The Homeless on our Doorstep

Diane and I often have the chance to serve the homeless here in Brazil. Usually it’s at CENA in São Paulo where we feed, bathe and share the gospel with many who live on the streets or here in Rio where we evangelize on the streets, often in the harshest areas. When the day or week is over, we get into our car and return to our home where life is fairly clean, safe and normal. We serve in that world and then return to ours.

This past week the world of the homeless was literally on our doorsteps. Outside of our wall a homeless man had “set up camp” in our front yard. In the middle of the day was an extremely dirty man sleeping soundly under our tree. Because he was sleeping soundly in the middle of the day, we assumed that drugs or alcohol were involved. We were shook up a little bit, wondering how we should react. We prayed and felt we should reach out to him, as we do to the homeless on the streets.

After just finishing a Rio Team Meeting, my fellow missionary Craig and I walked over and woke him up, and proceeded to engage him in conversation to find out about him and his life. His name is Carlos, he has lived on the streets for about 35 years, his family was in another state of Brazil. He has made a little money by finding things to sell, like scrap metal. I asked him if he drank and he responded “only at night and only one small glass to help me sleep”. I don’t know if this was true, but my guess is that he was understating his problem. You don’t live on the streets for 35 years and have broken your ties with your family without some influence from drugs and/or alcohol. It was obvious that his life was in ruins.

A question we usually ask in this situation is if the person considers his life as being good. When asked this, he replied “no it’s not, but I can’t change it, it is what it is”. We then shared the gospel message with him. He knew some of the gospel, but mostly just the names. We told him that God had a better life for him, but he had to choose this, through God’s son Jesus Christ. We told him that we knew of places where he could get help. He was not interested. He asked us for a shirt, as he was extremely filthy and smelled horrible.

I gave Carlos a t-shirt of mine, one that said “Arizona” on the front so I would recognize him if I saw him again on the street and also something distinctive that would remind him of us and what we shared with him. We told Carlos that we were pastors/missionaries and that we lived in the house where he had set up his camp. Carlos told us that he did not want to disturb us and so he said he was moving on to a vacant lot where he could set up a new camp.

We asked Carlos if we could pray for him and he said “yes”, so we laid hands on Carlos and prayed for him, that God would speak to him and he would respond. We asked God to provide for him and protect him. Then Carlos packed up his belongings into a couple dirty plastic bags and left our world.

All of us at some time or another have a chance to reach out to the homeless, the poor (economically) and the lost in the world. Sometimes through direct contact, like we had with Carlos, and sometimes indirect, like giving to an organization that serves them. This is a complex and long-standing problem in our world. If you are like me, you can get frustrated on how best to serve them. You want to help, but you want your help to be affective. Like in our case I thought about the possibility that Carlos would sell the shirt I gave him and use it for drugs or alcohol.

I recently read a book called “When Helping Hurts”, by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert. This book deals with how to alleviate poverty without hurting the poor. I highly recommend this book to all, especially those involved in Missions!! It will give you wonderful and Godly direction on this topic.

Boldly and Gently Sharing the Gospel,

Jeff

Ministering in the Mud....

Jeff and fellow missionary, Craig, left Rio early this morning to return to the south of Brazil to encourage and help our brothers-in-Christ with the clean-up process after the flood that they experienced there early last month.

The city of Rio is experiencing some chaos of its own during the "Rock in Rio" music festival and so Jeff and Craig had difficulties obtaining a taxi to the airport. After waiting an hour for a taxi, it was decided that Ale would give them a ride and I'm praying they made their flight!

Below is a translation of the latest news from Pastor Johny from the Evangelical Free Church in Rio do Sul:

For the past many days we've cancelled all formal meetings at the church, primarily because our building was under 4 meters of water (that in the highest places....children's area 5 meters under). Saturday night we received 2 very special volunteers...Jeff Droogsma and Frido Kruger (pastors) from Rio de Janeiro. They brought us generous help: boots and gloves for the work. On that same day died Josi, the daughter of a woman in the church. Last Sunday we had her burial. A difficult moment in the midst of everything. But before going to the cemetery we went through some of the affected regions of the city to show Jeff. We saw a man cleaning a home with a dejected look on his face. I rolled down the window and asked how he was and he told me that it was tough, I then asked if we could help and he said: Of Course!!! Therefore, after the funeral we were cleaning a home, Sunday afternoon, and some of his relatives began to arrive. They were rather unorganized, so when we arrived we were able to give them a big push in the work, cleaning the house both inside and out. It seemed that this brought the joy back to their hearts and it was then that one of the grandparents brought coffee to us all and it gave us a chance to chat and exchange ideas. At that time I sensed from God that things were coming to an end there, and that the family wasn't planning on moving back into this house in the near future, and I said therefore to one of our volunteers: Let's drive around the block and see if God says something to us. In short time we encountered a man, alone, cleaning a large and beautiful home. You could see that he was well off financially but it was also notable that he was very down and discouraged. I offered our help and he accepted it immediately. We finished at the other house and arrived in masse....Jeff and Frido as well. Sunday afternoon....his eyes got all big when he saw such a large group and soon we settled on a strategy, cleaning one of the rooms and the garage, removing all of the appliances, etc...the man was impressed with our willingness and speed. But then we had to stop around 7 o'clock because of our church meeting, and we went there just as we were, dirty, boots on our feet - but what a blessing to worship the Lord together and pray for our city. There was a time of brokenness in the church. On Monday we returned to that house, but neither the owner nor his wife could be there because of their work, but they left us alone in their home, cleaning everything, dishes, rooms, etc...lots of stuff. At the end of the afternoon he came back and I asked him: "How was it that you trusted us in leaving us along in your home with all of your things?" He responded: "in that first conversation I perceived that I could trust you". They were quite touched. We prayed with them and gave them Bibles and they asked us about the church and what they could do to help...it was a very special moment. There are many stories, but one other case....Debora and Arlei....Their home was totally under water and was one of the last in the city to see the water recede. When we arrived we soon discovered that it was the worst of all of the home we'd seen and helped. Immediately the man said that he didn't believe in God nor the devil, he didn't believe in nothing -- that his friend was money...but that neither his friends nor family had come to help... Then someone said: "But we're here and we came to help." We spent 2 VERY arduous days for there was lots of mud. Every last roof tile had to be removed...we weren't able to completely finish the job for there were other commitments but at the end of this second day the man thanked us saying that we did more than they could have in 30 days. Then he said: "Pastor...we want to go to church to thank God"... And we intend to return to finish the job... In this way, there have been many opportunities to serve and share the love of God in a practical way and we are so thankful that we haven't had to do this alone, because brothers from many places have prayed, contributed, given and even come to help. Glory to God!


Please continue to pray for opportunities to share Christ in the midst of this crisis!

Serving together,

Diane

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