Wow, today has been awesome. I am better from feeling a little green around the gills over the weekend. So, I am able to get back to what I like my days to look like, namely going to pray in the morning (going being leaving my room, so as to not disturb my room mates). But I also had a team meeting this morning, team meeting being for an outreach I will be doing for school. I am getting some hands on training in what I have come to learn to be.
The Trip: Brasil outreach 2014, the region of Bahia, Salvador and surrounding area.
Bahia is a region stricken with poverty, sexual perversion and sex trafficking, drugs, witchcraft, occult activity. and has a long history of this heavy demonic influence.
In this environment many children are abandoned, or abducted and started into drugs at an early age to get them addicted. Once addicted they are turned into sex slaves to feed the addiction, these orphans are also used as hitmen for drug rings, used as human sacrifice in demonic rituals, or simply abandoned to die on the streets.
As mentioned before, witchcraft, voodoo, and other "black arts" are prevalent. This comes from the cultural influences that formed this area. This area was Native south Americans, conquered and subjugated to their conquerors who came to the region to gain the gold. Also, into this area came many African slaves, that were never "re-cultured" to fit the form their masters wanted, but they brought with them their voodoo, suspicions, and the witchcraft culture. Since it was Spain who conquered them there came a heavy catholic religious influence, which compromises the values of the church anyhow to let in witchcraft and the like.
From this we see a culture that is bound in darkness, with a "Church" that isn't able to offer hope, for they are just as bound as the people.
What we will be doing as a team is, we will be going out on the streets praying for the sick, and those held in bondage, And we will see them healed and set free (I guarantee it). We will be going into the school to minister to the children, to see generational chains broken, and A new generation whose reality is they have seen the LIVING GOD! We will be on the streets ministering the same freedom to the children the state doesn't recognize. We will also be partnering with a local orphanage to love on these kiddos, and impart to them identity: They are chosen and precious in His sight.
We will be using the arts to share the gospel in creative ways, largely based from music and drama.
If you have never had the opportunity to see the gospel displayed in some type of drama, you are missing out, just saying.
I have more to say about this trip, but I am currently constrained by time
Love , Stephen
Time frame May 2014.....most of the month.
:)
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