Retrospectives

Well we have come to the end of the year! This was a very special year during which few things went as planned, a year in which we would like to turn the page a little faster ... Lots of people are languishing for 2021 for various reasons ... and I suppose that deep down, we also because baby n° 2 should arrive in April!! And also we hope to be able to return to Europe for a time in the summer of 2021!

But that doesn't mean that 2020 has been a bad year ... it has been difficult, yes, full of challenges, yes, tiring, yes! But God has a plan for everything and COVID-19 is not something that has been out of His control.

Thinking back to the year 2020, we see that a lot of positive things have happened ... 

We are offering you a little sample of positivity at the end of the year 2020 ...

Pregnancy No.2

Rachel's pregnancy is going really well, while at the beginning the doctors were worried and told us that it was better not to get too carried away ... After several ultrasounds and several medical appointments, we were reassured and today everything is fine. Rachel is almost 6 months pregnant and by mid-April we should welcome the 4th member of our family.

Supporting the families

Even with a pandemic and slow-moving activities, we were able to continue supporting a lot of families in the favela. Lots of home visits that we rarely had time to make and therefore making a lot of new contacts too. Thanks to everyone's support, we were able to distribute a little over 300 food packages, around 80 gas bottles and 50 hygiene kits. About 150 families were able to benefit from this emergency aid.

COVID-19 and us

No one in our family has been sick despite the fact that in the favela the mask is used very little. We try to apply the 2 metre barrier and wear the mask as soon as we go out but by being in contact with a lot of people (and many who do not respect these guidelines) we exposed ourselves a little. We are grateful that no one living in Casa Rocha got sick but one of our staff who lives in an apartment on our street caught the virus and had to isolate herself, but all is well for her!

Community Development School

From mid-August to the end of November, we were able to participate as staff in a course about community development offered by YWAM Belo Horizonte and 4 members of our team participated as students. This course is directly linked to our work and our team was strongly encouraged to take advantage of this pandemic to be able to participate in the course. It was an opportunity to think a little more about what we do and why we do it ... It is difficult to "help" in the most efficient way and we are sometimes called upon to help the fastest or most comfortable way for us or even sometimes in the most visible way ... But this is not always what will give the most lasting fruit! We hope to be able to rethink some aspects of our ministry by keeping in mind all that we learned in the school.

Being Blessed Back...

This year we were able to see the recognition of several families that we have been working with for several years. 

* It's very moving when, one day we receive an invitation from a family whose son has been participating in the group of children for several years, who last year participated in the family camp, with whom we invested a lot of time this year because the 20-year-old daughter discovered she had cancer.... Our whole team was invited by this family to eat a "canjiquinha" (a kind of soup) at their home!  It was a great time all together and the food was delicious!

* Another woman from the favela also invited us for a "café da tarde" (a kind of late afternoon snack). We've been working with this woman and her children for 6 years now, going through very difficult moments when she has come to us  to ask for our advice and prayers. Other moments she doesn't accept what we say or because it isn't what she would like to hear... but the family is making progress and this is recognised even by her children. Well, she wanted to welcome us with homemade biscuits and she even gave Rachel a lesson on how to make them... The 3 staffs who were present had a great time with lots of laughter and filling our stomachs, but also having a time to encourage and guide!

* We also have a very good relationship with a (very) young couple. Julio, 20, was part of the teen group and then when he was 18 he started helping us quite a bit each week at Casa Rocha, until he got hired at McDonald's where he has worked now for more than a year. Kimberley just turned 17, has been living with him at Julio's mother's house for almost 2 years. Her family history is very complicated and we were a little afraid when they told us that she was pregnant, at 15 (nearly 16) years old. But since their son Arthur was born, we are happy to see that they are still together (which is rare enough in the favela), that they take their role as parents very seriously and that they are caring very well for their son and give him what he needs. We invited them to our house a few times for dinner and each time they said they wanted to invite us to eat too ... They kept their word and recently invited us at noon. They told us that they were stressed because they don't have a place for a table and so we ate on the sofa and they didn't really know how to receive us! But what a great time we were able to spend with them, grateful for their effort and hopefully we were able to show them that it's not important how they receive us, we just love being with them!

* We also received an invitation to dinner with someone who surprised us a lot! In 2014, Nico started working in the cracolandia with crack users. This is where he met Renato one evening, sitting on the ground, completely in another world, who didn't want / couldn't even speak. Renato asked for help and he was able to be sent to a rehab center, Nico visited him during his treatment. A few months later he started using crack again because of a disappointment, but he asked for more help ... To shorten the story, it's now over 4 years since Renato quit drugs! Since he married a woman he met at church, he has worked as a receptionist in a museum for more than 3 years and, he took advantage of the pandemic to take the exams to be a firefighter and completed an occupational safety technician course. He succeeded in both!! Renato invited us to his home one evening to introduce his wife to us but also to tell us how grateful he was for our help and to show us that it was worth it!You can imagine it: a very moving dinner!

* Another person who wanted to show us his appreciation is Adilson, the father of a 15 year old girl who has been involved in our activities since she was little. We have been helping his family for several years and they benefited from emergency food aid this year. He volunteered to wash our 4 in house water reserves which are in the attic (in Brazil, we use 'water tanks' instead of receiving city water). There are 4 tanks of 1000L of water each that must be sanitised once a year and we did not even know it ... Needless to say that our tanks in Casa Rocha had never been cleaned since my (Nico) arrival in 2014. Well it's done, Adilson gave 2 Saturday morning to clean them up and show us how to do it.

Changing Cars

Casa Rocha had a Kombi for its activities. This year we had to change this vehicle for several reasons, including the fact that the insurers would not renew the insurance of this vehicle due to the lack of security. We evaluated several options, the vehicle that best met our needs at affordable prices was a FIAT DOBLÓ ADVENTURE. We want to thank God, because we managed to sell the Kombi and get the new car we wanted in three days. Everything was very fast! Nico put the ad to sell the kombi on Tuesday morning; at 1 p.m. the kombi was sold; on Thursday evening Nico goes to buy the Dobló (from someone we know) and on the way back he receives an email indicating that a donation had arrived in the Casa Rocha account for the amount that was missing to pay for the car! God surprised us once again with such great care for us, GOD IS GOOD!

Christmas 2020

We are also grateful for a good Christmas! Our plan for this year was to spend it in France but in view of the situation, we decided to stay in Brazil and take our vacation, if possible, in the summer of 2021 ... So we organised in Casa Rocha a little Christmas Eve with 6 other adults and 3 children (staff from other YWAM projects) who also did not return home for the holidays. And on the 25th, the three of us spent the day together just our family. It was a very pleasant time! And Lorenzo loved opening up his presents and we all enjoyed a special Christmas dinner.

Thank you again for your support, your prayers and your messages during the year 2020 ... We are counting on you in 2021! Until we can meet, if you want to continue praying, here are some topics:

- Thank God with us for having kept, protected and blessed us despite the very different year 2020.

- Pray with us as we take several times of prayer over the next 3 weeks to plan for the year 2021 with several changes in the activities offered ...

- Pray that in 2021 we will see even more transformations in the families we work with.