Firstly, thank you to all of you who have been praying for the situation in the favela.

At the moment, things seem to be more peaceful, no night-time protests or bus burning the last 2 nights. It's hard to say if it's a peace that will last, or if the rumours of drug dealer planning something "big" are true. We keep praying and asking God to shake up and expose what goes on here, whilst protecting those who live here.

The situation is continuing to worsen in the favela. Last night there were more confrontations between the residents and the police. At 9.30pm another bus was torched (the little yellow one that serves the community), plus 2 cars and another car thrown into a ravine.

There had been reports that everything was peaceful after the police had arrested someone for the bus burning, but buses are continuing to be burnt and the police presence is causing chaos. There are protests and people crying out for justice. The police have come in, trying to disperse groups with rubber bullets, but the residents are stoning the police cars. People are being wounded, many people are very angry or afraid.
It is crazy,even in the news they are reporting that a witness disagrees with the police testimony of how the 2 guys were killed, and now this witness is being protected.

As a result, we have no buses here now (taxi's will also refuse to come here), people are unable to get to work, at least one crèche is unable to open because the electricity is off (due to things being burned), police presence is high and everyone has to carry ID and be prepared to be searched. I have just heard that we won't have any fruit or vegetables delivered (11am) as the police are blocking anyone from coming up into the slum.
How does this improve things for those who live here? Is this just a big power struggle between the police and the drug lords? Are both sides expecting that they will win?

Please pray

There is tension in the favela. This is not new, but it's very clear now. The police entered with force on Friday evening, and there was a shooting battle. 2 people were killed, some are saying they are innocent, others are disagreeing with this. People were arrested, but much more is going on. Helicopters have been hovering over the slum for a lot of the weekend, particularly early hours of Saturday morning, most of Saturday and now again Sunday evening.
Yesterday, as a mark of outrage against the police 2 buses were set on fire, nobody was in them, but it caused a complete strike of buses to this area.
It's hard to know who is most at fault in all this, it seems like the police are trying to assert their authority, but also that the drug traffickers are trying to tell them to keep out. We hear slightly different things all of the time, which isn't helped by the slum 'rules' of keep silent. I can understand when so many people from the community end up saying things like"God knows" as a way of avoiding responsibilty in it all.

What do you think of when you hear someone is a missionary? I used to think of people living in mud huts and trying to start churches, especially in places that had never heard of Jesus. Now, I can see that there are many ways of spreading the gospel.
We have a team with us at the moment, for an outreach part of their training, their desire is to really reach the lost. This is great, it means that along with some of the more usual day to day work of the community centre, we're going out with a sole purpose to tell people about Jesus and pray for them. Many times though, this isn't exactly going according to plan. We've had great times, with over 170 children one afternoon, but then we've also spent a whole morning inviting a town to a street drama (bearing in mind it seemed like nothing was happening in this town), only to wait and not one person came. We pray before, and we wait and sometimes it seems strange that if the fields are ready for harvest, why can't we find them?
We've also had the pleasure of working alongside nearby churches, who are so thrilled to have us that they bless us with amazing hospitality. Yesterday, was one of those days. We were ready for a full-on ministry day, but at times we couldn't find anybody. In the evening though, I really sensed that the dramas and talks by the team encouraged the church members. One man shared that God really stirred his heart when Matt was talking about God's calling and the roles we have to play in the body of Christ. So, we really need to just listen and obey and make sure we're fulfilling the role that God has called us to, whether it seems big or small.

This week is team week. We are planning lots of our work and continuing to build relationships. We have quite a large team doing many diverse things, so it's really good for us to be united in our vision and support for one another. Today, in our family everyone is busy. Dave is leading a team building exercise (planning and making a protection packet for an egg, which will protect it when the egg is dropped from a height)


(this poor unfortunate egg didn't survive)
Meanwhile, Gideon has been using every free moment from school to help a builder here, he has really enjoyed learning how to do new things. (He has almost enjoyed it too much, as he really doesn't want to do any school)
And finally, Josiah is busy doing experiements that count towards his GCSE science. As for me I'm trying to plan my timetable for my group this year, as the groups will be starting soon. This January has been very busy though, doing lots of extra programs for the community and evangelising with the team.

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.