Together we can do it

A few months ago we received a team from Hawaii, which set up medical and dentist clinics and did a children’s holiday club. Another practical expression of God’s love and care for the people of the community. It was a great week, but the best part of all was that we managed to get the three churches in the community involved and working together. It was amazing to get them out from within the four walls of the church and actually impacting the community and their neighbours around them. We had many activities, each held in one of the churches or our project.

As well as having prayer, evangelism and medical teams, we also had clean up teams. The community is notorious in the city for selling drugs, and to enter the community you need to pass through a narrow walkway where the drug guys keep a look out. For one of the activities we managed to repaint the whole main entrance wall to the slum, and with the help of the talented youngsters of the churches paint a new wall. Now the many people who pass by to buy their drugs each day will see and be welcome by the wall calling for a better place and community.

On the final night we had a big open-air service with all churches taking part in the main square of the community, and many people from the community were present.

We are starting to see God impacting this community! As it says in Romans 5: “where sin increased, grace increased all the more”. The churches now want to organise another joint impact to the community, and I believe that nearly anything is possible.

• Pray for God’s anointing and Spirit in our lives to give us wisdom, love, energy and power to bring His kingdom to the community.
• Pray for two of the main drug dealers in the community that we have lots of contact with – that they and their families will accept Jesus.
• Pray for unity among the churches in the community and that the locals will be inspired to get involved in the work.
• Pray for more full time staff.

Filling the community with fragrance.

We have long realised the truth in the old Chinese proverb “don’t give someone a fish if you can give them a fishing rod”, and that is what we have aimed to do in much of our work. We realise each person has talents and abilities that often just need to be awaken and unlocked for them to rise up and live a full life.

This is especially true in Oitão Preto (the poor community) where we work, where the main economy is based on drugs and prostitution. Those who receive Jesus and leave that lifestyle need a viable alternative to make a living.

The most recent course we ran was teaching how to make soap. On the course we had the wives of the main drug dealers; people who have come off drugs or out of prison and become Christians, and other people who are needy who have no fixed income to support their families.

One such lady came to me in the late afternoon one day asking if I could give her 30p to buy some soup for her mother who was 90 years old and hadn’t eaten all day. I went to visit her and found a bare house with lots of hungry people inside. So I brought some soup for her and invited her to come participate in the soap course that started the following week. She did and she now has a way to support her family without having to rely on us every day to bring food. Her self-esteem has shot up and she has hope back in her life.

Another guy who has benefited from this enterprise is a guy who used to be involved in lots of armed assaults, and had been in prison for a long time. He now lives with his wife and 5 children in a hut about 3 by 5 meters. He has become a strong Christian, a gentle giant compared to the guy he used to be. One night he too had nothing to eat for his family and so he sat them down and prayed that God would provide. Just as he finished praying someone came knocking at the door with an envelope containing money saying God had told him to give it to them. God does provide in special ways, but He has also given us hands and intelligence to do things ourselves. Now this man collects old coconut shells that he cleans, polishes and varnishes and then sells them to us so we can use them for the coconut soap we sell.

Be praying for us as we offer courses, that we would know what courses to offer and most importantly: that above all they would come to know Jesus in a deeper way.

The “light-club”- being children.

Last week we had a day out for the 47 children who are part of our “Clubinho da luz” (light-club). They meet every Saturday morning and this day we were able to take them to the countryside to an estate with a swimming pool. They absolutely loved it! And it was great to see many volunteers come to help out, including 7 women of God from Lake Hills Church in the US.

Pray for these children. When they are with us they hear of the love of God and the transforming power of Jesus, but the rest of the week they hear so many negative things spoken around and over them. Pray for the Truth of Jesus to take deep root in their hearts and minds.