"Impacto de Carnaval" is taken extremely seriously, as it should be, by the body of believers at Caju church. We prepared beforehand with fasting and prayer.
There are opportunities for everyone to serve, from childcare to kitchen duty, to clean-up and prayer.
Each year we have the awesome opportunity to participate in the "life and death" walks of Carnaval with our amazing partner, Caju Life church. We call them "life and death" walks because we are bringing "life" through Jesus to the people that are seeking to fill a void in their lives through drugs, alcohol or sex, and "death" because we walk in the heat for hours and hours.
It is truly an amazing time to leave the comforts of the church building and go out into the streets to touch the hearts and lives of the lost. The sights we see are so sad and the sight we bring is so wonderful---the love of Jesus...through smiles, singing, dancing and a few words. I think Jesus would march with us----in fact, He DOES, through his Spirit!
Our first day was spent in prayer, preparation and prayer and then out into the streets in the afternoon to an area near Caju that is nicknamed, "Haiti" because of the extreme living conditions.
The people there are in great need and so we went to ask them if they needed anything. We then invited them to Sunday services and prayed with them. So many people were glad to see us and to be invited to the church. Please pray with us that they come! Pray for transformed lives!
That evening, we went out into the streets of Caju to proclaim the name of Jesus! We had a drum corps and circus performers, including fire breathers!
Raphaele
This year, we joined together with another local church! It was wonderful to double the size of our army of believers! Below is a video clip from that night!
The second day was dedicated to serving together by painting, organizing and cleaning the church building and then a service of worship to the Lord.
Terezinha, Cintia and Nilde Painting the walls of their church!
The third day was spent praying, organizing, praying, preparing, praying and praying and more praying :) and then going downtown Rio to proclaim Christ in the midst of the Carnaval chaos. And chaotic, it was! We had so many opportunities to share Christ's gift of salvation! So worthwhile!
Nelci and Diane
Patricia asked me to pray for her son who is using drugs
Here is a very short clip of our time downtown as we were leaving the chaos exhausted! Several other videos we shot were blurred and this one has a white line through it. BTW, it's a brand new camera....hummm. Carnaval is a huge spiritual battle. We brought the light of Christ into a very dark, dark place!
It was a wonderful time of proclaiming Christ out in the streets of Rio! We praise God for all the seeds that were planted and pray for transformed lives in Christ.
Exhausted and exhilarated from proclaiming Christ on the streets,
Diane and Jeff
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