Triage- starting the road to restoration.

This week we started a triage with two boys. For those of you who are already thinking "what does that mean?", the triage is basically 10 days the boys we want to take to the farm spend in the city centre property. It is a time for the boys to show us they really want to leave the streets, and a time for us to get to know them better and evaluate if they are ready. The triage phase is a very intense stage both for boys and staff, but it also brings great joy to us who work on it as it´s a time where we can literally take boys off the streets and give them another option. Sat here writing the boys are at the football field playing football. They are 12 and 14 years old and have both spent a considerable time on the streets involved with drugs and street life. Now they have a chance to change the direction of their lives. One of them, David, is a very determined boy. The first thing he said was that he is going to hold on tight to this opportunity "because if I decide to leave, who knows when I´ll get the chance again". At the triage the boys get stuck into an agenda as similar to the one at the farm as possible. The space here is obviously a lot smaller, actually during a triage it seems as if the property here shrinks, but I think it´s more the fact that we don´t usually have two adolescents here 24 hours a day with all that that entails. They have a discipleship time, time for school activities, cleaning, practical work, and also, needless to say, time to play football (this is after all Brazil). The evenings we spend doing activities with them and having a more chilled, family like atmosphere. Today we got a huge donations of apples, so I am thinking I´ll make some apple crumble with them this evening (similar to apple pie). This is day three, so we are still in the early stages. It´s good though. Today as we did a group time with them they were both visibly moved as we talked about their mums and things that had happened in their lives. God is already starting a work of restoration and healing in them. And we hope and believe it´s a process which will continue. Prayer pointers: - Protection. We are in a spiritual battle! - For the two boys. That they would persevere and be open to God. - For strength, passion, patience, unity and perseverance for the staff. - For God to prepare the staff and boys already on the farm.

"You can call him `azulino`"

When I sat down to chat the kids hanging out at the bussterminal, the first question I was asked was if I wanted a fish. I bit puzzled by what that meant exactly I asked them to explain. Quickly four glassbottles were produced containing small, aquarium sized fish in water. The boys had gone fishing in the lake next to the buss-station. They were very exited with their catch, and also because they'd heard that someone had found small aligators in the lake.

I decided on the blue fish and was promptly informed the I had to name him. Such a dilemma. I thought for a while, and one of the boys said: "I know what you can call him. You can call him `azulino` because he's blue" (azul= blue in Portuguese). I said that was a splendid name. We decided it was best if the boys looked after the fish for me, and that I would bring him some food the next time we came. I must remember to get some fishfood tomorrow.

It was such a special moment with this group of boys. We only started visiting them regularaly on the streets a few weeks ago, and I can already see trust and respect growing in them. Many of them are young, 11, 12, 13 years old, and often we find them very drugged on glue or paint-thinner when we arrive.

In a few weeks time we are hoping to open spaces for more boys to go to the farm. God is already highlighting some of these boys to me, and I am praying for God to really guide us these next few weeks as we seek to find the boys He has prepared for this next triagem (triagem= in between stage between the streets and the farm).

Stand with us in prayer:

* for the streetwork in this area of the city. It's called Terminal da Lagoa.

*for God to bring strategy as to how to reach these boys.

*for the triagem, that we would know which boys to take.