My Girls! Minhas Meninas!

It is not how much we do, but how much LOVE we put in the doing. It is not how much we give, but how much LOVE we put in the giving.

Mother Teresa

These are the beautiful lives that I have the priviledge of working with here in Brazil. All of these girls live in the Cafezal slum and many are living in extremely difficult family situations. Please pray for these girls and for TRANSFORMATION in their homes and lives!

God's love and message of HOPE and LIFE can bring great change to these girls, their families, and their futures. We are praying that they will choose this abundant and love-filled LIFE of knowing God and being in an intimate relationship with Him.

Ballet in Brazil!

PRAISE HIM WITH DANCING... PSALM 150:4 During the month of August the Light House was greatly blessed by a Brazilian volunteer (named Michelle) who taught ballet to the girls in my groups.

Warming up.. Point and Flex, Point and Flex!

Michelle also shared about the beauty that each girl has! God has created each one perfectly, wonderfully, and beautifully! They are princesses and they have worth and value because they are daughters of the KING.

All of the girls LOVED the Ballet lessons!

You can see the JOY on their beautiful faces.

For the girls to have the opportunity to learn some ballet was truly a special thing! Many of these girls come from families that have very little money and they could never afford to pay for a ballet class.

Dancing with beautiful scarfs!!! The girls loved this part of the Ballet class!

Enjoy watching these precious girls dance in the video below!!!

ALL BECAUSE OF LOVE...

There are so many things that I love about working with the girls groups here at the Light House Community Center! But one thing that especially touches my heart is the way the girls enter into our house each day.

We keep the doors locked except during the Light House working hours. Whenever it is time to unlock the main gate to start the morning or afternoon sessions there is always a great CELEBRATION! Children are eagerly and expectantly waiting outside the Light House to enter and participate in our daily activities.

I love this part of the day! I usually stand at the top of a hill near the entrance to greet the girls (unless I am the special one to do the honors of opening the door). Whenever the gate is opened my girls come flooding in with their big, beautiful brown eyes searching to find exactly where I am. When they spot me they call out my name, “Laura! Laura!” and come running full speed towards me, arms wide open and upraised - ready to give me a BIG hug!

As they enter our house, I can see such a relief and a joy on their faces. They are finally inside!

The girls know they are SAFE here…
They are now in an environment of love, affirmation, discipline, and protection. They are off the streets, out of their troubled and chaotic homes, and away from the harsh reality of life in the slums.

They know they can RUN to me...
I am always there waiting, with arms of love available, to embrace and accept them.

They know they can find LOVE…
Through my life, my words, my actions, my attitude, my presence - I am here to offer the LOVE of Jesus Christ to each child. It is my prayer that each girl will encounter the unconditional and unfailing LOVE of God when they enter into the Light House! This is the reason I am here in Brazil, working with hurting children who live in poverty…

It is all because of LOVE! The love of Jesus Christ!

OLYMPICS in BRAZIL!

Last week we held the 2008 Summer Olympics here at the Light House Community Center!

Every year the center holds these special games. A YWAM Go Team (visiting from Holland) also helped organize and run this special event! Enjoy the photos below of our amazing week with the kids from the slum!

The Olympic flame being carried by the son of one of the missionary families serving here!

MY AWESOME TEAM!!

We represented the nation of BRAZIL!!!

Painting our flag and preparing for the opening ceremony and the Olympic parade of nations!

Our parade of nations on the streets in the slum. It is a beautiful view of the city here and you can even see the United States team (in the blue shirts) just in front of Brazil. You can also see the US flag in this photo.

The Holland team cheering and singing with much spirit! This parade on the street was such an exciting experience. I thought of the words of a famous song,

"Open up the doors and let the music play, let the streets resound with singing!"

Each day we started our Olympic events with prayer! Here is a mighty man of God praying to start our day! What a precious one he is...

We also had a time of singing and worshiping the Lord! Here are my sweet girls helping me lead the worship time.

The Olympic teams! From left to right - New Zealand (black), Brazil (yellow), England (red), Holland (orange), South Africa (green), and United States of America (blue). We chose these six specific countries because they represent the different nations of the Light House staff members.
The South Africa Team!!!
Jump the Creek! We measured which team could jump the farthest.

A swimming obstacle course in the Light House Pool!
GO Brazil team!

A obstacle course in the park!
The team with the best time won points.

A team building activity. The goal of the game was to get a banana out of the tree without stepping inside a boundary line that was placed around the tree. The team had to work together and received points for how well they worked together and included everyone on the team.
The Brazil team in deep thought and discussion!

A bowling game! Each team won points for knocking down the bottles.

Sporting TEAM SPIRIT!!!! GO BRAZIL!!!

The leaders revealing the FINAL SCORE for the Olympic games!

The MEDAL Ceremony! Cheering the kids on as they were receiving the medals!

This little guy is so serious about receiving his SILVER medal!

One of the girls from my morning group happy with her medal!

Beautiful Bliss!

The New Zealand team got the GOLD! Here is the New Zealand team doing their team war cry and dance which was so cool! They did a traditional native dance and song of the indiginous people of New Zealand!

Now he is PROUD with his SILVER medal!!!

Happy and at home in the Light House...

AN INSIDE LOOK...The life of one little girl living in the slums of Brazil

The following story I orginally wanted to include in my summer newsletter, but that was getting WAY too long. So I decided to post it on my blog.

I wanted to share this story so that people could get an understanding of what life is like in the lives of children and families who live in the slums of Brazil.

Every life has a different story. Many children are born into complicated family situations and histories, full of harsh realities such as death due to the drug trade, disease, poverty, abuse, neglect...

This is just one story of one little girl living in the slum of Cafezal, Belo Horizonte.

"The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty."

Mother Teresa

Beautiful Maria* is eight years old…

Her parents are separated. Maria, her three brothers and one sister (all under 13 years of age) were all living in their father’s house – yet this father is hardly at home and when he is at home he spends most of his time with his girlfriend. Maria’s mother abandoned the family a year ago. She had no contact with the family, but then in April returned for a visit and is now thankfully a part of her children's lives again.

Maria’s dad often leaves his children to live alone in their small, dirty house for two to three weeks at a time. He travels with his job and although he works a lot, the children do not have the basic necessities--consistent daily meals and proper care and clothing. A few weeks ago, Maria and her two brothers went into a neighbor’s home and stole food because they were so hungry. It is very dangerous to steal within a slum community because the drug lords enforce their own set of laws. If someone steals from someone else who lives within the slum the drug lords will beat or torture the person as a form of punishment.

Maria’s hygiene suffers as well due to not being properly cared for. She often arrives to our morning girls group wearing old, dirty clothing with many holes and smelling of urine. She also recently had a terrible case of lice! I spent some time trying to comb the lice eggs out of her hair, but after three weeks Maria still cannot seem to get rid of them! Maria is hungry for affection from a mother figure. She struggles to express her true emotions and is constantly seeking attention through unusual behavior.

Maria often spends hours playing in the streets. She has no concept of what day of the week it is or what time it is. She often has arrived late to the Light House simply because she has no one to help orient her with what time it is and what day of the week it is. Many times she would ask me, "Laura, do we have YWAM tomorrow?" I have always tried to help her remember the days of the week and when we have our girls group.

Due to many concerns about all the children in the family, some leaders from the Light House recently met with the father and mother to discuss the situation of this family. Thankfully some important decisions were made by the parents and hopefully the overall care and living conditions of the children will improve.

It was decided that Maria and her younger brother, who is six years old, are going to live with their mother and her new boyfriend (on the other side of town). Now these two young ones who need the most care and attention will be living with their mother. Hopefully this will be a good move and the children will transition into a new school and new neighborhood well.

The three older children will continue to live with the father. Both the father and the mother have agreed to do a better job of caring for the children. The parents are starting the process of getting an official divorce and the children will be allowed to visit each other and their parents on the weekends.

Please pray for this family! For healing, protection, restoration, and for the family to respond to the LOVE of God that is revealed to them over and over. There is HOPE for each child and the parents as well through the LOVE and REDEMPTIVE POWER of Jesus Christ!

All five children have participated in some way in the programs offered here at the Light House and we as a staff are going to continue to work with and monitor this family's situation. We desire that God will give us wisdom in how to approach and truly help this family.

* For her protection the child’s name has been changed and the photos are of other children from the same community.