Acampamissão
The youth group
traveled to a city 80 miles away for a camp known as Acampamissão. Translated
this means “missions camp”. I went as a sponsor/participant (“youth group” is a
very liquid term here… we have kids from 13-23 in our youth group). I have
never been so blessed or learned so much from an experience. The purpose of
this camp is to serve through events organized by the missions training group
AME (the Brazilian version of AIM, Adventures in Missions) for the purpose of
loving people like Jesus. The people who participated were from our youth
group, and a couple of other youth groups in the area. First, let me explain
that this event is SUCH a big deal to our kids. Since I arrived 6 weeks ago
it’s ALL they talk about. They have been making homemade chocolates and selling
them at parks and the beach to raise money to go to this event. We left at 5:30
in the morning to drive to the other city, named João Pessoa. Some of the girls
that were going stayed the night with me to be closer to the church building so
they wouldn’t be late. They woke up at FOUR IN THE MORNING to get ready, and
were anxiously waiting to go by 4:30. That’s how excited they were. We had a
group of 15 in total counting myself and the two other sponsors. I was
expecting something like church camp, but this experience was completely
different. There was no time to rest, no time to play around. Only time to
serve. Instead of staying up late to talk the kids were begging to go to bed
earlier, because they were so tired from all of the fantastic work they did.
On Day 1 we broke
up into 3 different teams. One team went door to door to talk about some of the
classes the church is offering and to invite people to church. They were met
with various answers, and even stayed to study the Bible with some people.
Another team went to the university nearby to talk to students about the
English classes the American AIM students who are here are giving. These
classes teach English using the Bible. It’s a big success here in Brazil and
results in lots of people attending church. The third group, my group, served
at the church itself. We cleaned up the grounds and painted the walls. It was
wonderful and much needed and we had a good time serving the church together
and getting to know one another.
That night we had dinner on the streets.
I’ve never done anything like this in my life. We took plastic cups and two
HUGE pots (I’m talking 4-5 gallons each) of really healthy veggie soup as well
as tons of bread and ate dinner with homeless people. That’s right. Not only
did we feed homeless people, but we sat and ate with them, having conversations
and praying with them. I want to be realistic about our experience, so I’ll be
honest. Homeless people stink. I also want you to know that just like every
other Brazilian, they’re touchy-feely. The problem is that no one ever touches them. Because they stink. Not our kids,
though. The very first stop we made two or three of the youth sat down beside
an older woman, talking with her and eating with her. The woman got emotional
at something and one of the girls, about 14, didn’t hesitate a bit to put her
hand on the woman’s back and kept gently rubbing it to comfort her, talked with
her and then they prayed with her. The touch caught the woman by surprise, but
immediately a grateful smile lit up her emaciated face. We separated into
groups, staying to eat and talk with groups of homeless people as we found
them. I was with one of the American AIM students, carrying a cup of soup when
we happened upon a small group. One woman was crouched between two cars,
looking sad and alone. I went up to her, crouched close so our knees were
almost touching, and asked her name. After she said I told her mine. Her head
was down the whole time, but many homeless people are shy like that. I asked
her if she might want a cup of soup and some bread and she looked up hungrily,
nodding vigorously. I gave her the cup of soup, which she sat on the ground. As
I tried to make conversation with her I realized I was alone with her and
hidden, and I smelled something very strange. I moved a bit to see what she
kept looking down at and discovered she was smashing a white substance into
powder on top of a crushed beer can, then swiping it into a match box. I’ll be
honest in that I was very shocked and a little scared. I quietly but quickly
said, “you don’t have to do that. Jesus loves you. I love you and I’m praying
for you.” She trembled a little and with the same hungry eyes looked at me for
a moment, but then looked down again and I stood up and left. It was hard to
handle the situation, I’ll be honest, as I’ve never experienced it before, and
it took all I had to stay and say those words after I discovered what she was
doing. It broke my heart. A few moments later, I saw three kids heading that
way to the rest of the group close to the woman. I hurried and caught up with
them to supervise and they handled the situation expertly, handing off the cups
of soup, talking a little, and then leaving after telling the people where the
church was and saying its doors were always open. These are kids, I thought,
and I wanted to get a sense of whether they knew exactly what they had just
witnessed, so I asked them what was going on back there. They explained to me
as if I was the kid and THEY were far older. “Those poor people were smoking
crack. They feel like they can’t do anything better in life. It’s sad, but they
were harmless, Mindi, because we sure don’t look like police to catch them or
rich people to be robbed.” I’m proud of the wisdom and the loving heart of
these kids (but I still wish they were more careful!!). They always called
every person they met “sir” and “ma’am” and always touched them in some way,
hugging or keeping their hand on the person’s back, shoulder, or arm, to give
comfort and transmit their love in a tangible way. It was truly a life-changing
experience, to watch the people I came to serve and love serving and loving others
in such a profound way. It was humbling. On the way home from the event all the
kids would talk about is ideas to do the same thing here in Recife where we
live, because they don’t think it should be a once-a-year camp thing. Of this,
too, I’m proud, and I hope that in a little while I’m blogging about watching
the love of Jesus flow from the hands and mouths of our youth as they serve the
people of their neighborhood in ways like this.
The second day I was part of a group
called “AME Saúde”. This means “Love Health”. Once again we took to the
streets, armed with a blood pressure cuff, a scale to weigh, 2 physical
therapists, a huge tray of fresh fruit and 5 gallons of water, some excited
youth to call people to where we were, and myself and another of the sponsors to
share “mental/emotional/spiritual health” AKA give counseling. Armed with
Bibles and smiles we got to talk with people on the street about how they were
doing, if they were connected to a church, what they thought about God, and to
talk a little bit about the church in João Pessoa, including inviting them and
giving them a pamphlet to explain where and when. We talked, laughed, cried,
and prayed with the people who came our way. One lady came up to us just to thank
us for what we were doing. She explained she’s a Christian and it was so good
to see people serving others. She told us she’d been in ministry when she was
younger, then said she’d had breast cancer not too long ago and that she thinks
God is done using her. We talked with her a bit about her situation and if
maybe God could be using her to encourage others passing through the same
difficulties she had been through. It was like a light came on in her brain and
she started smiling and nodding. We prayed with her, that God would give her
strength and courage and open doors for her to keep serving Him in the midst of
hard times. Her name is Silene, so please take a moment to also pray for these
things for her. Our kids were relentless, inviting passing people on the street
to what we were doing, often running after them if they kept walking. It was
encouraging to see them so enthusiastic about reaching out to others in this
way, as well, and such an interesting experience to pick up random people off
the street to love on and pray for.
I can’t express the joy I feel having
experienced these things together with the youth here in Brazil. It’s a
beautiful thing to serve God in whatever situation, especially knowing these
youth who are so eager to do it so young. It’s a rich learning experience to
watch the nationals serving others in their own country and I kept thinking to
myself, “this… this is the natural outcome of the Gospel...” This is God
working in the world today. Serving the needs of others, both the physical and
spiritual needs, taking on the yoke of the ministry of reconciliation as Paul
says in 2 Corinthians 5:17-20 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new
creation has come: the old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God,
who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry
of reconciliation, that God was reconciling the world to himself in
Christ, not counting people's sins against them. And He has committed to
us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors,
as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s
behalf: Be reconciled to God.”
Jeremiah 20:9, “If I say, ‘I will not
mention Him, or speak any more in His name’, there is in my heart as it were a
burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I
cannot.” I pray that you’re all encouraged by the examples I’ve shared of our
teens serving, and that the Good News of Christ is to you what God’s word was
to Jeremiah- you couldn’t hold it in if you tried!
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