A second very memorable incident
involved Natalie, myself, our room mate from our hostel and a Brazilian young
man armed with a knife (which funnily enough I didn’t see until later!!) I’ll let Natalie tell the story….
‘On the roads of Rio de Janeiro we were stopped by a young
man. He asked for our phones and got out his knife! After a first nervous
moment I told him in Portuguese: "God loves you brother! You don't need to
do it!" Now he was confused and still wanted our stuff. We kept talking to
him about God's love. He looked lost and asked if we could talk. We sat down on the steps on the middle of the
street. He shared his story. When we started to pray for him, he stopped
us and gave us his knife. He lives on
the street and robs people every day. We
encouraged him to go home. The girl with
us has a connection to an NGO that helps to get people off the streets. He gave her his phone number of the phone
that he stole yesterday! When saying
goodbye he asked us for forgiveness and refused to take his knife back! Such a cool encounter! Thank you Jesus!’
Our next stop was Sao Paulo and has
been since. We have been staying with a lovely
host Brazilian family who own their own restaurant which means we have been
given lots of nice food to eat! I have
been working on some logistical arrangements for team members rejoining the
team after breaks as well as doing airport and bus runs.
Last week myself and Rachael spent
time at one of our Iris bases in two favelas here in Sao Paulo. We worked alongside another international team
playing with the children, chatting and praying with people and feeding people
who were hungry. The drug problem was
very obvious as well as the poverty and I am full of admiration for parents who
are raising their children well in that environment. I also got to translate for the team as I had
the best Portuguese available! We will hopefully
be returning here with our own team in September.
I have also been taking some time to
pray, read and fast and prepare myself for the rest of the team arriving at the
weekend! I am very conscious now that I
have been away from the UK for nearly a year now..and I think having had some
time to myself I have got a little homesick…but I continue to know that is the
adventure of a lifetime which I am meant to be on and that friends and family
back in the UK will be glad to see me when I return sometime before Christmas!
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