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.