Encouragement

Funny how we set out to do the Lord's work, and,in the end, he does a work in our hearts instead!

Well, tonight, the first creature to greet Clara and I at the Umuarama was the biggest rat that I have ever seen in my life! He nonchalantely ran across the road like he owned it and scurried away into the nearest gutter. After getting rid of the chills that ran down my spine I walked into the meeting area and was greeted by tons of little smiles. One two year old girl sat on my lap and we all started practicing for the Christmas musical (early, I know, but we have to train them early in order to present a nice cantata).

I was so discouraged and tired today. I was trying really hard to be pumped up for them and it was amazing how as soon as we walked into the room together I forgot all my "problems" and silly complaints and was able to focus on them and their needs. I am learning more and more that a lot of times my "issues" would be resolved if I just took a moment to take my eyes off myself and on others.

Tonight I decided to talk about SIN to my teenage girls. I think it was the night they most participated and the night they most understood. They left with a clear understanding that God is just and pure and cannot stand sin. They also left with the knowledge that our lives are filled with sin and one little sin is enough to separate us from God. One of the girls said: "WOW! I sin like more than 50 times a day!" :) I told her that I have those days too, and that the crazy thing is that even a small thing like a thought is a sin. I ended the night giving them an assignment-- they are to write out a list with their most grievous sins. No one will see this list. I will not read it and they will not have to share it with anyone. However, I want them to take the time to write out all the things that they know they did wrong and that they feel bad about. I told them that if they get to fifty things they can stop. What I want them to do is bring this list next Thursday and we will do something with that list (I will introduce Jesus' salvation then).

You know what was incredible? One of the girls, Karina, came in and I asked her how she was. She said she had a very big earache. Wow, I thought, she came all the way down even with an earache! Then, as soon as we started I saw her with tears streaming down her face. I knew I hadn't said anything significant or that moving, and realized that she probably was crying because of the pain. I asked her if it was hurting a lot and she said yes. I asked Juliana to find her some pain medicine and soon she was happily medicated. But you know what amazed me? This is a girl who doesn't know Jesus. She walked all the way from her house, in pain, to hear God's word and get a piece of bread in the end. This encouraged me more than anything else tonight and I hope that I can take this example of thirsting for Jesus despite pain and suffering.

My new "best friend"

This is Luis! We met during the Umuarama ministry on Thursday nights and he has been going to my church for the past few months. This Sunday, he found me in church and followed me around the whole time, making sure that he gave me lots of kisses and held my hand. So cute. He introduced me to his mom who had come to church even though she had a fever!! I am amazed by the dedication that these people show. I suggested to Luis that we take a picture together and he happily complied. And yes, I just got braces this week...

Learning about Jesus

One more Thursday spent with the teenage girls and precious children of Umuarama. If you know me, you know that I am not a gushy person who loves to be around kids. I am very awkward and clueless as to what to talk about or what to do with those who are under 14 years of age. But... I try... and tonight I learned a valuable lesson. Some kids just want/need attention. Even if you are not the most entertaining person in the world, the fact that you look them in the eye, hold their hand, touch their hair... wow...that can make their day.

As I entered the community center tonight I awkwardly sat between three little children. I asked the little girl beside me what her name was and she happily started to chat away with me. I quickly learned that she was taking medicine because she was sick and that she had ten brothers and sisters (might be an exaggeration, but you never know...). As we talked I felt a tiny little hand poking me and turned around to see a 2 year old girl pointing at her hair. She had come with it all split up into little sections and wanted to make sure that I noticed. I told her her hair was beautiful and asked her who had done it. A little boy beside her piped up that it had been her mother, and soon I learned that he was her 6 year old brother. Meanwhile, I feel a little hand on my other side tugging at my hair. I turn around to see the first little girl playing with my hair. I asked her what she was up to and she said she wanted to make my hair curly. I told her she could go ahead and make my hair beautiful (I wasn't quite ready for the fact she was going to be sticking her finger in her nose every two minutes and then readily sticking it back into my hair again!).

I guess I might be rambling but I just wanted to point out how needy for attention these little ones are. Clara shared with me afterwards that one of the little ones she was holding smelled like urine and she felt like she just wanted to take him home and give him a big shower.

After singing with the little children we split up into bible study groups and I took the girls with me to the living room. Only four came tonight, but I was once again thankful for the small number. We sang, reviewed what had been learned in previous weeks (every single time they forget the first topic we mentioned-- "why do we exist?" They never know the answer to that question! Either they are really shy or I am not getting through to them the meaning and purpose of their existence... they did remember other things, though, so that's exciting).

One of the girls really catches my attention. She is unkempt and a little wild. Last week, she had her thumb in her mouth the whole time I was talking (14 years old!). This week, she ate her bread rocking herself back and forth. But you know what is surprising? Out of all the girls she was the only one that memorized the first five books of the bible (this was homework for them last week-- when they have them all memorize they get a "Teen Bible" that I bought for each one of them a few weeks ago). I wonder how beautiful she will become when Jesus gets a full hold of her life.

Tonight I asked Juliana to share a ten minute study on the person of Jesus. She did a great job. She told me later that she had been VERY nervous, but I honestly couldn't tell at all. She gave a clear message of salvation and discussed that Jesus was the only way to God. The girls listened quietly, and I pray that the seed was planted in each of their hearts. God once again showed his power to me tonight, for as I talked to Juliana I found out that she had grown up going to the Umuarama ministry! She lives close by and is fruit of the years of labor of Tia Sandra. She became a Christian through the meetings and Tia Sandra, and has been going to my church for the past three years. She is from an unsaved family and works as a maid to support herself. It is so encouraging to see her serving the Lord with the passion and depth of character that she has.

I learned a lot of things tonight, but one thing that kept echoing through my mind was the fact that so many times we don't serve the Lord because we are afraid. We are afraid of looking stupid, we are afraid of being inadequate, we are afraid of failure... Juliana was so afraid, yet she allowed God to use her. She took that fear and faced it head on, treasuring the thought that maybe God would do her the honor of speaking through her and using her words to bring hope into the life of teenage girls who desperately need to find Jesus. May we follow her example and obey the Lord regardless of the fears that threaten to weaken our testimony in this world.

Created with a Purpose

The whole week before the meeting I thought and thought about what to say and how to start interacting with these teenage girls who have such a different reality from my own.

How many would come? Would they be noisy, talkative, attentive, out of control, or a mixture of all of the above?

I thought about the fact that many of these girls know nothing about the Bible and about God and salvation. Prayerfully, I decided that a good place to start would be talking about two things: 1- Their purpose here on earth (why do we exist?) and 2- God (his character and his relevance to mankind). Hence, the picture above-- we discussed that God was creator (how wondrous and glorious His creation!), pure, and accessible.

On the Sunday before my first meeting I ran into Tia Sandra. The first words out of her mouth was that I should talk to the girls about sexual purity. She mentioned that many of them had been coming pregnant to the meetings, bringing one baby after another to the community center. They are young and do not live in a healthy environment that encourages them to save themselves and their bodies.

I have to admit that I wasn't too thrilled about this topic! How could I possibly talk about this subject in a way that would make sense and not seem too Utopian to a group of girls entrenched in a sexually promiscuous environment? Along with this concern, how could I encourage them to be pure if they did not yet know the Person who Created them to be pure? I do not want them to be pure for morality's sake-- I want them to be pure because they want to please the One who created them for a very special purpose. Yet, I talked with God about this and felt encouraged to try my best and see what came from it... I found a great book translated into Portuguese that dealt with some deep issues in that area and decided to read a chapter to them.

Thursday night came and along with it came the butterflies in my stomach. Tia Sandra told the girls that they would be having a special meeting and off we went into her living room. A young woman named Juliana came along with us (she has been helping out for the past three months) and was assigned to be my "helper". I looked out into their faces and my eyes met 4 pairs of very shy eyes and curious eyes. I began introducing myself and suddenly the door opened and a wild-haired girl snuck in and sat in the corner. I asked her to come closer and she tentatively sat near Juliana.

The meeting went by quickly. I taught them an "adult" song (they have been singing little children songs for the past few years) and we talked about their purpose here on earth along with God's character. Their favorite part, as you might guess, was the sex talk, and they eagerly listened to the chapter in the book. I made them repeat after me: "My body is not an object. I am not an object to be used and abused." Before I knew it, time was up.

The girls ate their bread and sat for a long time before wanting to leave. I noticed that many of them just wanted attention and loved the idea that someone cared enough for them to give them a special lesson. I was fascinated with the fact that all my preconceived notions about how things would go had been wrong, and that God had made things go much smoother than I thought possible! The girls participated, asked questions, and listened carefully. I was so thankful that it had been a small group.

My final thought about that evening was that it was so refreshing to talk about God to people who knew very little or NOTHING about Him! I work in a Christian school as a Bible teacher, and at times it is so hard to come up with creative ways to present truth in a way that the children have not already heard a million times! These girls, on the other hand, have no other source of spiritual input. Even some of the basic facts about the character of God were new and exciting to them. It was invigorating to explain the beauty and greatness of the One I worship to fresh and interested minds.

Interest Awakened

For many months, I observed my amazing sister-in-law (Aline) come and go to the Umuarama slums every Thursday night. Although she had a great amount of other things on her plate, she still made time to serve the Lord by teaching 2-5 year old children in a very poor section of our 20-million-people city.

The story of how this ministry started is quite fascinating, and I would like to write more about it in another post, once I have more precise information. The general story is that about nine years ago a single woman from my church began serving soup in a community center located across the street from her house. She would feed the needy children, and, along with that, she would teach them about the Bible. The ministry has grown and developed, they no longer serve soup, now they hand out sandwiches with a candy or little dessert at the end of the meeting. They have as many as 50 to 80 kids on a given Thursday.

Last year, Aline shared a devotional with her fellow teachers about the ministry in the slums that she helped out with. She showed us pictures and discussed the various needs of the children and of those who worked with them. Clara, my roommate who has a heart of gold (she is always off into the slums whenever she has a chance-- evangelizing, loving, and caring for the poor), was very touched by the ministry and told me that she would be interested in helping out. Unbeknownst to her the Lord had also been putting some thoughts in my heart in regards to serving him in this project. My problem: I didn't have a ride (Yes, its pathetic, I know, but I still don't drive). Clara's problem: She didn't want to drive in a dangerous section of town, at night, all alone.

So a few Thursdays later a petite, Chinese woman and her big white roommate set off in their borrowed station wagon to check out the Umuarama ministry. What a site it was!!! Tiny little children everywhere, brown little faces adorned with cutely braided hair, smells, noises, and all kinds of chaos. When Tia Sandra (the woman who started the ministry) entered the room something fascinating happened. The children quieted down and looked up expectantly. She warned them that if they were noisy they would be sent outside and go home. Her strictness might come across as meanness to an outsider, but its exactly the structure and discipline that those little one need and even maybe crave for.

Aline went up and sang three songs with them. After this the 2-5 year old kids were escorted out with Aline and some of her helpers. That day she had a crowded lesson- 30 children for a tiny tiny tiny room where they all practically sat on top of each other. Clara and I observed, wondering how God could use us in that place. As I observed and the night drew to a close, I felt no peace or overwhelming feeling like I could do much more for those kids. I wasn't quite sure if that would be the place that God would want me to serve Him in... I kept praying for an open mind and wondering what I could do. Aline finished her lesson and Clara and I went over to the community center where the bigger kids were learning about God from another teacher. As I walked in, I noticed several teenage girls who sat quietly in the back, watching the little ones listen to the story.

After it was all over, I asked Tia Sandra why those girls were there. She mentioned that many of the mothers did not let their children come unless their older siblings brought them. I asked her if the Umuarama ministry had any special lessons for those girls. She said that sometimes, twice a month, a man from the church leads a bible study on Saturdays with them. At that moment I knew where I could serve. "What if I had a small bible study with the girls while the little ones heard their stories?" I asked. She said that would be great and quickly volunteered her own living room as the location for these meetings.

I left the place having no idea what I had gotten myself into, but knowing that if God could use a donkey to speak wisdom into Balaam life, maybe he could use me too, regardless of my inabilities and deficiencies.