of the slum and do everything over again. We did the dances, skits, altar call, prayer, and lunch all over again. It was great. I had several more great conversations with the men and kids in the neighborhood there and I had the joy of praying over one of the men there.
I came home around 2 p.m. and ate lunch. Then I spent time with God for my 24th birthday and took a nap. Miraculously, Brooke called me from the Bahamas in the middle of the day. They were in the middle of the ocean traveling from one island to another and they wouldn’t have internet for 3 days. She told me she had been crying all last night and all day today because she couldn’t contact me for my birthday, so her mom bought her a cell phone from the Bahamas and a calling card that was 60 cents a minute for her to call me. Crazy right!? Praise God I have a wife that loves me so much and in-laws who are able and willing to pay money for her to talk to me. So we had a great time talking. I really, really miss Brooke and she really misses me.
At 7 p.m., we celebrated my birthday. It was a very simple birthday for Brazilian standards, but it was great. My cousin Natalia baked a double-layered chocolate/strawberry cake from scratch and we had a good amount of salgadinhos (Brazilian finger foods that you eat at parties). My family has the horrible habit of always watching t.v. while they eat as a family, so to honor me they turned off the t.v. during my entire birthday party. Praise God!
Then I asked my whole family to come to the living room so we could have a prayer and worship meeting. I told them that I didn’t want any gifts from them, but I just wanted to have a prayer meeting with them. I shared a little bit from my heart telling my cousins, uncles, and aunts that we have a great inheritance of revival in our family and that they were being like Esau throwing away their inheritance in exchange for worldly pleasures.
We had a time of worship and then we prayed for about twenty minutes. Then I went around the room, laid hands on each one of my cousins while speaking in tongues, and God gave me a vision and prophetic word for each one of their lives. It was amazing and it was a totally a step of faith for me. But God was faithful to give me a vision for each one of them. As soon as I would lay my hand on them and speak in tongues the vision would come with the interpretation. It was awesome! Thank you Jesus! The prophetic is growing in my life.
Today is my 24th Birthday and it was definitely an amazing birthday! I have always wanted to have a prayer meeting and evangelism for my birthday and today I got both. Praise God!
At 8 in the morning I met together with Kings Kids at Maranatha Church and at 9 a.m. we left to go witnessing at the Lixao (the city’s garbage dump). We didn’t go witnessing literally at the dump itself, but there is a community of families who work at the dump and live about a mile away from it. Their houses are built out of cardboard, tarps, sheets of metal, and some of them have brick or concrete. All the paths are dirt paths and they have no electricity, sewage, or other utilities.
As we drove into the neighborhood it was so poor and underdeveloped that it looked as if we were driving into a poor, rural village in Africa. All the dogs there looked like the sketchiest street dogs you could imagine, but they were actually pets of the residents there. A couple of the families had ponys or chickens and some had vegetable gardens. All of their clothes were filthy, raggedy, and many were ripped and falling apart. None of them had cars or motorcycles, so I have no idea how they go anywhere because they are several miles outside of the city. They have no supermarket, restaurants, or any other kind of service you could imagine.
The reason neighborhoods like this exist in Brazil is not because the government does not want to invest in development and infrastructure, but rather because these settlements are illegal settlements. Poor people from rural areas of Brazil come to the city and invade private or public properties illegally and build entire neighborhoods there. In this instance, I believe that the land they were on was public property since it was close to the city dump and a huge state prison. If the government doesn’t do anything about these neighborhoods then they form into favelas, which is what has happened in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. By God’s grace, this neighborhood has not yet been taken over by any drug-trafficking group like the favelas around much of Brazil have.
Thus, we found out from the residents while we were there that the government has constructed free housing for all them in a location within the city and that within the next few months all of them were going to be relocated into this government housing. Then the government is going to bulldoze their entire neighborhood, but only after they have successfully moved to the new neighborhood. Surprisingly, it seemed like all of the residents we met had a positive attitude about the relocation and were willing to move.
Once we arrived there it was awkward for the first five or ten minutes or so because all the church people stayed in their cliques close to their cars and all the residents just stood there looking at us from the other side of the road. I decided to cross the street and meet some of the people and, eventually, most of the church people crossed over too to talk with the people while the sound system was being set up.
I first met Joaquim, who works at a construction site at the top of a small mountain that is about 8 miles away. He rides his bike every day most of the way and then his friend gives him a ride for the uphill part until the top of the mountain. He told me how his cousin had been shot and killed there a few months ago while constructing a house by himself. I asked him about his relationship with God and he told me that he is an evangelico (Note: In Brazil, Christians call themselves Evangelicals in order to make a clear distinction between themselves and Catholics because Christians here do not consider Catholics to be saved. So for someone to say they are an Evangelical here is a pretty big deal. It’s essentially saying that “I have given my life to Jesus and I am committed to a Christian church”). However, he told me that he no longer goes to church because the pastor at the church he attended caused him to become jaded with the church. By himself, he built a cistern for the church that was 15 meters long in only two days, but the pastor only gave him half of the money that he had promised to pay him. For an impoverished man with little work, that is a huge crime.
All the workers here only receive minimum wage, which has just been raised to $600 Reals a month. In Brazil, minimum wage is not an hourly pay, but a monthly salary. Also, now that the Brazilian economy is getting stronger and the dollar is getting weaker now 1 American dollar is equivalent to 1.6 Reals, which is really good. Therefore, now the cost of living in Brazil is virtually equivalent to most parts of the U.S. and in some senses it’s more expensive. Land and food are cheaper in Brazil in general, but cars, clothes, technology products, and anything else you could ever find in a mall is much more expensive in Brazil. For example, a new Honda Civic in the U.S. is $25k dollars while in Brazil it is $80k reals. In light of the cost of living in Brazil $600 reals a month is nothing. It could barely pay the rent of a small apartment in a ghetto part of town. This is why South America is the continent with the largest economic disparity between rich and poor.
I later hung out with some of the kids. They told me that a van comes to their neighborhood every day to take them to school.
Moreoever, while we were there one of the residents found a skull in the forest and brought it for everyone to see. He called the police and they took it to investigate the death of the person.
Finally, the Kings Kids group performed several dances and, at the end, performed a simple skit. Maranatha’s head pastor, DJ, gave a short altar call and the majority of the people came forward to receive Christ. We prayed over all of them and praised the Lord for what He had done. Then we served lunch with soda to the entire neighborhood. It was awesome.
Furthermore, Pastora Maria de Jesus from the Pentecostal church Igreja Bom Pastor (Church of the Good Shepherd) was with us also. She is a pastor of a church and head over a drug rehab center and she ministers in this neighborhood weekly. So it was great to have her with us because we knew that she would continue the work after we had left and that we were partnering with her in what she was doing instead of competing with her. This is a miracle because evangelical and Pentecostal churches here hardly do anything in unity, much like in the U.S.
This was an amazing site for me to witness because all the ministry that was occurring in front of me is direct fruit from my grandmother and grandfather’s life. You see, my great great uncle founded the First Presbyterian Church of Goiania. When revival came in the 70’s my family was kicked out of the church for speaking in tongues. So they founded the church Igreja Bom Pastor, which today is one of the largest Pentecostal denominations in Brazil. As the church grew it became way too legalistic and the Presbyterian church was seeking to plant a new kind of Presbyterian church that would be more relevant to the culture, so my grandparents decided to return leave the Igreja Bom Pastor after founding it and help found the Igreja Presbiteriana Maranatha, which is now a spirit-filled, modern network of Presbyterian churches.
So here were both of the denominations that my grandparents had founded working together to win a slum to Jesus. Hallelujah!
Even in this small slum of about 70 families there is a huge division between them and one side of the slum does not mix with the other. Thus, we had to go to the other side of the slum and do everything over again. We did the dances, skits, altar call, prayer, and lunch all over again. It was great. I had several more great conversations with the men and kids in the neighborhood there and I had the joy of praying over one of the men there.
I came home around 2 p.m. and ate lunch. Then I spent time with God for my 24th birthday and took a nap. Miraculously, Brooke called me from the Bahamas in the middle of the day. They were in the middle of the ocean traveling from one island to another and they wouldn’t have internet for 3 days. She told me she had been crying all last night and all day today because she couldn’t contact me for my birthday, so her mom bought her a cell phone from the Bahamas and a calling card that was 60 cents a minute for her to call me. Crazy right!? Praise God I have a wife that loves me so much and in-laws who are able and willing to pay money for her to talk to me. So we had a great time talking. I really, really miss Brooke and she really misses me.
At 7 p.m., we celebrated my birthday. It was a very simple birthday for Brazilian standards, but it was great. My cousin Natalia baked a double-layered chocolate/strawberry cake from scratch and we had a good amount of salgadinhos (Brazilian finger foods that you eat at parties). My family has the horrible habit of always watching t.v. while they eat as a family, so to honor me they turned off the t.v. during my entire birthday party. Praise God!
Then I asked my whole family to come to the living room so we could have a prayer and worship meeting. I told them that I didn’t want any gifts from them, but I just wanted to have a prayer meeting with them. I shared a little bit from my heart telling my cousins, uncles, and aunts that we have a great inheritance of revival in our family and that they were being like Esau throwing away their inheritance in exchange for worldly pleasures.
We had a time of worship and then we prayed for about twenty minutes. Then I went around the room, laid hands on each one of my cousins while speaking in tongues, and God gave me a vision and prophetic word for each one of their lives. It was amazing and it was a totally a step of faith for me. But God was faithful to give me a vision for each one of them. As soon as I would lay my hand on them and speak in tongues the vision would come with the interpretation. It was awesome! Thank you Jesus! The prophetic is growing in my life.
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