I
was listening to a Brazilian journalist in August who was comparing numbers of
the violence in Iraq and in Rio de Janeiro[1]. Rio de Janeiro is one among 26
States in the Federation. The rate of killings was higher in Rio de Janeiro
than in Iraq in the beginning of 2008. As he was saying, according to the Iraq
Coalition Casualty Count website, from January to May 3458 Iraqis – both
militaries and civilians – were killed. For the same period in Rio de Janeiro,
according to official records from the Secretaria
de Segurança Pública, there were 2441 homicides, 87 deaths by thievery, 17
episodes of bodily harm followed by death and 6 policemen killed in action,
yielding a total of 2551 assassinations. Considering that the population of
Iraq is twice bigger than that of Rio de Janeiro, one can say that Brazilian’s
death toll is higher than Iraq’s.
In the Gospels, Jesus, who was poor and lived as poor, summarizes his
ministry as he reads the book of Isaiah in the Synagogue:
"'The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year
of the Lord's favour.'" (Luke 4.18,19)
Indeed,
in the Kingdom described by Jesus, the poor and those who hunger are
happy. The ministry of Jesus was full of miracles in favour of the
marginalized by the society of the day.
They have been in lot of countries and even countries with a very small Christian witness, this year they will be presenting on Poland, Lebanon, Turkey, Croatia, Finland and Iceland.
You might have an idea of No Longer Music presentation in the video below.
You will find most of the interviews made in this blog tour, it sarted with Andrew Jones (TallSkinnyKiwi) on May 28th, I performed the second leg in May 31st and Steve Kinght (Knightopia) closed this tour on June 2nd
Last week we had great moments with the visitation of Spencer Burke to São Paulo, it all started with an interview we made with him on March and after, we started to talk about a possibility of doing Soularize in São Paulo, so we received him from May 15th until 18th when he could take good pictures, and have a good idea of the emergent conversation in Brazil, also we could foster great conversations with friends and could promote a gathering last Saturday on Projeto 242.
If you would like to know how it was, we have streamed mostly of the Saturday gathering and we have them recorded, our session was both in English and in Portuguese, so you might listen and see what happened on video:
We accepted a call made by Mustard Seed Network to send examples of 20-somethings living alternatively, so we shared with them the story below:
Our names are Kelly and Marcelo, both of us are 28 years old and we have been married for 18 months. Currently we work with children at a squater building downtown São Paulo, Brazil, near a region called "Crackland". Once a week we gather to share stories, play games and have fun with the kids. We try by all means to share God's love to that community and it is awesome how we ourselves have been blessed during the times we are there. Each smile, each hug, each gesture makes us one before the Father. We know that we are not able to change these kids' present situation. Unfortunately, social inequality in our country drives dozens of families to streets every week. But our heart are lit with fire as we share the love of God and help in any way to those kids formation through Christian principles that we try to share even if the results will be noticed only in the future.
Last week we had great moments with the visitation of Spencer Burke to São Paulo, it all started with an interview we made with him on March and after, we started to talk about a possibility of doing Soularize in São Paulo, so we received him from May 15th until 18th when he could take good pictures, and have a good idea of the emergent conversation in Brazil, also we could foster great conversations with friends and could promote a gathering last Saturday on Projeto 242.