Brazil Day 7 service at Lagoinha

We visited an area called Lagoinha today which was similar to the favela we went to but not as bad. The houses lack colour and are run down.

We had a service in a church that is in a converted garage, smaller than other churches we have been to. It is on a busy street corner, bikes and cars were part of the white noise of the service. If it wasn’t for this we would not have needed microphones.

The church had around 20 children 10 adults. We sang songs together, mainly songs that were for children. The group sang the song ‘who’s the king of the jungle’. They taught the church the actions.

The dance group performed a dance for them. The children then went out for 20 minutes.

Rafal shared his testimony for The first time in front of people he didn’t know, speaking in English which is his second language as he is polish and Dre translated. He did very well and spoke of his real life experience not theory from a book.

The pastor of the church then spoke for a short time. A simple message about the goodness of God. And how we are not to be religious people but to be people who express God in all we do.

Each time we visit these services I am impressed that a message of prosperity is not preached to the poor. The same message comes again and again ‘we have met God through Jesus and our lives have been transformed, we have relationship with God despite our backgrounds and you to can have this relationship’

This is not forced on them and I know that the local church here encourage questioning and relationship.

I was also moved by the food that they gave us after and their desire to bless us, especially as they do not have much themselves.