Rescuing The Remnant...

Sao Paulo, one of Brazil’s richest cities is recognized as a city of stark contrasts; the haves and the have nots.  Luxurious skyscrapers overlook neighboring hillsides that support shacks and shelters that are home to thousands living in extreme poverty.  Downtown, businessmen in three-piece suits walk among children that call the streets their home.  This is the group of children that are left behind, overlooked and forgotten—
a remnant of children that need rescuing and need the love of Jesus Christ to set them free from the addictions, dangers and futility of their lives.

The Dream...

In a city that is home to more than ten million people it is imperative that the workers live and have a daily presence among the kids we seek to reach.  In partnership with Solidarity, I will work with a non-profit organization known as ABBA who is already doing work with the people of Sao Paulo.  They are planning to develop a drop-in center located where many of the street kids live.  The dream is to bring together a team of committed individuals who will permanently move into this area of the city and be in daily contact with these kids.  This center will help develop the necessary relationships that will allow ABBA to begin the process of restoring each child and even moving many to Christ-centered family homes.

How The Dream Is Being Lived Out Today...

The following is a message is from Tim and his  most recent October 2008 Update:

“J” was a normal kid on the streets of São Paulo, a normal kid that roamed the area of the city known as Crack Land.” By crack land standards “normal” meant a life that specifically revolved around drugs. “J” as living in this reality and one day he reached his limit…

In April of 2008 I was able to be involved in the collaboration of various ministries working on the streets.  Up until the point of monthly meetings within these ministries, many of them had been fighting the battles on the streets almost completely on their own. These organizations were all working separately, in the same places, with the same kids, and with the same end goal in mind. The normal human perspective would look at this situation and continue doing the same thing, each group trying to out do the other, creating their own programs, producing their own results and trying to make the name of their organization better than the others. These meetings though brought about different goals for all of us. There came about a realization that the situation on the streets was not about us, our own names, or our own success.

…One day a few members from one of these organizations were walking the streets of crack land and noticed a boy sitting on the curb all alone. They approached this boy, noticed he was crying, and began talking to him. “What’s your name” they asked and the boy responded “my name is J.” As the conversation unraveled they found that this boy was tired of the streets. He was sick of the drugs, the danger, and the chaos that made up his life. He had reached his limits but had no place to go. These individuals continued to talk with him and encourage him to leave the streets but eventually they themselves had to leave their crying friend their on the curb because they had no resources to actually take him to a place where he could stay.

This new unity between our organizations had grown and a decision was made to let the kids on the streets know that this collaboration of ministries had taken place with specifically them in mind. The planning for a huge party began to take shape. Each of us brought to the table what we had to offer and after a simple 2 hour planning meeting there was already BBQ, Soda, live music, theatre groups, fire breathers, ice cream, arts, crafts, showers, clothes and places the kids could actually go and live if they were to decide to leave the streets. Over a few more monthly meetings the party was ready!

11:00 PM on the day of the party we split up into teams and went out to the areas on the streets where we knew we would find our friends. We began inviting everyone, letting them know there was a party going on specifically for them. When word got around about the food, the music, and the fun the kids started popping up all over the place despite the rain and bad weather. A few came jumping over walls, one woke up and left the old tattered suitcase that he had used to keep off the cold concrete the night before. Some brought along their shine boxes used to make a few bucks shining shoes, and others came with what they had on, which was little. It was a beautiful sight seeing these kids that normally go unnoticed by the common everyday passerby, to all of a sudden have every head on the street turned in their direction as this mob of street kids came cruising in their direction.

At the location of the party a small group of kids came straggling in. One of the workers noticed a boy he was glad to see and greeted him at the door. “hey J, glad you made it, how’s everything going?” J entered the party that afternoon and was bombarded with music, food, fire breathers, theatre and people that were their to let him know his life was worth so much more than what the streets had to offer him. As this party was ending some of us went around talking to kids individually, letting them know about the space we had at Casa Elohim (ABBA’s house for young boys) for them. As one of the workers got around to “J” and the opportunity was presented to him to leave the street, he automatically accepted. “Yes I want to leave the streets, what do I need to do.” After his acceptance the process was easy and that night, he and his best friend (the two even though being unrelated call each other “Brother”), both exchanged a cold concrete sidewalk for a soft comfortable bed and people that truly cared about them.

Looking back on this day we were all able to witness first hand the results that came about from this simple act of creating unity among ourselves. We saw that when change took place from our own convictions as ministries seeking to truly follow the way of Jesus that it brought about change specifically in the lives of those we had all been trying to reach on our own. This change would have been nearly impossible for each separate ministry standing on their own two feet but together this new change was different, It was complete!

{Thanks to all of you that prayed for this party from the request I made in my last update. Your prayers were answered!}