This month I am working with a local church, World Vision, and Sal de Terra (a community home for children that is affiliated with World Vision) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. I will be joined with a team from Adventures in Missions at the end of the month.
The Sal de Terra home is essentially a daycare for local kids, from 7am to 7pm. It is located in one of the poorest communities in Rio and serves almost 80 children. Most of the families in the area can’t afford the school uniforms required to go to school, clean drinking water, food, or other basic life necessities. This community house feeds the children all three meals, educates them, bathes them, and loves them. Through providing these basic things they are able to share the Gospel with these children and their families. All of this is possible through sponsors from World Vision. Each of the children has a sponsor from somewhere around the world that pays for their education and everything they receive from the Sal de Terra home. They also send them gifts and write letters back and forth with each other. I will be helping the workers in every area of need. I told the women I work with that I am willing to help them with everything they need, even if it’s just cleaning toilets everyday. There are two community homes that Sal de Terra has in Rio and I’ll be switching between the two each week. So far I love this first home and I can’t wait to visit the other one next week. I’ll be working here every Friday!
Every Monday and Tuesday I am working at the World Vision office in downtown Rio. World Vision Brazil has over 2,000 Christmas, Easter, Birthday, and greeting cards that haven’t been given to children because the notes on them are written in cursive English and couldn’t be read by the translator. Some are from 3 years ago! Part of my job this month is to translate these cards into Portuguese. For those of you that may not know… I don’t speak Portuguese! This will be a great month in language practice and a very steep learning curve! Luckily I can get by with the Spanish I know and Google Translate is helping me with the rest. I am studying Portuguese on DuoLingo every night and carrying “Portuguese for Dummies” with me everywhere I go.
“World Vision is a Christian humanitarian organization dedicated to working with children, families, and their communities worldwide to reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice. Motivated by our faith in Jesus Christ, we serve alongside the poor and oppressed as a demonstration of God’s unconditional love for all people.”http://www.worldvision.org/ More about World Vision’s work in Brazil: http://www.worldvision.org/our-impa…/country-profiles/brazil
The church I am helping with is located in Meier, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which is not a very nice area. It almost shut down a few years ago, because there were only about 5 people attending, but Pastor Luiz restructured and renovated the church and has been growing it ever since. Now there are about 50 people who attend every week and they are continually doing more and more fellowship events, outreaches, and social activism in their community. I will do more with the church when the AIM group comes at the end of the month, but right now I’m helping with projects here and there and helping clean up/assisting with preparation for the services on Wednesday and Sunday. This Sunday a group from our church and I prepared lunches for the homeless population in the area. Rio de Janeiro has over 5,000 people living on the streets, 75% of whom didn’t even finish elementary school. Every Sunday the church goes out to share the Gospel with these guys, pray with them, and feed them. It has become a regular routine and now there is a lineup outside the church gate after service every Sunday.
I have been blessed with my own apartment in Rio! A missionary couple that lives here and works with the church is home on sabbatical and letting me use their apartment while they are away. I will be watching their cat while they are away and keeping their home from being broke into, since this isn’t a very nice area.
I feel extremely blessed to be working with all of these organizations in Rio and have been enjoying my time here. I studied capoeira while living in South Korea last year, so coming to Brazil has been a dream of mine! My two main prayer requests for this month are for supernatural understanding, since Portuguese has proven very difficult for me to understand and speak, and for safety. I don’t live in a very good neighborhood and being out after dark (7pm) can be very dangerous. Sometimes my work causes me to be out late, especially if I miss a train or go the wrong way on the bus (which has happened), so please be praying for protection!
I am also currently fundraising for squad leading a team this January with the World Race! If you would like to donate, please click on the ‘Support Me’ link in my profile and follow the instructions. For the next 11 days you can buy a limited edition The Christian Backpacker (www.thechristianbackpacker.com) tee shirt to support this trip! Thank you all!
https://www.bonfirefunds.com/11-days-to-support-a-wr-squad-leader-11n11
