It Really Hits You Hard

Today was an emotional day for a lot of us. We ministered to approximately 600 students in 5 different sessions at a school in Villa Algae. The children live in impoverished conditions that are more extreme than even the ones in Villa Zumbi. These children are beautiful. They loved every aspect of our presentation (especially the worship and the drama). We were able to speak to them about the Gospel and we were able to put salvation bracelets on every single one of them so that they would remember what we shared with them. Christian, Amber and Ian David gave their testimonies and did a great job.

At one point in the day, the Principal of the School came and spoke to me. As we talked I mentioned to her that some of my children used to attend her school before we adopted them. Then I showed her some pictures of them, she smiled, then I went and did my ministry portion of one of the programs. After a few minutes a teacher came over to me, and through a translator, asked me for copies of the pictures because she wanted to show them to some of the other faculty. She came back a few minutes later and, through a translator, told me that some of the teachers remembered Diogo and Ana. They said that Ana was always sad and that she would just sit in the alone in the corner. When she told me that, she handed me my pictures and then just walked away. As I walked back to my bag I began to tear up because Ana is NEVER sad and she smiles almost all the time now (unless she's in trouble, which does happen often... haha!). It made me wonder what would have been her fate if we hadn't of stepped up and adopted her. What if she was still in the orphanage? Where would she be today? And what about the other 4 children? Only God knows.

When we finished ministering we took a drive through the village where all these children lived. It was about 5 o'clock in the evening and it was beginning to get dark. You definitely didn't feel safe and we tried not to make eye contact with any of the adults as we drove through the streets. The streets were muddy and the houses were small and in shambles. It was horrible living conditions. When we rounded the last corner on our way out of the village there they were... two boys we had just met at the school. Douglas and his brother were two boys around 7 or 8 years old that lived in this village where people are shot and killed every night. Where you can't feel safe. Where a church was abandoned, stripped of everything valuable by vandals and then destroyed. It is a bad place to live, especially for children. As we got closer to Douglas and his brother they recognized us and we stopped, rolled down our window and said, "hello." They were so happy to see us again. After we greeted them we said, "goodbye" and continued on our way. As we drove out of the village I started to tear up again. Just thinking about these children who are living in conditions like that. It's just not right. Pastor George, from Crossroads Curitiba, is reaching out into this village evangelizing and discipling these people who desperately need to hear the Gospel. We're definitely going to keep lifting him and his church up in prayer, even when we get back home.

The thing that's going to stick with me from today is that when you see these kids in school they look like any other kid at any average school in the states. But when you see where they live and the conditions in their village, "It really hits you hard."

Everyone is doing great. Pray for us as we go back into Villa Zumbi tomorrow.

Love Ya!

Jim