Lots going on in ministry and personally!

It's back to school for you but in Brazil the school year goes on. The topics of conversation here are often the same: the next presidential elections and Brazil, which has to win the upcoming world cup! For the first one we won't talk about it here to avoid very strong arguments as it's often the case here and for the second one we can only hope that they are wrong and that France wins... haha.

Here is a wee photo of Lorenzo and Keoni! Growing up too fast!

But we still have a few stories to tell you with some news about our family and the mission. Thank you again for your prayers (and please don't stop!), for your financial participation (please don't stop either!). 

Mums and Tots!

As we shared in our previous blog, for a while now, Rachel, as a mum, has been trying to get involved in the life of the mums of the slum. Many of the mums she notices are very young mums, sometimes teenagers (17 years old). She invites them to our house to chat and share and drink a coffee. One day she invited two mums together to see how it would go and one of them asked why Casa Rocha didn't have a specific group for mums. During our short break in July (in Brazil, schools have a 2 week holiday at the end of July), Rachel took time to pray and think about the idea...

The idea became a project!

We started the mum's group on 11th August! Every Thursday morning, they come to Casa Rocha with their babies to have a time together and share their experiences. Rachel also shares a short word each week from the Bible. Often there is a crying baby, a nappy to change or 2 children fighting over toys, so the word is short and often interrupted, but a word shared is a seed sown!

The group started with 4 mums and has grown to 9 mums now. They are all super motivated by the group and dream of what we could do together - swimming with their babies (when the weather gets warmer, it's still between 14 and 25C), going on trips to parks for picnics, having a meal with all our families on a Sunday lunchtime... It's great to see how this idea came from one of them and how excited they are to be together!

So far Rachel has been using Lorenzo's and Keoni's toys and other equipment for the group, but the idea would be to have specific toys that belong to the group. We would need some people to support this financially so that we can invest in play mats, toys for babies and toddlers and so on. I would love to be able to buy some simple prams that we can lend to these young mums too! (See attachment for financial project in email if you are interested). 

Pray for the young mothers who come each week; may they be encouraged and strengthened to continue to care for their little ones whom God has entrusted into their hands, especially as the majority were never planning on becoming mums so young!

Psalm 127:3 - 5: "The inheritance the Lord gives is sons; children are a reward. The sons a man has in his youth are like arrows in the hand of a warrior; blessed is the man who has filled his quiver with them. He will not be ashamed when he speaks with enemies at the city gate."

More about... Mums! 

We walk along side helping and supporting many families. Many of these are single mums. It seems lately that there have been a few needy cases that have required some extra help. 3 mum's specifically have been taking up a lot of Rachel's time:

One

With 3 kids ageing between 1 and 11 she has her hands full, but her biggest problem is her addiction to drink. She recognises she has a problem but can't stop drinking. We are worried about the kids especially the youngest as she spends a lot of time on the street close to her house which is on a busy road. She spends time there with her 'friends' while her youngest plays by the roadside. Her 11 year old daughter was up until recently, living with an aunt, but was thrown out and sent back to her mother. 

The Social Services have been called many times about the situation of this family and it's very serious. She is worried about her kids being taken but doesn't have the strength to make changes. Please pray as we walk along side this family pointing the mother in the right direction and taking care of the kids (they often come over to play with Lorenzo and Keoni, a little escape from their reality). Pray for wisdom and discernment.

Two

She started coming to our mum's group. She has 2 daughters, one is 11 and living with her dad (who was awarded custody when she was 4 months old, after it was decided that the mum was unfit to take care of her). Her second daughter is just 4 months old. The mum still lives in the trauma of her first daughter been taken away and is over protective of the baby. She takes good care of the baby but we notice some questionable attitudes and comments from the mother. 

We recently helped her move house as she was super stressed out in her previous location saying that everyone was watching her and making comments about how she takes care of the baby and so on. We are hoping in these next months that she settles in her new home, that she will see a psychologist and psychiatrist. (requested by previous sessions with a psychologist). Again pray for wisdom and discernment and trust.

Three

This mum doesn't live in our community, but Rachel has worked with her family for about 10 years. She is now a mum herself to 3 kids between 4 and 7 years old. Recently, from some bad decisions made by her, her ex-boyfriend came after her with a gun with the intentions to kill her. The police were called and the situation resolved. But the mum has moved in with a friend 'in hiding,' with her kids until she can find somewhere else to live. She is taking heavy medication because of the trauma and is suffering some mental illnesses. 

The government don't offer much support for cases like this as we recently found out, so we are trying to help her look for a new place to live, close to us so we can help her more, especially in her decision-making to avoid falling into this situation again. Also to help the kids through the traumas they are suffering from this situation and to be a help and support to this mum in all areas. Yet again, pray for wisdom and discernment!

Pedro (known as Pedrinho!)

We already told you about Pedrinho, a young man from the slum with whom we have a strong friendship and who helped Nico a lot in Casa Rocha. Today, he is a student in a DTS (Discipleship Training School) in Goiânia (Goias state). This 5-6 month course is the first course that YWAM offers to those who want to become long term staff, but also to those who want to set aside time to deepen their faith and learn some principles of Christian life and have an experience in mission.

Pedrinho has been part of the Casa Rocha story since the beginning of 2008. He even lived with a missionary family from the project for a while when he was a child because his family situation was too complicated for him to stay at home... After he grew up, he started volunteering in the children's group and we were amazed at how well he interacted with them. Then he worked for almost two years in a mining company where he left home at 5am and came home at 7.30pm for minimum wage! Pedrinho is also a faithful Christian who is always seeking to better understand the Word of God and is very involved in his church here in the slum.

As he was volunteering at Casa Rocha, we shared with him the idea of him doing a DTS and he said he was already thinking about it and then the pandemic happened. This year he said he wanted to do it and we helped him through the process of preparing and finding a base to go to. He left his job in March with plans to go in May, but unfortunately the DTS he applied for did not happen. He applied for another base for July, but this was also cancelled. But he didn't give up and we found a DTS that would start in August! He was accepted and today he is there, at the YWAM Goiânia base.

When Nico went to pick him up in the slum to take him to the bus stop, his sister said crying that he is the first from the family to leave the slum! And in addition to leaving the slum and the state of Minas Gerais, he will also leave the country because the outreach phase of his DTS seems like it will be in Spain! It's a good thing he already had his passport as before the pandemic he had it done hoping to travel with us. 

He is enjoying the courses very much and is going through some of the transformation processes that the Lord has for him. We are very grateful to God for witnessing and walking with Pedrinho! Glory to God for his life! 

Leandro 

One Wednesday morning, the doorbell rang... It was Leandro, but he was totally unrecognisable! He was drunk (we were used to that) but he was all swollen and seemed to lose the movement of his arms and legs.

We have known Leandro for quite some time, before he fell into a life of alcohol. He was friendly and cheerful, very personable... He was renting a small flat in our neighbour's house and was working in the butcher's shop. But on this specific day we were very sad to see the situation he was in! At first we thought he had mixed drugs and alcohol but he said he hadn't... Leandro asked to go to a rehab but in the state he was in, it was impossible to take him, so we took him to the free health centre in the slum. We had no contact with his family members at first, so someone from the team had to stay with him at the health centre for hours! Later, we finally managed to get in touch with his sister who went to meet him as the ambulance was transferring him from the health centre to the hospital where he stayed overnight for observation. The next day we contacted the sister to get news about Leandro, and she told us that he had been released from the hospital and was back on the street. We went to look for him and found him. We talked to him and he was acting a bit better than the day before. So we decided to take him to a rehab, which is what he wanted. The centre is an hour away from Casa Rocha! He has been there for nearly a month and the feedback we are getting is very positive!

We ask that you pray that he continues in treatment, that his family supports him and that he comes out of it transformed because of the decision he made to end his addiction!

Our search for a home

We shared with you our desire to be able to move to a house outside Casa Rocha. The flat we've been living in since our wedding, provided by YWAM, is very nice and cosy but small for the 4 of us (about 40m2). We also really miss the lack of a small outdoor space! But it is very difficult to find a small house to rent in our neighbourhood near Casa Rocha (within a 10-15min walk), with 3 bedrooms, a small outside space and which is within our price range. 

Finally we found one that was even better than we expected! We saw it in May and we haven't signed a rental contract yet because the owner has done some major work on it. So it will be brand new and meet all the criteria, just a little more expensive than we expected! It will be a challenge financially because living outside YWAM, our expenses will increase considerably. To give you an idea, we were paying 740 Reais as a contribution to the rent, water, electricity and internet bills at Casa Rocha... Our rent alone will be 2300 Reais in this house, not including water, electricity and internet. But we believe that this challenge is worth it for our family and it's God who has been opening the doors for us to go in this direction. (By the way, if you want to participate financially and start supporting us in the mission, you can get in touch by email or whatsapp). For more photos of the house, we will put them in the next news when we will have moved in, if everything goes well.... The landlady has told us that we should have the keys by the beginning of October!

A local church 

Finally, we have settled in a church, the one we have been attending for about 6 months. Just before the pandemic, we had left the church we were attending for several reasons. With the pandemic, all the services were online so we took the opportunity to follow the services of our churches in France and Northern Ireland, sometimes live (thanks to the time difference) or sometimes on replay. We really enjoyed it because it felt like we were closer... But we missed the church life and the contact with the other members. 

In February we started to attend this church "Batista Lagoinha Pedreira".  "Lagoinha Baptista" is a very large church in Belo Horizonte that has started to open smaller churches in every neighbourhood of the city and "Pedreira" is the name of the slum where we work (Pedreira Prado Lopes). So we attend this one in our slum, it is a small church where several friends from the slum are members. Keoni has now started to attend the children's church along with Lorenzo, which has been a blessing. He usually cries when we first arrive in church until he starts playing with the toys then he settles and is well behaved so the ladies let him stay (it is usually only for 2 years and older). Rachel will also soon start teaching in the Sunday school. 

Bible School

I (Nico) have been wanting to do a Bible school for a number of years now but couldn't find the time and wasn't sure which one to do... The only thing I knew was that I wanted to do it in French because my Discipleship School with YWAM was in English and my Community Development School was in Portuguese... I never did any courses related to my faith or mission in French! When we were in Europe at the end of last year I really felt it was time. After discussions with my pastor Philippe in Avignon and some research, I finally enrolled in the 'Institut de Théologie pour la Francophonie' in Canada! I started the online courses a fortnight ago and it feels really strange to be back studying after several years. The amount of work is quite substantial and sometimes I'm afraid I won't be able to do it, especially with the kids and still Casa Rocha to support but it's really interesting! I'm looking at 3 or 4 years (depending on how many subjects I manage to do each semester). So far I've just had a few introductory classes and it's really interesting to learn why the Bible can be considered very credible, historically, for example. It's a real challenge because of the amount of work I have to do and the amount of time I have to give but I'm super motivated (as long as it lasts!!!). If you can, pray that I will be able to organise everything, to discipline myself but also for the fruits of the Spirit to grow in me. 

The most recent photo taken of all the missionaries serving in YWAM Belo

So as you can read, we still have lots going on in the ministry but also personally. We look forward to our next update with you, hopefully it won't take so long to write and hopefully we can share with you about how it has been going with the new house! Thanks for reading with us. 

Hugs and kisses, and see you soon by phone, message, email .... or if you come to visit us!!

Nico, Rachel, Lorenzo & Keoni.  xx