This is our last blog (there were 5 in all) telling you about Spring Mission 2012’. We hope they’ve been informative and that they’ve given you a good look at what the week looked like for both teams that were here from Georgia. Mission trips are a great way to experience what we do here in Brazil in a short amount of time. This particular trip was a 9 day trip that allowed us to minister in a school, 4 orphanages, a battered women’s shelter, 2 day programs for street kids, in churches, in a couple of parks in 2 local villas, and then we topped it all off with a couple of days of ministry on the mountain, and that’s what we’re talking about today.
Thursday we stayed on the mountain all day. We had a few things to do to get ready for a camp we were hosting on Friday. The camp was for about 40 kids from a local favela (slum) near a church we’ve partnered with in Curitiba. This is one of the camps, that I told you about in an earlier blog, that we’re doing for FREE if the church will commit to bringing the kids in and then continue discipling them once they get them back to their villas. We were super-excited about it too. To have an opportunity to minister to kids that weren’t all “church kids” was something that we really feel called to do and this was our first camp that consisted of ALL non-church kids. (We’ve had camps with a few, but never all.) So, Thursday morning we finished some final things that needed to get done before Friday and we also got the school ready for our Thursday Night Service that was later that evening.
After lunch the teams hit the mountain for some home visits where they prayed for people in their homes and even had worshipped with the ones who can’t make it to the meetings (because they don’t have transportation). It was a great opportunity for them to meet the people we live with, here on the mountain.
Thursday Night we had a packed house at the meeting as the teams lead worship, gave testimonies and as Jono ministered the Word.
Friday we had the mission team help with the camp. They were group leaders and just hung-out and loved on the kids the whole day. To look at the kids we had there, you’d never know the environment they came out of just by looking at them. But, speaking to the pastors that brought them, we found out that the majority of the kids were from a very violent area of town where their parents were either involved in drug trafficking or on drugs themselves. An area of town that without Jesus, these kids don’t have a chance. So, for them to be there with us singing, hearing the Word of God, being legitimately loved and cared for... it was an honor just being able to be involved in it. And to me, that’s one of the main reason we’re here... reaching kids that nobody else is reaching "with the Gospel."
There’s so much more detailed info that I could give you, but all-in-all it was a great week. There were soooo many kids whose lives were touched and who were able to hear about Jesus and the Gospel. To be on one of these missions trips in the past was always a life-changing experience for us (our family), but to be facilitators of the trips... well, that’s taken our family into a deeper appreciating for the sacrifice that Jesus made for us. And it’s made us realize how serious He is about reaching people who’ve never had an opportunity to hear “the Gospel” no matter how old they are or what language they speak. I’m blown away by His love for the lost.
If you attend a church that’s interested in taking a mission trip to Brazil, then we’d love to help you. We’d love to customize a trip around the dynamics of your team. Just shoot us an email to HopeAndLifeBrazil@gmail.com and we’ll send you all the info you’ll need to make it happen.
Next week we’ll be back to our regular blogs. Have a great weekend: )
Love You Guys!
Jim and MJ
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