rio

so in early june, i had the opportunity to travel to rio de janerio, brazil and work with an organization down there called restore brazil . they have a vision for church planting and social justice.

we were there about 9ish days and were able to be involved with a VBS in the favelas(slums) of rio and encourage the local church.

a beach in the suburbs of rio

a view from sugarloaf mountain

on top of sugarloaf mountain

my friends in the favela

drinking out of a coconut in the airport

i found out about the trip my church was taking back in december of '09 and i had been praying about it when several things stuck out to me. the first thing that stuck out to me was an article that i read about how people in the favelas are feeling neglected from the rest of the city because the city wants to put a wall around the favela. here is the story if you want to read it! it broke my heart that these people were not feeling welcomed by their own neighbors so when i went i wanted to make sure they knew they were loved by Christ. and the other thing that stuck out to me was this song by 'enter the worship circle' (by the way, i LOVE 'enter the worship circle'! seriously, check them out!). i digress. the song is called 'give me your hand', and the last part of the song the lyrics go like this: 'there's none too poor, too dirty, too broken, too naked, too stupid, too drunken to be thrown outside HIS love.' i wanted the people of brazil to know this. right now, this is my heart song.

so there is a piece of my heart. thanks for listening.