"Be amazed!" says the Lord.

"The Lord replied,

“Look around at the nations; look and be amazed!

For I am doing something in your own day,

something you wouldn’t believe

even if someone told you about it." Habakkuk 1:5

I don't know if you have been following my previous blogs?? Last year I wrote a few blogs on a very special girl called Rafaela. If you haven't read about her, please go back and read her story and then return to read this blog... if not you won't be that impressed with the story I will tell!!

Rafaela turned 20 on the 7th June... and I will show you how she spent it this year. Last year God blessed her and us with spending the day together - I thought it couldn't get better... but God wants to AMAZE us!

On the 29th of May, Rafaela turned up at our house... early!! Only the bosses where awake as they take their son to school at 7am (yes, thats the time you start morning school here!!). They received her in the house and she waited patiently for the rest of us to start our day. 

"Hey, Rafa!! How are you? It's so good to see you. How come you came here so early?" First question from me and Helen. Response: "I want to leave the streets!"

Well, that created an air of movement in our house as we began to put things in place, phone calls to find a place in a rehab (recovery house), phone calls to bargain the monthly price, phone calls to arrange someone to take us, organising clothes, shampoo, soap, toothbrush, towel, a bible etc.

2pm everything was ready and myself, the bosses wife and Alexandre (our driver as the kombi was occupied) got in the car with Rafaela and drove the 1 hour and a half to take her to the rehab in a town called Jaboticatubas.

I was stunned... was this really happening? Would she really stay? Was I dreaming? The 9th June was the first permitted visit. We organised a cake (for her birthday), called her family to meet us, so we could take them... and this is the story of our day.........
(translated lyrics below)

Lyrics of the music in the video, called "I have a calling":

I will not stop, the road is very long, I will continue.

Even amid the struggle, I am not alone and feel you here.

So many sorrows I have to face in this life

But the Lord is always there to protect me, I feel you here

When the wind blows against me

Problems trying to shoot me down

I remember the great I AM has sent me.

(Chorus)

I have a call I won't keep quiet

I got a call, announcing the gospel

I was chosen in my mother's womb

I know God will not give up on me.

(2X)

There is much to do there is no time to look back...

Freedom.... in the sky?!?

It's June.... the beginning of kite season in Brazil. The sky of Belo Horizonte is full of kites. Every where you go you will see little groups of kids, teenagers and adults together, they could be on the street, in a park, on top of roofs, I even see them in the graveyard in front of my house, all of them studying the sky. As you look up, and follow their gaze you will see that each one is watching a kite. What I find interesting is that there could be 5 boys together but just one kite, the thrill is not just in flying the kite but also watching it fly in the sky. They will have competitions to see if they can cut the line of another kite. If the line is cut, there is shouts and confusion, the sounds of feet in flipflops running down the street, as each boy runs in the direction of where the kite will land. First one there, wins the kite!!

It is a wonderful sensation..... watching a kite in the sky flying to and fro.... the freedom the kite has as it floats in the wind, as it rises higher and higher.

The Irony is that at this moment there is not much freedom here on the streets of the Brazil with the kids that I work with on a daily basis. The world cup will be here next year and next week will start the Confederation Cup. The government is using this time as a practise for next year on 'how to clean up the streets of Belo Horizonte.' When I say clean up, I am not talking about the rubbish you find, I am talking about the people living and running wild on the streets and in the favelas. 

Three weeks ago (middle of May) Belo Horizonte hit a record of how many teenagers got put in prison, reaching 171 in the detention Centre (the average is 40). Many of the boys that we work with were within this number. The police have also banned the kids from staying in their usual spot near the hospitals. The kids that are still on the streets have scattered and divided up into a few small groups. We went out on a search last night and were able to track them down. 

Now with so many in prison, our work has had to take a shift in what we do - prison visits! God has been opening many doors for us as a team and we are now visiting the boys on a weekly basis. The boys stay up to 45 days in the detention centre waiting for a court decision - this could be - set free, semi-freedom house (can leave on weekends to visit family) or prison (for teenagers this can be up to 3 years). We already know a number who have been given this sentence.

It's a sad situation, when you look to the kites in the sky flying with as much freedom as they desire but yet there are so many we know that are behind bars with no freedom at all and with a future unclear. Please pray for us as we enter this new time in our work, pray that doors continue to open and that as we visit these individuals that God will give us guidance on how to handle each situation. Pray that we will be light in the dark places.

"For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in,I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me." Matthew 25:35-36