Surprises (Jason)

I never thought that I would be so happy to see excrement as when Jacob went “poopy on the potty” a few days ago. There are lots of unexpected surprises with parenthood. In a way we are not only parents to Jacob, but also to our boys in the Sombra Road House. For this reason I was surprised to discover that on Thursday night, after I left our Bible study, Claudinho, Paulo, Anderson and Adilio had made dinner for Dalton. On Thursday nights, we do a Bible study for the youth group at church, half of which consists of the four aforementioned boys that live in the House. So, why should I be so pleased by the fact that they made dinner for someone? The fact that four teenage boys were considerate enough to feed any mouth but their own is sufficient. However, once I describe Dalton you should be all the more impressed.

The Sombra Road House, as much as it is a shelter for these boys is an experiment in community. Our aim is that our core group, comprised of both staff and students, would so express the love of Christ to one another that outsiders would themselves be drawn to Christ. However, once you open yourself up to outsiders you never know whom you will attract. Dalton is one of these people - he is a unique fellow who is difficult to love. He is the guy whom you would try to go unnoticed by if you saw him in the grocery store so as to avoid a conversational assault. We all know the type. He is a Christian who has bounced around from church to church looking for acceptance. There is much to be said about Dalton, but the point here is that Claudinho, Paulo, Anderson and Adilio made themselves servants to him. Their act of making dinner for Dalton is an example of the type of service to which Jesus calls us also.

Please pray that these four guys would continue to grow in their love for Christ and that that love would manifest itself in acts like making dinner for Dalton.

She's Back! (Kristin)

In January, I wrote about Taiza (pictured on the right), one of the girls I do Bible study with in the favela. Basically, Taiza "disappeared" after the start of my Bible study with these two girls. You can read the post here. Well, I'm very excited to share that she is back and has been faithfully attending Bible study for several weeks now.

Her first week back, I took Maria and Taiza to the mall for Bible study and pizza to celebrate her return. I asked her why she hadn't come back sooner and she replied that she was embarrassed. I told her that she should never be embarrassed to come back to people that love her. She had tears in her eyes as we talked about God's grace and His work of salvation on the cross.

I can see her growing in her understanding of the Gospel. She has professed her faith in Christ, but has much to learn. Every week, she prays that God would give her the strength to stay on the right path, to continue Bible study and to surround herself with people who want her best. She lives in a very dark world.

Please continue to pray with us: 1) that God would continue to open her eyes to his Truth, 2) that the power of the Gospel would continue to break the bonds of sin in her life, and 3) that God would keep her safe in the shadow of His wings as she grows.

Dona Ana (Jeremy)

In my last post, I made reference to Dona Ana (the director of the community center) and to the pain that she has been experiencing in her legs. Her doctor placed her on some medication which was intended to treat this problem. However, these drugs really messed with her stomach - creating a lot of pain in her stomach and destroying her appetite. About two weeks ago, she went to get this checked out and discovered that she has stomach cancer. We still know so little, as she is waiting to receive back the results of her exam. But, I wanted to ask those of you who follow the blog to be praying for her. I can see her fighting to maintain her characteristic optimism through all of this - attempting to assuage others' fears by masking her own. However, this is an extremely difficult fight, as she doesn't even know the extent of the problem. I know that this lady, who has prayed for so many people over the years, just needs some people to do the same for her right now. I hope that we can be that for her. As we find out more, we'll keep you posted.

Holy Land Honeymoon! (Jason)

I heard a commercial on the radio the other day advertising trips to the Holy Land, "Terra Santa". The ad had an inverse effect. I don’t want to vilify religious experience trips. It is just that this ad, with its cheesy music, was oriented to religious individuals hoping to capitalize on their religious feelings. I would rather stay put than give my money to someone who is so obviously capitalizing on religious experience. So, I decided that it would be the perfect place for Jeremy and Carol to spend their honeymoon (insert sarcasm). I decided I would call this particular travel agency, posing as Jeremy, and ask to be sent more information, all the information that they could send; the more the better. Beyond this, I would ask if they could call my fiancé and convince her that such a trip would be a great way to spend our honeymoon. So, the following day I Googled the name of the travel agency, found the phone number and, in my deviance, called. When the woman one the other side of the phone answered, I was so busy scrolling through my cell phone to find Carol’s number that I did not hear how she introduced herself. Immediately I told her that I was interested in a trip to Israel. “Excuse me?”, she responded. I repeated, verbatim, “I would like more information about a trip to Israel.” To Israel?, she responded. “Yes, the Holy Land”, I said. This type of exchange is very common to me being a foreigner and all. “Sir”, she said, “Do you realize that you have called a taxi company?"

More than tell the story of a particular kid or a moral lesson, the point of this blog entry is to ask you to pray for us. Start with me. I do things like this all too frequently bringing embarrassment on myself and all other foreigners. Then pray for Sombra Road as we adapt (or fail to adapt) to the difficulties of living in a foreign country. Finally, pray for the foreigner down the street from you or at church or work; and invite him over for dinner.

Grace. Sometimes people just don't get it. (Kristin)

There are constant mini-wars between the police and the drug traffickers (banditos) in the favelas. The police typically come in the favelas to search for drugs, weapons and/or specific people. These events are heralded with shooting from both parties, which eventually stops as the banditos hide among the houses and the police do their business. The police use a large, bullet-proof vehicle dubbed the Caveirao ("Big Skull") to enter the favelas. It's massive and has small holes for the police on the inside to shoot out of. Terrible things can happen in the belly of the Caveirao to the apprehended banditos...most are sent to jail, but we've heard that some don't come out alive.

Last week a similar scenario took place in the favela where we work, we could hear the shooting from our apartment as we had our weekly meeting. The next morning, at Friday morning prayer, we listened in amazement at the story that Dona Ana told us.

The Caveirao entered Morro dos Macacos with guns blazing, but on its exodus from the favela, it stopped right in front of the community center...something that has never happened before. A policeman exited the vehicle, dragging an 18 year old boy that had been apprehended into the community center. Bleeding and smelling terribly of the bodily excrements that were filling his pants, he was released to Dona Ana. The policeman explained, "I feel like an angel told me to drop this kid off here." Then he left.

This young man had been handed two immeasurable gifts...his freedom and his life. Like Jonah, he had been graciously spit out of the belly of the whale. The difference between Jonah and this young man lies in their response: Jonah responded in repentance and obedience to God's call, the young man responded, "will you ask them to give me my hat back." You heard correctly. He had the nerve to ask Dona Ana to go after the police in the enormous death tank to give him his hat back. Didn't he realize his life had just been sparred?

We listened to this story with mouths agape; knowing the grace that was given this man to be freed from the Caveirao and aghast that his only apparent concern was for a hat. He had obviously been afraid for his life at some point...I mean, he did numbers 1 and 2 in his pants for crying out loud. How can he not realize what had been done for him? Where was his repentance?

God has offered all of us a similar grace...life and freedom through his Son, Jesus Christ, and yet it breaks my heart to think of all the people that respond the same way this young man responded, completely blind to it, ignorantly saying "I want my hat."

Lord, please make the blind see and the deaf hear! And let me not be blind to your grace in my own life.

Confessions of a Recovering Hypochondriac (Jeremy)

On Friday mornings, we pray with the staff from the community center in Morro dos Macacos. While waiting for a few of the staff to arrive this morning, Jason and I were sitting around talking with some of the ladies that work in the kitchen. The conversation started with Fatima’s other job. Besides her day job as a full time cook for the community center, Fatima also works nights at a homeless shelter for families. This means that every other day of the week she hops a bus directly from the community center to this homeless shelter, where she spends the entire night awake, looking after these families. After this sleepless night, she returns to her rather thank-less job in the community center. She only sees her bed three to four days a week. As we sat and listened, she talked about the coffee pot that she drains every night, the fights that she has to separate, the drug addicts that she is constantly observing – and the way she talked about it all was so matter of fact, not one plea for pity. Suddenly, the conversation switched directions, and now the topic was teeth. Maria, the janitor, explained to the group that dentists do not scare her in the least. “Why would I worry about a little temporary pain in the mouth, when I’ve seen much worse in my days?” she asked rather rhetorically. Then, she made a pitch for a local dentist that will extract a tooth (yank is probably a better word for his technique) for R$ 5 (about $2.75 US). All the while, Dona Ana, the eighty year old project coordinator who can barely get out of her seat unassisted due to problems in her legs but somehow finds a way up that hill every day to serve the kids, just sat there listening and smiling.

It’s hard to feel like a man in a room full of women such as these. I get irritable when the heat messes with my sleep – even though I still get to sleep every night. When I go to the dentist, I get a local anesthetic – even though no one is talking about pulling teeth. I got bit by a dog here (below - not really), and, after consulting Web MD, I convinced myself that I had contracted rabies. I cannot even drink the water that these women drink because it upsets my constitution. I’m a pansy. I figure that I have a lot to learn from these ladies, who leave me both humbled and thankful that the Lord is gracious to both the strong and the hypochondriacs.

Hope for the Hopeless (Jason)

Jacob, my son, started preschool on Monday (picture below). On my way home from his school I saw, Edimilson, a kid that we have been working with for the past year who lives in Morro dos Macacos (favela). Seated on the side of the road, he was sifting through trash looking for recyclables to sell, a common source of income for those who lack other options. I didn’t stop. I didn’t roll down the window to say hello. I know that it would only have served to embarrass him. Edimilson’s story gets worse. Due to the influence of his aunt, he got involved with Macumba, a mixture of Roman Catholicism and African Animism where the worshiper makes sacrifices to saints/gods. His parents don’t like it and kicked him out of the house. Now, when not on the street, he stays with his aunt. His situation seems hopeless.

What is interesting is that Edimilson’s situation is not that different from the youth that live in the Sombra Road House: Claudinho, Paulo, Adilio, and (potentially in June) Anderson. All four of these guys have stared a hopeless future in the face. Anderson lived on the streets for a year and was hooked on drugs. He knew, just like Edimilson knows, that Sombra Road can offer shelter. Why did Anderson seek help and Edimilson does not? Among the many possibilities, I believe that it ultimately rests on God’s grace. This is where I find hope for Edimilson. I do not rely on Edimilson’s ability to make wise decisions. I trust and pray that God will work in Edimilson to do His will. Please join with us in praying for Edimilson that God would help him to see the error of the path that he is walking and that he would see God’s gracious hand extended in Sombra Road.