Time flies. The current situation in Brazil includes a gas crisis. Right now, gas is double what it normally costs because the government has been high jacking prices to cover up money that they took from the people. This caused the transport trucks to go on strike leaving many gas stations without fuel, and grocery stores without food being delivered. All over the country people are protesting and forcing the transport trucks to pull over and park on the side of the road in order to force the government to lower prices once again. This morning we saw a convoy of army trucks and police vehicles and then a series of 30 or more semis transporting gas. Without the police escort, the protesters would have made the gas trucks pull over and again limit the amount of gas available for the general public. Maria commented that the drivers were likely threatened by the military in order to escort them (because the gas transport drivers were the initial ones to go on strike) and now that the drivers did transport gas, they will likely be threatened by those protesting. There are so many people that are effected by this and it is definitely something to be praying about because the whole nation of Brazil is being effected.
As we have entered our final week, we have started team debriefs. It is crazy to think our time here is almost over and we have mixed feelings of being excited for things back home in Canada but also sad because we are going to have to start saying goodbye to all our new Brazilian family and friends. It is good to start reflecting on the different things we have learned and that God has been teaching us while we have been here. But alas, back to last week and some of the things that happened.
Tuesday morning is the beginning of ProVIda’s work week which starts with a meeting consisting of singing, some Bible study, praying for specific people and ministries of ProVida and fellowship over coffee, snacks and lunch! (Brazilian’s love good food and lots of it!!) This was a great opportunity to get to know some of the long-term missionaries better, asking them questions about how they ended up in Brazil with ProVida. Paula, from Great Britain, has been in Brazil for about 10 years and has been with us during many of the prison visits and is very helpful as a 2nd translator. Stephanie and Charlotte are both from Germany and have both been with ProVida for many years. We also got to meet an 18 year old guy who Alex and Rafael met in the prison and they have been discipling him for the last 3 years. It was really powerful for our team to meet someone who had been converted through the ministry of ProVida and is continuing to follow in the footsteps of discipleship and even participating in ProVida’s meetings.
Tuesday afternoon we went back to the first prison we visited (for some girls on our team this was the third time for them to go back to this prison). Instead of standing and presenting in front of their cells, we were able to have a room and play games and chat with the guys. For myself, God put it on my heart to pray and listen to what he wanted for those boys that day as well as to pray for the greater picture of broken families and social structure in Brazil which has contributed to systemic problems with violence and drugs. The guys were very attentive to our stories and had good questions for our team. It was amazing (and difficult) to be so overwhelmed by God’s love for the boys and, with some emotion, to share an encouragement with them that even though they are in a difficult point in life that God is walking with them.
On Wednesday we went to a PePe program in the morning! It was very exciting to see one of the same little boys that we had met the weekend previous during family visits and get to spend a little more time getting to know a whole room full of boisterous five year olds. It took a little while for them to warm up to us but in not much time at all they were telling stories and we were helping them learn how to write the letter B and cut out letters from a magazine. We got to play some English games, and translated into Portuguese, like duck, duck, goose and the head and shoulders song. We ended our time with them with bubble blowing out in the courtyard which the kids loved!
The afternoon brought a new ministry with an organization called Creative Hands. Here we met Jo, an awesome lady from Wales who has been in Brazil for about 7 years. We helped her do an after school program for kids where we had fun teaching them the colours in English along with scripture verses that told the story of God’s love and singing more songs like Father Abraham (including all the actions!) We also got to play Futebol with Jo and some of the young women from the community who come out for a weekly devotional and soccer training. We arrived home hot, sweaty and tired but there was a surprise party waiting for Maria’s birthday! While we had been away during the day, the family had prepared a cake and decorated the house with balloons! It was a great celebration and the first time our Brazilian family really sat down and ate dinner with us. We took the opportunity to share things we appreciated about Maria (with the help of Kelly for translation). We ended the night with more fellowship with Jo who came over to tell stories about her ministry and about the days when she lived with Kelly (when they were both on the mission field full time in brazil which made for some great laughs!
Thursday was back at the prison. We got to see three of the same guys as the week before (and even got treats that they had made in the kitchen!) and we also got to play games and hang out with 4 new guys. Our team was challenged with what unconditional love looks like, especially when seeing boys who had committed heinous crimes and yet have accepted Christ. To know that God loves them was challenging and we have had some good discussions on what it looks like to love both the victim and the perpetrator in these situations and also to realize how endless God’s grace is in forgiving us and our sins in the same way that He forgives these guys. In the next prison visit before lunch we were in front of their cells – this prison is apparently the first place the guys come to when they are arrested and is typically a little more rough around the edges. Maria and Melissa both shared their testimonies and we sang “Nosso Deus”. Rafael also shared a word. The guys enjoyed the song and when we went to the second block they requested that we sing again!
Paula and Jo hosted us for a delicious lunch. We were supposed to go into downtown Belem for a ministry with refuges from Venezuela but due to the protests for the gas shortages we were unable to go downtown. This gave us more of a restful afternoon at home where Olivia and I took the opportunity to go for a jog (with Rambo as our body guard).
Friday morning we visited a women’s prison – the same one as the previous two Fridays. We had a bigger room and more girls join us for a bible study led by Paula and testimony by Mel. After some questions we payed futebol and volleyball (in the hot sun!) so we were sweating buckets by the time we were done (a common occurrence). We had some time to kill and some hungry stomachs so we went for a walk to find a supermarket store where we could have lunch, air conditioning and 3 hours of adventures! It started with meeting an English-speaking Brazilian who came up to us while we were eating. What a powerful testimony to God orchestrating details. When I shared with him why were were in Brazil, he started talking about his ministry as a worship leader at his church and we were able to have a great conversation about him teaching English as well as about faith and the situation in Belem where many profess to be Christians but believe in prosperity gospels or other false religions.
With Alex in the afternoon, we visited a Children’s home and played with the kids (and attempted to teach them songs with minimal success because some of the kids were quite young, with very short attention spans but it was fun.
Saturday was a relaxing day and i was able to reconnect with family and friends for a little bit and say Happy Birthday to my Mom! We also got to make a Canadian meal as a team for our Brazilian family. We decided to do a breakfast for dinner so we made french toast, hash browns and scrambled eggs plus a taste of home as we had brought a gift of maple syrup with us from Canada! Sunday we got to enjoy some sun and the pool; some games and good conversation with Jo and also attend two different Brazilian churches. It was amazing to see how the Universal Church is one through meeting the different missionaries and the different church services. The evening service was focused on the persecuted church, through material from Open Doors (with everything translated into Portuguese). The prayers of the evening were focused mainly on India (where there is another Global Projects team) and specific situations there.
Monday was another relaxing day with lots of bonding with Junior and Guilherme who were over and flew kites most of the day (it is kite season in Benevides right now) and lots of swimming in the pool, good team bonding and more delicious Brazilian rice beans and frango, not to mention coxinhas and other treats!
Wow, when I read back on all that, there are still so many things that I left out and many funny stories with our team but I thank you for reading and for your prayers. (Photos will come later 🙂 )
Specific requests in the next week:
- for all the youth as they have hearings coming up with the judge
- for the ProVida workers – for endurance and strength
- for the sale of the ProVida property
- for our team as we wrap up our final few days
- for God to keep working the many seeds that we have been able to plant in the last three weeks.
Sea to Sea 2017 