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?!
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?!
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.
Drug Rehabs in Goiania
06/24/11
This week I have had the privilege of ministering in two Christian drug rehab centers: Jovems Livres and PROAME.
Jovems Livres is the first drug rehab center ever established in Brazil’s history. It was founded by and is still being led by my grandma’s first cousin and my third cousin. I visited their main center in Goiania on Wednesday of this week and spent the whole day there. I got there around 10 a.m. and they had me lead a time of Bible reading with the men there. We read a couple chapters from the book of John and we commented and explained as we went along. I also sang some worship songs with them.
We had lunch together, a one-hour siesta, and then we split up into groups to conduct our cleaning duties. I helped water the plants. I interviewed the leader of the ministry and a couple of the men in the program.
The leader explained to me that they have great facilities, a great amount of funds, and lots of young men who want to be rehabilitated, but what they are lacking is workers and volunteers to help them do the work. They have so few workers that they are only able to have about 15-20 men at a time in their center, while they can be helping 60-80 men at a time if they had the workers.
In the afternoon I was asked to preach to the entry level men who had only been in the program for a month. I preached about the two greatest commandments of loving God and loving our neighbor. I urged them to passionately fall in love with Jesus because He is the only One who will set them free from drugs and sin permanently and give them an abundant life. I sang a song for them and I prayed for them. They told me that my message was one of the best they have heard since arriving in the center.
Finally, Jonatas, the leader of the ministry, gave me a ride home on the back of his motorcycle. It was pretty wild because I had a backpack and my guitar with me, so I had to carry my guitar in my hand while we rode through the insane traffic of Goiania. It was really fun.
On Friday, I went to JAM (Jovems Adultos Maranatha or Young Adults of Maranatha) expecting it to be a hang out time for the young adults of the church. It ended up being a full-blown church service with food at the end. What was awesome though was that the drug rehab center PROAME brought over 40 men with them to the meeting.
When I first arrived I had no clue that a drug rehab was bringing their men to the meeting. I came early cause my uncle was in the worship team and the rehab group was already their too sitting around doing nothing. I thought to myself, “Man, these are some rough looking guys. They are definitely not from Maranatha. Sweet!” I immediately sat next to one of them who’s name was Guillerme and we started talking about Jesus. I ended preaching the Gospel to and having glorious conversations with five of them before the meeting started.
Four of the men I talked to were from the neighboring state, Minas Gerais, and only one was from Goiania. All of them had only been in the program for nearly two months and all of them had first given their lives to Jesus at the beginning of their time at the center. They were all former crack addicts and/or drug dealers who were at the end of their rope and needed help. Even though they had already given their lives to Jesus and were being discipled I still spoke to them as if they were not saved because I am sure that they are still struggling with their addictions.
I encouraged them in their walks with Christ, explained the Gospel to them, and challenged them to transform their neighborhoods when they returned. We had a great time talking and they were really encouraged.
Lastly, I sang “Holy Sacrifice” at the end of the service. I broke a string and my finger started to hurt in the middle of the song. At the end of the song I looked at my finger and it was covered with blood and blood was splattered all over my guitar. That’s when you know that you play guitar passionately. ☺
This week I have had the privilege of ministering in two Christian drug rehab centers: Jovems Livres and PROAME.
Jovems Livres is the first drug rehab center ever established in Brazil’s history. It was founded by and is still being led by my grandma’s first cousin and my third cousin. I visited their main center in Goiania on Wednesday of this week and spent the whole day there. I got there around 10 a.m. and they had me lead a time of Bible reading with the men there. We read a couple chapters from the book of John and we commented and explained as we went along. I also sang some worship songs with them.
We had lunch together, a one-hour siesta, and then we split up into groups to conduct our cleaning duties. I helped water the plants. I interviewed the leader of the ministry and a couple of the men in the program.
The leader explained to me that they have great facilities, a great amount of funds, and lots of young men who want to be rehabilitated, but what they are lacking is workers and volunteers to help them do the work. They have so few workers that they are only able to have about 15-20 men at a time in their center, while they can be helping 60-80 men at a time if they had the workers.
In the afternoon I was asked to preach to the entry level men who had only been in the program for a month. I preached about the two greatest commandments of loving God and loving our neighbor. I urged them to passionately fall in love with Jesus because He is the only One who will set them free from drugs and sin permanently and give them an abundant life. I sang a song for them and I prayed for them. They told me that my message was one of the best they have heard since arriving in the center.
Finally, Jonatas, the leader of the ministry, gave me a ride home on the back of his motorcycle. It was pretty wild because I had a backpack and my guitar with me, so I had to carry my guitar in my hand while we rode through the insane traffic of Goiania. It was really fun.
On Friday, I went to JAM (Jovems Adultos Maranatha or Young Adults of Maranatha) expecting it to be a hang out time for the young adults of the church. It ended up being a full-blown church service with food at the end. What was awesome though was that the drug rehab center PROAME brought over 40 men with them to the meeting.
When I first arrived I had no clue that a drug rehab was bringing their men to the meeting. I came early cause my uncle was in the worship team and the rehab group was already their too sitting around doing nothing. I thought to myself, “Man, these are some rough looking guys. They are definitely not from Maranatha. Sweet!” I immediately sat next to one of them who’s name was Guillerme and we started talking about Jesus. I ended preaching the Gospel to and having glorious conversations with five of them before the meeting started.
Four of the men I talked to were from the neighboring state, Minas Gerais, and only one was from Goiania. All of them had only been in the program for nearly two months and all of them had first given their lives to Jesus at the beginning of their time at the center. They were all former crack addicts and/or drug dealers who were at the end of their rope and needed help. Even though they had already given their lives to Jesus and were being discipled I still spoke to them as if they were not saved because I am sure that they are still struggling with their addictions.
I encouraged them in their walks with Christ, explained the Gospel to them, and challenged them to transform their neighborhoods when they returned. We had a great time talking and they were really encouraged.
Lastly, I sang “Holy Sacrifice” at the end of the service. I broke a string and my finger started to hurt in the middle of the song. At the end of the song I looked at my finger and it was covered with blood and blood was splattered all over my guitar. That’s when you know that you play guitar passionately. ☺
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