I think there is a difference between "culture shock" and "cultural shocks". Let me explain.
Since returning to England, I (Dave) have struggled with a few things like the plenty that is available here and the sheer amount of stuff that people have but do very little with. A culture of hoarding, greed and materialism, maybe. It can sound harsh expressed in this way but seeing your own culture from the outside is an interesting, and not always pleasant, experience.
I have experienced a few, what I call "mini shocks" since being here too. For example, in church today it was announced that someone not only did not need an emergency operation any more but has completely recovered from their serious illness, praise God. I wanted to shout "woohoo" and clap to acknowledge what God had done but it quickly moved on to something else before I was even able to make a noise....strange. This is not a criticism of the church or the person leading, just an observation and a reality check for me in this culture.
Also, I got so used to greeting almost everyone on the street in Brazil that when I came here I really noticed how English people do not like to make eye contact or even say "hi" to the person walking the opposite direction to them on the path. Now I try to deliberately do it with the intention of bringing a smile to a downcast face.
The weather here is cold at the moment.....maybe the culture is too.
In contrast to this, I have been warmly greeted by loving friends and family and I am so thankful to my Lord for this and also thankful to those people too.

A few thoughts from Dave:

Brrrr....it's cold. 30 degrees C colder than Brazil at this time of year.

It's amazing what you get used to living in a slum....isn't England beautiful? And wow, what a LOT of nice things people have here. More than enough to go round.

It's strange to be back at the moment (having been here only 24 hours now)...

Tomorrow we fly to England (via Amsterdam) for a 2 month "break". We have been tidying, cleaning and packing and all of us feel a bit apprehensive. We have spent nearly 2 years living in an international community in a slum in Belo horizonte, Brazil and that will have affected us, so how we will see England now is an unknown thing.

Anyway.....last weekend I (Dave) climbed up the local mountain for the last time to guide a bunch of volunteers and see some of the local nature, and we came across this snake:
It was quite thin but very long. I have not done any research on it so do not know if it is poisonous but it looked beautiful and just slithered away when we saw it.

We have been for a walk around this community with a camera. Not the wisest of things to do but to show people back in England what it is really like here is difficult, even with photos, because they only appeal to our visual sense, and the noise and smell is difficult to portray. When I greet someone with a handshake and feel their rough skin against the soft palm of my own hand I have wondered how to describe how that actually feels.....I can´t!
When taking the photos of people we said that we would print them off to give to people in the community so they can have a photo of themselves to cherish. Not many people here have a photo of themselves so this is quite sort-after. You may think that a huge gallery of photos should follow these quick comments but I do not intend to "blog" many of these pictures, rather reveal them in a church presentation or 2 in the UK.
Taking photos here is dangerous and there are many places which we would not photograph but here´s one quick photo of the community where we live:

This unassuming character had his foot run over by a car as he lay drunk beside the road. Someone took him to hospital 2 weeks ago, when it happened, and in this picture it does not look too bad. He is one of the guys we regularly talk to on one of the squares in this favela. He is always there, drunk most of the time but likes to talk alot about the type of work he does (construction) and about his life in another part of Brazil.
Yesterday, we took him to 3 health posts followed by a hospital because his foot had gone bad. He had been walking on it, was dirty, infected and looked really nasty.
The first 2 health posts did not want to help him - he has no documents (technically does not exist according to Brazilian law) and lives in a house with others, so does not have his own place. They did not want to assume responsibility for him but did say that if his foot does not get treated soon it will have to be removed from his leg. The last health post we tried were very helpful, even to the extent where they told us how we can "get round" the law to enable him to have medical care. But more than this, one of the nurses came in the car with us, showed us where the hospital is that would accept him and then went to the front of the line to get him admitted. One moment it looked like this lovely man would die from an infected foot because no-one wanted to take responsibility for him, the next moment, God enabled someone to have compassion for him and got him to the front of the line. Isaiah 25v4 says this: "You have been a refuge for the poor, a refuge for the needy in his distress..." We get to see God, the Defender of The Poor, in action when we work with people like this. It is exciting and every bit worth it, even if it takes many hours. Personally, I could not see that man lose his foot or even die when I could do something about it myself. Sometimes if we are aware of a problem we need to pray but a lot of the time we need to be the answer even if it means using our own time and money.

9 days to go...... I´m trying to keep focused, and make sure that I communicate all that I want to with my group. Dave is also busy visiting people in the community, explaining that he will be away for a while, giving out some photos (of the people he has met, hardly anyone in the favela has a photo of themselves), and saying he will keep praying for them. Josiah wants to finish school now, and Gideon is a bit sad about how few days of school he has left.
It´s quite a strange feeling.....

Here are some photos from our parents day


This is a photo from the beginning, when we were worshiping together, it´s great to see it so full.


These cute kids are from my group, dancing. Some loved it, others were a bit embarrassed, but danced anyway, I was very proud.


Many parents (and children) filled up their bags with fruit from the trees.


We hoped that the parents would want to play football with their children, but they seemed to really enjoy watching and chatting together.


The pool was very popular, with a big queue waiting for the group to change and for it to be their turn.

All in all, I loved this afternoon, it was really worth all of the hard work that went into it.

Today, we have had an afternoon for the parents, we wanted to have a fun time with the families to share with them some of the many blessings we have here. The program began with presentations from the children´s groups and a word of encouragement for the parents. Then we had a fun free time session, the children and their parents could use the pool, the sports court and the play area. We finished with a nice snack, "feijão tropeiro", a typical dish from this area of Brazil. I was responsible for the food, thankfully everything went really well, we didn´t really know how many would come, so we guessed to make enough for up to 250 people.
The morning was spent preparing the food, chopping many kg of bacon, smoked sausage and pork. In the end about 130 people came (maybe more, it´s hard to tell). When we have some photos we´ll put them on the blog. Here is a photo (from the internet) of feijão tropeiro

Often, one of the complicated things in staying here can be the visa process. Well, today we went to the federal police to begin the second phase of the process (the first phase involves parting with a lot of money and asking a lawyer to put together the correct papers for us) and it was....EASY!!! Praise the Lord. We now have a piece of paper granting us a further 180 days to stay here while the visa is centrally processed in Brasilia. We have requested a further 2 year extension, which is the maximum time we can request. Please pray for this.

Hey!!!! I received a book today...... it looks really interesting, but I´m not sure who it is from. It´s always exciting receiving a parcel, this one is a bit mysterious too. So, if it was you who sent it "THANKYOU!!!!"

It´s November....and I´m getting excited. Josiah and Gideon have begun a day countdown, only 23 to go. Dave and I are still a little nervous, about how different it will be, but I´m really looking forward to some time in England with family and friends. Every time I see the date my heart gives a little skip and I think "woo hoo....not long now"

The group of children that I´ve been working with this year, have been learning a bit about other parts of the world. Many of them never travel, and have no idea about the diversity in our world. We have wanted to teach them about how other children live and also inspire them to pray for other people. This week I shared with them about India, they listened in fascination about how the rich and poor live. I think this is something they can understand, but hopefully also made them thankful for their homes and families (India having more extreme poverty, orphans and homelessness). It was beautiful at the end to hear 2 girls praying heartfelt prayers asking God to put the children in families and enable them to go to school and also for the Churches that are being persecuted. We also tried some Indian food, though many of them didn´t like it, it´s quite different from the rice and beans we eat here every day.

Today is a very sad day, yesterday we discovered that the house dog, Lady, has an illness called Leishmaniasis. It is transmitted by mosquitos and is very dangerous if passed to humans. Therefore she had to be put to sleep today. Many people loved Lady (many others also disliked the dogs), she was a wonderful gentle dog with the children that should be here and a wonderful fierce guard dog for those that shouldn´t be here. The children in my group found out about this yesterday and they were able to lavish her with love and play lots with her at the park yesterday. many of them were picking flowers for her, to put in her collar, so she had some flowers when she died. Both Josiah and Gideon really benefited from having a dog here when they came, dog´s have a way of relating that goes across languages and cultures. Here is a photo of Gideon chilling with Lady

Here are some photos from the mountain near us. We took a few volunteers up there, for them to see the view and the favela (slum) from a distance. This was a rare opportunity to have a camera at the top of the hill. Many times it is not recommended as it could be stolen on the way through the favela.
Both photo´s are the same shot, with one enlarged so you can see where we live (Casa Luzeiro) in relation to the slum and the city. It always amazes me how big the favela is.

Here is a link to my co-leader´s blog, she is really good at putting lots of photos on her blog. So, if you want to see how our group celebrated "100 day", take a look......

www.thematiasfamily.blogspot.com

What is normal?

Last night, I began to wonder about this. The favela music began, at 3.30am, very loud, party style music. Instead of being annoyed by this, I rolled over and thought, "oh....but it´s normal for here". Then I started thinking about a conversation I had earlier in the day with a fellow worker here. She had just been to the local shop and when she opened the gate a drunk man was lying in front of it. Another worker asked "was he dead?", and both of these things seemed quite normal. Often there are drunk people lying in the street, and maybe it wouldn´t be too strange if one of them had already died. What a strange normality I have got used to.....

To answer the title question, a very good friend of ours once told us that "normal" is only a setting on a washing machine.

Yesterday, I (Dave) went for a walk in the community with my friend Maarten which we do 3 afternoons a week as part of our missionary work here. It was really a day of spending time with the rejected.
In Brazil, there are a lot of people who would not enter a favela because of the stories they hear and the type of people who live in such places. Even Christians from "richer" churches or backgrounds would not want to enter here or associate with these people so, to start with, favelados (people from a favela) are rejected by others from their own country. However, within the favela, there are also those who are rejected by their fellow favelados. For example, the drunk old men who sit in groups semi-conscious in the streets. The drug addicts, the "crazy people" - often people who have gone mad through too much alcohol or too many drugs or extreme tragedy and similar.
So, we started our walk with a visit to our crippled friend and we planned to take him to a school next week for him to look round and see what he thinks. Next we saw some children playing in some rubbish. They said that they were trying to find metal to sell so that they could buy some bread for their family but, to me, it looked like they were playing and having a lot of fun, discovering cool rejected items which could be used for whatever their imagination allowed.
After that, we spent some time with a group of drunk men (and 1 woman) who were really grateful that we talked to them because they said that no-one cares about them - we even got some strange looks from people who seemed like they thought that we were crazy associating ourselves with such people. 2 of them asked about going to a rehab house for alcoholics and we did not even mention it to them.
I love people like them and I believe that they are really precious in the sight of God because he died for such as these.....the poor, lame, lonely, blind, rejected.....these are the people invited to the banquet....and I reckon they´ll have the best seats!!

It´s really HOT here, just as I hear about the UK cooling down and moving into autumn, summer is on it´s way here. We really enjoyed the pool today, strange how quickly you can get used to having almost constant access to good things (how easy it is not to appreciate what we have). Tonight the temperature is expected to have a high of 29°C and a low of 26°C. HOT HOT HOT!

We went into the center on Saturday...sometimes a traumatic event, but this time it was good. Not too many millions of people and we managed to find what we needed. We also looked around a music shop, for our budding band members (Gideon on drums and Josiah on guitar), just to get an idea of quality and prices (not intending to buy anything)
Gideon was allowed to practice on an electric drum kit (worth £2,500!!!!), he had a great time, and impressed some of the workers in the shop. We want to try to get him some lessons here, it´s great to see an area that he excels in.

I just wanted to post an update on my crippled friend who I wrote about on the 23rd August as I have heard that some of you are praying for him. Firstly, he was and is real. He is 32 years old and lives close to The Lighthouse (casa Luzeiro). Maarten (the guy I work with) and I talked to the Discipleship Training School students about him as if he were imaginary and asked them what they would do, in a similar way to the post on 23rd August and they came back to us with some ideas so we then challenged them to go and do what they said they would do. How it ended up was a bit like this: The students went to his house and ended up talking with his entire family - mother, sisters, nieces etc - and prayed for them too but only one of the students stayed and talked with this guy. Maybe the others did not know what to do or maybe they thought that talking with the family was better. I do not know.
When he greets Maarten and I he gives us a BIG hug. He has very strong arms! We plan on taking him to a church soon, although it may still be a couple of months before we actually do that but we´ll see. We talk with him and continue to pray with him too and we have seen small changes in him already, as if he has some hope now. On a practical note, we are in the process of getting him into a literacy class in a local school as he would love to be able to read and write. The other things I wrote about previously remain the same for the moment but we expect a change in his circumstances soon.

I am tired and hot....actually more like exhausted. I (Dave) have just finished my first basketball session with a group of men from the community. They are of mixed ability, some playing very well and being able to do some amazing tricks and others playing errrrr not so well. But the aim is to put together a team and to disciple them. I think 1 or 2 of them are Christians but to be sure I do not know yet. We had great fun and I can see that this is going to be a great adventure with these guys.

Today we will be saying an official "goodbye" to a great Dutch couple who have been working with us here. It´s a very sad occasion but also a great opportunity to eat a different type of meal. We have a mini team that are preparing pizzas and also a group of 6 making traditional Dutch apple pie (it was a huge task to peel 8 kg of apples). It´s the first one I´ve made, so I hope it´s nice. I currently have a queue of apple pies waiting to go in the oven (and our house smells amazing).

Imagine this:
You are walking through your community and you see a crippled man, profoundly crippled. He is also filthy and smelly and he spends his day sitting by the road next to his house - he cannot go far because he cannot walk. You decide to stop and sit down next to him, asking him about his life, his daily routine etc and you learn that he does nothing with his life although occasionally he gets the opportunity to sit on a pile of rubbish and sort through it. Also on a few occasions in the past he has been able to go to the city center and beg but he doesn´t like it.
As you get to know him more you learn about his dreams. He dreams that he will be able to work one day standing on his feet and as he is saying this you look again at the disfigured shapes on the ends of his stumpy legs which may have been intended to be feet. He also tells you that he is angry...but not because he cannot realize his dream but because of how people treat him. He gets beaten round the head a lot - when someone is angry annoyed or just wants some sick entertainment and they happen to be walking past where he is sitting they go up to him, hit him, maybe laugh at him as well and then just walk on by. He cannot do anything to stop them. This is also why he is dirty and smelly because he has given up on himself. He says something like this "Why should I wash if no-one likes me anyway?" Then he continues by saying that it is his fault that he gets hit. People hit him because of what he is like, because he is crippled and therefore it is his fault. So...what do you do? How do you help this man? You want to do something but feel helpless as his situation seems impossible.
Do you know that God is the God of the impossible? Is He able to help this man? What would you do knowing this information? Feel free to respond.

Last night I (Dave) went to a Spiritist gathering at Lake Pampulha (a huge lake in Belo Horizonte) with 4 others from this YWAM base. The spritists were there to celebrate the incarnation of their God of Water and there were many of them, all dressed in white, playing drums with a samba rhythm, chanting, swaying and generally being fairly weird. We were there to evangelise and pray against what was going on.
This kind of thing attracts people from all over the city as it is quite a cultural experience. It is possible for the ordinary citazen to go to one of these Macumba groups where someone can pray for them to receive power, receive healing or just to be blessed. Then the person praying would invite spirits into the person for them to receive what they are asking for. It was an intense atmosphere, thick with the action of the unseen. We stayed there for about 2 hours, arriving back home around 12.40am. It is difficult to know how much detail about this to put on the blog because I am aware that this is open for all to read, therefore if you have any questions then please ask it in the comment section and I will respond fully to your enquiry as best as I can. But one thing was for sure: I learnt a lot more about waging spiritual war and about the hold that this form of spiritism has on this nation of Brazil.

A good friend of ours has just left.....she is returning to the US and will be studying about social injustices. I think this is the worst part of this kind of lifestyle. We get to meet lots of great people but we have to say so many goodbyes. It is hard, like we have to adjust to having part of us missing, and it keeps happening.

OK, so England did lose.....by quite a long way. We had some times of being very discouraged, especially the day when the children came last in every game. Thankfully we managed to stir up a bit of enthusiasm on the last day, and tried to motivate them to "lose with style" and really enjoy themselves. Being competitive is very normal, but in Brazil it seems even bigger. Football is SO important to these kids, they really struggled to do so badly. But, anyway...here´s a photo of our first day (with lots of the children missing), when we thought we had a chance of winning.

We are currently having our "Olympic games" here at the lighthouse. It´s a kind of holiday club for the children of this slum, with a big focus on sports and competition. This year we have 5 teams, and I (Beckie) and Gideon are in the England team. Sadly, guys, it seems like we´re going to lose..... my team has really been struggling against some of the others, today though, no-one wanted to give up. They also managed to encourage one another a little, so today was much better. I´ve promised them all some English chocolate for tomorrow, so I´m hoping to see greater motivation. I was really impressed with some of the little ones (from my normal group) who showed great determination, even Vitória (8yrs) who had to join the older team for football against some 14yr old boys. She really showed courage, I was proud!!

It is July 26th and we are in Brazil. Today we ate Christmas pudding.....not for any special reason but just because we had one left over from Christmas, which was brought to us all the way from England by Beckie´s mum. It was YUMMY!!!!

On Wednesday I was asked if I could host a team of 26 Canadians on my own for the day on Friday and organise them to do some practical work around the house as well as enable them to do something in the comunity.....so I said "Yes" and laughed in a slightly going-crazy way. I did end up having some help with the practical work from another staff member. So, on Friday (yesterday) they arrived...all 34 of them. It was also a mixed team of Canadians and people from São Paulo - a large city in Brazil. There is a lot I could say about the day but there was one thing in particular which really impacted me - the fact that these Brazilians were from a ´rich´christain background and had never been into a favela. Therefore, when they went into the community here they were extremely nervous and in some areas, particulary when I said that it could be a little dangerous, they even looked frightened. When I asked them about this they said that they thought that favela people would want to kill them or steal their clothes or similar so I got them praying for the community. On returning to the Lighthouse some of them said that the people seemed like normal people from anywhere in Brazil but others said that they would never ever go into a favela again. For me it became clear that there needs to be a lot better education in the rich churches about the people in such communities - that the poor are precious in God´s sight to the extent that he personally fights for them. If you read through the Psalms, Proverbs and examine God´s heart for the poor in Isaiah, for example, you will quickly see that they are special and precious in his sight so we need to show this to them. If you are reading this then it is likely you are from a rich church because you have a computer. What do you do for the poor in your community (?).....they are there you just need to look.

Maarten and I (Dave) took 3 people from a visiting Dutch church team into the favela today and had a great time. Initially we were not quite sure how it would work out because we did not want to be "tour guides" as taking people through the community could be viewed as a "aaaaahhhh, look at all those lovely poor people" thing. But we ended up playing football with some of the local drug gang and got to know them a lot better. They also seemed to respect us more as a result (but it cannot be as a result of the quality of our football!)

Today at the Lighthouse we were visited by a famous Brazilian Christian singer (I had no idea who she was) who was here to make her next music video set in a favela. I saw her miming her song in front of a camera with the favela in the background for some of it, then she went for a walk around the community with a local pastor and some of the lighthouse team (for security reasons). The thing is.....I do not know what to make of this. As I saw her walking in the street with her camera crew, miming the song, she would stop and hug children and talk to people which would give the watcher the impression that she is a loving caring person and that this is what she does. To me, it looked like she was using these people for her own ends. I don´t know. What do you think? I was confused that a Christian singer would view people in that way....maybe she doesn´t and I´m just making assumptions. However, I do not think that she comes into favelas often or is willing to readily associate with these favela-folk in her ´normal´life. It all looked like a complete pretentious sham. Comments welcome.

Beckie´s football skills (or not)!
Today during our group we had free sports time, several of the boys wanted to play football (and 1 girl), the only problem is that they needed another player, and one suggested that I play. Little did they know my inability with football. At first they put me in goal, then swapped me (after I let 2 goals in), then they realised I wasn´t desirable on their team. Nevermind, we lost! It was good fun though, maybe next week they won´t ask me.

Churches together in the slum....
We have just returned from a time of worship and speaking in the main park of the slum with lots of churches together. It was really great to have the enthusiasm of several of the pastors, and to hear them preaching about all being different but together wanting to reach people for His kingdom. Not many from the congregations came, but it was a really good start and was a great example of unity. The idea came from "Pastors breakfasts", that had been meeting together here at the lighthouse. During these breakfasts they had discussed what they wanted to see in the slum, and how to get there. The next pastors breakfast will give feedback from today´s open air event, and discuss where to go next.
We are really giving praise to God for this as many people said the pastors would never get together and there would never be any unity. Yet, 2 of our dutch friends who hadn´t been here very long were determined to see this happen, as they really believe it is a key for God to move here. I really admire the way they have persevered and also been bold in inviting the pastors, even if they are still learning Portuguese.

Hello everyone. Last weekend we went away for a few days to rest and relax as a family as often we do not get the opportunity to do that. We went to a place called Serra do Cipó which is a nature reserve about 2 hours drive away from Belo Horizonte. It has over 200 waterfalls amongst beautiful scenery. On one occasion, Gideon and Dave went on a river walk and discovered many waterfalls and pools. The following day Josiah and Dave went canoeing on a quiet piece of river where they found some fresh-water turtles and animals called capybara.
We stayed in a place called a pousada which is like a bed and breakfast but with chalets. A great time was had by all.

I (Dave) have just come in from starting the car!!! This may not seem something strange to most car users who are reading this but for the past few weeks we have been involved in team building exercises to start our car.....namely getting a bunch of people together to push it. So, this weekend, Josiah and I have replaced the old generator in our 1970 VW Beetle (Fusca) with a brand new alternator. This involved taking most of the engine apart, fitting the new part and putting it all back together again, and rewiring some parts too in creative ways. It was a great father/son thing to do together and I am putting it as a blog entry simply because I am so pleased that it all works.
I am not a mechanic but i am confident when I do practical tasks so am willing to undertake almost anything (bricklaying is a challenge for me though). There is a secret to this which I learnt a long time ago and which I put into practice nearly every time I need to fix something. It is this: God knows all things, therefore He is the best person to ask when I do not know how to do a certain job. I simply pray and then the ideas just flow. It works every time. So, my confidence comes from Him. Something too difficult for you? Ask the One Who Knows....and wait expectantly for an answer. God is a practical God too.

Just a photo, taken and edited by a volunteer here, of 2 boys from my group, sitting and contemplating the world.

I thought I would tell you a little about Brazilian culture. It is very important for the women to look nice, nails and hair are especially important. Many women spend hours straightening their hair, then make sure that they avoid rain.
Today, my group had a swimming lesson, I was surprised when one girl brought a note from home saying that she could not swim, I was even more surprised when I discovered the reason....her hair had been blow dried, and it musn´t get wet. I thought it was such a funny reason to miss a swimming lesson.

One of the advantages of living in a YWAM house is that it is SO multicultural. We have volunteers coming and going from here all of the time. At the moment we have a couple from Australia here, and we´re learning of the many similarities we have. Last night, we experienced a ´TIM TAM SLAM´. Let me enlighten you....they were sent some typical Australian biscuits (rather like penguins), which you need to bite opposite corners off, then dunk in a cup of hot chocolate, then suck up the hot chocolate. The challenge is to let them go really gooey, then quickly pop it in your mouth, without it falling in your cup. the video below shows how to do this.....try with a penguin! Sorry if it is a bit slow to load. It was a very nice challenge!!!! So, missions isn´t just about work, prayer and mud huts. Getting to know other cultures can be a very yummy experience.

Today I walked to the local shop to fax some details for booking a flight to the UK for our Christmas visit. As I was thinking about England I was struck by just how different it is here in so many ways and how I simply take it as normal now. The smells were strong and varied. I walked past people cleaning their motobikes and I could smell a combination of cleaning products, oil, petrol and other chemicals. Then there was the dog and horse muck, the rubbish combined with the smells which emanated from the beauty salon...an unusual cocktail.
The sounds too fade from one to another - it started off from the loud (very loud) music coming from a small church opposite the gate to Luzeiro and then it was taken over by the music from a bar, then some children playing marbles in the street followed by another bar. These sounds were interspersed by the roar of motorbikes rushing past to run an errand for a drug traffiker or meet a girlfriend.
What is it like between your house and your local shop.....a bit different, I guess.

Every day we begin our group with a prayer, this photo was taken as we were deciding who would pray that day, they really are a lovely bunch, and I love the simplicity of their prayers.

I (Beckie) have been continuing working in the kitchen, alongside my group. it is often very challenging, making sure all of the food is available to cook, especially when our numbers keep varying (we have several visiting teams at the moment). Every week we receive a donation of fruit and vegetables, which is always a great help, and also means we can give a piece of fruit to every child each day. Occasionally we receive a governmental donation, last night it came....500kg of vegetables and fruit that is all about to go off. Thankfully a volunteer (Toni) who loves to help in the kitchen is helping me to sort through what we can use in the kitchen and then the children can fill up carrier bags and take it home. The children are always very happy to take the gifts home.

Just a quick update....we have had our visas renewed. This will take us up to Jan 2010. In November of this year we will begin the renewal process again before we fly to the UK for 8 weeks.

Hello faithful blog followers. I guess you have been wondering if all is ok here because it has been over 2 weeks since our last post....well... it is. Praise God.
At the moment we are awaiting the results of the visa renewal process. We should know within a few days if we get it, as we are able to track it on-line. We have applied for a 2 year renewal but it looks like they will only be giving us 1 year (up to January 2010) but we are able to apply for a further renewal at the end of November 09 if this one comes through ok. Please pray for this.

At the moment there is a football match underway between Cruzeiro and Atletico, the 2 football teams from Belo Horizonte and when a goal is scored there is huge cheering from accross the favela as well as fireworks being set off. If you think English people are passionate about football then you should experience the atmosphere here and you would reconsider. However, there are problems to this too. For example, last year when these two teams played against each other there was a lot of violence in the streets all over the city and many people were killed. At the moment there is a large police presence in the area and we are advised not to go out....

We have moved in!!!! Yesterday evening we managed to move all of our stuff across the gravel area to a new house here on the base. Josiah and Gideon have their own rooms now and the place is, for us, HUGE (3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, dining area, lounge area, kitchen) We don´t really know what to do with all the space!
So...how about this for a contrast: when I took some rubbish out to the street there were 2 young boys waiting there (they were about 6 and 9 yrs old, I guess). After I had put the bags down they started going through it. So here we are, getting a bigger place, while kids long for something interesting just from what we throw out. Please do not take what you have for granted but remember that EVERYTHING you own is only yours because God has enabled you to have it....therefore you have a responsibility to use it for His glory.

I (Dave) had an interesting time on Wednesday in the community. Maarten and I had arranged to visit a local missionary and, as we did not know where he lived, it was thought best that we met on the main road and then walked to his house. However, when he greeted us he asked if we could go with him to the house of someone to pray for them. So we did. The person in question had been recently shot in the back and was unable to walk but could stand. We prayed for him, Maarten gave an encouraging word and then we left. It was a little strange but it did show us the reality of the darker side of this community and it was great to be able to bring the light of Jesus into that darkness at that moment. Getting caught in the drug wars is seen as part of ´life´in the area of the favela which we work in. May God change that!

Today, in our group we introduced the story of palm Sunday, then the children got the chance to act it out. I was privileged to be the donkey. The children were so enthusiastic at laying down their jackets and shawls (one girl was concerned that she had to lay down all of her clothes). Then they waved branches excitedly.
These children are sponges, thirsty to soak up all that we teach.

CELEBRATING MY BIRTHDAY
Many thanks to all who have sent me birthday cards it was really nice to keep receiving them. My day began with breakfast in bed (with Pineapple man) and then we had a lovely day in Ouro Preto.

I also had a delayed celebration with my group, (with another boy who was celebrating his birthday), they dressed us up, me as a princess, and we sang and ate cake. It was really good fun. The children love to celebrate their bithdays and some of them don´t normally celebrate at home.

This week I (Dave) have been spending more time in the community and God has really opened my eyes to see things which I had previously not noticed. For example, there is a run-down park near the top of the favela and we have often walked through there to get to another place, sometimes stopping to pray and we have often seen people smoking drugs there. What we had not previously noticed is that a lot of the children actually buy there drugs there, in the bushes just the other side of a wire fence. So what we decided to do was stand a couple of meters away from the dealers and pray....they did not seem to like that very much as they started making a few negative comments amongst themselves about foreighners being at the park. But last time we went there they were not there!
What we would like is the drug dealing to stop altogether because it literally kills people....many people over the years. However, we would ask for prayer for good relationships with these guys because they are very influential in this community so if they have changed hearts, changed by the love of God, the power of the cross and made new with the blood of Jesus then the people around would really notice. May the Kingdom of God come into this community.
This Saturday the community development team ore organising a pastors breakfast with the intention of enabling the pastors to network together and start praying together for this commnuity. Exciting stuff.

Today, I (Beckie) had to do my group alone, as my co-leader is ill. It was actually a really good experience, and it helped me to realize that my Portuguese continues to improve. It´s good that the children are quite well settled into the routine, but it really hi-lighted the need for working with anger management (in the children). We had a few incidents occur, and I had to be very firm, but on the whole it was a really good experience. Tomorrow a volunteer is going to share about living in Canada, and do an interactive role play type thing. It will be a test to see if my translation ability is up to it. A lot of people in the favela are very unaware of the rest of the world, so it should be good for their knowledge and understanding of the world.

Well, we are still here, sometimes it seems like it is so difficult to keep going, but amoungst all of that there are many blessings. Josiah and Gideon continue to have good (ish) and bad days at school, we continue to have difficulty with their homework, Dave continues to be a bit tired from all of the rushing around with schools, and I am just recovering from another illness, maybe a virus or maybe dengue (very common in this favela spread by mosquitos). However, we will persevere. We have the opportunity to move soon to another larger house (on the same site), which will be really nice. At the moment it needs a lot of work, so I need to be patient with this.

Here in Brazil there are a lot of really beautiful creatures which readers of this blog will probably not get the opportunity to experience unless they have or will visit this wonderful country. For example, there are beautiful bright blue butterflies the size of 2 hands next to each other. Although nice to look at, some of these creatures are not so nice to touch.
2 weeks ago Beckie accidentally touched a hairy caterpillar. These particular caterpillars look really cute....to the extent of making you want to stroke them. Beckie did not deliberately stroke it because she was warned about them, but what she did not know was just how nasty they can be. The hairs on them are hollow and inject an enzyme into the skin which then gets passed around the body. If the contact with them is long enough and enough of this enzyme enters the body then it can cause internal hemorrhaging. Sounds nasty, huh? Well it is! Beckie just lightly brushed against one and this caused extreme pain all up her left arm which travelled to her shoulder and then kinda stopped there, praise Jesus. But the pain remained for about 2 hours and she still has a caterpillar-shaped mark on her arm, kinda like a tattoo! The photo is of a similar type.

I (Beckie) have had my first week with my adorable (and at times challenging) group. It has been a really good experience working with Laura (an American friend here). It means that we have to rely a bit on one another for the Portuguese (me relying more on her). Our weekly plan has worked out really well, we seem to have a good balance of all activities, and the children have really enjoyed it. They especially love their swimming lessons, and the free play they had in the pool on Thursday. We are still hoping to recruit a few more boys, and went onto the streets to see if we could find some, hopefully we will manage to fill up our places and have an opportunity to impact more lives.

We (Maarten, a Dutch guy, and I) have started the new work in another part of this favela...but it is very difficult to verbalize exactly what it is. It is basically walking around praying and seeking God for change in that area, that His kingdom will come and the community will be transformed. So, we begin simply by walking around and praying but also talking to the people who God puts across our path. Today is only the second day but it is quite a strange and interesting time we are having.
Yesterday, for instance, we were taken on a walk into the area by the leader of Luzeiro who knows the area quite well. It was his task to show us round some of the favela so we did not get lost - quite an easy thing to do with all the twists and turns. During this time we ended up being invited in by a family and the lady of the house sent her son to buy some fizzy drinks for her guests, even though it was clear that she could not afford it. An interesting start.
Today, we helped 3 children pull a big old microwave up a hill so that they could sell it for scrap. We attracted a lot of attention in doing this because we, 2 strange white guys, were dragging it and it was making a lot of noise - it was too heavy to carry. We saw the kids again after they had sold it and they managed to receive R$1.50 for it, the equivalent of about 45 of our English pence. They then used the money to buy a small tin of food for their family!
I don't always know what to make of what we do and see sometimes. But all I can do is trust in God and love those who I meet with His love...if it means drinking fizzy drink or moving a microwave.

I (Beckie) have been preparing for my group this week, it was really good to discover that some of the really needy children that were worked with last year will be coming again. It has been great to have complete freedom in how we (Laura and I) want to plan our week (unlike the 'national curriculum'). Although we do aim to cover 5 key areas of development (physical, social, emotional, spiritual, intellectual). I am looking forward to it, and am nervous, has my Portuguese improved enough to do all that I want to do?
Dave has also had some great planning meetings about his new work. He is excited about working further up into the favela, and has been learning more about some of the dangers of the place (murders every day), yet, this has excited him all the more.

Good news!!! Josiah has had 2 better days at school, we are SO pleased. Although it is going to be difficult for a while for him, it's brilliant that he has had a more positive experience. God hears our prayers.

This week we are doing training, to better equip us and fire us up for the coming year for our work with this favela. However, bigger to us than any of this is the fact that our children are going to school. Particularly, that Josiah is going to a Brazilian school, something he really doesn't want to do. I keep thinking each step will get easier, yet it doesn't. I feel like I am laying my child on the altar, and having to walk away, not really sure how God will deal with this.
Josiah has had his first proper day, he said it was worse than he imagined (and he thought he would hate it). Somehow, we all have to keep going with this, and trust that God will help in it all. We love our children dearly, we want to love our Lord more. We sing so many songs in England about willingly surrendering, I guess I didn't expect it to hurt so much.
Thankfully, we have many encouraging people here, to stand alongside us. We also have MANY lovely people back home praying for us. All I can do is rely on God's grace for he has promised that it is sufficient for me (2 Corinthians 12.9), I must not be discouraged for God is with me (Joshua 1.9)

It really does seem like we are the other side of the world..... I have heard that England has more snow, and freezing conditions, it's hard to imagine.
This week has been SO hot, 38 in the day, and it feels like 30 at night. Then today, whilst walking up the hill after our 'end of school holiday' icecream, the storm began. We love the dramatic thunder, lightning and rain that we get here. The rain was wonderfully refreshing at first, then it began to pour. What was so strange was that as the rain hit the ground it was almost instantly evaporating and we were breathing in steam.
Then as we were walking up the steepest bit of the hill (nearly home now), Gideon said "I've lost my flip flop". When I told him to get it, he couldn't actually see it. The flip flop (new) was sailing down a gushing muddy river. So, we went running (as best as we were able) after the flip flop, much to the amusement of some Brazilians standing in their doorways. After a quick prayer for the flip flop to stop, we did manage to grab it before it made a dash down the next hill. Sadly, this meant we then had to climb the steepest hill again.
Also, Dave managed to get a photo of some lightening....after 78 attempts and here it is:

On Wednesday evening this week (28th Jan) I (Dave) went out with the street team from 'Rescue House' to meet some of the street kids. We also joined up with a team called 'The Masters Commission' who were doing some of their outreach phase with YWAM in Belo Horizonte. So, all in all there were about 15 of us. Initially, to me, it seemed like there were too many of us but after some walking about we found a group of about 20 children, ranging from around 10-18 years. Four of them were girls, 3 of whom were pregnant. We broke up into smaller groups and played Uno, sang Christian songs with them, chatted and played a game of throwing an American football around. It was a really good evening, being able to spend some quality time with those children.
These particular street kids were at a stage of not permanently living on the streets yet because many of them had houses in the favelas where they could go and sleep if they wanted to so it is an important time to work with them to prevent them from continuing along that road. This does not just mean working with the kids but also the families from where they come. Not an easy task.
These kids were all high on glue or paint thinners, dirty, smelly and uneducated but lovely at the same time. Spending time with them really gave me a sense of compassion for them. The Rescue House team normally go onto the streets once or twice a week but at the moment are unable to because they do not have a man to go with them, so I am likely to be regularly joining them working with the street kids as well as my other work at Luzeiro. But I need wisdom about that so will spend time seeking God about the way forward in that area.
The girls house in Belo Horizonte has had to close down due to lack of staff so if you hear God calling you to work in this area then send YWAM Belo Horizonte an e-mail (CLICK HERE FOR CONTACT INFORMATION).

We now have a new car!
I took a 1 1/2 bus ride to another part of the city to look at a bright orange car which I had previously seen at the stadium, having made an appointment with the owner to view it the day before. When Felipe and I got to the house neither the car nor the owner of the vehicle was there. So we turned round to go back...again without a car. However, we spotted ANOTHER car only a few hundred yards away which we had also previously viewed at the stadium, but forgot to take down the number of, and took it as a sign to go and buy it. The chances of seeing this particular car again was really slim as the city is SO big but there is was. So...after some negotiation, I bought it and drove it back to Luzeiro. Here's a photo:
Beckie was expecting me to return with an orange 'fusca' (Beetle) but I drove back in a green one. Thankyou all who have been praying about this. It has been quite a hassle and challenge looking for and buying a car here and now it is done.

Today I (Dave) spent the morning attempting to buy a car. Every Sunday morning there is a huge car sale at the large city stadium. How it works is that if you have a car to sell you take it there and if you want to buy a used car which is privately owned then that is the place to go. The cars are all parked in the stadium car park and you just go up to one and start making enquiries. Some have the price on and some do not. Some look beautiful, as if new, and some don't.
My task today was to return with one....I failed! What I discovered is that looking at over 2000 cars takes a long time. Finding a bargain also is quite a challenge...in fact I do not believe there is such a thing as a bargain here when it comes to cars. They were either too expensive or too rubbish. So, I have about one week to find a car before the boys return to school. May God send me one!
I already have my Brasilian permit to drive. All we need now is a car.

Well!......
Yesterday, Gideon found an abandoned puppy. Apparently this is quite common here, that people put their unwanted puppies in the street in a box to die, or be taken in by someone else. Gideon was very sad that people would do such a thing and really wanted to adopt him. The puppy came to us hungry and dirty, we don't know how old he is or what type of dogs he is descended from. Dave and I agreed to look after him. Gideon is very besotted by "Rambo" (said in Portuguese it sounds like 'humble'). We will need to chat to the whole team to see if it is ok with them too, because they will need to look after him when we are not here. Thankfully our other house dog, "Lady" has taken him under her wing, or paw.

We still don't have anything particularly exciting to write. We have 2 weeks of maintenance here, all very necessary, but also very dull to do, and a bit back-ache inducing. Oh well..... as you all know, these jobs have to get done, and when the work begins with the groups we only have enough time to do basic maintenance. Dave has had a productive time, fixing locks and showers. I've been doing weeding and scrubbing moss off floors. I guess this is the boring part of being a missionary, I always thought it would be much more exciting than this.
Dave and I are currently devoting evenings this week to prayer for the community, and seeking God for what we should be doing this coming year. We really want to be led by the Lord in everything, and not just fit in with patterns of work in previous years.

We've not got much to say really, other than we have had a fantastic holiday with my Mum and Dad (Beckie). We spent a week dashing around our favourite places in Belo Horizonte and then we had 5 days relaxing on a farm 1 1/2 hours outside of the city. It has been so good to catch up. Especially for Josiah and Gideon to really spend quality time with them. We all felt thoroughly blessed, as we enjoyed some long and leisurely days together. Here are a few of the photos of our holiday together.

I know we have not posted anything for almost 2 weeks now and we will soon, but before we do I would like to direct your attention to another blog....this is one which Josiah has created to put his drawings on. Drawing is something he is particularly passionate about at the moment (cars mainly) so take a look at his first entry.
Ah yes, the blog address is: http://josiahsdrawings.blogspot.com