Not all who wander are lost...: Found some internet

I wrote this a few days ago, but just found internet, hopefully will have another post on the weekend, much love to all and God bless.

It coming up on two months since I arrived here and I’m starting to get the hang of things, my Portuguese is progressing quite well. My new fear is that it is coming along too well and that I will forget Spanish in the process. I know it sounds a bit crazy, but the two have so much in common that I fear it will be too easy to mix them and I will be left speaking Portuñol. I continue getting to know my community better and feel more comfortable walking through the favela. I continue to see Giló on a regular basis, but he hasn’t again showed signs of demonic possessions. My community house continues to fast and pray for him and know that only God can bring true change to him and to our community. As I grow closer to the people in my community house its beginning to feel more like home here. I was talking with someone yesterday and he asked me where my home was and I told him I wasn’t sure where it was, that I have many and at the same time none here on this earth. It’s a curious thing to feel this way, I realize that parts of my heart are in so many places and only one day arriving in God’s presence will I find my true home, true peace and Shalom that God promises.

I continue to work Tuesday-Friday with the futsal (sort of indoor soccer) ministry, it has been cool to get to know the guys better, kick the ball around with them, get to know them better, and share with them a little about why I am here and the hope that is in me. I still feel like it’s difficult to have a really deep conversation with someone in Portuguese, but little by little I am getting there. I am struck by the fact that even though so many of my new friends live in houses made from scrap wood they have found on the side of the road, constructed on land that doesn’t belong to them and that they “invaded”, have very little money and small chance of a college education I see them as friends and peers. It is interesting to me that so far I have connected far more with the people from my neighborhood than the people from the middle class church I attend. I think I feel resentful that someone could attend a middle class church a stone’s throw from a favela (squatter/slum community) and not really know anyone from the community, not really care that people live like that. Every time I go for a walk around my neighborhood I am struck by the contrast of wealth and poverty. My community is less than a mile from the domestic airport and located on a principle avenue of the city. It is surrounded by high rise apartments that have condo fees of upwards of a $1,000/month (that’s not rent, that is if you own the place). People live in high rise apartments because they are afraid of someone breaking into their house and the apartments provide more security. Just yesterday right outside of the favela someone stole a car of a person driving by. They blocked off the road, forcing the person to stop and then at gunpoint forced the person out of the car and sped off with the vehicle.

The level of fear here that the rich have of the poor is very high, the thought for most of entering a favela, much less living in one brings fear to their hearts. They accept the occasional favela dweller that chooses to come to their church, but will rarely enter into their world. I think it has really opened my eyes to similar occurrences in the US. It is still difficult to wrap my US mind around the fact that people can just invade a piece of land, build some shacks on it and a few shacks eventually grow into a huge plot of land with thousands of squatters. Most of them are not thriving financially, but nor are they starving. The average person might make $200/month, all of which is spent on food and other household necessities, the average favela dwelling family seems to have a TV and a refrigerator even if its inside of a wooden lean-to. Even the poor here in Brasil are much better off than the poor in a place like Africa or various parts of Asia. Though there is a definitely a culture of complacency; I was born enfavelado (in a slum) and so forever I will be enfavelado. Just the fact that such a word exists in the language shows the extent of that attitude. One of the guys, William, I have gotten to know from the soccer ministry is 15 years old and is soon to become a father and will probably drop out of school and work full time to earn about $200/month to support his girlfriend and new child. He’s a bright kid and a great soccer player, but his life is going to be tough. Another guy, André, is only 16 and is already living with his girlfriend with a child and is the head of his household. At 16 he is clearly just a kid, but is already responsible for feeding his family and struggles to balance the tasks of adulthood and providing for his family.

The public school system here seems to be abysmal. Kids go to school for only 4 hours a day and most talk of the incompetency of the teachers. Even for young child school seems to be optional, the kids go when they want and stay home when they don’t. Most parents do not play an active role in their child’s education and stand on the sidelines as their kids fail out of school or simply stop going. A very small percentage of children that live in favelas graduate from high school and a microscopic number of kids would get a college education. Most people do not see college as something to aim for, there seems to be no “Brasilian dream” of working hard and moving up the ladder. Most guys at 16 or so start working making a minimum wage and continue to work for the rest of their lives. It’s a life that is so foreign to mine, I realize how spoiled I have been by my upbringing and how spoiled I continue to be with all the options that await me.

Next weekend, November 20th -23rd we have our Radicais (Radicals, kids club run through my community house) end of the year camp. We are still trying to raise money so that as many kids as possible can go, I would ask for prayer for the money to come in and for the kids to be changed by the camp. It is a rare moment for them to get out of the favela, out of the city and see the country side. I will write more about the camp next week. As December approaches I am making plans for Christmas and then the summer month of January (here it is moving into summer now and the month of January is a holiday month for everyone. I have several different ministry possibilities in other cities (which are a bit expensive because I would have to fly) and I would pray for wisdom to decide which ministry I should be involved in. Thanks for all your prayers and support. God bless.