Bearing fruit and touching lives!

Happy New Year! We start off 2009 by thanking all of you who faithfully pray for and support us! What we do is only possible by people partnering with us in building the Kingdom of God here in Fortaleza.

So much GRACE!

It is amazing to see how the boys on the farm are growing up into fine young men of God! Paulinho continues at the music school in Norway being challenged in new ways and learning what it means to have snow in winter.

Mardonio who has lived with us for 3 years said this when he came from a home visit over New Year: "About midnight I went out of my house and went to a party. There were lots of people and I started drinking. Don’t worry, only Coca Cola! They were a group of young people from a church near my house. I knew one of the girls from when I was younger. I didn’t know she was a believer. She asked me if I would go to the youth group meeting on Monday – but I said I would already be back home (on the farm). See Aunty (he said to Selma), your prayers are not in vain!"

“Sorry Claudio, but the work on behalf of the Hakani Indian tribe does not receive volunteers in January . . . so we will have to keep in touch with them to work out a time later in the year for you to go to Brasilia to serve . . . but do you want to go to the church Youth Camp in a couple of weeks time?” “Ora! Claro” (You bet, of course I do!)
(Claudio who is 17 is of Indian descent and has an amazing servant heart and wants to serve among Amazon Indians during his holiday times.)

These are just a few glimpses of the fruit we see in these boys’ lives. Hemerson and Paulo are also doing well. Continue to pray for them and the staff at “Sítio Graça”!

An open house for open hearts.

We regularly open our city centre house to receive kids who are currently living on the streets to spend time with them; showing them the love and care of God through showers, meals and sharing the Word of God with them. Here are a few comments from some of these kids:

“Can’t we come to the Open House every week?”

"Vanessa? Is that you? Of course we’ll let you know when there will be another girls meeting in the house . . . but don’t let that fight with Anna stop you two being friends”. (This is a snippet of a phone conversation with Vanessa, a street girl who is 15. She calls us collect and has really started to open up about the extreme sadness she faces in her life.)

Hold us up in prayer!

These are just a few glimpses of what is going on here at “My Father’s House”. We are desperately in need of your prayers! Here are some prayer pointers for you:

• For God to break in to lives with revelation of His love and Truth which sets free and transforms!
• For more quality staff so we can minister to all those who are so hungry for something more then what they’re living.
• For the current staff- for strength and perseverance and that they would encounter God deeply on a personal level so that they can work in His strength.
• For the boys on the farm, that they would keep dreaming and going deeper with Jesus.
• For the different parts of our ministry- the farm, the street work, the open house, the prison work and SHINE (community development work).

We bless you in this new year! Please don't hesitate to contact us via email casademeupai@hotmail.com if you have any questions or want to know more about what we do and how you can get involved!