Had an adventure today. Every month I'm responsible for buying the house food, this month when everyone is back from their holidays and with the new students and the team we have 50 people for lunch each day. I took a new member of staff who was quite amazed at how much we were buying. 5 BIG trolleys later, we struggled to load it all into the kombi, especially as the trolleys wanted to roll down the slopes and onto the road or into parked cars (fortunately we grabbed them before they hit).
For the first time ever our beloved kombi was unable to get up the hill.... some of you who have visited us can understand this, sometimes I feel unable to get myself up these hills. So, the spare people got out....but it still couldn't do it. As we were close to home Dave was called to bring the VW Beetle to clear out some of the weight. Finally, all of the shopping was put away.
Phew, another 4 weeks before we need to do that again.

As you have already read, we meet a lot of desperate people here, some with a genuine desire to change and many without hope. We try to offer them a hope that is in Jesus, but sometimes even we feel without hope.

One day, between Christmas and the new year I (Beckie) was walking back home from the community, I was stopped by a very drunk man with a cup of cachaça (strong alcoholic drink) who clung onto me. He looked into my eyes intently, with his bloodshot and desperate eyes.
He asked, "are you a Christian?" "Yes," I responded, then he pleaded for prayer. He said he used to go to church, but now he can't stop drinking, he wanted God to help him quit. I offered to pray for him in the street, but he wanted to know where I lived. As the community center was close by I took him there, thinking that Dave could help me a bit. This man was truly a mess, he was barefoot, dirty, his face was slightly puffy and he was unable to remember any of what he had previously said to us, he even asked our dog if it was his girlfriend.

We threw away his drink and talked to him, we prayed for him with as much faith as we could muster. He said he was hungry, so we offered him food. Then he asked for money and we said no. After repeating the conversation a lot, we eventually managed to send him out (this was a bit difficult and Dave gave me a top tip to not let drunk guys in here again).

Why am I telling this long story? It is so typical of some of the people who live here. Well, on Saturday a group of us were walking back home through the slum. A man called out to me, I didn't know who he was. I looked closer, then he said, "I'm much better!" I realised it was this man. He was clean, smiling, totally able to focus...... I could barely recognise him. I am so thankful to God for hearing our prayers and also for showing me the difference he made in this man's life. Now I just have to leave him in God's hands and trust that God can do the impossible.

The English team that are with us are doing the practical phase of their Discipleship Training School, the mandatory YWAM school that has to be done before being able to be a staff member with YWAM. It involves a lecture phase and a practical phase built around knowing God and making him known.
Yesterday, we went out into the community with invitations for a kids event (which is happening as I type this), an afternoon for adults (to happen tomorrow afternoon) and an invitation to collect the forms to fill in so that they can participate in the groups we have here. With these invites was some cake - so we handed out cake, invitations and talked to people in the community. But, what about this constitutes a blog post?
On our walk we encountered some of the local drug gang, selling drugs and what struck me as strange was that we were handing out cake to them in the middle of a few drug deals. It just seemed bizarre. We wanted to give life and freedom while they were dealing out death and destruction (Or certainly encouraging it). It was a good relational exercise with them though and we hope to return to them next week to offer them something a lot more valuable and sustaining than cake.

January 2011

Well, the new year is here, whether we're ready or not. The team arrived on the 31st and have experienced the Brazilian rainy season, probably not the best welcome for them. However, today, the sky has cleared a little, enabling the first walk through the community. It's exciting for us to have a new group of people here working alongside us for 2 months, full of passion to evangelise and transform this community. Sometimes we get stuck in our ideas and traditions and although we really want to see God move and show his power we are a little scared of doing things differently.
A new year is a great opportunity to recommit and truly welcome Jesus back to the centre of it all, to recognise it's not through our abilities, talents or great ideas, but it all comes through Him. I'm looking forward to how the Lord is going to lead me, lead us. I'm looking forward to seeing what He wants to do, and yet a little scared of the challenges there will be along the way