Yesterday we had 2 laptops stolen during the night while we were asleep in our house, so when we got up they were missing. By the end of the day the laptops had returned. This involved waiting around, conversing with people who you do not normally want to meet and praying. I´m unwilling to post the details on a blog where everyone in the world can read but it was a strange and interesting day and even as I write this I am unsure what to make of it. What I did hear during the day were 3 testimonies from 3 completely different people as to what they are now doing with their life, several years after spending some time at the Lighthouse (Luzeiro).

1) The first I heard was from a Judo / Ju Jitsu instructor who came to the house to ask if he can use some of our space to hold some classes . He said that he was here 16 years ago and was telling me about how he climbed up the pylon. He also told me about how this place was during his time, without swimming pool, without sports area and with more fruit trees. He is not a Christian.

2) The second was from a drug trafficker who said he was here 14 years ago. Also not a Christian.

3) The last testimony I heard was from a guy who learnt to play guitar here several years ago and now he travels Brazil playing and singing in churches and he also has 3 CDs to his name. He attributes his success to his time at Luzeiro. A Christian.

When seeds are sown into someone´s heart, it is difficult to know what the result will be but the Bible does give us some insight in the Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13, Luke 8) about the possible outcomes. In the Western church we seem to be more like the seeds which are sown among the thorns as we worry about so many unnecessary things and produce little or no fruit. But here you can see a complete mixed bag of results in a lot clearer way when you start hearing peoples life stories....at some point they have had some connection with church or Christians but what is the result of this - transformation or nothing or something in-between which also amounts to nothing in the end?

I (Beckie), have just returned from carnival in Ouro Preto. I went with a few people from our house here and loads of other people from YWAM bases and Churches to evangelise during carnival.
Carnival is a big party, a celebration and also an excuse to indulge your flesh before lent begins.
What were some of my observations? (I could write a LOT)

• noise
• rubbish
• devils horns and pitchforks
• people leaning out of windows to look
• shouting
• dancing
• Brazilian JOY
• old poor men collecting cans to recycle
• transvestites
• beer
• loud drums (day and night)
• sweat
• lust in eyes
• bright colours
• drunks
• Catholicism
• young girls inappropriately dressed
  
• desire to find entertainment somewhere
• beer glasses on necklaces
• street sellers
• REALLY loud drums
• people walking in a daze
• beer
• SO many people

We spent a lot of our time as a team together, seeking God before going on the parades and chatting to people in the streets. It was amazing and exhausting. God has so much love for His people, how good it was to try to share that with people who feel condemned and alienated from God.

Saw this caterpillar the other day too. Thought I´d put it on the blog for all of you caterpillar lovers out there. :-) Again, you can click on the image for a bigger version of the picture. You can probably guess by now that I like them.

One thing that Maarten and I (dave) concluded about our work at the end of last year was that, although we prayed with people and shared some of the Bible with them, we wanted to bring Jesus even more to the forefront of what we do. We aim to be more practical in our assistance in this way too.
Yesterday was our first afternoon back in the favela. We started by visiting a dear elderly lady who lives in the most apalling conditions - wooden, single-roomed house (no bathroom), borrowed electricity from a neighbour and it is located near a stream which doubles up as a sewer. Her son was also in the house at the time recovering from being beaten up over a dispute with a woman. He had a swollen jaw but did not look too bad. We were able to encourage them to think bigger than their circumstances dictated, during which her son read Psalm 23 to us and we prayed for them. She has bad health and is unable to do much for herself and her son does not help much either. It is another one of those situations where we find ourselves in need of a solution bigger than ourselves...and there is only one - Jesus.
After this we visited our crippled friend and he was glad to see us after 2 months absence. He seemed quite low and not much had changed for him although there were promises of him learning to read from his mother. He also has not left the area here in our time away so we plan on taking him out in the car some time soon so he can see another part of the city.
Life is so difficult for some people here and it is very easy for them to live defeatist-type lives, unable to look out from where circumstances or choices have left them. Giving hope to these people is so important.
We got given some money to buy a new camera over the Christmas period which we spent in England and it is really good at taking night-time shots. Here´s one of part of the favela at night:
(Click on image for bigger version)

This week has been a time of training, discussing ideas for the coming year, getting together with people we will be working with this next year and planning. Also, making timetables for areas such as the big sports court and swimming pool (both very popular).
We have been beginning every day with intercession (as normal), although trying to do it a bit differently. Sometimes it´s easy to always pray in the same way, we were trying to get more creative with our prayer for the community...here are some of the photos (cafezal is the name of the favela where we live)

Today (during homeschooling), we discovered some interesting things about the weather (us Brits just LOVE the weather).
You know we always say that it´s always raining in England? Well....
In Belo Horizonte the average rainfall each month varies between 1.5cm and 32 cm
In Norwich the average rainfall each month varies a little around 0.5cm
Isn´t that crazy? Even in our dry season we get more rain here than in the UK. Which explains why every time my Mum told Josiah and Gideon it was pouring with rain, they responded that no it wasn´t really raining. Although, I do know from living in UK most of my life that persistent drizzle is pretty annoying, I´d much rather have an infrequent blast of real Brazilian rain.
(information found in the world weather information service website)

Here is one of many things that I think is really great about where we live. The wildlife. Often I take it for granted because I seem fairly used to the exotic bird calls and the amazingly coloured butterflies but as we were gardening today Maarten discovered this caterpillar. It is beautiful, poisonous but not deadly, and one of the largest caterpillars I have ever seen. Click on the image to see a larger, more detailed version of this photo.

It is strange to be back, everything is the same (more or less) as when we left, but different to how I (Beckie) remembered. I had forgotten the frustration of not understanding everything that is said (particularly when lots of people are talking at once). It´s strange to stand out as a ´gringo´all of the time. However, it was lovely to be enthusiastically greeted by the girls in my group from last year, the boys that I´ve seen just look up and say "tudo bem?" (you alright?).
I think it will take me a little bit of time to get back into everything.