14Feb 2012
I have been back in Australia since 25 January. I know it is only 3 weeks since I came back home but so much has happened in such a short period of time!
I have started my role with SIM as a mission mobiliser and after only 2 weeks on the job there is already so much I have learnt!
I still have to understand more about SIM, about mobilising people for missions, about working in a Christian organisation, about how God can use me in this role, and much more. But I am enjoying every bit of it!
For the last 5 years I have worked in a different type of office, with different priorities and goals. I miss the structure and the organised way of working like that. I am comfortable doing that, I like to control my environment, I like to be given a task and work on achieving it with a perfectionist approach.
But God did not call me to stay hiding in my comfort zone for too long. He has called me out of my comfort zone before when I had to leave my country, my culture, my family and friends, and step into something completely different and unknown to me.
I had a tough time when I first arrived in Australia but God kept me safe, under his wings, and sustained me through every step I took. I learnt how to trust him for everything I needed. He taught me that he is my refuge and my strength.
And recently he called me out of my comfort zone again to step into full time ministry, to stretch myself even further, to trust him even more. I am so happy that He has done that and that I obeyed him! I am really happy to serve him with my whole life. I am very excited to be a facilitator for people who are stepping into world missions. To see people taking up the call into mission and to help them to get there is such a joy and a privilege!
But all of this is still unknown to me and I feel like I need time to process all that has been happening to me and what God has planned for the future.
It was not long ago that I was in Brazil visiting my family and participating of local ministries. I have seen many things that God has been doing there through his faithful servants.
I actually did not expect to be surprised by the ministries because it is my own culture. But for my surprise I was really challenged and encouraged by it ! I think that living in Australia for the last 6 years opened my eyes to my own culture and made me see my own people with different eyes, more critical of the culture but also much more loving towards the people. I am still trying to process my emotions and how I have changed since.
Some of the stories I heard there changed the way I think about others, about suffering, about myself and about God. I loved the fact that I could relate to people, hear about real life stories, cry with them, laugh with them, share testimonies of how their lives have changed, and pray together.
Probably the most impacting ministry for me so far was the project called “Nova” (New) that brings the gospel of Jesus to girls who are working on the streets as prostitutes.
I have met a girl who is in the phase 1 of the project (meaning she just heard the good news about Jesus). She told me a little bit about her story:
(This is not the photo of the girl from the story but please do not reproduce this)
She started in the prostitution when she was only 9 years old. She became a drug and alcohol addict. She sold her body to pay for her addictions.
She became pregnant 3 times and her sons grew up being looked after by her colleagues in the brothel until 2 of the fathers took the kids from her and she was left with one son. The son who stayed with her also became a drug addict and a drug dealer by the age of 10.
All she ever knew was how to be a prostitute. She did not have a good self-image at all. She saw herself as rubbish, as an object, as someone who has to please others and is never satisfied. She always thought she was worth nothing. She has been infected with the HIV virus and she needs daily medication to keep herself healthy.
She is in her mid 30s now and she just heard about Jesus. She heard for the first time that she is worth a lot, that Jesus had died on the cross for her sins so she could be reconciled to God and not suffer punishment for her wrong doing. This was a “set free” message that touched her heart deeply.
She wanted to know more about this man who was God and gave his life to save her. So she started learning about Jesus and she left prostitution. She has been clean from drugs and alcohol for a few months now. She is still taking the medication for Aids.
I spoke to her before Christmas when she told me this amazing story of transformation she experienced in her life.
But her walk of faith is just at the beginning. She has ups and downs and life has been really hard for her.
She just realised the sins, the abuse, the lack of worth, the addictions and all the bad things that happened to her. She needs healing from all the wounds that she has in her body, in her soul, in her character.
She still does not know what else to do to earn her living. She has been baking cakes to sell in front of the church to pay for her rent. The project is providing workshops for her to learn a new profession so she can sustain herself.
During Christmas she had a tough time and she tried suicide. But God once more protected her and gave her inner peace to stop harming herself.
I met her again after New Year’s Eve and she told me about the struggle she went through and the pain that was all too hard for her to take.
She told me that as she tried to end her life she remembered Jesus and his suffering. Her own-self kept telling her how much she is worthless and she should end it all, but a small sweet voice told her that she is worthy and that there is a purpose for her life. So she decided to stop trying to end her life, listen to the Holy Spirit’s voice and pray. She prayed for the next 4 hours without stopping asking God to take her away from that dangerous place she found herself in. And he did.
During our meeting, as she told me this story, both of us with tears in our eyes, started to pray together. We had the most beautiful moment of prayer and dependency on God to sustain us. We were praying for her to be able to be alive. There was nothing else we wanted more than one more day for her. As she prayed she asked God that she would have one more day not so she could live, but so she could share his love with at least one more person.
I thought this was beautiful. There we were, realising that we depend on God to be alive the next day. That without his provision of the next breath we die. And all we want to do is to have another day so someone else can hear us talking about Jesus.
I still keep thinking about her prayer and what it means to follow Jesus that way, to remember daily that I depend on God for a next day. That nothing really matters if we do not have a relationship with God. That the next day is not for myself so I can live, but for him and for the glory of his name. I did learn big lessons from the people over there who have nothing else left, but they have what matters the most: Jesus.
And I must say that I was not expecting this, but I experienced a confirmation from God that what I am doing at SIM is really something he chose for me to do right now. I thought that being in my country and involved with local missions would make me prefer to stay there and work in the field myself. But surprisingly, even though I did love everything about it, I know that it is my job now to mobilise people to go from anywhere to everywhere. There is so much need everywhere!
With God’s help I will be able to pass on to others my contagious excitement about missions and I will facilitate sending people out to the field to fulfill God’s mission to all nations.
I am very happy to be back home and re-united with my husband U-Don.
We are looking forward to seeing what God has prepared for us this year and we will be happy to share our journey with you.
May you also remember that you depend on God to live one more day.
And when he gives you the next day, may you use it for the glory of His name.
10Jan 2012
I have visited a Project called “Cia da Graça” (Grace Company).
This is an interdenominational project that involves a few churches working together among the less fortunate people who are living below the poverty line, in the surroundings of the dumpster area.
The families build their own houses from material that they find in the dumpster, such as pieces of wood, pieces of plastic, etc.
The living conditions in this area are really poor. The families live from the money they make from the sale of materials that they collect in the dumpster.
The dumpster smells so bad that it is even hard to describe it. It is like the worst putrid smell, a place that smells worst than sulphur.
All kinds of rubbish are dumped there and stay there for a long time, which causes a constant smoke to come out of it.
When I looked at the liquid that comes out from the rubbish and stops on the ground forming a little pool I could see little bubbles that are appear constantly probably because of the chemicals and rotten food.
And it is in this place that the people spend their whole day, searching for materials, collecting what can be sold to get some money to survive, to feed themselves.
The conditions in which they collect the materials are depressing to see. Some people walk there without shoes, they do not wear gloves, they use a stick to move the rubbish around to see if there is something deeper than the surface to be collected.
One man had his foot wounded, wrapped in some kind of fabric, and he was still walking there, putting his foot in the rotten bubbling water, probably catching a huge infection because of his wounds being opened and in contact with that water.
As they collect the rubbish they place it in the big bags to be sold to the recycling industry.
The local government does not have interest in solving this problem. But it has done something to make their lives a little bit better. They have built 2 bedroom houses in the area for the families to live in so they could leave their shanty houses.
The houses are not bad but it did not solve their social problem. They still work on the collection of materials from the dumpster because even though they have a house they still do not have a job to be able to leave the dumpster.
And many of them keep what we call “culture of the miserable” which means that their thinking is as if they were still miserable, as if they were living in the shanty houses, they act like miserable people. Many brought back inside the houses all the materials from the rubbish. Even though they have a brick house, they keep the wood walls and the plastic roof inside the new house. The dirtiness, the lack of hygiene and the miserable living conditions continue the same. They brought the shanty house inside the brick house! They still work in the dumpster and not much has changed for them.
The project “Cia da Graça” is pretty much their only hope for change. Their uniform T-shirt says: Cia da Graça, Compartilhando o maior tesouro da vida (Grace Company, sharing the biggest treasure of our life).
The project includes many ways of help (I had visited the project during 4 days to see a little bit of each area):
Weekly visits to the families for counseling, praying, talking, encouraging, etc.
Workshops for women every Saturday morning to teach them a new way of earning their money, such as making floor mats, making tea towels, making fridge magnets, etc.
Kids program every Saturday morning to teach them about Jesus, and also talking about hygiene, about respect, about obedience, etc.
Reading club for children every Friday afternoon to encourage kids to read books and to make them understand the value of education.
Preaching the word of God, praising God with music, praying together, witnessing the love of Jesus to them, walking with them through life.
Giving away a monthly basket with basic food and materials (rice, beans, flour, oil, salt, sugar, milk, etc).
One of the visits that I have participated of was to a lady’s house to give her a new oven which has been donated by a Christian person to the project.
This lady has been part of the project for a while, she goes to every workshop on Saturdays, she does not work in the dumpster, she attends church every weekend, her kids are in the reading club program, they are followers of Jesus and they are a testimony of the love of Jesus to those people around them.
A long time ago she told one of the leaders that her dream was to learn how to bake bread so she could bake it for her family and also sell the bread to earn some money.
And the day arrived when she received a new oven so she could bake bread at home.
The leaders also brought ingredients, a recipe and taught her how to make the bread.
It was such a happy day for her and for us.
She had a stove that had a broken oven. With the replacement for a better one, she donated her working stove to another lady from the community. She was blessed with a new stove-oven and she decided to bless someone else with her old stove.
And I also went there once more for the Christmas celebration, when we have gone to each of the houses to give a Christmas present, food for their Christmas supper and a word about the love of Jesus.
The youth group from the church has organized the purchase and packing of children’s toys to give away for Christmas.
A big group of volunteers went there to help giving away the presents to 100 families.
One thing that you can see from this project is that Brazilians do not wait to have all resources and circumstances to start doing something. Other cultures prefer to have everything organized before starting something but our culture is different, we are people who like doing things. We start working even though everyone else would have said that there are no conditions to start working because we know that God has called us to do it. Then while the project is going on we pray that God will provide the rest and we do not stop if it takes a while to be organized.
That is how it happens. This project has been running for quite a while without a land or proper place, without water or electricity, without financial support, without lots of volunteers, without materials. But the few volunteers there know that God has called them to do this work and they love the people there. It is more important for them to share the love of Jesus with the people under a tree than to wait for some bureaucratic process of getting a room to teach them.
And God has blessed them so much! They have helped and saved many lives there. Many people are out of the dumpster, out of alcohol and drugs, living a life of dignity and respect for themselves.
And recently they have been blessed with a donation of a land nearby for them to build an area to teach, preach and keep the project going. Even the fence has been given to them.
It is very important that this project continues because the needs are huge.
Please pray for financial resources for the building of the centre, for purchase of food, books, medication, for the maintenance of its volunteers, and other needs.
Please pray for more full time workers because there are only 4 people able to give their half day to this project. All of them are praying to be able to give full time to this but they need financial support to be able to leave their jobs. At the moment they look after 100 families, but there are 400 families living there, so they need many more people to help looking after them.
Please pray for the families who are in the program because many have suffered a lot and still suffer because of poverty, family issues, health issues, violence from drug trafficking , domestic violence, and other problems. Many have accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior and they have been transformed. Praise the Lord for this!
But there is a lot to do!
They have many plans for this year, such as offering medical and dental services, seminars, offering service of taking people’s IDs (many do not have any documentation at all), helping the families to put their children in schools (many do not go to school), teaching them to grow food, offering sports classes, teaching adults to read, and other dreams they have for those people.
They know that their dreams come from God’s heart and they ask us to pray for them to see those things happening in Jesus’ name.
I believe in the transformation of this nation and every other nation in the world as we put them in God’s hands. Keep praying!
God bless you and thank you for praying for us.
05Jan 2012
It is 2012! Happy New Year!
We are looking forward to the new step we are taking in service to our Lord Jesus this year.
But before that, there are more things to tell you about my experiences with missions in Brazil.
I visited the ministry in the prisons with Pastor Marcos Ricci.
The program includes visiting the prisoners, preaching the word weekly in the hall, talking to the families of the prisoners and also witnessing to the guards that work there.
There are many different prisons that are visited by the volunteers. The one that I have been to is the military prison where the policemen who disobey the law can stay. (Obviously they can’t stay at the normal prison where their lives would be at risk).
There is a small chapel in the main entrance of the prison where they have a church service twice a week.
The service includes the prisoners and their families because it happens during the visit time.
There is music, prayer, the Word of God, testimonies, and worship.
The day when I was there they had a Christmas celebration. One of the prisoners who accepted Jesus in the prison shared with us from the Word of God. It was nice to hear him explaining the Word to others. This reminded me once more how amazing Jesus is. He transforms us from nothing to his servants. In our weaknesses he is strong and he uses us to reach out to others.
I was also reminded of what freedom in Jesus really means. I was there worshipping my Lord with many people who do not have the same freedom to go wherever they want because they are living in the cells for many years, day after day.
But they do not see their lives this way, they know that in Jesus they are free and they are much happier for being there and knowing Jesus than to be outside and not knowing Jesus.
They were policemen who should be working to catch people who do things against the law, but they have done something wrong and ended up in the prison themselves.
Outside they were slaves of sin, many were involved in corruption, drug trafficking, and other issues. They could walk freely but they were not free from wrong doing. Now they are inside and they are not able to walk freely but they are no longer slaves of wrong doing. They had a change of heart and they feel complete even though they are paying the price for their crimes.
Pastor Marcos Ricci told me that there is a huge need of volunteers and missionaries to work in the prison ministry. Thankfully the prisons are open for evangelism and they even invite pastors to start programs with prisoners, but there are not enough people to work with them.
Please pray that God will raise people to work in this ministry because the needs are huge but not many join this ministry.
I also participated of the first day of a new program at the church: “Having Lunch with Jesus”. It is a lunch that is served in front of the church to the homeless.
There was music, prayer, short message and a lot of food.
The night before the event the Pastor Marcos Ricci drove around the CBD inviting the homeless people to the lunch.
And on the day he drove around again to find the people, and he drove them to the church.
The food was provided by people from the church. I ate the food and it was really good!
Many people came to the event and they enjoyed good food, talking, singing and knowing that someone cares for them when society disregards them completely.
The majority of the people living on the streets are addicted to drugs and alcohol. Many came under the influence of their addiction and caring for them is much more complex than offering a plate of food. The church is aiming to start building relationships with them to be able to help them to overcome their addiction, get out of the streets, etc.
I had a great time there and the first day of this ministry was a success.
Please pray that the people from the church will support this cause by giving food, by cooking, serving, cleaning, organizing, praying for the people on the streets and offering love to them.
Please pray that Pastor Marcos Ricci will be able to continue the ministry in the prisons and with the homeless. Pray for his wife Marcia and his son Christian who are very supportive of him and a blessing to both ministries.
I still have many other ministries to tell you about and I hope you are praying for each of the ones you saw already in my blog.
If you get involved with what God is doing in the world you can’t help falling in love with missions. I pray that you will be considering serving the Lord in whatever way you can so he can use you to share the love of Jesus with others around you.
Have a blessed 2012!
I will post more news soon.
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