Our work in the Restoration House is always changing because we work with people and people change! We need to be constantly on the lookout for what is the best way to reach these boys God has placed into our hands. And since it is God who allows to work with these precious lives and He knows each of them individually, we know that He knows best how to reach out to them. We are constantly spending time with God to seek to hear His direction, and He speaks!
Before we started our new semester here at the Restoration House in September, we took time out again to do this; to listen. God directed us to a new strategy; an "Arts Workshop"... I say that loosely as our team aren't the most creative and we plan to do much more than just art!!
Our idea is to invite the boys we work with to come to our house every Thursday afternoon to participate in this workshop. We plan to teach the boys how to make pieces of art from recycable or low cost material. If the boys want they can continue making them at home. At the end of each month we hope to present the items they have made in a kind of bazaar to sell! Whatever the boys sell, of their own items, they keep the money!
This initiative is to help the boys do something with their time, to make money in an honest and inexpensive way, to gain some self-confidence in managing to complete tasks, and have some fun. It also means that we will have contact with these boys weekly and we can see how they are doing, encourage them and we can use this time to give a short word and pray for them. This weekly contact will prove very valuable and will save us a lot of time.... we do a lot of house visits but the families are spread out all over the city so we only manage about four/five visits a week. But unfortunately not all of the boys can come as some are in school in the afternoon, others have courses and of
course some are in prison. We expect to have about six boys each week!
We are very excited to see how it will go. We already had three workshops and we had three boys in two and one in the other, for the start of a new strategy this was super positive for us! We hope to have more this week. So far the boys made candle holders and words from wire which we intend to put on a card. Watch this space for exciting new pieces of art... maybe even you would want to order something!!
And please don't forget to pray that this strategy will be completed, that we will impact the boys in a positive manner and be used for God's glory.
It seems like since my last post I have been going through a time of celebrations - birthdays, a wedding, graduations etc. Here is a post all about some of the things we have been celebrating here! Birthdays Lucas turned 16. It was a very special birthday to celebrate with him because last year we made him a cake to celebrate on the streets but we couldn't find him,in the end we celebrated without him. But this year, in January Lucas had a near death experience because of a drug overdose and ended up in Intensive Care for 21 days. Since his recovery he has not ventured back to the streets and is doing really well at home with his sister and nephew and nieces. We bought him a special present to honour his successes and also took his bike to get fixed (a passionate hobby of his!)
Lucas with his fixed bike!
Ramon turned 20. He is a boy who lived in a YWAM shelter when they were functioning. He now lives at home but struggles to stay off the drugs. He just came back from a church camp and seems to be doing well but we are encouraging him to go to a rehab to really have a time of recovery and time to invest in building a relationship with God.
Graduations
We completed our first semester English classes in two teenage detention centres, completing more or less 18 weeks of classes. We celebrated by getting them to translate a verse from the bible (Jeremiah 29:11), which they were able with some help and then we used this verse to share an encouraging word with them. We gave out certificates and then had a special snack together!
Here is a photo of one group:
The boys are not allowed to show their faces without parental permission.
Babies
Two girls from the streets, out of the four pregnant have given birth to healthy babies. All four are now living off the streets and it is great to see them taking responsibility for their pregnancies. Raquel gave birth to a baby girl on the 30th June (photo below of her pregnant and her little princess: Eloar) and Dayse gave birth the a baby boy on 26th June.
A Wedding
Two friends, Gustavo and Vaneila, got married, they met during the discipleship school here in Belo two years ago and on the 11th July they tied the knot! A group of us from YWAM went by van, it was a 3 day round trip.... because of a flat tyre in the middle of nowhere on the way (took about 3 hours to get back on the road) and then having to stop over for the driver to sleep a few hours it took us 30 hours to arrive!!!It was certainly an adventure, but worth it all the see our friends starting a new life together as husband and wife.
A new relationship
Well it's not so new, it's been five months now.... I started dating a french guy called Nico (Nicola Scivoli). I met him here in Belo last year when he arrived in April to work with one of the YWAM houses called 'The Rock House'. We quickly became friends and after much prayer at the begining of this year we started dating.
This is us at the wedding, after I caught the bride's bouquet!! haha
Blessed to be a Blessing
'The Rock House' is a project that works as a community centre in one of the oldest and most dangerous slums here in Belo. The team were blessed by a guy from the church to take 70 kids to a camp he has outside the city for the weekend. This area has a large swimming pool, games room, 3 football courts, volleyball court and a little pond with some fish! But to take this many kids they needed some help. So they asked for helpers from the other YWAM houses to go with them, so I went. It was great to have such a fun time with these precious kids aged between 5 and 17. Each face has a story and mostly sad ones. But this weekend was a time to forget it all have some fun, eat good food and of course hear more about Jesus who loves them dearly. What a blessing it was to be a part of this time with the Rock House.
Devotional time
So... ...as you can see, it has been a time for celebration for me here in Brazil! I thank God daily for all the blessings He bestows upon my life, daily. And to be blessed to participate in these celebrations has been fantastic! Keep praying and thanking God for all that I do here, all that He has called me to do here in Brazil. Thank you for your continued support.
SUASE - That's what is written on the uniform of the boys in the Teenage Detention Centres where we work. When we asked the boys what it stands for they told us this: SUASE - Sou Um Adolescente Sem Esperança (I am a teenage without any hope)... we are sure this is not the real meaning for these letters, but it was so interesting how the boys interpreted it.
As we work weekly with these boys we see this attitude in everything they do. They have no dreams, no ambitions, no future. They each desire freedom.... from the bars that holds them in the prison, but when we ask them for what, what will they do with their freedom, they have no answer. Or they give the answer they know we want to hear, "to work, to study, to see my family." The reality is that many of these boys even when they complete their sentence they leave the prison and walk straight back into their old life, living the old ways, which of course only leads them to crime, sex, drugs, etc. This is the story of two boys who left just two months ago, one of which died just four days ago from a drug overdose.
Our goal in these detention centres with each precious teenager that we have the opportunity to come into contact with is to bring to them the Love of our Saviour, and to show them that in Him we have hope, peace, joy etc. These are things these boys have not experienced.
In the last English lesson we did we taught them some English words from the song: God of this City. The words were: God, love, peace, joy, creator, King and hope.
It was a great way to teach the boys English because we were able to tell them about our great and wonderful God. Many phrases in this song really hit home with them, such as:
You're the hope to the hopeless
You're the joy in the sadness
You're the love to the broken
You're the peace to the restless
These boys are really searching. They are so open when we talk to them about God, its interesting to see how they are more open to talk about God than to learn English. A few weeks ago we spent time praying for each of the boys individually to hear words from God for each of them. We wrote the words on paper and gave them out in the class. Jhony wasn't in the class so we kept his for the next week. We planned to give it to him at the end after we dismissed the other boys, but as we were about the pray to end the class, he called my name and asked, super shy and embarrassed, "Rachel, the boys were telling me that last week, you... eh... gave them... hmm some paper..." I smiled and told him we had his and after the prayer we would give it to him. He smiled.
My heart was super happy, first because the boys were talking about what they had received to one another in their cells and second that Jhony was interested in what we had received for him. After reading his, he was asked if it made sense, he said yes!
It is amazing how God works, and we believe that our presence in these prisons will bring hope, hope that there is a God, that their lives have a plan, God made a plan for them. Hope that it's not too late. Hope that there is still people who care and love them and want to see them succeed in this life! Hope.
Monday 4 May 2015
"If you want big things, pay a big price"
Someone once challenged me with this phrase, talking about our work and relating the price to prayer. Many times we focus on the work and we go go go and we forget to stop and ask God if that is really what He wants, if it is really in His plan, if it is really what He has called us to do. God is in the details, for each encounter we have, each visit to the slums, to the prisons, to the streets, we need to seek God's direction. We need to go 'out' emptied of who we are and filled only by Him. This is what makes the difference.
This boy is nearly finished his prison sentence and is seeking God
Chatting with Raquel, 7 months pregnant
On the streets
So, with this phrase in mind we are changing our weekly schedule to focus on prayer. But we needed a special place to do this! I had felt on my heart that we needed a space in the house focused on prayer... what many call 'A Prayer Room.' The Restoration House is a large house with many rooms, so in January we started to plan. We received a huge donation for this project which we are soooo thankful for, without it the room would not have been half of what it is today.
We got to work, painting, decorating, making furniture and buying curtains etc. Turning an old bedroom into a beautiful prayer room. This room is now used each morning for intercession, every Monday for prayer and seeking God for the week, groups prayer times, when the boys are with us, and individually also. It is a BLESSING to have such a room to focus, to pray, to seek etc.
"Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that God can heal you. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective." James 5:16
In our times together in the prayer room we have seen fruits in our personal lives and our relationships together as a team as we confess our sins to one another, as we seek to be righteous together and as we share our weaknesses and struggles. This has created unity in our team (although of only 3 people), a strong and united team so when we 'go out' we are 'together.' This has made such a difference in how we relate to each other and how we approach the ones we work with. . YWAM's theme is "To know God and make Him known." The first focus is our relationship with Him, and only when we are 'walking well' with Him will we be effective to be used by him, be able to 'make him known.' So that's our focus, to spend more time seeking. And as we see the fruit of this in ourselves and our team, we wait to see what else God will do. We are excited to know that as we seek His heart we will see 'big things!'
New Strategies!! Don't you just love when you make plans and then God comes along with something better and more productive!! Last year we planned to do an afternoon of discipleship with some boys we work with, this year God took it to a new level! When we were seeking His direction for this year, He showed us He wanted us to not just do a few hours but an overnight!
We completed our first Overnight Discipleship Group on last Friday night. We had four boys come and stay the night and one that came in the morning for the Saturday (he is still completing a prison sentence and so was only liberated for the Saturday morning part of the programme).
The programme began on Friday at 6pm with some dinner. Then some hang out time playing video games and snooker. After we had our first devotional time where the boys themselves read the scriptures and answered a few questions. After we watched a movie with some popcorn! On Saturday morning after breakfast they had some more 'chill out' time which gave us time for 'one on one' time, we used this time to chat with them, give them special attention and also to confront the boys on attitudes and behaviour etc. It was super productive and well received. We then had our second time together studying the Word
and praying. We finished with lunch and praying individually with each
boy before they went home.
Our theme was 'The Armour of God'
It was a great time of sharing God's word with these precious boys. Each have a sad story, but each have taken steps of change, to come off the streets and live back at home (each of these 5 boys have family). And are seeking to change for the better. Please pray for each of these awesome boys, and for our future discipleship times (once a month) and also for the visits that we will conitnue to do inbetween to their homes to encourage them to continue strong.
Most of the group (Each of these boys passed through the YWAM shelter at some point)
On the bikes at the Park
Filling them up with the Word of God
Being led in worship by one of the boys
Being given the opportunity to invest in the lives of these boys is such a blessing. It was great to spend time with them, see how they are doing, sharing the Word and praying for them. We used the same theme and activities as the younger boys camp (see previous blog for more details). GRADUATION IN PRISON
In the last semester we have invested in one of the Detention Centres for teenage boys giving English and Discipleship classes. What a great term it was! We completed the time there with a Graduation where each of the boys received a certificate. We had a DTS team from Germany who ministered to these precious lives through dance, drama and testimonies.
COMMUNITY UNIAO (UNITY)
It's always fun to work in a favela..as you enter, you are greeted with hugs galore from the kids and mums alike! We took the German team to this community and had a blast spending time with the kids and just covering them in large doses of love. Playing games, praying around the community and of course, drama and testimonies! We want to see these communities changed for the Glory of God.
TWINS AT CHRISTMAS
These twins, Mateus and Lucas, are very dear to my heart. Abandoned at a young age by their mum, along with 9 brothers and sisters, their life has been a roller-coaster of crime and drugs. Both are now completing a semi-prison sentence and doing really well.
We wanted to take them on a shopping trip for Christmas, to let them choose new jeans and trainers (something neither of them have ever done). Unfortunately one of them misbehaved and so they were not allowed to go with us. We visited them instead bringing little stockings of sweets and chocolates. As you can see they were pleased. Pray for another opportunity to do this shopping trip with them, as I believe it will be super special for them.
PARTY ON THE STREETS
Anderson, an ex-street boy now missionary with YWAM has been organising a Christmas party for the street kids and vulnerable families. This year I was able to be a part of it. Its amazing to watch God provide everything - food, music, presents, clothes, help! Its a time for these kids to know that they are LOVED! God sent His son for each one of us, and this is why we celebrate Christmas.
THE BEACH!
Finally, after a busy month, I made it to the beach for some Rest, Relaxation and Fun! It was difficult to be far from family at Christmas, but nice to have some time chilling out at the beach with friends. Praise God for some generous donations that made this possible! Thank you to each of you. It was certainly needed and I enjoyed every minute!
