Biscuits with Bible verses
What wonderful and different people we encountered as we were preparing for the World Cup: pastors who are fanatics for soccer, professional soccer players who love Jesus, movie makers who are championing the cause of sexually exploited girls, a great African choir of more than 50 people from Madagascar, who worked and saved money for two years to be able to be part of this, businessmen that financed the printing of some very attractive evangelism material, thousands of young people from all over the world and even a man from Indonesia who started a biscuit factory in Brazil, to make cookies with Bible verses printed on them, to be distributed during the World Cup. He sent us a big truckload of those cookies!
Are there only Christians here?
Walking through the streets just prior to the games it appeared as if there were only Christians in Brazil; you saw them everywhere. We counted 244 churches that went with their members to the streets before every game (64 matches in total). They sang, danced and made a big party with special drum bands. We had boxes and boxes full of the most beautiful and free evangelism materials in many different languages. We joined to pray at strategic places, just before the evangelistic outreaches, and all groups could take as much evangelism material as they needed.
A great and professional communication team
To communicate everything the Lord was doing before and during the World Cup was quite a job! We made two blogs, one in English and one in Portuguese, and over a period of three month posted 54 articles. Every two weeks we sent thousands of emails with the latest news and also posted many items on multiple Facebook pages. One of those pages even climbed to 80,000 likes! We did a number of video clips and had hundreds of photos taken. Our team here in Belo Horizonte was very professional and also received lots of material from all other 11 cities. It was great to see how everyone was able to use their talents.
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In the slum communities
In various slum communities there were mini World Cup competitions organized for the kids who were all on break from school during the World Cup. During the actual World Cup games, TV screens were put up in strategic places so people from the community could watch. Before the games and during halftime we had the opportunity to share about Jesus and what he has done in our lives. In some communities a Bible was given to each family and attendance at the Bible studies was surprisingly high.
Movie based on the life of Hosea
Two YWAMers with experience in movie production, Diego Traverso and Daniel Silva, had decided to use their talents in the battle against human trafficking and sexual exploitation. Together with 48 employees, Daniel produced a full-length feature film called “Internal Labyrinths” in only one-and-a-half years. The movie demonstrates in an impressive way how girls get entrapped in prostitution, how their self-esteem often drops below zero, and how Christians through their ignorance or through judgmental attitudes, often make the problem worse. But it also shows how Christians inspired by the unconditional love of Christ can become God’s answer in the lives of these girls. The story is set in today’s world, but is based on the biblical story of Hosea. It’s really a fantastic movie. Look for more information on the website: www.pontefilmes.com
1 real (50 cents)
Last year Diego filmed the situation of the girls in red light districts in all 12 host cities for the World Cup. It resulted in a 22-minute documentary called “1 Real, the Other Side of the Coin”. This title was inspired by a little 8-year-old girl, who was standing at a traffic light, offering sexual services to the drivers in the cars for only 1 real (equivalent of 50 cents).
Bus
This film is an intense documentary portraying the shocking reality of these problems all over Brazil. During the World Cup, Diego brought a team and a special "1 Real" bus, in which they toured host cities to exhibit the documentary in red light districts, on city squares and on beaches. You can watch it on the internet with English subtitles: www.1real.org
“He offered me the sky”
During the months prior to the World Cup, we used the program `Libertodos` (“Liberate All”) in many local schools. This curriculum was written by one of our YWAM missionaries to educate and warn adolescents about the danger of lover boys, human trafficking and sexual exploitation.
“Auntie, I think this happened to me yesterday”. One of the girls had raised her hand, and with a horrified look on her face, told one of our staff: “One of the guys from our neighborhood was promising me all kinds of things, too good to be true--now I know what it was all about”.
This program is really good, easy to use, professionally done and is being used by more and more YWAM bases, churches and schools. There has also been interest in some other Latin American countries.
1500 people praying together for a total of 720 hours
The 24/7 prayer rooms in the prostitution areas were a great success. 1500 people had signed up to pray during various hours every week so that there would be 720 uninterrupted hours of worship and prayer in the darkest places in every one of the 12 host cities.
The power of prayer
Lauren, one of the girls from a US/Panama team that came to help us during the World Cup told us: “I could just feel the difference. When I visited the girls in the brothels before the World Cup it was as if I had to push away a dark cloud. It was heavy and sad. But once the prayer room started, this room became like a safe haven to me and the atmosphere in the brothels and the neighborhood changed. It was still difficult, but you could see more joy, peace and the presence of Jesus brought light in the darkness. It was easier entering the brothels, knowing that in the same street a team was praying. It was a wonderful experience to see how the power of prayer brings such an obvious change for the better.”
This World Cup was won by the church!
When the Brazilian team lost 7-1 in the semi-finals to Germany, it was such a big shock to everyone that people still talk and write extensively about it. But for us it didn’t make much difference--it was clear that at this World Cup, the real champion was the church, who went en masse to the streets to demonstrate the love of God in many different ways. Together we showed that our passion was way beyond football. Our passion was the Lord Jesus! This was the World Cup which was won by the church!
Davi, our youngest son came to Brazil.
For our family, it was also very special time because Davi, our youngest son, could come for a visit here during his vacation. We had a great time together, and the half-Brazil, half-Holland soccer shirts I had made for him and Johan yielded many comments!
The Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.
So what´s next? We’ve already gone to Rio de Janeiro twice, preparing for a Mega DTS (Discipleship Training School) and Children at Risk School we will conduct in 2016. We´ll keep you posted over the next months!
To the Netherlands
In September we hope to go to Holland for a number of months. Davi needs another surgery in October, and we want to be close when this happens. We also hope to use this time to write our second book, and Johan will teach in YWAM schools at different bases including the one in Cape Town, South Africa.
Prayer points
- Thank God for all the people who heard the Gospel during the World Cup. Pray that the seeds sown will grow.
- Thank God for all the people who helped in various ways. Pray that each will continue to seek to know God better and to make Him known.
- Thank God for the film, the documentary and the school program, all directed against human trafficking and sexual exploitation. Pray that together they will reach millions of people, and will lead to prevention of and intervention in forced prostitution.
- Thank God for all the people who participated in prayer. Pray that we as Christians will grow to understand and experience even more the power of prayer.
- Thank God for Davi. Pray for the operation that he must undergo in October.
We would like to thank everyone who has been a source of encouragement to us over the last months through prayer, gifts and messages. Thank you that you stood by our sides, helped us and supported us.
May God bless you abundantly!
