A update from Andrew Fanstone, missionary in Brazil
Happy Christmas. We wish you all a very Blessed Christmas. We are well but to be honest would like some of the cold weather that many of you are experiencing to make it feel a bit more like Christmas over here. We have been busy having lots of Christmas events.
Last week we received some free tickets to take the teenagers from the slum to the biggest water park in South America which is here in Fortaleza. It was a great time and this week we had two other Christmas parties. One for the kids that we work with weekly in our clubs and then yesterday we had a banquet for over 100 people on the streets of the slum. It was a special night.
I invited Carliane to come; she is now 14 but lived in the slum until she was 11. Within the slum, which is one of the worst in Fortaleza, she was regarded as the ‘worst of all’. She was addicted to crack and involved in prostitution and was even stealing from the drug dealers. They came to us as they didn’t know what to do with her. That was 3 years ago but when she came back this time she came to tell of a man called Jesus who was born 2000 years ago on this earth at Christmas, but who is still alive and active today. She now sings like an angel and as she sang during that night of the banquet many had tears in their eyes knowing that they were seeing the work of God before their eyes.
Fransico, another boy we helped get out of the life of drugs and crime, also gave his testimony. He is now married with a daughter, a leader in his church and owns a motorbike business.
Two other drug dealers from the slum who have come to know Jesus and had a radical transformation in their lives spoke and prayed for the community. It was great to just stand back and see those of the community sharing about the love and power of Jesus, not just with words but by their lives.
Thank you so much for all your prayers and support over the year. We will write again soon with our plans for 2011.
Until then Happy Christmas and God Bless!
Love Andrew, Claudia, Jessica and Ana Keziah.
Carliane
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