First things first

The church leaders met together on the Sunday morning before myself and Tinho headed to Manaus on route to the U.K. to walk over the land which has been purchased, to pray, to praise, to prophecy and to thank God.

Someone asked me, what about money to build?

My reply was quite straight forward; you don’t need money to start. It doesn’t cost you money to clear the overgrowth, to mark the boundaries or to even start to dig the founds......just man power and muscle, which, Praise God, we have a church of young vibrant men and woman who have earned an experience within the last year in construction and community work-force.

Already the Bank of Brazil which is in reform has paid men to but their rubble on a truck and send it to our land....... God is great!

Pastor Tinho and myself do not receive a wage from the Living Word Church. All the tithes and offerings from the church go to support the upkeep of the church, towards the Living Word School and an honorary wage to Pastora Gloria who came to the Amazon over 40 years ago and with her husband Luiz started the work which later became the Living Word Church. Because of the growth of the church and new increased support coming in from the U.K. there was just under £10,000 in the church funds.

With these funds the start of the construction phase was able to get underway, sand, cement, bricks, timber and gravel purchased.

But the reality is we are going to need plenty of money not just to build the school but also to equip it and maintain it.

We know that when God builds the house the labours don’t labour in vain. We are rest assured that somehow God is going to miraculously do the impossible once again.

No Ishmael's please

Not this land!

As the end of 2011 approached myself and Tinho had a trip planned to the U.K. in November. Tinho had started praying into the New District as early as 2009 and even though land seemed to escape us, we had plenty to be getting on with in the church, the school, and now even more excitingly for me, outreach to the riverbank people. Yet we felt once again impressed that we would be going to the U.K. having bought ‘the land’.  We even got to the stage of considering buying land 10X20m just to start, knowing that we had to start at some stage.

Then one night the week before we left for the U.K. Tinho woke up early in the night with a burden to pray for ‘the land’. God spoke to him clearly and told him he was praying for the wrong land and he was to pray for the land he had first liked when he had entered the New District. Tinho decided to pray, the lady who owned the land said she wasn’t selling and she also didn’t live in Maues anymore. In the morning Tinho sent someone to inquire of the lady…lo and behold, wasn’t she in Maues and said she was willing to sell the land for R$8,000, Tinho said he would give her seven. I had gotten a phone call in the morning telling me to pray and then a phone call saying that yes the lady was willing to sell the land but Tinho had offered her seven. I couldn’t believe it, I remember telling him that God had been so good and the price was so good how could he even imagine not to accept and barter! He smiled and said it was his business nature coming out! By the end of the day the lady accepted R$7,000.00 (approx £2,400.00). Her son who was looking after the deal, said he would measure the land which they thought was about 40X60m we were ecstatic with delight. When her son came back after measuring the land he said that the measurement was wrong, that the land was actually about 100mX80m. We were completely blown away. This was a massive piece of land, at a just price for the area but WOW, what was God up to, this was enormous. We knew God had a plan, we felt we were being big in our vision but after the closure we realized that His plans are even greater than ours and that quite possible we had only been given a glimpse……the whole picture would have been too scary!

A journey through waiting

2010 soon ended and as we entered 2011 we appeared to be no further along. I had put pencil to paper with various sketches on possible designs. We felt that we were to first build a school, having  years of experience under our belts and use this as a launch pad into the community with further phases to reach the youth and also the adults.

The Living Word Benefit Foundation was voted a Public Utility by the Borough Council and there was a hope that maybe land in the middle of the New District would be allocated to the Foundation to establish the Rescue Project. Plans were submitted for the 60X80m area but as time went by we continued to trust in God alone.

We need land which could facilitate the building of a school, play area and also with room for future development. As I drove about the New District my attention was drawn to a lovely piece of land which already had a wall around it, the land was about 30X40m and it seemed to be everything we were dreaming.

Yet the land was overpriced at a staggering R$30,000. We kept praying and looking…….other lands became available and slipped away as land prices began to sore throughout Maues. As God was answering prayers by sending in more professionals, a new hospital was built, meat prices and land prices began to go through the roof, even in the poorest areas, people were hoping to get rich fast!

NON-sense

I love to get things done, I love working and sweating away knowing that we’re accomplishing something. Basically I love results but I also like things in order, I don’t like too many loose ends or airy-fairyness.

We knew God had spoken and we knew that God brings things about, HE is amazing at bringing people, finance all the finer details together.

Some people think I am a risk taker, maybe I am, maybe I am not! personally I don’t think I am, I like to get confirmation before leaping....so maybe I am not a risk taker, just someone who has decided to try and trust God when He speaks, knowing that if I get it wrong God knows my heart and would rather we try than sit on the fence in fear or indifference.
For those of you who know me, you will know that my heart isn’t into building empires or buildings but the Kingdom of God. However I felt God really impressing on me that we will build in one of the poorest areas of Maues a school come resource centre which will be instrumental in bringing the Good News into this area.

But logically it didn’t make much sense, we had only just started receiving the monthly support need to see the Living Word School’s needs met. How could we even dare to dream let alone plan on building anything else when we were and still are so far removed from the reality of financial independence.

getting it a bit tight!

Deeper behind the curtain......

two school girls having fun....

Today I got a phone call from the Headmistress of the one of the State School, (they tend to ring me when they are desperate, and an unfortunate truth, but we are getting there). I met later on in the day with the Headmistress along with Rebeca, the headmistress wants us to do a talk or seminar for 300 students at once! An interactive in the morning and then repeat the same thing for another 300 students in the afternoon and return to coming in monthly if possible.

What prompted the phone call.........
A mum came into the school explaining a situation with her two daughters. The two daughters have fallen into bad company. The other night she awoke at 02.00 hours to find that her daughters weren’t in the house. When she looked outside she saw her son and enquired of him where his sisters where. He said that they had slipped out at 11pm saying that they would be back quickly but still hadn’t returned. The mum hoped on their motorbike and headed out to find her daughters. Her first stop was a local nightclub, but the girls weren’t there, however she was informed that they might be at a certain house. This house is used as a place for underage sex and drugs, it even has a system of surveillance with a red light flashing on when the ‘place’ is open. Arriving there the mother was told that no her daughters weren’t there either but was told to go to another similar set up.

On arrival at the next ‘house’ the mother was prevented from entering though was able to see mattress over the available floor space with many young girls, lying, semi naked, spaced out on drugs and being used for sex. She was told that her daughters had been there but had already left............

Maybe this sounds like something you would only see in films or on TV. But this is the frightening reality of the dark side of Maues. This is why your prayers and support are so needed..........

behind closed doors........

A glimpse into the New District

Youth doing outreach........

Last week, was our third week of the youth doing street outreach around different parts of Maues. This time we were in the ‘New District’ (Bairro Novo in Portuguese). This is where we want to buy land and build another school and get a foothold into this area.

Thursday night was a great night and really highlighted the need and dangers of this area. We set up a flood lamp on a street corner where a couple from the church live and have a ‘cell group’. The format was very simple, praise, worship a word of testimony, prayer and an appeal. Rebeca was uncertain as to what kind of church support we would get, as this district is one of the furthest from the church building and one if not the most dangerous. But we were pleasantly surprised when many people showed up to help and support.

The area where we set up is the last street of that section of the neighbourhood and is a very ‘active area’ with young guys passing with ‘stones’ (crack wrapped in small bundles) in hand. People coming into the area to buy, many young girls coming and going.

Some of the guys who were setting up the flood lamp and some balloons were questioned as to who had given them permission to enter ‘their area’. Later on in the night a young man came up to me presenting himself as the ‘head’ of that section of the district. He was high on drugs and sniffing glue as he told me that he was armed (though this was apparent due to the pistol in his waist band). He also wanted money, though I refused him explaining why we had come and what we were about. Many of the neighbourhood came out to participate and listen and when asked if there were any who wanted prayer, many raised their hands. A lady committed her life to the Lord and was introduced to the couple who live in the area.

On the Saturday night at the ‘cell’ group six people came along to the ‘cell’ group as a direct result of the youth’s street outreach.

On Sunday we got a reminder again of the constant gang and tribal warfare that we often don’t see (because we are in bed!). The lorry picking up people to go to church stopped off in one district before going into the Barrio Novo, unfortunately it was stoned as the people crossed unwritten boundary lines from one district into another. This is a very simple reason to go into an area, because many of them can’t venture out without fear of reprisals, beatings or even being murdered.