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.