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!)
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| 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:
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.