Chegamos! We arrived!

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