Video Clip

This video clip was made by one of the guys in the church. It is being passed around from mobile to mobile via bluetooth. Please pray that as we seek the partnership of the city of Maues in this Project that many will be moved by the Holy Spirit and support at this stage by giving bags of cement to help the plastering!!!

Your Oil.......will not run out!

Do remember that story of the widow who gave her last to the prophet.....

The TEXAS flag

1 Kings 17:12 So she said, "As the LORD your God lives, I do not have bread, only a handful of flour in a bin, and a little oil in a jar; and see, I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die." 13 And Elijah said to her, "Do not fear; go and do as you have said, but make me a small cake from it first, and bring it to me; and afterward make some for yourself and your son.  14 "For thus says the LORD God of Israel: 'The bin of flour shall not be used up, nor shall the jar of oil run dry, until the day the LORD sends rain on the earth.'" (NKJV)

We had literally nothing left in the pot when I received a phone call from our friend in Texas. He and his family were ringing to say that they were wiring money in support of the Rescue Project. God is good! All the time! It is fantastic to see how HE moves the hearts of men in HIS perfect timing.

Their kind outrageous offering means that we have the finances to cover the roofing of the School, yes! All 57X8m of it! We had hoped to receive support from the Borough Council in the form of steal rafters that came from the old hospital but unfortunately this proved a dead end.

The wood for the rafters has been cut and work has already start on putting the structure in place......I will get some photos as soon as possible.

Wood for the rafters

Rachel's Report

Rachel, who visited us recently from the U.K.

I think one of the most profound experiences I had when learning what life’s like for someone out here was whilst helping carry out research in the new district with the youth of the church. It was here I was really able to get an insight, first hand of what life is like for many in Maues. I was particularly moved and struck by one man in particular. His name was Philipi and he welcomed us into his yard, pulling up a bench for us to sit with him. Next to him lay his sick wife in a hammock, unable to get up and walk but for whom the doctors had no answers. Intermittently, he would stretch his arm so as to comfort her with a gentle swing. He spoke of his life, that eight people lived in his house (by comparison to many I spoke with – that was quite a low figure) unable to find work, that he moved here in search of education for his children, that his neighbourhood was full of violence, drugs, and how he’s done what he can to teach his children a good way to live. Then the final blow came when he described how he watched his own son murdered in front of his house and the police do nothing. I was horrified.

But it was at this point that I began to get excited.  I don’t mean that in an awful way and so as one to disregard this poor man’s tragedy, but I began to get excited about the fact that God WILL be glorified in all this. Philipi has been disappointed by many people, by false promises made my different political parties, disappointed by the police who don’t seem to intervene on behalf of the weak, doctors who seem to have no cures.  But I began to realise that the raising of the new school/ community centre that God’s put on the heart of Marty is a promise to these people that WILL be fulfilled. And in that, it can only speak hope, and of a God who will not forsake you. This man still seemed to find it hard to believe that the school was going to materialise, even as we showed him the pictures of its foundations. But I’m excited for him and that in the not too distant future his life and that of his family WILL be transformed by the expression of God’s love – shown through Marty and the church who seem to be tirelessly doing all they can to advance the Kingdom of God, reaching the poor and defending the weak.

Philipi and his wife!

CATCHING the FIRE

Work is progressing steadily at the Rescue Project in the New District. The Living Word Church is located in the centre of Maues and to help get the church fully behind us in the vision that God has planted in our hearts we asked the youth of the church to carry out door to door surveys in the New District area. Many of the youth have never been in this area of Maues before because of its location (being on the far side of town so to speak) and its ‘fame’. This gave them an opportunity to relate to the people in the area, providing an opportunity to understand more completely the vision behind the Rescue Project and also see where they fit in.

It has been a great time for the youth, they have gone around the doors for three weekends consecutively and have had plenty of opportunities to share Jesus with the people of the area.

There has been a real ownership of the vision, with an expectancy rising in them as to what God is going to do in this area which they have in turn passed to the residents......... ‘it is like breathing HOPE into their hearts”.

Abigail (youth leader) speaks to one of the residents in the New District

Up to the MARK

Brick work up to the 3m height

Gordo and his team have done an excellent job to get the shell of the school up to its full height of 3.00m. This has been an incredible undertaking, with all the cement being hand mixed, much of the water being carried over 200m distance when the taps had no water in them, not to mention carrying brick by brick from where the lorry got bogged down in the muck! The wheel barrows only sunk further into the mud!

Well done

View from the 'kitchen'

We carry 'HOPE'

A life to be rescued

I was asked to take a few photos for the blog site on the Rescue Project. I have to say I have no fear of going in and taking photos but I find it a little awkward taking photos where there is so much need and heartache, it is like an invasion of privacy. But to try and capture the reality I will endeavour to take more photos at specific times.

The only time I had available was just after 13.00 hours, generally a time when everybody has had their lunch and will take a nap. The photo here, is of a young lad, at first off you think he has maybe hurt his hand but then watching him for a few seconds you realise he is sniffing. 

It is either thinners (white spirits) or glue for shoes. I decided to approach him and ask if he minded if I take a photo, ‘sure why not’. He looked at me and it was obvious that he was well high, eyes glazed over, head lost in the effects and the warm feeling had brought a smile to his face.

I took the photo chatted a little and as we took off on the motorbike a young man approached surround by a few of his ‘side-kicks’. The guy had or was involved in some of the local gangs, sporting a stump where his hand used to be and a few tattoos for good measure. He throw a bag of marijuana at us, it was a gesture of defiance which I refused to ingratiate with a photo.....sorry....

It is hard not to get emotionally involved, Rebeca my wife always wants to adopt about half the kids at the Living Word School. As I drove away I felt so sad and frustrated, life isn’t meant to be like this!

We will, we are making a difference!

Oh, I could crush a grape!

Progress report! It is amazing how things are going in the New District. The foundations have been laid, and the structure is beginning to take shape.

I have to say I get really excited and nervous at the same time, this is a stupendously massive undertaking the Amazon is one of the most expensive places per meter squared for construction. Why? I hear you ask, everything has to be imported, brought up river. At the moment we are in the rainy season and the area where we are working in the New District is very close to a river, which has caused the road in to become water logged, this has hampered a little the access to the site but not the progress.
We hope to have the Living Word School in the New District open by the end of February 2013. This would be a miraculous feat and we ask that you would partner with us in prayer so that this dream could come to place. I am often surprised at how God raises people up to support the work here in Maues.  One faithful supporter comes from Texas in the USA. I have never preached or had the opportunity to tell of what God is doing in Maues in the States but God put it on a man’s heart to sow back into Brazil. In the morning he was asking God for an opportunity and by the afternoon we had met at the departure lounge of Manaus’s Eduardo Gomes International Airport. How incredible is that! Please pray for the work here in Maues but please also expect and be on the lookout for those doors to be opened and presented to you too. I can’t be everywhere all at once.......I’ve stopped trying too! But we together can get the news out there and be the links that bring it all together.
 

Brick work up to 1.70m

Outlines and trespassing

Foundations and infill......8X57meters

The foundations are already laid and the outline of the school is already beginning to take shape....in my head anyway. It has been tough work and all credit to Gordo and his team as they have worked around the clock (when it isn’t raining). The entrance to the site is over some soft ground which has increased the workload substantially. It means that all the sand has had to be wheel barrowed closer to where the foundations are before the cement is mixed. The bricks had to be left off 100m from where they are going to be used. It is going to be a real lugging match; when it rains, the wheel barrow will be useless and it will be six bricks at a time. I’ve been here before, it is a lot of effort everyday and being on site everyday you can’t see the progress you’ve made. God bless and keep them. We are at the height of the rainy season, the word on the street is that it is going to be worse than 2009. The ‘road’ into the site is nearly impassable; I’m getting passed on my motorbike with a few slips and slides with muddy boots to show! The lorry is only making it in with 2m² of sand and has had to be pulled out several times but we have found a back way into the site which could be the solution.....there might be a question of trespassing....hmmm

Gordo's team

............an idea

THE 'road' IN

Some prices

Bricks              1000 bricks      R$650.00

Cement            42kg bag          R$ 28.00

Iron Rods        12m length        R$ 24.00

Sand                1m²                  R$ 60.00

Gravel             1m²                   R$120.00

Labour             Gordo+team    R$6,000.00

1^st phase Construction up to the ceiling level R$30,000

GORDO!

GORDO

I have known Gordo for nine years. He is a builder here in Maues and is very fast and efficient at building walls, houses.......you name it! Gordo has been contracted to do the first stage of the school’s construction, leaving the shell of the school erected at ceiling height ready to receive the roofing.

Gordo marked out the site and on the Sunday a team of men from the church dug 60X60X60cm foundation holes for the base supports. It was heavy and hot work as it has been raining all week but the comradery and the sense of fun has made the hand blistering work pass quicker than otherwise.

blisteringly good fun