Christmas Greetings!

We want to wish all of you who have participated, prayed, contributed, encouraged, supported, laughted and cried with us, shown friendship, received God’s heart, and stood with us this past year: A VERY BLESSED CHRISTMAS and a 2008 full of PEACE and victories in the Lord!

In this season where the focus is so much on material things and traditions, we want to remember the real reason we celebrate Christmas: the birth of Jesus Christ, who when he became an adult died for our salvation and rose again to give us life. And it is this HOPE we want to bring to those who are lost and broken here in Fortaleza.

We hope you feel a part of what God is doing; through YOUR prayers and YOUR support YOU are a vital part in us all seeing God’s Kingdom grow in the city of Fortaleza!!

The photo is from our Christmas celebration last year. As you can probably imagine, Brazil not being the coldest of countried, it’s a plastic tree, but it brings in the Christmas atmosphere.

Lots of love from all of us at “My Father’s House”.

This is our team at the end of 2007.

2007 has been a year of many changes for us as a project. We have seen many goings and comings of staff members. And so as we draw to the end of this year, we thought it would be nice to give you an update on what our faithful team of staff looks like so you can hold them up in your prayers:

Peter and Selma Thomas- are the faithful overall leaders of “My Father’s House”, and also leaders of “Sítio Graça” our restoration farm. They are currently on a much deserved 3-month furlough. Pray for strengthening and that they can find rest and peace in this time. They have a gorgeous son.

Andrew and Claudia Fanstone- lead “SHINE”, our community development project which reaches out to the community of Oitão Preto. Pray for wisdom as they head up this work. They are expecting their first child next year.

Karen and Vinicius Guerra- head up the 3-month “Night School”, which seeks to raise awareness in the local churches of missions and equip them to grasp God’s heart for missions, both locally, in their own city, and worldwide. They are currently in Switzerland doing a course.

Fabiano and Dayanne- they did the DTS on the farm this year and are now full-time staff at “Sítio Graça”. Fabiano also participates in the prison ministry, and Dayane has taken on responsibility for the accounts. Pray for God to really give them His heart, especially pray for extra wisdom and discernment during this time while Peter and Selma are away.

Jander and Melanie de Oliveira- Jander works on the farm and is a huge blessing both with the boys and also in helping with the many things that often need to be chased to get sorted out. Melanie works with pregnant teenagers with “SHINE” as well as with pregnant teenagers in Aquiraz where they live. They have one son who is super-cute!

Neide Ferreira Batista- works with “SHINE” and is also involved with the family work. Neide has been involved with “My Father’s House” on and off since 2000, and is now back with us as full-time staff.

Diego- works with “SHINE”. Diego spent a few years working at “Sítio Graça” and is now back full-time reaching into Oitão Preto.

Avisi Tshimalenge- works in the different parts of the project, using metalwork and jewellery workshops to teach young people skills, which can help them move forward in life. She is currently on leave in England.

John William Hunter- coordinates our work in the various youth prisons citywide. He is married to Rochelli and they have a little daughter.


Helyvane- works at “Sítio Graça” in the area of schooling and education. She has one son.

Michiel- has just arrived from Holland to work with us. His focus will be working in the city centre, and he plans to do a DTS later on this year.

In addition to these we have introduced you to, we have many short and long term volunteers from Fortaleza and beyond who play a vital part in seeing God’s Kingdom come to the poor, needy, despised, and rejected of Fortaleza, bringing HOPE and LIGHT to a dark and hopeless reality.

Please be praying for:

• more full-time staff
• God’s protection over those involved in the project
• strength and wisdom
• Christmas, as it is often a very sensitive time especially for the boys on the farm being far from their families. Pray it’ll be a good Christmas for them and the staff there with them!

Strategy and trust to reach pregnant girls.

The reality of the pregnant girls and women in Oitão Preto is one of violence, abuse, and a severe lack of knowledge with regards to how the body works and what actually happens during a pregnancy.

One 16 year-old girl Melanie and Mirjam met, as they joined with the SHINE team, was covered in bruises. She was also probably already 3-4 months pregnant, but couldn’t say for sure as she hadn’t been to the doctor. She already has a one-year old. As the team showed her and the other girls a book with pictures of how the baby grows and develops inside the belly, it was very clear that this is totally new stuff for them. Yet, it did catch their interest.

Thank you for praying for God to reveal a strategy of how we can be reaching the pregnant girls in this community! As we go in there it is becoming very clear to us that we need to use visual aids to teach them and educate them. One idea is to make cards with pictures of how the baby looks in the belly, one for each month, and on that include a Bible verse and something about the project. It is important to give them something to remind them of what we talk with them about.

Actually this work we do with these young mums is really focusing on restoring families to the way God intended them to be. The violence, drugs, prostitution, and brokenness are what drive the children to seek the streets as an alternative, and so we want to see their families restored so that they never consider the streets as a place to make their home.

Continue to remember this work in your prayers. Pray that we can show these girls that we care so much that they will care what we say.

And pray for them to grasp the acceptance of a loving God of them.

Farm Feature- Micah

Micah is a boy who is now starting to have hope for his life, and who is learning what it means to be loved. He is a lovely boy, and it has been amazing to see the transformation God is doing in his life. Here he shares a bit about himself:

“My name is Micah, I am 17 years old. My mother lives with my brothers and sisters. I have 10 brothers and sisters. Today I live at Sítio Graça, My Father's House, because I used to live on the streets. I like to play football and paint. I also like to think. I am a very organised person! It is my dream to have a family. I really want God to continue forming my character.”

It moves our hearts to hear these boys we love so much express their dreams, and actually dream. Micah was in a sense forgotten on the streets, but God saw him and God has given him hope again. Be praying for him. Pray that God continues to form his character, and pray that as he grows with God in character and knowledge of Him, that his family can be reached and restored by the love of God.

Increased openness in the closed places.

It is so amazing to see how the boys in our discipleship groups in the youth prisons are opening up and asking questions. These are boys who have gone through life surviving by staying tough, boys who don’t believe in showing insecurity. Seeing them changing is amazing, and it is only because of the power of God touching their hearts. Praise God for the breakthroughs we are seeing!!

We have seen a good team of different people come together to minister in the youth prisons, and we are seeing even the most closed prison now approaching us and asking us to come in and work with their boys. When this happens we have even more freedom to come in and preach the Truth, the truth that sets free!

Telma, one of the staff of YWAM Fortaleza is involved in the prison work, and here she shares a bit of how she experiences it:

“…this Thursday was my second time going to the youth prisons. To see those boys locked up like animals broke my heart, because I knew that God did not created them to be in that place. He created them to live in freedom, free from the cells and also free from sin. We do our work in a room that is locked with security guards in case they try to escape. When they are thirsty they need to ask for water, and receive a big bottle of it. They have to drink directly from the bottle because they don’t receive cups. And when they drink, they drink as if it was the last water they had. This made me so sad to see. Maybe you wonder what the problem with drinking water this way is. My point is that so often we don’t value what God has given us, and we don’t give water and bread to those who hunger and thirst for God. Seeing that scene reminded me of how much we as Christians have to give people, and how often we keep it to ourselves, and how our lives are far from simple. I think we need to go back to simplicity.”

At the moment we are looking to using some material in our discipleship groups from the Saddleback church, which goes through eight steps in growth and healing in Christ. Please pray that we as a team can get a good grasp of that material and all be on the same page as we go in to share and teach the boys.

Pray for John as he coordinates the prison work and seeks to draw all those involved together to be unified!

Pray for us to stay humble and dependant on God as we go in, and that we will always seek to know His heart and His plans for every single opportunity we have.

Existing in a life without hope- the mothers of the next generation.

The community of Oitão Preto has always had a large number of pregnant girls and women. Due to the harsh reality of the community, their reality is far from simple. These women are very much on God’s heart!

Melanie, who works with pregnant girls in Aquiraz, also as part of YWAM Fortaleza, came to see the reality of Oitão Preto. Her aim being to get to see for herself the desperate reality there, and see how God wants to use her experience to reach the girls who live (if you can call it living) in this community, be it working directly with them, or helping give valuable information to the staff who faithfully go into the community week after week.

Here she shares a bit of what she experienced:

“Last week I went along with the team from YWAM that visits a big favela [Oitão Preto] every week. I had been asked to come along to see how I could help them with the pregnant teens they see there. The favela is close to the tourist area, and so there are many prostitutes and street children/ teens that live in this favela. The situation here is really difficult. In the short time I was there I met at least 3 pregnant girls, often still doing their ´programs´ (prostitution) in spite of their big bellies; they’re still on drugs (glue, solvents/crack), and they’re not doing any prenatal care (which is for free). The girl I spoke to was already 23, and pregnant with her 4th child. She was obviously on some kind of substance and didn’t care a bit about her pregnant belly and what was inside it (her own words). She has no idea how long she had been pregnant, but she already decided to simply leave her child at the maternity of the hospital. It is obvious that there is a lot of work to be done here, and I am thinking and praying about how I can help the team that works in this area almost daily. Unfortunately we had to leave early as they started fighting (physically). This is a totally different world, and you can’t imagine it if you haven’t seen it with your own eyes. The situation here is very different from that of the community in Aquiraz where I am used to working, so it is a really big challenge.”

Pray for the work with these girls. They are giving birth to the next generation and we are able to impact how these children will grow up!

Pray for Melanie as she seeks God for the way forward with regards to this.

And pray that God would raise up a strong team of people to minister to these girls who don’t really live, they just exist, trapped in a life that is so dark they have lost all hope!

Farm Feature- Jonatas.

God is doing amazing things in the boys living at Grace Farm (Sítio Graça in Portuguese). In these “farm feature” sections you can get to know them a bit better in their own words…

“My name is Jonatas, I am 18 years old. I have a mother and father, sister, brother and a niece and nephew. Today I am living at Sítio Graça, which is part of ”My Father's House”, a ministry of YWAM, Youth With a Mission, which cares for street boys. I am one of those boys. 4 years ago I was on the streets using drugs, begging for food and money, stealing ... each time the police would see us using drugs they would beat us as if we were animals. But I grew tired of this life and at this time someone from ”My Father's House” found me and asked me if I wanted to change my life. My first answer was yes, and so I went to the sítio. There I met this guy called Jesus and my life was changed. This is why I am here: To know Jesus and to make Him known – speaking of His love for others. OK, I like to paint, play the guitar, do acrobatics and play football. Of these things, I like best to paint and do acrobatics. I have some weaknesses, I'll just share one – girls, I really need help in this area, please pray for me, I would really appreciate it.”

BE PRAYING for JONATAS!

Lots of workshops and Grace…and a bit of Noah.

A few weeks ago we said goodbye to a group from Grace Fellowship; a team of 10 who have blessed us with their grace and servant hearts. The team came to build us a workshop and left having nearly completed two; one for metal and the other for woodwork here on the farm. The photo shows Avisi (one of our amazing staff) teaching some teenagers at a workshop in another project run by YWAM Fortaleza.

This is the third time the team have come down from Connecticut, and we pray that this relationship will continue! We are amazed to see how much the boys are impacted by the willingness and love shown by folk that come to serve us here. The team was able to go to a youth prison, be involved in the work in the slum of Oitão Preto, and visit the streets and our friends who have made it their home. They were even able to go on some family visits to deliver two pigs to the families of Paulo and Mardônio who live here with us. We praise God for the relationships we have with all of you who love and support us and the work we are doing here.

We are busy building here on the farm. With workshops and reforms to the existing building, I (Peter, leader of the project) have often said in recent days that I feel a little like Noah - building with no sign of rain! But we believe that God is continuing to allow us the necessary time to build a strong foundation for the many years to come and generations whose lives will be transformed.

Please pray for us to have the wisdom to know when to bring more boys so as to further enhance and not destroy the work that is being and has been done in the lives of Hemerson (Jonas), Claudio (Mateus), Paulinho (Jonatas), Mardônio (Micah) and Paulo (Timothy).

Snapshot from "Grace Farm"...

Peter, the director of ”My Father’s House” shares:

”On going to watch a little of Pauliho's training session for the Brazilian sport/art of Capoeira - I was invited by the leader of the group to give a word of advise to the 40 some youths involved - but to prelude this, I was presented to the group by the leader who expressed how our boys are simply well manered, well behaved, respectful and dedicated . . . . what an honour to hear those words in public - Our God has done a mighty job of restoration in the lives of these boys in the last 2 years - and promises to do more . .”

Be praying for the work at "Grace Farm" (the restoration farm part of the project where street boys can come to be restored by the love and grace of God).
Pray for the 5 boys who live there. And pray for the staff, that they would have strength and passion and a love for God and for the work, and also that more would feel the call to come and join them in this amazing work.

Intense Warfare on the Streets.

As we were getting ready to leave the Terminal da Lagoa (a bus-station where we meet a lot of street children) Marcos decided to kick up a fuss, trying to steal, making unreasonable demands, and in short wanting to manipulate the situation. Although only 13, Marcos has the street experience of an adult, and even if he is a small and very skinny boy, he has a huge temper and is often very violent.

This Friday we had a small team of people, and so it wasn’t the best time to deal with a violent Marcos (although there is never a good time for these situations). The team left the square where they had visited the street children, and headed off towards the car. Marcos and another boy decided to follow the team and started threatening all kinds of violence. It was one of those situations where you don’t know what to do.

Somehow Marcos managed to sneak himself into the van and refused to get out. It looked impossible, and so one of our young volunteers did the only thing you can do when faced with a situation like this one; he started to pray! As he prayed for Marcos’ life and the situation, Marcos started crying and ended up getting out of the van. The team promptly set off back to the project.

Getting back it is needless to say that the team were pretty shaken up by it all, and had also become incredibly aware of the fact that the war that is being waged on the streets of Fortaleza isn’t a war against drug addicted and violent little boys like Marcos, but a spiritual war. And it is intense!

To make a difference in these kids’ lives we need to fight in the spiritual realm, and we need spiritual cover as we literally step out into the enemy’s territory.

YOU CAN BE A PART OF THE VICTORY! Stand with us in prayer every Friday as we head out to the streets. Pray for protection for the team and also for God to bring His power into the lives of the young and old like Marcos, who have made the streets their homes.

If you feel like you can commit to pray for us every Friday, let us know! It would encourage us greatly to know that you are praying. Either leave a comment in this blog or drop us an email at: casademeupai@hotmail.com to let us know.

CHALLENGE for the future!!

Paulo (Timothy for those who have followed us for a while), one of the boys on the farm, has come so far from the life he used to lead on the streets. He can no longer be called a street boy, as the streets are no longer part of his life. It is truly amazing to see what God has done in his life, and how God keeps working and changing and moulding him. Paulo is a very dynamic boy and loves people and attention. He has a very transparent and sensitive heart, and he is very good at making contact with people. One of his greatest passions in life is to play football, which he is very good at!

At the moment Paulo is at a place where he is thinking ahead to his future. YWAM runs a training programme called DTS (Discipleship Training School), and Paulo is thinking and praying about doing a DTS to invest into himself (he realizes that he needs to know God more and allow God to continue to work on his character and in his life). His thoughts are that after concluding the DTS he could come back as a staff member in the future! It is so exciting to hear these thoughts and dreams coming from a boy who didn’t have any hope for the future a few years back.

HOWEVER, there is the challenge of finance. The DTS costs money, and so we hereby launch the challenge to you reading this. If you want to partner with Paulo as he walks into the future God has for him, please send an email to: casademeupai@hotmail.com , and we will get back to you with information of how to do so.

And PRAY for Paulo. For wisdom and direction as he seeks God, and God’s provision always.

Making a stand!

It is amazing how God keeps using the team that goes into the youth prisons. The other week we took the pastor of a team, which was visiting us from Gordo Alabama, with us. It was a great blessing and we saw six boys stand to receive Christ. Some of them had made a stand before, but it still takes courage to get up in front of 25 of their peers, and by standing saying ”I want to follow Jesus”.

Our greatest barrier to reaching these young boys is that they don’t want to commit to something they won’t follow through when they get out to ”the freedom”, as they call it. As we minister to them it is easy to tell by the look in their eyes that they long to have that love, security, peace, and forgiveness Jesus brings, yet they are afraid. Afraid of what the future brings, and afraid of what it means to follow Jesus when faced with the pressure, violence, and hate they encounter on the other side of the prison bars.

Please pray:
* for the boys who have had the courage to make commitments to Jesus.
* for John and the rest of the team who faithfully do the prison ministry.
* for an increased anointing and fresh creativity as the team minister.
* for God to bring strategy as to how we can continue to invest in the lives of these young men when they are released.

A jewellery workshop and cooking.

One of our great joys is to have Avisi with us as staff. She is an amazing woman of God who is trained, and very gifted, in the area of welding and jewellery making. Her vision is to start up jewellery (and also later welding) workshops, and use these to build up the self-esteem of those who participate, and also to enable people to learn a skill with which they can use to work and support their families.

She already has a workshop running in a project called “Friendly Hand”, also run by YWAM Fortaleza, where teenagers in the poor community come and learn how to make jewellery. It has been amazing to see the change in the teenagers there as they grow not only in skill, but also in self-esteem.

Here at “My Father’s House” we eventually want to see many such workshops up and running; at the restoration farm with the boys who live there, in Oitão Preto for the people of the community, and in the city centre for the many young people we work with who long for an opportunity to be something in life. However, these things don’t come about by themselves, and Avisi has spent many months making lists of materials needed and designing what the workshops need to look like.

And God is being faithful! It now seems like a company from the USA want to sponsor tools for us, and next week we have a team coming from the USA who will start building the first workshop. It is all so exciting for us and we can’t wait to see it all happen! I will keep you updated and hopefully bring you some photos along the way.

But you might be asking what all this has to do with cooking? Well, in this team that are coming to build the workshop we also have two chefs. They want to bless us by making food, but also by learning Brazilian cooking from our very lovely cook Cleide, whose food is delicious. In preparation for their arrival they gave us an offering to buy some much needed new kitchen equipment, which we have greatly enjoyed sorting out and putting in place for their arrival.

Please pray:
*for Avisi as she plans the workshops, for time and language; and for inspiration as she teaches the skills.
*for the team as they come to build and cook, that they can get God’s heart for this place.
*for God’s continued anointing and provision in this area of our ministry.

Lost girls.

Our discipleship group with the boys is going very well! Involving the girls is, however, a bit more of a challenge. Even if they might voice a desire to participate in a group, they are more resistant when it comes down to it. We really need to find a way of reaching them as they are a very vulnerable part of the community in many ways.

One good development is that Nadia has opened her home for us to come in and do a group with girls involved in prostitution. Many of these girls live with her, and so it’s a great opportunity to reach them where they’re at. It’s not really a formal discipleship group, as it’s more a matter of coming in and praying and chatting, but then that is discipleship in a nutshell really. The girls and women here have a lot of hurt and are very weary, and it takes a long time to win their trust. We need real discernment and strategy to know how to make a difference in their lives and get beyond the many barriers they have put up to protect themselves.

One of the girls we have known for a long time, Lisa who is 19, lives with Nadia at the moment. She comes from a very difficult background and has been involved in prostitution since she was a teenager. She is now pregnant and close to giving birth. When we met her again last week she told us she’d been at home for a long time, which brought joy to our hearts, yet sadness in seeing her back. However, her explanation was that being in Oitão Preto she is closer to a project run by Catholic nuns which works with pregnant girls, and can easier get help when the time comes. She has shown a genuine desire to change her life many times, and we really hope that maybe becoming a mother might be the thing that really gives her the strength to fight.

Pray for:
* for the discipleship group with the boys
* to know how to get the girls involved in the discipleship group
* for the times at Nadia’s house, that we can win the trust of the women
* for Lisa as she becomes a mother and for a change in her life

Surfing for Christ.

Having a passion for God and a passion for surfing, Wagner, one of the guys from Oitão Preto decided to start a surfing school in the community. Fortaleza is a costal city, and Oitão Preto lies almost as close as you can get to the beach without being on the beach, and so surfing is naturally a very popular sport amongst young and old.

Not being one to wait around Wagner has managed to get sponsorship for the school, the school registered and it’s documentation in order, and is well on his way. It is so amazing to see how God is working in his life now he’s become a Christian, and also see how eager he is that the other kids get to learn about God also.

Every Friday we join with him to do Bible classes for around 40 young people. It’s amazing how God just keeps opening doors in the community, and more importantly is bringing opportunities for all kinds of different people to hear about Jesus.

Pray for:
--Wagner as he heads up the school- that he would have wisdom and integrity.
--Protection for the school and provision.
--Pray that as we reach young people with the Good News through this school, we can guide them away from a life of drugs and into Life in Christ, and get them linked with the local church.

“I know if He didn’t change my life I would be dead now!”

Camilla was only 10 years old when she was taken from a life of drugs, sexual exploitation, and violence. She now lives at Davis Lar, a Christian children’s home, and at age 11 has proven to be one of the most dynamic evangelists there. Someone who visited there filmed here singing a worship song (she has a beautiful voice), which we took to show her mother and family. Her older brother, Israel, reacted by throwing away his glue-bottle and starting to sing. Even from afar she is impacting her family!

On Friday we took Nadia, the mother of a boy who also lives at Davis Lar, to visit her son. They are also from Oitão Preto, and when Camilla saw her she came over. To those of us who have worked with Camilla over the years the transformation in her life is amazing. She’s gone from being a very violent and angry girl, to becoming a girl who loves Jesus and is passionate about Him. And so for Nadia, who remembers her as that violent and angry little girl, the change must seem almost unreal. It was with great authority that Camilla looked Nadia in the eyes and said: ”Woman, you need to get out of this life! This isn’t a life for you to be living and it will just lead you to death. Let Jesus free you like He did to me. I know if He didn’t change my life I would be dead now!” As Nadia’s eyes filled with tears she could see a miracle of God in Camilla, and also a glimmer of hope for her own life. Pray that this hope would grow in Nadia's life and that she would dare to believe that Jesus loves her and wants to forgive her

Be praying for Camilla and Nadia and their families.
Pray for the work in the community Oitão Preto.
Pray for Andrew and Claudia leading the work of  SHINE, and their faithful volunteers.
And pray for more and more of God's light to SHINE!

Off to camp again!

The excitement level was sky-high as we set off for camp. 15 of the boys we have in one of our discipleship groups from Oitão Preto packed their little rucksacks, and headed off with us to camp organised together with the orphanage Davis Lar. It was an exhausting, exciting, fun-filled, and God-filled time. A fantastic opportunity to spend quality time with the boys, and invest into their lives away from the harsh environment they live in.

The orphanage is home to a few children who come from Oitão Preto whose families aren’t able to take care of them. Camp is a really precious time for those children to catch up with their friends again. One girl we’ve worked a lot with, who is very very dear to our hearts, is Camilla. Camilla has been at the orphanage for a bit over a year now, and she is an incredibly passionate girl. It was such a blessing to see her during the worship times. She was always easy to spot being the one who would sing the loudest and dance the hardest.

After three action-packed days the camp was over for this time. I think everyone agreed it had been yet another great time, in spite of some of the children being ill with colds.

Please pray for a continual growth of these boys with God. That they might be strengthened to keep going, witnesses to their families, and bringers of hope to their community.

Getting stuck in with both hands.

As we took the team from Hawaii into the community of Oitão Preto for 4 days, many of them were really broken by the stories they heard, yet encouraged by what God is doing.

With an increased team this year we were able to not only do medical and dental clinics, but also bring the Truth of Jesus Christ to the people. It was an amazing time of really seeing God move! A time of truly getting stuck in with the two-handed gospel. Over 150 people were treated in the medical clinics offered, and around 30 people made a personal commitment to Christ. God is at work! It was great to have the team join with us in times of prayer and worship, bringing in the Kingdom of God where darkness has reigned for so long.

Tears were shed as the team left. The community felt so loved and blessed by them, and I think it is safe to say that the team felt an immense love back from the community. Four days may be a short amount of time, but the effects are lasting.

The team has left, but God hasn’t. This Sunday the Revival church held an open air meeting in the community where they baptised 80 people.

God’s light keeps on SHINING into Oitão Preto…

SHINE in the darkness.

The work in Oitão Preto has really had a great boost since Andrew and Claudia started up a full-time work there in April. "SHINE" is the very appropriate name of the project, as that is what our heart is to do there: Shine the love, truth, and life of Jesus into every single life in the community, and see it transformed for the glory of God.

Even if it is still early days, we are seeing the community respond to us in an amazing way. The main focus as we start is to form discipleship groups with the young people in the community. We already have several groups for children and teenagers, and one women's group. It's great to see God move in these young people's lives and see them receive the truth and life of God which strengthens them to stand up against the strong influence of drugs and violence which they have to face every single day.

During Carneval this year we took 10 of the children in the community to a camp for 5 days at a Christian children's home which is about an hour's drive outside the city. It was amazing to see them respond to the positive environment and really be changed. One boy told us the last day that he'd felt joy for the first time in his life. Powerful words from a 12 year old. As we drove back to the community most of them were crying because they wanted to stay longer. On arrival some of the parents were very welcoming, whereas others were too busy doing drugs or too drunk to really welcome their excited sons home. This month we are taking another group, and we are praying that God would really impact them in a great way again, and that the temporary change from their home environment, can cause permanent, positive change in their lives. Please pray for them!

Beyond the prison walls.

Our work ministering in the youth prisons continues going strong! Every week we see gates opened and boys hungry to learn more about God, a God who cares and forgives, and a God who loves and wants to know them individually!

A few weeks ago we were in Oitão Preto, the community we work in, and met one of the boys we'd been discipling in prison. With great excitment he took us to his home where we meet his pregnant girlfriend and various other family members. It was great to be able to continue the work we started in prison with him. We pray and hope that through him, not only his future will be changed, but also his whole family can be impacted. To be able to follow up the boys when they leave prison is something which has been on our heart for a long time, and it seem like God is now showing us the way forward. Remember this boy, and also the workers and work in prisons in your prayers.