A inspiring week in Rio de Janeiro with the team

It was so hot, the sweat dripping off my forehead, I had Keoni on my hip and holding onto Lorenzo tight with the other hand as we slowly walked up the big hill from our wee house in the slum to the base. Trying to avoid the motorbikes speeding past us, stepping over the stray dogs scurraging for food and making our way around the people hanging out on the street, I noticed in front of me a young guy no more than 16 years old also making his way slowly up that great big hill; shorts on and no t-shirt as the sun beat down, there I saw it, reflecting, a gun, stuck down his shorts. No one else looked at that gun, or that teen as he approached the group of drug dealers that hang there on the corner, normal, a normal sight in this slum in Rio.

That's where we spent a week with our team, in a slum called Borel in Rio de Janeiro with YWAM. Borel is known as one of the more dangerous slums in Rio due to the drug trafficking.

At the end of every year we do a "spiritual retreat" with our team in preparation for the next year. This year as we were enjoying our time in Europe it didn't happen. But since our return there have been some changes in our team; the brazilian family (Carlos and Josi) moved back to another YWAM project here in the city and Rynara went to another city to do a YWAM school and won't return. We also had Yenna join our team after she married Fabricio. We are now 6 in the team. 

With these changes and us returning after a long time away from the work it weighed heavy on our hearts to do something to help us refocus, be inspired and unify our team. We thought about a retreat but it seemed like that wouldn't be enough. So we decided to take our team to Rio to visit another YWAM base who are working in a slum there and have been for about 30 years.

Coffee time with the Rio team

We packed up the 2 cars, closed the doors of the Rock House and headed to Rio - a 7 hour drive.... of course we stopped a few times! We choose to stay near the beach for 2 nights to just enjoy - to have some fun with the team... some of them had never been to Rio before! It was great!! Three of the team went to visit the Christ the Redeemer statue but most of the time we spent on the Copocabana beach. Our kids especially loved it!!

After 2 days of bliss we packed up and drove to the other side of the city to a YWAM base in the centre of a slum. We arrived in the evening so it was dark and we couldn't see much, but we noticed the heat - we had left behind that beautiful sea breeze on the Copocabana. In the slum it was hot, hot, hot!! (Probably about 40C)

The base have a house in the slum that they use for staff, visitors etc so we as a family stayed there. It gave us a bit of an insight how it is to live in a slum house - one bedroom for us all, Lorenzo was supposed to be on the floor on a mattress but ended up in our bed as there were cockroaches in the house! The bathroom didn't have much room - you could go to the toilet while taking a shower... if you wanted!! haha

The next days we spent getting to know the base, the activities, the slum and spending time with the staff there, some of which have been working in the slum for 30 years - what an inspiration! 

In the main staff room hangs a banner....

Community Development Creed

"Go to the people, live among them,

Learn from them, Love them
Plan with them
Start with what they know
Build on what they have
Teach by showing
Learn by doing
Not a showcase, but a pattern
Not odds and ends, but a system
Not relief, but release
But of the best of leaders,
When their task is accomplished
And their work is done,
The people will remark
“With the help of God,
We have done it ourselves!”

One activity from this base that really impressed all of us was the creche. About 30 years ago YWAM saw the need for a creche in the slum so some mums could go to work. They started with about 10 kids. Today they have about 120 kids from age 2 to 6 (at 6 they start school) and they all get lunch and snacks provided! Today the creche is fully run by women from the slum whom YWAM encouraged through the years to get a degree - even the director of the creche has now completed university, the teachers, cleaner, cook, everyone! YWAM used to only help with the finances since most of the resources for the creche was coming in through donations to YWAM. Recently though, the creche got approved from the local government and has become a model in the state of Rio de Janeiro! The creche will now get income from the government and so YWAM will not even interfere in finances anymore. We witnessed a full process of community development - the missionaries brought something new to the slum according to needs and now these missionaries passed the project to the community itself! What an inspiration !

Lorenzo enjoying the toys from the creche!!

The base also have a football group, a ladies group, teenage girls group (photo to left of us participating in the girls group) and even a music school.... they even have a music studio built! They use it for themselves but people from the slum and surrounding places can rent it for a small price to record their music! Amazing! (photo below is our team in the studio listening to our guide about the work done in that little space!)

In an abandoned space at the edge of the slum they have made a little garden and they motivate people from the slum to learn to take care of it and give seeds to plant in pots in their own homes. They grow all sorts of vegetables there such as acerola, tomatoes, cucumber, and all sorts of herbs like mint, parsley and coriander. YWAM presented the project to the government and it was accepted as a sustainable project - beneficial to the community, so it is the government who provide the resources!! 

We went to visit it one morning. To get there you have to walk through the slum, lots of alley ways, winding streets and many steps!! It was worth it.... and when we arrived we got to work alongside 3 people from the slum.... pulling up weeds and helping to clean up the spot, even Lorenzo got his hands dirty (I, Rachel sat under a tree in the shade with Keoni sleeping, heehee).

It was a great week, but a week was enough - we were all very happy to pack up the car and turn on the air-conditioning in the cars as we headed back to Belo Horizonte! To our home, our slum, our cooler weather..... yes the day we arrived in Belo it was 34C and it felt cool and fresh after our week in Rio! But we didn't come back empty handed, what we saw and experienced helped open our minds, gave us new ideas and new vision. It also made us very grateful for what we have and what we are doing, and for our team - although small now but this week together really brought us together even more and unified us as a team but also in our vision to love and serve Pedreira Prado Lopes, the slum that God has called us to.