Chegamos! We arrived back in Recife, Brazil from our 2 month outreach in Rio de Janeiro.
I arrived last Friday and the rest of the team arrived last night.
It was a wonderful time working in the slum areas of Rio....we worked in Bangu, Niteroi, Borrel favelas. Everyone is tired but soooo joyful!
We are very thankful for the time spent in Bangu with Damon Crim and Steve May! What a blessing! We got to do so much in that area and despite the gunfire, it was a great time of peace and seeing God's hand in so much!
I want to share one story with you:
One of the most powerful tools we use to reach others is drama. We have a non-verbal drama/mime (performed to a song) about a girl who God gives life to and he shows her all the beauty he has made for her...flowers, trees, waterfalls, birds. She is so happy and dancing. Then comes a boyfriend who rejects and abandons her, a model who shows her she needs to be skinnier, a person who gets her to use drugs and alcohol and seek after money, and finally the devil who encourages her to cut herself and try to commit suicide.
It is so powerful to watch the transformation of the girl during the drama as she is so joyful and dancing with an upward glance to all God created in the beginning....and the change that happens by the end where she is crying, abandoned, depressed, kneeling on the floor holding a gun to her head, with a downward glance.
Right at the critical moment, she rises up and throws the gun down and runs back to God. God pushes back the devils and demons and eventually kills them. He takes the girl and throws off all the junk she has collected on her from the world and he hugs her and shows her again the things He created for her...the beauty of love, His creation. She again dances and has great joy.
We performed this drama for a group of teenagers at a public school in the Bangu favela. We were blessed to be able to perform to 840 students in shifts that day. The last group was a group of teens that the director of the school said were abandoned teens, who didn't have parents. I'm not sure if they were like our version of foster teens in the USA.
During that drama and afterwards when one of our students, Priscila, who talked to the teens about their love and beauty in God, I felt God's presence so much and it was so powerful. I know God used that time to speak to hearts and I know they will never forget that day and what they saw.
Afterwards, we spoke to them individually, gave hugs, and kissed foreheads. I love Brasil. You can still get away with kissing foreheads. I think I kissed 840 foreheads that day! :)
Those of you who know Damon and Steve will get a kick out of the fact that eventually we had to train both to be in our dramas and perform with us. They did a great job! :) Budding thespians!
We also spent time in some projects (apartments) near where the gunshots were heard all day, going door to door praying with people, evangelizing and then doing a kid's program after school to teach them about Jesus and love on them. It was a great day!
We also went to a rehab center in the slum twice for men. Wow, it was so powerful! We did 2 dramas and gave testimonies and encouragement. During one drama, a man from the center kneeled in front and cried and prayed with hands raised the whole time. Later he told us he used to be a male prostitute/transvestite. He showed me pictures, before as a prostitute and after with a suit and Bible in hand. He is such a man on fire for God now! Praise God! What a transformed life!
It was a wonderful experience in Rio!
Thank you for your prayers, support, encouragement, financial support, and being part of our team!
God bless you as you've blessed us!
Love em Cristo, Joy
We know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, HOPE. -Romans 5:3-4
Friday, June 7, 2013
Off to Rio!
Hi All,
Our outreach team of 8 arrived at Bangu favela in Rio to work with Damon and Steve and the community of Bangu and the 1st Baptist church here.
Yesterday was a little tough and we could use your prayers.
Here is a note Damon sent out yesterday:
-------
Quick note:
Today was our first full day hosting a missions team and during our outdoor program for a group of kids, shots were being exchanged very close by. It sent our group running for protection. No one injured but, as you would imagine, the team is shaken up. The shootout lasted for a while and sounded like it was happening next door. Please pray for protection, peace, and that our short time together will make a life long impact.
Damon
--------
So please keep our team and this area in your prayers. I talked with a young single mom who came running to the project frantically looking for her son (he was with us). She stayed the whole 3 hours as shots rang out as she lives behind the project where the shots were coming from and didn't feel it safe to return home yet. She said she's lived here her whole life and she still isn't used to the shooting. She said as a single mother, the only protection she has for her and her son is Jesus. What a beautiful statement. The only protection any of us have really truly is Jesus, no matter where we live in the world.
We will be doing street evangelism in the morning today, and then visiting a rehab center for men in this slum area who have drug and alcohol addictions this afternoon and then helping with the church's youth program tonight.
Thank you for your continued prayers! Love, Joy
Here are some other prayer requests as well:
-- Safety and protection: the youth program tonight is in an open park type area near where the shootings were yesterday. Our team is a little jumpy about this, as you can imagine.
-- Team unity: we have many different cultures and languages on our team
-- Health: many are slightly ill on the team and I also awoke throughout the night suddenly ill and don't feel better this am
-- Community: please pray for this area, these precious families and the impact of the church here
-- USA: please pray for the devastation after the tornado in Oklahoma...many children...so sad
On a lighter note, I joked on Fb that there's nothing like a little gunfire to bring people together. Which turned out to be true. After debriefing the day last night with Damon leading this debrief, which was so great and much needed, we had a lot of fun last night at dinner joking around, paying each other 1 real (50 cents) to eat a spoonful of hot sauce and other craziness. I guess sometimes you need to laugh so you don't cry!
God's blessings to all!
Our outreach team of 8 arrived at Bangu favela in Rio to work with Damon and Steve and the community of Bangu and the 1st Baptist church here.
Yesterday was a little tough and we could use your prayers.
Here is a note Damon sent out yesterday:
-------
Quick note:
Today was our first full day hosting a missions team and during our outdoor program for a group of kids, shots were being exchanged very close by. It sent our group running for protection. No one injured but, as you would imagine, the team is shaken up. The shootout lasted for a while and sounded like it was happening next door. Please pray for protection, peace, and that our short time together will make a life long impact.
Damon
--------
So please keep our team and this area in your prayers. I talked with a young single mom who came running to the project frantically looking for her son (he was with us). She stayed the whole 3 hours as shots rang out as she lives behind the project where the shots were coming from and didn't feel it safe to return home yet. She said she's lived here her whole life and she still isn't used to the shooting. She said as a single mother, the only protection she has for her and her son is Jesus. What a beautiful statement. The only protection any of us have really truly is Jesus, no matter where we live in the world.
We will be doing street evangelism in the morning today, and then visiting a rehab center for men in this slum area who have drug and alcohol addictions this afternoon and then helping with the church's youth program tonight.
Thank you for your continued prayers! Love, Joy
Here are some other prayer requests as well:
-- Safety and protection: the youth program tonight is in an open park type area near where the shootings were yesterday. Our team is a little jumpy about this, as you can imagine.
-- Team unity: we have many different cultures and languages on our team
-- Health: many are slightly ill on the team and I also awoke throughout the night suddenly ill and don't feel better this am
-- Community: please pray for this area, these precious families and the impact of the church here
-- USA: please pray for the devastation after the tornado in Oklahoma...many children...so sad
On a lighter note, I joked on Fb that there's nothing like a little gunfire to bring people together. Which turned out to be true. After debriefing the day last night with Damon leading this debrief, which was so great and much needed, we had a lot of fun last night at dinner joking around, paying each other 1 real (50 cents) to eat a spoonful of hot sauce and other craziness. I guess sometimes you need to laugh so you don't cry!
God's blessings to all!
Saturday, January 12, 2013
The beauty is all around. Welcoming 2013.
Hello from Brazil, Everyone!
Hope everyone had a very merry and blessed Christmas and a wonderful New Year!
I just returned to Brazil on the 9th and just got internet today. I am so happy to be back and truly feel like this is home now.
As usual, the base was abuzz with activity: NIKO, vacation Bible school, and King's Kids had all just started and there are many new people, including a large team from the Dominican Republic here on outreach.
As I entered the base, I again heard a worship song being sung in English. Last time it was How Great is Our God and this time it was a Hillsong song. It's like God's own little "welcome home" to me.
I also noticed that today is the 12th of January, which happens to be the day I moved out here last year. Today I have been remembering fondly my excitement, hopes, dreams, and the great unknown upon my arrival...with a tad bit of romantic naivety, I must admit. Living in a foreign country sounded so adventurous and exciting!
However, looking back at the year, I feel a bit like I've lived through a war (not to diminish any of you who have actually lived through a war). Everything was so, so hard. I've witnessed things that I've never seen before. And hope never to again. There have been times I felt the weight of despair and hopelessness and just wanted to give up.
But everything in my life that has had any lasting meaning has been hard. And I look back now with gratefulness knowing I learned a lot, I leaned on God more than I ever have in my life, my character was grown, I'm a more hopeful person, and I'll never be the same...in a good way.
One of the main things God taught me this past year is that I have to challenge myself to see the beauty in a place where it seems no beauty exists.
Yesterday, during morning chapel, I got there early and sat on the end of a pew that looks out an open window towards the jungle. I put my water bottle beside me on the pew about half a foot away from me. Lucas, one of the youngest Hope House boys came in and silently sat next to me, able to slide his skinny self in between me and my water bottle, even though the rest of the pew was empty. He sang all the worship songs in Portuguese with gusto and I looked out the window at the all the beautiful trees and was just so content.
The beauty is all around. I just have to look for it.
Many blessings to you in 2013 and always.
Thank you for being on this journey with me.
Love, Joy
"Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, HOPE." -Romans 5:3-4
"No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him." -1 Cor. 2:9
Hope everyone had a very merry and blessed Christmas and a wonderful New Year!
I just returned to Brazil on the 9th and just got internet today. I am so happy to be back and truly feel like this is home now.
As usual, the base was abuzz with activity: NIKO, vacation Bible school, and King's Kids had all just started and there are many new people, including a large team from the Dominican Republic here on outreach.
As I entered the base, I again heard a worship song being sung in English. Last time it was How Great is Our God and this time it was a Hillsong song. It's like God's own little "welcome home" to me.
I also noticed that today is the 12th of January, which happens to be the day I moved out here last year. Today I have been remembering fondly my excitement, hopes, dreams, and the great unknown upon my arrival...with a tad bit of romantic naivety, I must admit. Living in a foreign country sounded so adventurous and exciting!
However, looking back at the year, I feel a bit like I've lived through a war (not to diminish any of you who have actually lived through a war). Everything was so, so hard. I've witnessed things that I've never seen before. And hope never to again. There have been times I felt the weight of despair and hopelessness and just wanted to give up.
But everything in my life that has had any lasting meaning has been hard. And I look back now with gratefulness knowing I learned a lot, I leaned on God more than I ever have in my life, my character was grown, I'm a more hopeful person, and I'll never be the same...in a good way.
One of the main things God taught me this past year is that I have to challenge myself to see the beauty in a place where it seems no beauty exists.
Yesterday, during morning chapel, I got there early and sat on the end of a pew that looks out an open window towards the jungle. I put my water bottle beside me on the pew about half a foot away from me. Lucas, one of the youngest Hope House boys came in and silently sat next to me, able to slide his skinny self in between me and my water bottle, even though the rest of the pew was empty. He sang all the worship songs in Portuguese with gusto and I looked out the window at the all the beautiful trees and was just so content.
The beauty is all around. I just have to look for it.
Many blessings to you in 2013 and always.
Thank you for being on this journey with me.
Love, Joy
"Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, HOPE." -Romans 5:3-4
"No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him." -1 Cor. 2:9
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