This morning Eleanor and I went to visit a Mum of a girl in our group. This girl (let's call her Ana) waited behind after one session to talk privately to us about the fact that her parents are separating. We really wanted to talk to the Mum (let's call her Vitória), to find out the truth and to see if there is some way we can offer hope for her marriage. Vitória was very happy to have a visit, she was very open to share about the story of her family. She got married when she was 15 and after 7 months of marriage big problems had already arisen. 20 years later their problems are unresolvable. It seems like they share the same house, but nothing of their lives. He works, goes out and sleeps. He doesn't spend any time with his children nor give any money to their needs. A sad example of this is when their son was bitten by a dog and needed to go to a hospital for treatment (it was during the time that buses were not working), he refused to give his wife money for a taxi, even though his wallet was full. What I really admired in Vitória was the way she tries to teach her children to love, honour and respect their father, I sensed no bitterness in her for the way she had been treated, just a sadness. Vitória has very little support from family but does have a church that encourages her.
It seems that actually this marriage is beyond help and that it is in their best interests to separate. Now, we need to seek God's wisdom in how to help Ana cope with this. She is a delightful girl, who loves to go to church (she goes 4 times a week). Ana was very touched by a talk given on God as our Father. Eleanor shared about how our earthly fathers can let us down, but how God has chosen us to be His children, Ana was honest enough to say that she doesn't like her father. Please pray for us to have wisdom when dealing with sensitive and difficult issues like these.

CARNIVAL
Once again this year I (Beckie) went to carnival alone, we discussed as to whether Dave should go or we should try to go as a family, but decided against it (which was probably wise as it is extremely tiring and this year we had constant rain, much more difficult to keep children entertained).
It was a great, exhausting and fulfilling experience. I was quite amazed at how much my confidence and ability in Portuguese has grown. It was great to be able to translate for other people and understand so much better what people were saying. We had a fairly full program, of prayer and worship in the mornings, parades in the afternoon and evangelism at night. The night-time evangelism was divided into 2 parts (10pm-2am or 2am-6am). I particularly liked to do the early morning shift, as some of the people had already dispersed and it made it easier to know who to speak to (rather than being overwhelmed by choice). Also, these people seemed more open to longer, deeper conversations.
I noticed that we had a few conversations that kept repeating themselves with a variety of people

• Catholics - usually they said how much they loved God, often spoke about other bizarre things they had been taught, but also felt that they could carry on living however they wanted (the catholic church here accepts many things that the evangelical church doesn't)
• "everybody can find God for themselves" - all believed in "God", but wanted to be able to find him in their own way, often they were disillusioned by hypocrisy in Christians and the Church
• Backslidden Christians - these people had left the church a while ago, but usually wanted to return, some were waiting for a better time, others were trying to follow Jesus but getting hung up on certain "rules"
• Teasers - who wanted to ridicule what we believed or make us feel uncomfortable by their lifestyle choices. After the initial confrontation they usually wanted to have a good chat and often asked deep questions
  

Although many of our conversations repeated themselves we needed to rely upon the Holy Spirit to really direct us to the real issue. One lady seemed like a typical backslidden Christian who wanted to have a bit more fun before returning to her heavenly Father, on talking more we discovered that she left the church when her husband was murdered and she just doesn't know how to find her way back to God.

Most people were very open to receive prayer in the street, some were hungry for someone to be interested in them. To be able to share with these people and offer them hope made the lack of sleep worthwhile.

I (Dave) went out last night with 6 other people, including Josiah our 14yr old son. We spent some time playing football on the street with some boys (I watched) and then climbed the hills to the top of the favela (slum) where a lot of the trouble had been over this last week. The aim of our presence was to do some evangelism amongst the people that frequent the bars. Traditionally, Christians do not go into bars here and keep themselves very separate from the bar culture but there are so many people in these places that we thought it would be a good place to build relationships and minister to the people that the churches normally don't reach.
We spent the majority of our time in one particular bar which we had been in before, played a few games of pool and table football and chatted to some of the locals. There was a group of ladies who were particularly interested in us foreign guys and they started off by trying to chat us up but we ended up in a small circle praying for them in the middle of the bar. Excellent.
Another guy approached me asking to talk with me about Jesus and we arranged a time for him to visit Luzeiro (The lighthouse) for this to happen. It was a good night.
The police presence was fairly high with a bus full of armed police patrolling the bus route and police stationed at various places along the street. The atmosphere was a little tense but generally ok.

Well, it's Friday evening. The week has continued fairly calm, but with a heavy police presence and regular helicopter flyovers. One police officer was arrested for the murders of 2 innocent people (the deaths occurred last Saturday in the early hours), people said that he was also being accused of other murders in similar circumstances. This officer committed suicide in prison today. Who knows how this affects the community feeling of justice. I imagine the police will be on extra alert over the weekend, as this is the preferred time to create upheaval / make a protest.
Tonight, Dave is taking out a small group of people to evangelise in the streets and bars (or maybe just pray if that is how they are led). Josiah is also going with him, we were surprised when he asked if he could go. I know that some of you reading this will be afraid to think of what they might encounter. Honestly, I don't know what they will experience. However, the area near us is generally safer and quieter, getting less so as you go further up the hill. I know that Dave will be watchful as to whether it's OK to continue. I also know that my heavenly father keeps good watch of us.

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.