What an amazing country Brazil is! We feel so blessed to be here doing God's work. We are in one big group of 57 people (including Jason's dad for 11 days) and man is it fun to be together like this! It is our first time to do outreach with such a big group, and our ministry times on the streets attract people right away. Worship has been an amazing way to draw people in, as well as dramas, dances and testimonies. Wow, has it been fun to be able to encourage each other from different perspectives of what God did during these times. Jason's dad hasn't been on an outreach in about 10 years, so this has been an incredible experience for him as well to be able to go out with a group of people and minister again. He is such an encouragement and example to all of us, as staff and students.
One highlight of our outreach times so far has been doing evangelistic programs at schools in a poor suburb of Rio de Janeiro. At 3 different schools, we have been able to share the gospel with close to 3000 teens! It is so evident that the Holy Spirit is touching their hearts, by their tears and their desire to pray with us. We also had the opportunity to prayer walk/worship through a favela (slum) that used to be one of the most violent ones in Rio. A man named Pedro has been ministering there for the past 22 years, and said that through God's intervention and doing prayer walks there in the past 5 years, it is now a safe place for everyone! They no longer war with the neighboring favelas. Also, the top drug lord of that favela came to watch us pray and worship for a while, and Pedro said that he had an experience with Jesus recently that changed his life!
Thank you for sending us to Brazil. We feel so privileged to be a part of what God is doing here. We have seen a lot of lives touched and we still have 6 weeks to go! Please pray that we would have energy to continue to press into what Jesus has for us here; we want to be involved in all of it! If you want to see a few photos of what we are doing here, check out Erika's facebook page!
Love, Jason and Erika
