You'd Never Know It By Looking at Them

On Wednesday afternoon we were able to take our family, along with a few volunteers from our church (we love you i3C!), and minister to over 300 children ages 1.5- 8years old. These children are in a school that's smack dab in the middle of one of the poorest favelas (slums) in Curitiba- it's in a place called Vila Zumbi (Village of the Walking Dead). 

Located just outside Curitba, Vila Zumbi and Vila Liberdade can be seen on both sides of the highway

Made up mostly of simple wooden structures- Vila Zumbi is home to over 45,000 people

We've been doing ministry in this favela for over 8 years now. We use to come here, when we still lived in the States, with mission teams from different local churches. It's an amazing place to proclaim the Gospel. It's twice the size of what out use to be (with a population of over 45,000) and even though there's been progress in the community over last decade it's still a very dangerous place to live- especially for children. The amount of violence, gangs and drugs activity is ridiculous. If you want to get an idea of what I'm talking about just click HERE to see pictures on Google of what kind of place Vila Zumbi  is. (Warning- even though it's on Google Images there are still pictures of graphic violence attached to this link.) 

Pretty bad, huh? Just for comparison, why don't you do a Google search for your city and see what images come up. I bet it won't look anything like those pictures. And I guess that's one of the hardest things to wrap my head around. When you look the kids from Vila Zumbi in the eyes (or at their pictures) they look like any other kids. Innocent, beautiful, happy and safe. But when you see the environment that they live in- you realize that these kids have a difficult road ahead of them and that's why it's imperative that someone is proclaiming the Gospel and sharing the love of Jesus with them.

We've been given an incredible opportunity to minister in this particular school (Centro de Edução e Inclusão Social Betânia) and every time we do it's always great! Whether it's with a mission team or just with our family- the kids always have a good time with whatever activities we bring and they are so anxious to hear about Jesus and the Gospel.

Me, MJ and the Kids just want to say, "thank you to every one of you who allow us to do this amazing work for the sake of the Gospel. We're still amazed that we're here and able to do any of this- really. It's mind blowing to see what God has done through you guys as you've supported our family, so-  Thank You!"

We Love You Guys!
Jim, MJ and the Whole Dunn Family

Here are some pictures of what we did Wednesday. We started out with the 1.5-3 year olds and then we finished the afternoon with the 4-8 year olds: )