As of last Thursday, we have been living in Brasil for a whole month! That puts us at 5 weeks being here now!! This has felt like the longest and shortest month of our lives. As of late, we've been involved in many different aspects of the ministry.
1) The Father's Love Conference was just held a couple weekends ago. It was a great and busy time, and we enjoyed it immensely! Head to Shores of Grace on Facebook to see some photos, videos, and testimonies from it. JD played the drums for 3/5 sessions and Brittni recorded the sessions. It was a great learning experience!
2) During this time, we also hosted 7 adult guests and a baby! They were visitors from the city of Fortaleza and from the Sertão. We rarely saw them since we were so busy with the conference, but it was very exciting to have so many people staying in our home. We look forward to doing it again soon!
3) We have started working with the kids at Bethany! At least once a week, we go over for a few hours and hang out with the babies (boys and girls under the age of 3). We spend time playing with the babies and young kids in the baby room, but we also spend time taking them out in the yard to let them burn off some energy! On Tuesday evenings, we help take the older girls from Bethany to our base where we have a futebol (soccer) court. We often play a mixture of soccer and Brazilian dodgeball! Here are few pictures from Bethany this week:
4) Every Friday night, staff and volunteers at Shores head to the Avenida (the word for Avenue in English) to minister to the women that work the streets here in Recife. When we go, we go with the purpose of revealing the love that a Father has for his children, and speaking to their true identity: they are His daughter/son, and there is nothing they can do to separate themselves from His love.
On this Friday particular night, we met a girl who we'll call Jessica. When we approached Jessica, she was staring off into the distance completely oblivious to anything that was going on around her. We started a conversation with her and came to understand that this was her first night back on the streets after having left them for two years! She told us she didn't even know why she was on the streets; she had a good job that paid well, a good family situation, a life that was not stressful at the moment, etc. But here she was on the streets where her value, her humanity, and her identity are dictated monetarily. We started sharing with Jessica about her true identity: she is a daughter and she has a Papa that loves her. We told her He has already given her the keys to freedom and all she needs to do is unlock the door that is in front of her and walk out from the (proverbial) cage she found herself in. As we continued to share these truths with her, she eventually revealed that she has been struggling with shame and feeling like she was beyond rescuing - that it would be a waste of God's time to even try to show love to her.
After listening to her share these intimate details of her life, it caused me to ponder, reflect, and search myself to see if I also allowed to shame and guilt to drive me further from God. Did I allow myself to go into a place that, although it was void of God, felt comfortable to me because I knew I could control the circumstances around me? Not surprisingly, the answer was yes. We all, I feel, can identify with Jessica in a similar way. We all have allowed shame and self-condemnation to push us into a place that feels comfortable, though in actuality, it is a cage that we have committed ourselves to. It is much easier at times to convince ourselves of our guilt and shame than it is to convince ourselves that our Father loves us the same no matter what. His love is unconditional and there is nothing we can do to earn it. All it takes is for us to draw near to Him, and He will draw near to us.
In the case of Jessica this night, the Father was drawing himself near to His daughter and showing that there is nothing she can do to separate herself from His love. His love will chase her down and meet her wherever she is at - even if it is on the side of a street while she struggles with knowing she is worth more than any price that will be offered to her that night.
5) Make sure to follow us on Instagram to see snippets of our life here in Brasil!
- Brittni's: @brittni.grant
- Jd's: @the_bearded_lumberjack
Please be praying for a few things for us!
- Our monetary needs: We still need several more people/families/businesses to partner with us to do the work we are doing here. We have about $700 out of the $2000 we are needing to raise each month. To become a partner or to give a one time gift, please click here! This is instrumental as we pay for our rent, groceries, etc! Please let us know if you want to talk more about this!!
- Our Portuguese learning: We are practicing our language skills for about an hour each day on our own. Pray that we absorb as much of the learning as we can and that we would have opportunities to practice our speaking and listening skills with native speakers!
- For continued grace: to adjust to our new lifestyles, new country, new cultures, and to being away from our families during the upcoming holiday season!
