Sometimes, I (Beckie) am amazed at how hard some people work. Today, as I was out walking up one of the many hills near here (not the crazy steep one I'm pleased to say), I saw a lady (about 40) with her horse and cart. She travels all over the city collecting rubbish (to recycle) and old vegetables (to eat / feed the animals with). Many times the whole family is involved. Today it was just her and the horse. The horse isn't strong enough to get up the hill with the full cart on it's own, therefore the lady has to help push the cart.
I was on the other side of the road, I could have passed her and kept walking, I wanted to. Yet, I had a niggle, telling me to help. How can I really help? Sometimes it feels almost impossible for me to get myself up these hills. I wanted to keep walking and pray that God would strengthen her. I couldn't. So, I asked if she needed help. She didn't know how to respond, and found it difficult to accept my offer, but did accept.
So, we were both trying to push up the cart, resting frequently when the horse couldn't keep going. All of the time, through her panting breathing the lady was saying it was too hard for me, I should leave her or I would get very sweaty. She was saying that only God can help her, enable her to keep going. When we got past the worst bit she told me to go and that she would be OK then, and really asked God to bless me for all that I had done. I was rather pleased as I felt unable to continue. I only helped her for 20 minutes, she does this all day, almost every day.

Today, it is raining, and when you walk out in the streets the atmosphere is quite different. Nobody likes the rain, so you see very few people. Just a Mum and her daughter hurriedly walking under an umbrella. Two more people huddled in a shop doorway, waiting for the bus. Otherwise the streets are deserted. However, I really noticed the bars, they (2 opposite one another) were FULL. It was 8.30am and the bars were full of people (mainly men), downing many beers.
It seems that these are people who work Monday to Friday to get enough money to spend the whole weekend drinking. There has to be more for their lives than this, yet they seem quite content.
How can we reach them? Is their a way into their lives to show them a God who loves them deeply? Does anyone have any ideas?

A Celebration for the parents

We like to organise parents meetings, but through experience we have learned that very few parents will come to a "meeting", so we organised a celebration. We started planning about a month before the date. When we had decided on the snack we wanted to offer (based on budget, numbers and what we have available), we asked the food bank (a place from which we receive regular donations) if they would be able to separate fruits for our celebration, so we could make fruit salad.We received 6 BIG boxes of fruits, and most of it was pretty good. So, at 9am we started preparing, mashing bananas for cake and then peeling and chopping a LOT of oranges. We had a team of 7 preparing the food (thankfully, as there was a lot to prepare)


This is the finished fruit salad, we made A LOT!!!
Also, the small court was prepared, and decorated with the childrens' artwork.
However, the clouds were building, and as our activities we wanted to do were based on being able to fully use our outdoor space, we were praying that the rain would come quickly and leave quickly too. It sure did rain a lot, so we all hoped that the afternoon would go according to plan A (dry plan).

Unfortunately, the weather couldn't decide what it was going to do, at 2pm, we had very few parents (probably because it was raining a bit). It seemed like nobody was going to come.
Eventually we almost filled the small court (about 120 people) and the first part of the programme began, including a preach, some hip hop dancing and presentations from the groups. All of this time we are wondering "plan A / plan B"? The rain started and stopped, then started again.....Plan B

Some of the children went with their parents to do puzzles and play games
Some did group games and songs.
At moments it felt like a disaster, it was POURING with rain, to the extent that families were almost trapped in their room, and nothing felt very organised. However, for those not organising it, they had fun.
Everyone was very happy at the end when it was time for the snack. This is the part that the children and their parents particularly enjoy. Some of the more hungry children were trying to sneak up to the table as often as possible. At last, we got to taste the delicious fruit salad that took all morning to prepare.

Today, I (Dave) went for a quick trip to the centre to buy a few things. I parked the car in the usual spot and walked the rest of the way. Part of the walk involves crossing a main road on a foot-bridge and on this occasion there was a beggar there asking for money. She is often there and it seems it is her regular spot. I gave her some money, had a quick chat and continued my walk into the centre. On return I saw her in great distress. She was handcuffed to the railings and some police were going through her things. I approached and heard her shouting that they were stealing her money, which they were. She had accumulated a lot of money - she had bags of it - and they were accusing her of stealing it from people and therefore confiscated it. It was a sad sight to see her in such distress and I felt helpless as this injustice went on right in front of me. It is normal for beggars to hoard the money they get from begging...they have no other means of looking after their money and a lot of the time they do not know what to do with it. They are easy targets for exploitation and, in this case corrupt justice. I prayed as I passed.....God is the God of justice.....but wondered if there was more I could have done.....

Just want to post a quick link to our friend's blog. They have written a post with photos about something Josiah did here.....but you will have to read it on their blog to find out what it was :-)
Click HERE to see it or, if you prefer to do it manually have a look at: http://www.thematiasfamily.blogspot.com/

Gideon had his first proper drum lesson last night.....it went really well.
Here's how it happened:
We went for a walk in a nice area of the city and decided to pop into a music shop. While we were there, Gideon convinced me to let him have a go on a kit in the shop and during his playing I asked the shop assistant if he knew a good drum teacher. He gave me the number of a guy called Jimmy.
We called this guy about a week later and managed to arrange the lesson. Turns out he is an American....and we found out on the internet that he is quite famous here in Brazil, even being endorsed by a drum company called Gretch. On top of all this, after a conversation with him at the end of the first lesson about what we do here in Brazil and how we are supported, he decided to give us a discount so that Gideon was able to have a lessen every week!! Also, we have been invited to hang out with him at his studio next time he has some folks round for a recording session. Gideon really enjoyed it too and it looks like this will continue.
It could not have gone better....Praise God.

I (Dave) am feeling sad. Today I received the news that my Grandma has died.
It is a strange thing living so far away from England at times like this, when I would really like to go to the funeral of this extraordinary lady but simply can't because of distance / money / time etc.
I have not seen her for many years as she has been in a nursing home and has had dementia for nearly the last 23 years but I have fond memories from my childhood of her.
She is the only person I ever knew that has lived through 3 centuries (yep...not kidding). She was born in 1899 and lived until 2010. She was 111 when she died. Now that is an innings!