Quick Update

It's Carnival again in Brazil! Tomorrow morning (5AM) we will load 3 cars and drive 9 hours up north to take part in a retreat with our youth group in Belo Horizante. We will be gone through Wednesday.

A couple updates -
last blog I mentioned that Harley had come into our home in expectation of getting into rehab. He is doing great! He has been through a world of change in a week and is committed to seeing this through and becoming a new kind of husband/dad. His depression has been turned to joy in an amazing way! I have started meeting one on one with his son weekly as well, who has been launched into a whole new level of reality through this experience.

we are working with a lawyer (our friend Vitinho) to set up our non-profit organization to better serve guys coming out of rehab. God has brought all kinds of connections out of nowhere to make this happen, i'll have to explain all that in another blog.

Please pray for this journey and retreat. Trips are very formative experiences for youth groups, and we want to see our kids be formed as Christ would have them to be.

Alright, happy Carnival to you all!

An undeniable God

There have been some things that we've lived in this last week that have been hard to describe... because I'm not sure that I "get it" myself. One example is the story of Fran. Her story with us started a week ago Thursday, the day after we got back into the country.

Before going to the US in January Ali and I were becoming more and more involved with a work of the city government called CREAS. They work assisting homeless and youth on probation and I had offered my services for assisting in home visits and group meetings. When I went to visit recently, it was to initiate this type of service again, but that's not what happened.

As I stepped into Alzira's office (the city's social worker who has now become a close friend) there was a lot of tension in the air. They had been working all day to resolve a problem with a 15 year old girl named Fran who had come to them for help because of abuse in the home. They had arranged an interview for her to be taken into a clinic, but this wouldn't be till Monday. They had exhausted their resources the city had nothing to offer her. They were about to send her back into her abusive home. I asked to use the phone, Ali and I talked it over, and Fran moved temporarily into our home.

Ali and I had just arrived back here in Itu from a month in the US, so this wasn't easy. Fran's presence took a lot of attention. She didn't know the norms of being in someone else's home, when she was in a room we couldn't help but wonder what wouldn't be when she came out, and her base interaction with boys was... constant.

Fran saw a different world here, and took part in it. She went with us to church and various home groups. When she learned of our plans to have a community center she took us to a place that she thought we should consider (pictured here). It is an old night club that is falling apart and mainly used by kids who are looking for a place to do drugs.

We learned a lot about the Itu drug market as Fran used to sell. We went downtown with her one night and she started pointing out who sells, who prostitutes and explaining how it's all organized, stuff fifteen year olds aren't supposed to know.

The clinic that Fran was supposed to be put into didn't work out. She ended up staying with us for a week before another solution was worked out by the city. I questioned how wise this was on my part, and wasn't going to blog about it because I figured, 'this is not what we do... it's just something that happened. We have a focus and I don't want to give the false impression that this is it.' Then Alzira (the social worker who is pictured below with her husband) came and sat down with Ali one evening to talk about what was going on.


Alzira would not refer to herself as a Christian, and maybe that's why her words struck me so hard. She described the day this all started. She had brainstormed with all of her co-workers, called on all available city resources, called for a second brainstorming session, and then made some more phone calls and she had come up with nothing. She was giving up and dreading telling Fran that she would have to go back home. Telling Ali this story she said, "I only know of one person in this city who would open his own home to a situation like this, and at that very moment, he walks into my office, hears the story, and says, 'okay, she can come home with us'. It was like there was some... cooperation between something bigger and Mark to bring about the right sollution at the right time..."

Then I realized, this is a story to be told openly because it had very little to do with 'what I was doing,' and everything to do with what God was doing. That was clear even to someone who lacks words for "something bigger" and it is a witness to the readiness of our God to use us in this world.

As I write this we have a new visitor in our house. His name is Harley and he has been addicted to drugs for many years. Harley sought me out this morning desperate for help. I spoke with the director of the rehab clinic and there is a waiting list, but we are going to start the process this afternoon. In the days between now and when he can move in, Harley will be with us and will sleep with Manu and Eric in the garage. We are in the process of opening a halfway house, and till it's open, looks like we're it.

Please pray for Gods strong presence in this house. His kingdom come, His will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.

Back at it

In the last month Ali and I spent time with a lot of family and friends. We were in the US and spent time in Michigan, Ohio, and Texas. We spent a lot of time catching folks up on what's happening in Brazil, and learning from some of the things unfolding State-side. We loved the time there and are very grateful to the many families who hosted us. Wednesday night we arrived back home, and life is crazy once more!

On Thursday, I visited with a unit of the city government that deals with youth on probation and homeless. They are excited about our intentions to start a halfway house for the guys getting out of rehab, and set up a meeting this coming Thursday for us to meet with the cities secretary of social action to propose our plan and to discover what help we the city might offer.

This morning one of the city social workers, Alzira, came to visit the location. We talked with many of you about the crack house that we would like to turn into a halfway house, and the abandoned daycare that we hope to use as a community center. Below are pictures of both.

This will be a big week regarding these projects, and with catching up with the rest of our normal lives. We appreciate your prayers as we jump back into life here in Itu. We know that God has great things in store, and are anxious to live them out.

Redemption Songs

We recently enjoyed a wonderful Christmas celebration in keeping with the purpose of Jesus' coming - reconciliation.

We work with a large group of homeless here in Itu who come to our home once a week to shower, eat and get a change of clothes. Members of our church cook for this event, donate clothing, and a few come and help serve the ministry as well. I also work with a drug rehab clinic. This is a six month program brings to life individuals who are filled with death by the powerful mercy and love of Christ.

We wanted to bring together our church families, homeless, and the men from rehab so that the redemptive work of Christ could shine, so we threw a Christmas banquet! We cooked a great meal and decorated our church building for Christmas. Many church families signed up to come, two of our closest friends offered to sing during dinner... but I was pretty nervous about whether our homeless guests and the guys from rehab would show or not. I loved Ali's response though to this concern- "if they don't show up it'll just be like that parable of the wedding banquet - we'll go through the streets and squares and bring in whoever we find." I love this girl!

The guys did show up! They came to our house early to shower and get a fresh change of clothes. And I went to the clinic (which is in break now till January) and enough guys came back to load our Volkswagen bus.

At the church we had a great reception from our church members. They were anxiously waiting to meet the guys and make them feel like true honored guests. And the rehab guys were anxious to meet with our homeless crew, to share experiences and to let them know that they had been redeemed from some of the same traps, that there is hope! One of our guys from the rehab crew actually came out of our homeless crew and gave the example of a life changed to his old friends. He reminded them that this new life is available to them too, and Samuel seems to have really been inspired by this; he is wanting to start rehab in January now. Please pray that he continues to follows through on this!

Another result of this event is that a few members of our homeless community left feeling surprised by the warmth they were shown by a church, and wanting to be a part of this family. They have come back to the two services since this dinner, and further developed the friendships they found here. I want everyone to hear the message of Christ, this event highlights to me how ears are opened to that message when they experience the love of Christ.

Celebrate Recovery

Every Tuesday night is Celebrate Recovery night. This is our support group which embraces individuals with destructive habits, traumas from dysfunctional lifestyles, etc. It is one of those places where I most clearly see the church being the accepting and redeeming force that it is called to be. Anyone can come in humility as they are to the God who forgives and restores.

We began today with a simple taking of communion. That is an element that I like to use, especially when an individual in the group is feeling like an unworthy outcast. It is a good reminder that the blood of Christ was spilt specifically for this purpose. We mess up, and God isn't surprised. He shed His blood so that the sin could be removed and we could come back as sons. The final scripture of the lesson was Ephesians 4:13 - But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

Churches are intimidating sometimes. People who don't know the love of Christ define them as places where condemnation abounds. I am so thankful that we serve a God who is bigger than the need to condemn just to prove his own holiness. A God who came down to earth and got dirty in the process of providing forgiveness and new life to those who would humbly come and seek it.

There was a lot of pain on the table tonight. A lot of brokenness and darkness. But there was mercy too, and new hope.

These pictures were taken with our homeless friends. We regularly have communion with them on Sunday afternoons downtown.

Louv'Arte - An event of worship through art.

One of the guys who lives in our home and works as a partner with Ali and I in our ministry is Carioca. Here's his pic. He is a marketing professional who was searching for a way to live out his faith in a real way when he came to our house. Now he lives with us and is a huge important part of our ministry team.

Carioca recently headed up an event in our church called Louv'Arte. This event was all about worship in community through the expression of creative gifts. Sixteen artists came together and used their artistic talents in a beautiful mixture of art through dance, sculpting, painting, music (from classic violin, to contemporary worship, to Italian opera), culinary creation, crochet and poetry. We had participants that ranged from 15 to over 80 years old. Members of our church, famous Itu artist Paulo Lara, famous Cuban American artist and friend of ours Rolando Diaz, and professional dancer Jackie Beth Shilcutt (who lives with us too at the moment - all part of our amazing life!) all came to get in on the action.

It was incredible and inspiring! God was praised in wonderful communal celebration. Check out these pics.

David starts the night off with sounds of classic violin

Ismael offers artful creations from his culinary talent

Heidi uses craft skills to create beautiful gifts

Simone's poetry corner

Ricardo works on his sculpture entitled "Original Sin."





Rolando Diaz paints a piece on worship in dance inspired by the dancing of Jackie Beth.

Worship through song by Deborah.




Pedro and Heloisa work on sketch pieces, which include subjects from our lunch for the homeless (I'm really proud of these kids!)

Walkeria works on a humorous self portrait depicting herself and her husband.



Paulo Lara painting a work for our church

While artists perform, participants are invited to add to a mural with various expressions of worship.

The event was a great bonding experience for our church members too. Doing what you love together in worship is powerful, fun, exciting... just not easy to describe!

Thank you God for the variety of gifts you have blessed us with. May our use of these gifts always be a pleasing offering to You.

MI CASA, TU CASA

Ali is currenlty in the middle of an online masters program from Rochester Christian Colege. One of her recent assignments was to describe her ministry context. I'd love for you to read it, so I've posted it below. Enjoy.

It’s a small house, smaller than one might imagine after hearing about the movement going on inside. The metal farm bell hangs next to the closed gate and ivy wall, and when it’s rung the entire neighborhood knows someone has arrived. The house sits at the back of a lot four times its size, and has the built area of approximately 600 square feet, which include 2 bedrooms, a kitchen, a living room, 2 bathrooms, and a garage (the guys’ room). There is a large front yard (Brazilian standards), with 7 different fruit trees, an attempt at a garden (plans in the works), and a pergolado (a wooden structure, similar to a gazebo, but square). The pergolado is an external extension of the house, and serves as the eating area, nap area (in the hammock), and a place where life-changing conversations hover over the leaves of the trees, waiting for the next companions to have a seat.

There are six of us that live here. Yes, six: Mark (my husband), Barbara, Brandon, Carioca, Manu, and myself. We call ourselves a “non-nuclear family”. Mark and I have a room, and Barbara has her own room, but she has to share the bathroom. The guys have made the garage into a very comfortable habitat for 4. The living room couch often hosts 2-3 friends on the weekends. Twice a week (Thursdays and Fridays) we receive homeless and youth, each night between 30-40 beautiful people come to share life. Our home hosts life. We are couched in between the local church building we serve with, and the bus station, and both receive very different crowds. One caters to the middle class, the other to the low income. One has a parking lot for the expensive cars that park once a week, the other welcomes the sojourners dependent on public transportation. One has the mission to offer donations from their excess, the other is dependent on the city’s low budget to function. And we chose this location on purpose: to bring the rude and the crude realities to encounter each other over a meal, sitting at the same table, dancing to the same music, wondering about the same questions, struggling with the same disconnection. This home invites you to open your wings.

As we’ve listened to our friends share their first impressions about entering our home, many details stand out in their memories: the surplus of sleeping bags, always anticipating the unknown visitor; the Kombi VW bus, to carry the most amount of people; the messy scribbled walls, used to visualize new ideas and dreams; the lack of TV, to emphasize human interaction and connection; the music, used to awaken, to inspire, to calm, to unite. All of these items (or lack there of) are symbolic of the identity we want to carry, they are ways we want to express our calling to live simple and communal life.

But there is one common aspect to every room of the house that I find the most symbolic of the life style we’ve chosen. Every cabinet, every closet has no doors. Our kitchen pantry is wide open, as well as our dishes and appliances clearly exposed. Our clothes hang with no protection (often slightly dirty from the breeze bringing in dust), and are surprisingly unissex. Our toiletries are on open shelves (Carioca had 3 tooth brushes chewed up by the dogs last month!) and available to whomever is using the bathroom. Our shoes hang on walls, and we use the first pair of flip flops we can reach. The front door is never locked.

We want to question what there really is to protect in this world. We want people to know that what is available in the house, is available to them. We want to expose our lack of organization in a way that helps people understand they don’t have to have it all together and spotless and sterile to come and contribute to this home. And yes, sometimes it’s frustrating, and it’s messy, and it’s crowded, and it’s cluttered (because we receive all the donations to pass on), and the grass grows too tall (literally), and this is when we have to count on other’s abilities and availabilities to help us clean and eliminate and simplify and refresh.

This is our house. This is our home. This is my context, creating the synergy that inspires me and others.