Just some faces of the beautiful kids here. Enjoy. Pray. Also, this evening we will attempt to go back to Camp California. The road has not improved since we have had even more rain all week. This is the rainiest winter in Sao Paulo in 66 years...figures. Satan doesn't want us here.....which means even he knows great things are happening here in the lives of these kids!! Pray for the children since they will bring them in the morning and we will definitely be walking in and out of camp (a hilly, muddy 5 km. road). Please pray for their hearts to be open to the lessons they will hear. Pray for stomachs and hearts to come away full. For lots of fun, laughter, hugs and love.
This is an example of Brazilian martial art. Kids in the US go to karate or tai-kwan-do. Kids in Brazil do capoiera....a unique combination of martial arts, dance, gymnastics and music. We all got a turn making fools of ourselves "sparring" with Antonio, the teacher. He is also one of the Restoration Ministries pastors. It is beautiful to see his heart for these kids. He shares about God's love for them, encourages them to stay away from bad behaviors (drugs, smoking, etc), to develop self-discipline and to value education.
Please pray for it to dry up. There is a possibility that we won't be able to have our second camp this weekend because of the roads into the camp. After the problems getting stuck last weekend....and the fact that it has been pouring pretty much every day...we need a couple of dry days. We know that if we don't have a camp, God will use our team in other ways. But there will be many disappointed kids. Please please join us in prayer!! Posted by Diane
“When you are truly in love, you go to great lengths to be with the one you love. You’ll drive for hours to be together, even it it’s only for a short while. You don’t mind staying up late to talk. Walking in the rain is romantic, not annoying. You’ll willingly spend a small fortune on the one you’re crazy about. When you are apart from each other, it’s painful, even miserable. He or she is all you think about; you jump at any chance to be together.’- Francis Chan, Soul Cravings
What would happen if we fell in love with God’s people? What would happen if we went to great lengths to serve others or drive for hours because we knew if was going to impact someone for Christ?
As the rain poured down today, we had to cancel the morning kid’s program, and instead do home visitations. It was powerful. Maybe God sent the pouring rain for a reason…because just maybe, someone needed our prayers and love today. I am not talking about conditional love, but Christ’s unconditional, everlasting, persevering, capturing, all-consuming, passionate love. The first visit that my group (Jonatas, Robin, Rodaine, and I) went to was family with eight children. As we sat and listened to the woman through her tears and the sound of rain, she explained her family’s needs, struggles, and pain. Her fourteen year old daughter has drug problems and because of this, the drug dealers have been showing up at their home demanding money. Because of this issue, the parents have had to pay off the dealers, and now have no money to buy food or fix their roof leaks—leaving their children cold and wet at night. Drugs and abuse have hurt her family deeply. She was thankful that we came to pray with her and offer her help. She needed us to come today. After the storm from last night, and leaks all through her house, she was in need of encouragement and God’s love.
The kid’s program went great! Though the rain poured hard, and the streets flooded, we still had about 30 kids or so come. We sang and danced and played goofy games. We ate candy and gave our stickers, and love, and hugs. We took pictures and video taped joyful faces. As we sang, the neighborhood invested with drugs was filled with God’s presence and brought curious faces to hear and see the even. Restoration Ministries has a way of impacting kids, which leads to impacting families and reaching people for Christ.
Nothing can stop God’s love, grace, and hope to spread.
Continue to pray for the people here, for the team, and for Restoration Ministries!! God is doing some great things!
Today was a visitation day at Iguatemi, one of the favelas where Restoration Ministries has been working for at least 3 years. On my other trips to Sao Paulo, I had really grown close to a beautiful young lady named Leticia. In an area with so many bad influences and temptations, Leticia stands out as being a young woman with a heart for God who desires to do the right things with her life. Leticia loves all things to do with sports and playing ball. She is a gifted athlete and incredible runner. It is sad because living in the favelas and going to the schools in the area, she has no opportunity to develop these gifts. If she was in the states, she would be playing sports for her school and having a great possibility to get into a good university on a scholarship. Instead, she must fight for the education she gets. She is blessed to have two parents in the home, both of whom havee jobs. She desires a good education and hopes to study English and computer science. She will soon be attending English classes at the Restoration Ministries main day center but will have to take a long bus ride to get there. Leticia will turn 15 this Friday. Prayer requests for her would be for her family (parents, 2 older sisters and a younger brother), for staying pure above the influences of sexual impurity, drugs and violence that are a part of her world, for safety on the bus traveling to RM for classes, for educational opportunities that will help her make a better life for herself, and for her to lead a life pleasing to God and His purposes for her. She attends a weekly Bible study that is a pre-requisite to working as a volunteer with RM. Please remember her in your prayers. By contrast, we visited with another young girl who at16 was holding her 2 month old baby. Daiane is a sweet girl who I met on my very first trip to Brazil 2 1/2 years ago. She has had to drop out of school because of the pregnancy and birth. Both of her parents are unemployed. Her younger brother is running wild. She hopes to go back to school next year. Another girl (not pictured), Julianna, has also been someone at our camps the last two summers. The first year, she bragged at camp about using some of her prostitution money to buy underwear for camp instead of using it for drugs ....she was 12 at the time. Last summer at camp, we found out that she, at13, now had a young son. She shows violent streaks....actually threatened one of the boys at camp and then stole a knife from the kitchen and hid it in the bushes...planning to use it later...but then was afraid of the darkto go get it.....she was only 13. So today she is hanging out with us, smoking a cigarette and no sign of the child, now 1 1/2, anywhere. Will you pray for these two girls too...and for their baby boys? For them to come to experience God in their lives in a real way that will be bring life-changing behaviors. For them to find a way back into school and to desire an education. For them to realize God's great love for them. Amen and amen. Thank you for your prayers for these precious kids. And please also pray for the continued program of Restoration Miinistries in Iguatemi and the other favelas where they work. Obrigada and boa noite. Diane
The most beautiful thing about today was sitting and visiting with families in the favelas, genuinely building relationships, and sharing Christ. We (Jonytas, Italia, Patty, Jim, and I) got to visit one family though that was really special to me. To put this experiences in to words would be an impossible thing to do,but I will do my best to explain. Last year, my mom, Pam, went on this trip to Brazil and had a special bond with a girl at camp named Bruna. This year, when I came on this trip, my mom sent me with a picture of her with Bruna and told me to try and give it to her. I had the opportunity to meet Bruna and her family today and spend time in their home. Though I forgot to bring the picture with me, Jonytas will bring it to her next week. I showed Bruna a picture of my mom, and she smiled..and excitedly exclaimed “PAMELA! PAMELA!”. She was ecstatic. She then ran to her room and gave me a brown wooden box to give to my mom, along with a necklace for me. Her two sisters gave me little presents as well. And, I took a picture with Bruna and her family. It was a moment that was painted with God’s love and grace. My mom would be happy to know that Bruna has a wonderful, God-loving family. There is so much more I could explain about today or about this week. Being here is a blessing, a gift, a priceless treasure that I hope you can share in. We had some pretty neat experiences today. I love that we serve a God who loves His people dearly and is passionately in love with those that put their faith in Him. This week is about loving God and loving others.Love. Love. Love.
It was so fun seeing the kids get to use the zipline that our February team helped repair. That team replaced the support pole which had rotted out completely and made the zip line unusable. Our photos looked like raising the flag at Iwo Jima. After lots off mud, tar, and effort, it's great to see the joy it brought!
After a several days of hiking through mud we finally got a break and spent the majority of our day either in a building (with a floor), in a vehicle or on pavement. After breakfast our day started with a tour of a couple of Sao Paulo's favelas. These are communities of people coming together in an area where they can build cheaply and inexpensively. Our guide to this world, Tati (pronounced Taw-chee) , shared stories and personal experiences that were heart-breaking. Tati explained to us how Restoration Ministries tries to help the peoples of Sao Paulo's favelas by building relationships with them. Walking through the favelas this morning and visiting with some of the children that were in camp over the weeked really opened my eyes to how fortunate we are in the US. I know I say this after each of my mission trips to Mexico but this was a further opening of my eyes.
Below we have posted some of the children's smiling faces from this past weekend. See how beautiful and happy these children look? This is absolutely the joy of the Lord. If you could see the conditions these children live in day after day you would have no doubt that the Lord is working powerfully in their lives. For the next four days our group will not be merely touring the favelas but actually working in them, interacting with the kids and thier families. Please pray for us that we will be effective ambassadors for Christ, exhibiting His love to everyone we come in contact with. We cannot do this without your love and prayers supporting us. Thank you for all you are dong from home.
Where do I start? It was a pretty rough trip here. From the long flight, to a frustrating and trying time in the airport, God has shown that our plans aren’t always His. It’s humbling. As we landed in Sao Paulo, Jimmy, Patty, and I had to go through a separate security because of our bags. After over an hour of confusion, frustration, and miscommunication, they took and kept our bags of toys because we did not have any claims that they were donations and they taxed the speakers as well (a lot of money). But, we made it out safe!
Our journey had just begun. We made the trip out to beautiful Camp California. It was rainy and muddy, but we were determined that God would work despite all of the rain. As we pulled up to the dirt road leading to the camp, our bus got stuck deep in mud. We hoped and prayed and did what we could to get the bus up, but a pretty 45 minute walk up to camp was the outcome. And, thankfully, the bus was pulled out later. Hooray! Sadly, because of all the troubles, the kids were not able to come up Friday night. Yet, the next morning, they arrived, after walking the long climb as well, with excitement. We instantly became celebrities. God was and is at work.
The camp was great! It was full of God’s grace and love and His peace flowed from the dewy rain that kept us inside all Saturday. That did not hold back the extatic kids from running around and grabbing our hands and jumping up and down during worship. :) It is incredible the relationship you can build with kids in a day, even with a language barrier. Though it may seem like a barrier, at times, it is not, in fact….it may push us even closer to using love to show God to kids yearning for a heavenly Father.
After walking back down from the camp and the buses getting stuck again, we made it to the hotel ..showered quick, and joined Restoration Ministries for church. It was wonderful!!! Jonatas gave an amazing message and we felt God’s love fill the small, but powerfully loud room. It was great! Well, I could write tons and loads, but I gotta go! Pray that God’s grace and presence fills our tour of the flavelas tomorrow :) We are excited to see what God is going to do.
This morning our Brazil Team met at Lakeside Church to go over our curriculum, crafts, games and music. We shared prayers and laughter as we worked hard to get everything ready for our departure next Thursday. Take a peek at our pictures and video to see our progress.
Tonight we will meet at the Lakeside 6:30 service for our Commissioning. I hope you can come join us.
posted by Karen J Ruth, Brazil July 2009 Team member
We only have 10 days until our departure date. We've been busy planning lessons, music and crafts. We've been collecting support and supplies. Things are beginning to move fast and getting exciting.
This evening we met at PowerHouse Ministries and bagged about 800 bags of candies to pass out to the children in the favelas. Each bag has 4 pieces of candy: a peppermint, a tootsie roll, a dum-dum sucker and a piece of bubblegum. As we packed we discussed curriculum, lessons, crafts, translations and packing. We shared prayer requests, and we sang and laughed together. God has great plans for this trip, that much was evident from our fellowship this evening. Take a peek at our pictures, we were hard at work on our candy production line.
Please continue to pray for us as we get even closer to our departure date. Please pray that we keep our hearts and minds open to God's will for us as we embark upon this adventure. Please pray for those we will be interacting with, the families and children of Sao Paulo's favelas as well as those who work every day with Restoration Ministries, so that we can have a positive impact on their lives. Please pray that God will have prepared their hearts to be open to His message and they will be eager hear the message we have to share with them.
Please also pray we all remain healthy before, during and after our trip. And for our safety as we travel to and from Brazil.
Thank you to all of you who are supporting us in this venture, whether it is financially, emotionally, with practical matters or simply with prayer. It does make a difference to all of us involved in this journey.
Posted by: Karen J Ruth, Brazil July 2009 team member
