When the Going gets Tough...
Good news! Marcia´s house has a landline and we are getting along swimmingly. Commuting from here is simple and I now have my very own cell phone. There is of course the challenge of no running hot water except in the shower, no dryer and quirky appliances due to the lack of funds to fix them. However, I am getting to experience what it is like to live ´alone´ as a single gal in Brasil. So to a certain extent I feel like I have ´gone native.´
As I mentioned previously last weekend things started to look up. I could really sense your prayers. Last night I went to a small group in the very heart of the slum when it was quite dark. Not to worry I had someone who took me there and then gave me a ride home. There are 30 people in this small group. About 12 are children and since the people are poor there were not enough chairs for everyone so some people stood. We sang along to a slightly off key guitar listened to a devotional by yours truly shared prayer requests, prayed and then ate cake, cookies and drank Coke and coffee. There was also a time where I shared about why I was there and told them about Canada. They were then free to ask me any questions they wanted and were quite horrified to discover that Canadians do not eat black beans and rice daily. When I mentioned the long list of Brasilian food items that cannot be found in Canada many of them say they have no desire to live in a place where they cannot find such essential things.
The culture shock continues folks. Last week during a small group leaders meeting the reality of my setting really began to sink in. Prayer requests go something along these lines....`Please pray for my neighbour lady. She is a Christian and her husband beats her everynight. When she yells he threatens to cut off her legs. In order for people not to hear her yells and their 3 year old crying he turns up the stereo. We are all too afraid of him to call the police but something needs to be done. Please pray.` I could share several others but I think you get the idea. It is very unsettling to know that some of the girls in my Sunday School class get beaten by their fathers (they are 10-13 yrs old) if they come home too late from church events. We also found out that one of the kids in the Compassion program who had to get stitches did not receive them from falling down the stairs but from his mother who nominally attends the church. That is why the pastor spoke on the Galatians passage about bearing one another´s burdens during the leader´s meeting because we should not judge this lady but walk alongside her so she learns to treat her family better. Talk about a wake up call.
Some really urgent prayer requests are as follows: Pastor Marcelo, the pastor at Villa Andrade who I´m working for needs to have surgery due to some health issues. He is quite nervous about going in for surgery and due to the health issue his recovery will take quite awhile and put him out of comission for a bit. Mariza, his wife, is short staffed at the Compassion project because the only male teacher just quit. I tried to sub today and almost completely lost it since none of the children know how to listen and sit still. I know they were testing me but I am not up to having shouting matches every day. Please pray that a new teacher can be found soon. I would continue subbing butI just don´t have it in me. This Saturday we´re having a really neat youth event at the church. Tiago and his wife Suzana are helping with youth and Tiago will be sharing his testimony. There will be music, a skit, his testimony and then food. Pray that youth will come, bring their friends and that people will hear the Gospel. We are also starting 40 days of prayer and fasting on June 11th and there is a huge need for more volunteer workers and more men! Of the 30people in the small group I went to only the guy who led was a grown man (he´s a year or two younger than me). The rest of the males present were in the 8-17 year range. The same is true on Sunday mornings generally.
Only one of the four girls in my mentoring/discipleship group showed up today. The pastor says he´ll cancel it if they don´t come next week. Consistency and commitment are two of the hardest things to teach people at Vila Andrade. However, one girl is really keen so we´ll continue even if the others don´t come. Since this blog is supposed to also be my journal for the internship course at Taylor Seminary I will end by summarizing what I learned about myself today. 1) I am time and not event oriented. 2) Willingness is not enough when it comes to teaching slum kids. 3) My gifting is not in the area of children´s ministry. 4) I enjoy working with children one on one or in small groups. 5) When in another culture humility is the best attitude even when it hurts. Your ways may seem more efficient but in your current context no one cares (thus, they really aren´t more efficient necessarily). Sorry, that last bit was a bit harsh. Obviously I still have a lot to learn.
On a positive note I am feeling more settled in, ballet classes are hardwork but fun, there is great chocolate here and the longer I´m here the more people I meet and thus the more friends I have. It´s lovely to be climbing the hill to the church and have kids run up and greet me. I am remembering more and more names and that´s encouraging. Please continue to pray as I never know quite what tomorrow holds.
As I mentioned previously last weekend things started to look up. I could really sense your prayers. Last night I went to a small group in the very heart of the slum when it was quite dark. Not to worry I had someone who took me there and then gave me a ride home. There are 30 people in this small group. About 12 are children and since the people are poor there were not enough chairs for everyone so some people stood. We sang along to a slightly off key guitar listened to a devotional by yours truly shared prayer requests, prayed and then ate cake, cookies and drank Coke and coffee. There was also a time where I shared about why I was there and told them about Canada. They were then free to ask me any questions they wanted and were quite horrified to discover that Canadians do not eat black beans and rice daily. When I mentioned the long list of Brasilian food items that cannot be found in Canada many of them say they have no desire to live in a place where they cannot find such essential things.
The culture shock continues folks. Last week during a small group leaders meeting the reality of my setting really began to sink in. Prayer requests go something along these lines....`Please pray for my neighbour lady. She is a Christian and her husband beats her everynight. When she yells he threatens to cut off her legs. In order for people not to hear her yells and their 3 year old crying he turns up the stereo. We are all too afraid of him to call the police but something needs to be done. Please pray.` I could share several others but I think you get the idea. It is very unsettling to know that some of the girls in my Sunday School class get beaten by their fathers (they are 10-13 yrs old) if they come home too late from church events. We also found out that one of the kids in the Compassion program who had to get stitches did not receive them from falling down the stairs but from his mother who nominally attends the church. That is why the pastor spoke on the Galatians passage about bearing one another´s burdens during the leader´s meeting because we should not judge this lady but walk alongside her so she learns to treat her family better. Talk about a wake up call.
Some really urgent prayer requests are as follows: Pastor Marcelo, the pastor at Villa Andrade who I´m working for needs to have surgery due to some health issues. He is quite nervous about going in for surgery and due to the health issue his recovery will take quite awhile and put him out of comission for a bit. Mariza, his wife, is short staffed at the Compassion project because the only male teacher just quit. I tried to sub today and almost completely lost it since none of the children know how to listen and sit still. I know they were testing me but I am not up to having shouting matches every day. Please pray that a new teacher can be found soon. I would continue subbing butI just don´t have it in me. This Saturday we´re having a really neat youth event at the church. Tiago and his wife Suzana are helping with youth and Tiago will be sharing his testimony. There will be music, a skit, his testimony and then food. Pray that youth will come, bring their friends and that people will hear the Gospel. We are also starting 40 days of prayer and fasting on June 11th and there is a huge need for more volunteer workers and more men! Of the 30people in the small group I went to only the guy who led was a grown man (he´s a year or two younger than me). The rest of the males present were in the 8-17 year range. The same is true on Sunday mornings generally.
Only one of the four girls in my mentoring/discipleship group showed up today. The pastor says he´ll cancel it if they don´t come next week. Consistency and commitment are two of the hardest things to teach people at Vila Andrade. However, one girl is really keen so we´ll continue even if the others don´t come. Since this blog is supposed to also be my journal for the internship course at Taylor Seminary I will end by summarizing what I learned about myself today. 1) I am time and not event oriented. 2) Willingness is not enough when it comes to teaching slum kids. 3) My gifting is not in the area of children´s ministry. 4) I enjoy working with children one on one or in small groups. 5) When in another culture humility is the best attitude even when it hurts. Your ways may seem more efficient but in your current context no one cares (thus, they really aren´t more efficient necessarily). Sorry, that last bit was a bit harsh. Obviously I still have a lot to learn.
On a positive note I am feeling more settled in, ballet classes are hardwork but fun, there is great chocolate here and the longer I´m here the more people I meet and thus the more friends I have. It´s lovely to be climbing the hill to the church and have kids run up and greet me. I am remembering more and more names and that´s encouraging. Please continue to pray as I never know quite what tomorrow holds.
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