Brazil Day 3
09/20/2010
Just a pre-note before I talk about what happened. I will be sitting somewhere thinking about this trip and start weeping for the people, my heart is so heavy, my mind is filled with awe at the utter poverty I’ve seen everywhere I look. At the hopelessness in their eyes, the fear in their eyes and the filthiness they live in. I see vividly in my mind’s eye the street children bumming for money and yet scared to death of the people they are asking for a “coin.” Their hunger over rides their fear of “big people.” Of people that may and possibly will hurt them. I just now remembered an elderly lady on the plane from Sao Paulo to Macieo crying before take-off. I thought well maybe she is scared to fly or maybe she just lost a loved one, but as the flight continued, she was wiping tears from her eyes. Who knows what this poor lady faced as she headed to Maceio. The heart beat of the Alvears for this people is overwhelming. I’ve seen at times both the Elder and Sis. Alvear with tears in their eyes. Elder Alvear is a prankster and full of humor, he told me “Bro. Ballard we have to laugh or we would be so depressed all the time.”
I woke up before 7 a.m. and couldn’t go back to sleep so I got out of bed and got ready for the day. My son slept for a couple hours longer and Bishop Alvear and I went to the Airport to retrieve additional funds from the ATM and then to drink cappuccino and espresso. Well, the ATM wasn’t a bit helpful and wouldn’t let go of money. I tried 3 times and was almost in panic mode. I was running out of money and fast.
We drank our Cappuccino’s, by the way have I told you how much I LOVE BRAZILIAN COFFEE? If not well, it’s better than Starbucks. Anyway, we headed back to the church compound.
Elder and Sis. Alvear, Jonathan and I went to the other side of Maceio to see the ocean and eat at a very nice Churrascaria. While on the way the traffic and the way EVERYONE drove would give you high-blood pressure whether you had it or not. Everything was so depressing to see, from the homes, the stores, the markets, the street vendors, horse drawn carriages, children running wild in the streets, motorcycles and scooters cutting in and out of traffic, horse drawn buggy’s, etc. The drivers are nuts! Anyway, back on the Churrascaria, the beef they serve here is Brahma that is raised all over the area and it’s so fresh and wonderful to eat! After our meal we headed down to the beach to purchase souvenirs for my wife and daughter. While there Jonathan and I had our first taste of fresh Coconut Water, we actually drank straight from the coconut with straws. It was so refreshing!
On our way back to the Church compound we stopped to get fuel up and while there Jonathan and I went to take pictures of the huge coconut groves and I got a pic of Jonathan holding fresh bananas on a banana tree. Oh one thing I don’t think I mentioned is the fresh fruit that grows wild all over the place from bananas, papaya’s, coconuts, cashew nuts (don’t eat raw from the tree very poisonous and will kill you), and various other fruits.
We drove by several different areas of town, we drove past a rich coconut plantation owners home, and the hundreds and hundreds of acres of Coconut groves, a satanic church, the city dump which loomed over that part of the city. On FaceBook I posted a pic and you can barely see the top where horses/mules are. This dump was home to several homeless people.
Once we were back at the Church compound it was time to get ready to go to the Farm Church. The farm church is outside of Munici, the church I preached at on Saturday night, it is 8km off of a paved road. The road is very dangerous for a couple of reasons, it is very treacherous due to the mud and it’s full of water in some spots. A 4x4 is almost a must at times. There is a bridge where Bro. Alvears son-in-law was driving a church van full of people and it was raining, he panicked and almost slid off one of the bridges because he was going too fast. Another reason are the bandits, since this area is so remote the bandits will bring people out there and kill them. No one will know who or when they were killed.
When we arrived at the Farm Church service was already in progress. Some people walked for 30 minutes to an hour just to be in service. The service is held every Monday night. The place where the service was held is in one of the workers homes, it was a very rough shod place. A bit of information about this place is the plantation owner allowed the Alvears to have service on his property, which in itself is a miracle. The plantation owners home is up on a hill overlooking the buildings. Sis Alvear told me that some planation owners beat their workers just like what we read about in the slave days. This truly is modern day slavery. The poor people feel they have nowhere to go and in actuality they really don’t. It breaks my heart to hear and see how one group of people treat other groups of people. In Brazil it’s the Very rich and the Very poor with very few middle class people.
The people are paid very little wages. I believe the average pay rate is a couple hundred dollars a month. That figure doesn’t just apply to the plantation workers but it’s a general base salary.
Anyway, back on the Farm church, the horse stables seemed to have better living conditions than the homes our Brothers and Sisters in Christ live in. As I was saying it is a very rough place, the roof is basically the bottom of the tin. Lizards were scurrying about on the roof. There were about 3 or 4 single light bulbs hanging down from the ceiling. The bathroom had a toilet that was only the bottom part, no tank at all. Just the toilet bowl sitting on the drain pipe. One would have to fill a bucket with water and pour into the toilet bowl in order to flush. The entire floor of the bathroom was wet and the smell was less than desirable.
The conditions of this arrangement didn’t deter the people from worshiping our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! There was over 60 people crammed into this room and about 10 or so on the outside looking in through the back door and windows on the side of the house. The power of God was so strong in this place. Many songs were sung, prayers were prayed and then I preached on the Oneness of Jesus Christ and who He really is! There were several Trinitarians in the service tonight who Elder Alvear is praying will come to the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They will be at the ladies conference this weekend at the Headquarters church.
As I reflect back on tonight’s service my heart is broken, these people who have so little seem to be very happy. They love each other and worship God with all their hearts. Some from the American church may look on them with disdain because their sleeves may be too short or their skirts are not fitted correctly, maybe the men have facial hair or some are wearing wedding bands and other jewelry, but can we not get past our differences and pray for the Brazilian church?
For some of these people to have to dress “just right” they would have to give up food money in order to line up. That is so sad.
I truly believe that we can make a Difference, if we set our Differences aside and pray for them with No-strings attached!
God Bless The Brazilian Mission and God Bless the Alvears.
Please, please, please remember Brazil and the Alvears when you pray.
Just a pre-note before I talk about what happened. I will be sitting somewhere thinking about this trip and start weeping for the people, my heart is so heavy, my mind is filled with awe at the utter poverty I’ve seen everywhere I look. At the hopelessness in their eyes, the fear in their eyes and the filthiness they live in. I see vividly in my mind’s eye the street children bumming for money and yet scared to death of the people they are asking for a “coin.” Their hunger over rides their fear of “big people.” Of people that may and possibly will hurt them. I just now remembered an elderly lady on the plane from Sao Paulo to Macieo crying before take-off. I thought well maybe she is scared to fly or maybe she just lost a loved one, but as the flight continued, she was wiping tears from her eyes. Who knows what this poor lady faced as she headed to Maceio. The heart beat of the Alvears for this people is overwhelming. I’ve seen at times both the Elder and Sis. Alvear with tears in their eyes. Elder Alvear is a prankster and full of humor, he told me “Bro. Ballard we have to laugh or we would be so depressed all the time.”
I woke up before 7 a.m. and couldn’t go back to sleep so I got out of bed and got ready for the day. My son slept for a couple hours longer and Bishop Alvear and I went to the Airport to retrieve additional funds from the ATM and then to drink cappuccino and espresso. Well, the ATM wasn’t a bit helpful and wouldn’t let go of money. I tried 3 times and was almost in panic mode. I was running out of money and fast.
We drank our Cappuccino’s, by the way have I told you how much I LOVE BRAZILIAN COFFEE? If not well, it’s better than Starbucks. Anyway, we headed back to the church compound.
Elder and Sis. Alvear, Jonathan and I went to the other side of Maceio to see the ocean and eat at a very nice Churrascaria. While on the way the traffic and the way EVERYONE drove would give you high-blood pressure whether you had it or not. Everything was so depressing to see, from the homes, the stores, the markets, the street vendors, horse drawn carriages, children running wild in the streets, motorcycles and scooters cutting in and out of traffic, horse drawn buggy’s, etc. The drivers are nuts! Anyway, back on the Churrascaria, the beef they serve here is Brahma that is raised all over the area and it’s so fresh and wonderful to eat! After our meal we headed down to the beach to purchase souvenirs for my wife and daughter. While there Jonathan and I had our first taste of fresh Coconut Water, we actually drank straight from the coconut with straws. It was so refreshing!
On our way back to the Church compound we stopped to get fuel up and while there Jonathan and I went to take pictures of the huge coconut groves and I got a pic of Jonathan holding fresh bananas on a banana tree. Oh one thing I don’t think I mentioned is the fresh fruit that grows wild all over the place from bananas, papaya’s, coconuts, cashew nuts (don’t eat raw from the tree very poisonous and will kill you), and various other fruits.
We drove by several different areas of town, we drove past a rich coconut plantation owners home, and the hundreds and hundreds of acres of Coconut groves, a satanic church, the city dump which loomed over that part of the city. On FaceBook I posted a pic and you can barely see the top where horses/mules are. This dump was home to several homeless people.
Once we were back at the Church compound it was time to get ready to go to the Farm Church. The farm church is outside of Munici, the church I preached at on Saturday night, it is 8km off of a paved road. The road is very dangerous for a couple of reasons, it is very treacherous due to the mud and it’s full of water in some spots. A 4x4 is almost a must at times. There is a bridge where Bro. Alvears son-in-law was driving a church van full of people and it was raining, he panicked and almost slid off one of the bridges because he was going too fast. Another reason are the bandits, since this area is so remote the bandits will bring people out there and kill them. No one will know who or when they were killed.
When we arrived at the Farm Church service was already in progress. Some people walked for 30 minutes to an hour just to be in service. The service is held every Monday night. The place where the service was held is in one of the workers homes, it was a very rough shod place. A bit of information about this place is the plantation owner allowed the Alvears to have service on his property, which in itself is a miracle. The plantation owners home is up on a hill overlooking the buildings. Sis Alvear told me that some planation owners beat their workers just like what we read about in the slave days. This truly is modern day slavery. The poor people feel they have nowhere to go and in actuality they really don’t. It breaks my heart to hear and see how one group of people treat other groups of people. In Brazil it’s the Very rich and the Very poor with very few middle class people.
The people are paid very little wages. I believe the average pay rate is a couple hundred dollars a month. That figure doesn’t just apply to the plantation workers but it’s a general base salary.
Anyway, back on the Farm church, the horse stables seemed to have better living conditions than the homes our Brothers and Sisters in Christ live in. As I was saying it is a very rough place, the roof is basically the bottom of the tin. Lizards were scurrying about on the roof. There were about 3 or 4 single light bulbs hanging down from the ceiling. The bathroom had a toilet that was only the bottom part, no tank at all. Just the toilet bowl sitting on the drain pipe. One would have to fill a bucket with water and pour into the toilet bowl in order to flush. The entire floor of the bathroom was wet and the smell was less than desirable.
The conditions of this arrangement didn’t deter the people from worshiping our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! There was over 60 people crammed into this room and about 10 or so on the outside looking in through the back door and windows on the side of the house. The power of God was so strong in this place. Many songs were sung, prayers were prayed and then I preached on the Oneness of Jesus Christ and who He really is! There were several Trinitarians in the service tonight who Elder Alvear is praying will come to the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They will be at the ladies conference this weekend at the Headquarters church.
As I reflect back on tonight’s service my heart is broken, these people who have so little seem to be very happy. They love each other and worship God with all their hearts. Some from the American church may look on them with disdain because their sleeves may be too short or their skirts are not fitted correctly, maybe the men have facial hair or some are wearing wedding bands and other jewelry, but can we not get past our differences and pray for the Brazilian church?
For some of these people to have to dress “just right” they would have to give up food money in order to line up. That is so sad.
I truly believe that we can make a Difference, if we set our Differences aside and pray for them with No-strings attached!
God Bless The Brazilian Mission and God Bless the Alvears.
Please, please, please remember Brazil and the Alvears when you pray.
posted by Roy Ballard @ 10:18 PM
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