Last night, I had an amazing experience. I went to a church service where an old friend of ours has a small congregation. When we were in Rio working in this place where we are now, that's nearly 20 years ago. she had just lost her beautiful daughter to Lupus. She was heart broken but a while previously, she had accepted Christ as her Saviour and God had been calling her to be a Bible teacher. She is super intelligent (she was trained as a psychologist) and had been brought up in the church but like so many, she had never actually accepted Christ as her personal Saviour. I went with her one day up to the notorious shanty town (favela) which lies on the side of the mountain , nearest to us,where the statue of Christ is. She had started a Bible study for some women up there. I was absolutely astounded at her Bible knowledge and the gift she had in imparting it to others. I told my husband and we encouraged her and arranged for her to do a preaching tour in UK sponsored by the missionary society that we worked for at the time. Through this and other donations she was able to start a small creche type school for the children of the shanty town who never had chance to go to school because of the violence, drug running and general state of the shanty town. I was able to help her coordinate it because she gradually got more and more invitations to speak at conferences and mission outreaches all over Brazil.
One of the ladies from here took me with her last night to the church where she was due to preach. As we walked in, she was sharing with someone and others were sitting around. She didn't see me and I didn't want to interrupt. I walked up and as I was sitting down, there was this tremendous shout. " Kathryn Broughton, Gloria a Deus". (I think you can guess what the Portuguese means!!). We hugged each other and then had a few minutes to chat before the service began.
I was thrilled to hear that the creche/school is still going and even better than ever because it is now registered and has 11 teachers (most part time) some of whom were actually pupils when I was working there all those years ago. They now have 148 children and the number may rise as this is the month for registering. It is a completely Christian school with no government aid as they would have to accept none christian teachers, some of whom are spiritists. She also told me that not one child who has been through that Dona Marta school has ever got involved in the drug scene which was so prevalent there until about 18 months ago. That shanty town (favela,)called Dona Marta, was the first to be pacified so that drug running is a thing of the past and the mostly peaceful, law abiding people who live there in their little shacks, can live dignified and upright lives without fear of being shot or terrorised in some other way. Another thing to praise the Lord for is that 83% of those who live there (about 200.000 people) would call themselves born again Christians and several times a year they have combined prayer meetings on the very top with people from all the churches and even foreigners come who have heard of the wonderful work that God has done there. Formerly,the top of the hill was a place of terror and bloodshed where the drug runners took those who tried to get out of the gang or whom they thought had betrayed them. They were "punished by having their knee caps shot off or, worse still, their limbs chopped off and their bodies burnt. Police were afraid to go even a little way up the tortuous alleys and only those who were "approved" by the drug barons, whether inhabitants or visitors like me, were allowed past the first checkpoint manned by teenagers with machine guns. Running battles with the police and military were routine and many a time bullets would fly overhead here in our house and even further into the surrounding streets of the suburb where middle class people live.
Nowadays, there is a sort of cable car available and anyone can go up and down, there are various stops and so the long suffering, hard working people do not have to climb the very steep and sometimes dangerous slopes to get to their homes after a long and busy day at work. A police officer called Priscilla is credited with bringing peace and calm to a once forbidden danger zone. I hope to meet her one day.However, I know as do many others that really it has been a work of God and it has been and still is,his Holy Spirit which has transformed the lives of so many there and brought new life and hope.
One of the ladies from here took me with her last night to the church where she was due to preach. As we walked in, she was sharing with someone and others were sitting around. She didn't see me and I didn't want to interrupt. I walked up and as I was sitting down, there was this tremendous shout. " Kathryn Broughton, Gloria a Deus". (I think you can guess what the Portuguese means!!). We hugged each other and then had a few minutes to chat before the service began.
I was thrilled to hear that the creche/school is still going and even better than ever because it is now registered and has 11 teachers (most part time) some of whom were actually pupils when I was working there all those years ago. They now have 148 children and the number may rise as this is the month for registering. It is a completely Christian school with no government aid as they would have to accept none christian teachers, some of whom are spiritists. She also told me that not one child who has been through that Dona Marta school has ever got involved in the drug scene which was so prevalent there until about 18 months ago. That shanty town (favela,)called Dona Marta, was the first to be pacified so that drug running is a thing of the past and the mostly peaceful, law abiding people who live there in their little shacks, can live dignified and upright lives without fear of being shot or terrorised in some other way. Another thing to praise the Lord for is that 83% of those who live there (about 200.000 people) would call themselves born again Christians and several times a year they have combined prayer meetings on the very top with people from all the churches and even foreigners come who have heard of the wonderful work that God has done there. Formerly,the top of the hill was a place of terror and bloodshed where the drug runners took those who tried to get out of the gang or whom they thought had betrayed them. They were "punished by having their knee caps shot off or, worse still, their limbs chopped off and their bodies burnt. Police were afraid to go even a little way up the tortuous alleys and only those who were "approved" by the drug barons, whether inhabitants or visitors like me, were allowed past the first checkpoint manned by teenagers with machine guns. Running battles with the police and military were routine and many a time bullets would fly overhead here in our house and even further into the surrounding streets of the suburb where middle class people live.
Nowadays, there is a sort of cable car available and anyone can go up and down, there are various stops and so the long suffering, hard working people do not have to climb the very steep and sometimes dangerous slopes to get to their homes after a long and busy day at work. A police officer called Priscilla is credited with bringing peace and calm to a once forbidden danger zone. I hope to meet her one day.However, I know as do many others that really it has been a work of God and it has been and still is,his Holy Spirit which has transformed the lives of so many there and brought new life and hope.
