Last week we had some friends of ours (the Berkleys) and a group of students from Crossroads Church here with us (both of the groups are from Georgia, USA). We were on-the-go all week and there was no time at all to blog, so here’s a brief re-cap (we’re posting little “snapshots”, of the ministry, each day this week):
Tuesday morning we went to a mission that rescues single mothers (mainly young ones) and their children from violent and at risk situations. Brad and I had actually been there a little over 2 years ago. The place had been evacuated of all the children and mothers because a father had been there threatening everyone with a gun! He didn’t like the fact that his wife had been rescued by this ministry and wanted to take it out on whoever was standing in his way of getting them back. But when we pulled up this time, the place was busy with activity. They have a day program for the children in their village and all the children were there for us to hang-out with all morning. So, we played and ministered to them for a few hours and presented the Gospel to them and the mothers that were there.
Our next stop was in Columbo, a village in Curitiba, where we got an opportunity to spend some time in an orphanage that’s set-up to resemble a regular home. There were several of these homes that had 5-10 children in each house with a “house mother” in each home. They were all inside of this complex, made up of several homes with a central meeting place for all of the homes. There were only a few of the children there (because most of the others were in school) but all of the house mothers were there. So, the girls from our team ministered to the mothers (they painted their nails and helped with some of their housework as they visited with the mothers) which actually turned out to be one of the most memorable things on the trip. These mothers were very emotional when our group honored them like we did. The girls really loved on them and showed appreciation to them for what they were sacrificing their lives for (mothering orphans). All of us guys went down to a small soccer field on the property and played soccer with the kids that were there. And me, being the awesome athlete that I am, jumped in to play goalkeeper for our team. I chose this because that’s the position that involves the least amount of running: ) But my stay as goalkeeper only lasted about 10 minutes before this little 11 year old boy pulled me out and replaced me. I couldn’t stop anything! It’s like, in my mind, I was diving for balls but in reality I was standing in one place like a statue. And it’s pretty humiliating when some little kid comes up and tells you that you stink and then pushes you to the sideline because he’s better than you. What’s up with that?! I have shoes older than that kid! oh well...
Our last stop of the day was at an orphanage that’s a part of the orphanage we adopted our kids from 4 years ago. We saw a few familiar faces and had a good time of ministry with the kids. It was so much to take-in that day. We were able to expose the mission team to several types of orphan/children’s ministry. But our prayer is that as they get home and back to “normal life”, that they won’t forget about all the different things they were exposed to and that they’ll do something to change the world around them. It’s easy to just go through life just being busy, but yet be so busy that you don’t allow the Lord to use you to make a difference in someone else's life. Just a thought...
Love Ya,
Jim
PS- The pictures up top are of us at the rescue shelter and of us at the orphanage that has all the house mothers.The man in the picture with me and Jono is Patrick Reason, the director of the shelter. If you look at the picture of me and the little boy in the blue shirt, that's the kid who told me I stunk at goalie. I beat him up right after the picture was taken. That'll teach him, huh? lol! jk: )
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