Ministering in the Favellas

Today we went to a different community to minister. The poor houses here are called favellas (slums). We have been to favellas before but the ones we went to today are government houses. They are small brick/cement houses stacked on top of one another. The children were everywhere and continued to follow us all throughout the community. We brought candy, toys and some small soccer balls to hand out to kids. Once they saw the gifts, they never left our side! We had quite a group by the end of the day!! One of the cool stories from last night's festa was of a 13 year old girl. Jane sat down with her and her family first thing and talked the whole night. She couldn't speak English very well (only a few words such as Chris Brown :) but loved to talk with the "Americans." We invited her to church and she promised she would come on Sunday. We found out later from Alexandre (the Interim Youth pastor) that the girl does not know Jesus and had not been to church. It was neat to be a part of her beginning a relationship with the church and Christ. Our plan for tonight includes dinner at a churrascaria restaurant in Barra (pronounced Baha). Barra is the wealthier part of Rio and the most Americanized section. We don't have a festa tonight, because we have three tomorrow! On another great note: the women now have hot water for showers! For the first couple of days our electric water heater didn't seem to work and we just thought we would have to make the best of it. It turned out the heater just needed to be adjusted! Thank the Lord for hot water!