Santana’s Update May 2018

We feel that we are more settled in Brazil. The last year has been very intense and we still feel we need to recover. However, we also feel excited about the opportunities God has given us here and begin to get used to the way of life here. The slower pace and the more relational approach to life has its perks and we are making the most of it!

Levi has had some opportunities to preach in different places and is beginning to get into the network of pastors and churches in the city. In May he will running a workshop at Vocare (vocare.org), a conference in Southern Brazil for young adults exploring mission. There will be hundreds of people there and Levi will be speaking about planning a missionary career, helping young people to make their mission dream happen.

Debora continues to enjoy her hairdressing course and has had the opportunity to provide hair treatments and cuts to people during community events organised by her college. She finishes the course in July and is looking for opportunities to bless people through her skills in rehab centres around the city.

Since January we had many bugs and viruses. Levi had the flu twice and had the awful experience of being another Zika Virus victim. He is better now but the virus has left him very tired. The kids have had breathing issues ending up in A&E 5 times between them. Olivia, recently recovered from pneumonia and is doing well. We are now all bug free! Praise the Lord. Please continue to pray for protection over our health.

School Bullying
As some of you may know, Nicolas suffered bullying at school. We want to thank you all for praying and for your response on social media etc. He is doing really well now in a new group and is proving this by getting really good grades. He continues to be a blessing to us! Thank you for praying.

We continue to be committed to our street work on a weekly basis. We go out with coffee and spend time chatting, praying and singing with those we meet. Through this work we have met around 50 people on regular basis and 8 of whom have been sent to rehab, 3 remain in treatment.

Recently though, we have caught the attention of the local drug dealers who have sent people to monitor what we do. They have now stopped attending which, we hope, means they must be happy we are not a threat. Recently, we helped a young girl who had been kicked out from home by her mother. She is 15. When we were talking to her and taking her to the police station a drug dealer, Ron (not his real name), came up to Levi and offered to help by shooting the family. Levi, unsurprisingly, declined the offer. Ron then said we can count on him and that when he leaves the life of crime he will go to church.

We have formed a growing team that is really passionate about our work. This has really excited us and in a way confirms God is in this, not that we had any doubts. There will be larger event on 22nd June when we hope to provide showers, underwear, food and haircuts to around 150 people. This event will have a team of nearly 50 people from 3 different churches.

Chaplaincy at Credeq 

We have been asked to be Christian Chaplain at CREDEQ (Reference Centre for Addiction) – it is a state hospital which specialises in the treatment of addiction. We will form a team to run Alpha there and build relationships with patients and staff. We are excited about this as it will ground us within the established provision here.

We hope to run the Cherish Course there as well. The course, created by Erika Biscoe, is bring translated into Portuguese and will be a tool to minister to women about their worth and beauty through a study of the book of Esther. We will also run pilot courses in August/September in two rehabilitation centres.

New Wine Network Conference

In June Levi will be translating Mark Aldridge and team at a conference in Florianopolis. The team will then come to Goiania (18-19 June) for the first New Wine Network conference here. We are hosting and organising the event which will focus on healing. We expect 150 – 200 people to attend and are praying God will start a healing movement here through it.