Dear “SMARTkidS” Aunties and Uncles and LAM prayer partners, 

Boxing Day at home! (Here in Brazil, a normal working day). Christmas, long-awaited, is past; children have all received their presents and are occupied with them for a while; parents are recuperating from having eaten too many goodies the day before and breathing a sigh of relief that all the rush is over and they can relax!  J

Here in Brazil we are relaxing too, with David, Bebel and family and Vivian’s parents and sister-in-law and child.  This year we are really missing Sharon and Philip and little Sahara and Keiro, who sadly weren’t able to make it this time, as they are moving house and their conference is almost upon them.  It is the first time for a few years that we haven’t been all together for Christmas.  Our thoughts are with them over there.

The run-up to Christmas was very busy here too, but we are happy to announce that because of your tremendous response to Ruth and Raymond’s Christmas hamper appeal we were able to bless 180 families with a hamper and a huge chicken!   God is so good and we thank all of you who so willingly contributed.  Noel and I, Mark and Vivian prepared and distributed the 90 hampers in the three local areas and on our trip in November we left money with each of the pastors in the other schools to make up and distribute their own at this time too.  “Salt of the Earth” Centre organized for an adult, responsible for each child blessed with a hamper, to be there on the Friday before Christmas and we had a little meeting with a word and a prayer before they were handed out.  Later we were told that amongst the adults was a man dressed as a woman (normal every day for him), a homosexual and a “male” partner of a lesbian couple, each one responsible for a child there.  Adilson and Roberta told us last night that they are only closing the Centre for a week, not the month of January as they did last year, because the gap is too long and children, whose home-life is very often chaos and violence, miss the influence of the love and attention from the staff of the Centre.  Many homes were visited in the Black Valley and Calvirio areas and Mark and Vivian were able to pray with families, as they handed out hampers.  As well as that, thanks to a Christmas sale organized by Lambourn Methodist Church and special gifts from the Dublin group and other individuals, 53 teachers, kitchen staff and cleaners all took home an extra £30 for Christmas, as a small “thank you” for all their hard work during the year.  Bibles were given out to the boys at the Calvirio

Children’s Home too.  There were sad faces there on the Christmas party night, as three of them were going back to their families and were saying goodbye to friends made over the months in the Home.  Alexandre had been abused by his current “stepfather” and had run away to the streets because of it; he and I sat and had a quiet chat, whilst we waited for the Christmas festivities to begin.  He told me that when he first came he only thought about life on the streets and wanted to get back there, but now he was enjoying going to church and would go to his local church when he got home.  “Home” is with his Aunty and his three little sisters.  His mother has gone off somewhere and the “stepfather” is in prison.  He was going to his auntie’s house to be the “man” of the family and help look after his sisters.  Alexandre is 13 years old  Another boy, Tyson, 14, is also leaving this month to go to a different state where he will live with his father whom he hardly knows.  His parents have separated for a long time and Tyson lived on and off the streets and was in a lot of trouble, until he was picked up by the authorities and brought to the Home.  He has been here 9 months now and we have grown to love him.  He was very far behind in his studies, but has caught up well and adapted to life in the Home and in the church and the authorities now think it is time to try him with his father, who has agreed to look after him.  After the boys had presented their piece in the party Tyson prayed and thanked the Lord for everyone and the time he had spent there.  His life has been changed as he has heard of Jesus and known the care and interest of the pastor & staff of Calvirio.  He got on really well with Mark too and is taking a picture of the whole family with him.  Mark and Vivian were very much a part of all the activity and I asked Vivian to tell a little of what she felt.  

She writes:  “There were 180 Christmas hampers and chickens to give out to poor families and it was difficult to decide to whom they should go, as there are so many needy families.  At Black Valley 20 hampers were given out and then we went with Pastor Jánio to some of the homes to pray for and bless the people.  When we speak about poverty, even we who live so near to it have no real idea what it is like.  As we were going from house to house, people were coming up and pleading with us to remember them; a mother with three children, who had nothing to eat and her children were hungry, a child who came to the church looking for a hamper too…..but sadly we had to turn them away, as our hampers were accounted for and we had none over.  We had given out the hampers first at the church, before we went to the houses to pray with the people.  When we arrived the hampers had already been opened and the people were really happy with the contents.  Inside were things that they couldn’t hope to buy for themselves, including three different deserts.  In one home the children couldn’t wait and already wanted to open the tin of corn they had found there!  In Calvirio 43 families were blessed and we went to the homes of 12 children, (the rest came to the school to receive them),   Leila the headmistress and Regina the secretary came with us. It was a double joy for those families, to receive a hamper and the headmistress of their child’s school at the same time!  Some of the places were really difficult to get to because of the conditions of the streets.  We gave a hamper to one mother with three children and she put it on the ground to give us a hug of thanks.  The children were immediately there to look and you could just hear them whispering, “Look, its Jelly!”!   Immediately the thought came to my mind, “Oh Lord, sometimes we complain about our lives”

We want to thank all who contributed with offerings so that we could make up these hampers; the other 90 were made up by the pastors and workers in Tabatinga, Maués and Cuiabá.  Thank you very much for making it happen.  I say this too on behalf of the families, who couldn’t stop thanking us, they were so happy.  We are called to be imitators of God, and who cares for the poor more than He?  Let’s make a difference by reaching out to those who are in need; serving them with the compassion of Christ, not just for credit, but to become more like our Master”.

There is a T.V. commercial being played over here in Brazil at the moment which says, “If it isn’t in our power to do good to all, let’s do all the good that it is in our power to do”.  This Christmas you have made it possible for us to do a power of good to many different children and their families around Brazil and we echo Vivian’s thanks on behalf of them all.

 Since SMARTkidS (our sponsorship program) was started in July of last year, more than £45,000 has been poured into children’s lives in our different schools, and teachers and staff have been blessed.  Before that LAM was able to build or renovate the buildings that the children now study in and two churches as well and this is an on-going process.  This year there were four more classrooms built in Cuiabá, now it is the turn of Maués, as the school grows from Infants only to Junior Department too.  Parents come all the time and ask us to make it possible for their children to stay in the schools, as they are so happy there.  (One grandmother even asked the headmistress to fail her child so that he would repeat the year and not move on!  J  She didn’t of course, but that is Andre from Maués and we hope he will be back for Junior School now.)  Again a big thank you to all involved for making it possible. 

May God richly bless and prosper every one of you, as we go into another year, not only financially, but spiritually, in happiness and health for His Honour and Glory.