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Brazil
Armed conflict is a very present reality as I write. In this last week there have been three murders in the small, povertystricken district of Aguazinha in Olinda, N.E. Brazil, all very close to the Anglican "Living Waters" church.
As we drove in to church on the Sunday morning, for once it was not the reality of human beings living literally on the rubbish tip that shocked, but the pool of blood that had flowed from a youth`s throat just hours before. He had become the third statistic of the week, his life seized from him by the blade. A few days earlier an elderly lady from the church had pleaded with her would-be killer, "Don`t shoot the boy" – her words fell on deaf ears as both she and the boy were mercilessly gunned down.
With over 400 murders in the first three months of this year in the state of Pernambuco alone, it is perhaps understandable that the Brazilian people seem at times somewhat desensitised to death. The victims are usually boys or youths caught up in the drug wars of the favelas and the city streets. Many are shot in gang disputes, others at the hands of "exterminators", hired thugs allegedly employed even by local politicians to "clean up" the streets. Guns are everywhere and are often bought cheaply in the school yard.
Vast unemployment, abuse in the home, homelessness, starvation, disease and an overwhelming sense of hopelessness may not excuse the murder and the drugs, but do go some way towards explaining them. The response of the Anglican Church is to reach out to a broken people at root level, providing practical and material support combined with the gospel message of spiritual liberation and salvation in Jesus Christ.
The "Living Waters" church is one example of a brilliant light shining out in spite of and in the midst of the darkness. There, many children and youths have discovered a new life, the new life gained only through Christ.
Emmanuel Boys’ Farm, run by SAMS missionary Revd. Ian Meldrum and his wife Revd. Siméa, is another example of Christian action. The project exists to rescue orphans and children at risk from the blade and the bullet of the street. It is set in over 30 hectares of farm land, well away from the city, in a peaceful and quiet location. There are currently 30 boys with us on the Farm, many of whom were formerly exposed to the dangers of the drugs and the gangs. Today the shadow of death does not loom over them so ominously, rather they are free to learn, to work on the land, to go to church and of course to play football! Our "old boys", now young men of faith, are living "normal" lives, working in the city which once offered them nothing but the likelihood of a bloody end. We want to take on more boys, but need more resources.
Where the police refuse to go through fear and a lack of compassion, God`s people are going, demonstrating, living and learning that "perfect love drives out fear" (1 John 4:18), and that in Christ the threat of death must give way to the assurance of life.
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