(Brazilian kids) Three times we were able to do some introduction to Bible storying with a group of teenagers leading in ministry. This group of thirty teens are all kids who grew up in the favelas. Most of the guys had been into drug activity as young kids. Many of the girls were told they should pursue prostitution if they wanted to ever make any money.
But in the middle of the favela is a ministry committed to community transformation. One of the main things Channel to Brazil for Christ (www.thechannel.org) does is run a school that adds a half-day of quality education enhancement to the half-day public school the favela kids have. There are 350 children who are able to be enrolled and over 400 waiting for an opening to get in.
All of the youth leaders we met had come to know Christ through CBC and are now leading CBC ministry groups and discipling children in the favelas. Many of them go on bus mission trips to interior villages where they do two-day evangelistic crusades. Some have been awarded scholarships to study at universities. Some want to go overseas a missionaries.
On the last training time, I divided the men and women up and we let them “have church”. They shared a story, talked about it (women are women all over the world…I had to encourage them to stop sharing so much and keep movin!), and retold the story. Afterwards a few of the older folks came up and said they could see how this would be so effective in the favelas. That was what we hoped to hear. We are hopeful that CBC and these kids will seek ways to weave reproducible storying into their relationships and ministry.
(Brady) The day after leading the house church, Brady said he wanted to share the story I did that night with me. He did an amazing job without me retelling it. Then he did another story that I had told him earlier that day. Then he did a third story, which I shared once. He had a huge grin on his face and said, “This is fun. I like doing this! I can see why you like doing this with people.” That was great to hear!
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