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!