VILA DA CONQUISTA
After two years and three months that we have worked at Vila da Conquista, we have 122 kids enrolled and 25 volunteer teachers divided among five classes (2-4 yr olds; 5-6’s; 7-10’s; teens boys and girls (11-18 years). About 50 kids have already accepted Christ in their hearts and about 20 kids have gone to the Sunday school in our church.
One of the most interesting stories is about 11-year old Larissa Almeida. When she accepted Christ, she cried a lot and asked me: “Teacher Miriam, why when we accepted Christ, we can feel our heart burning and we can’t stop to cry?” Larissa loves to go to Sunday school to sing, dance, and play soccer. She has strong convictions about her faith.
We have already given 31 Kid’s Life Application Bible and some kids are reading them. One girl, Edjane, 15 years old, wrote me a letter saying: “Thank you so much for the Bible! I really wanted to receive one. I liked so much when I read that you guys love me andGod loves me too.”
Some kids have difficulties in their physical, social, and cognitional development while others have bad behavior. But every Saturday we notice the Holy Spirit acting in their lives and families. We have seen kids playing with other kids, running, singing, dancing, smiling, writing, and painting with more discipline.
Now we have a soccer team for the younger (11-14) and older boys (15-18). We are still trying to organize a soccer team for the girls, which has been difficult for us in Brazil.
This Christmas we had three girls singing with the church kids group and it was an awesome experience for everyone. We did a little Christmas show with the kids at Vila da Conquista. Many parents and others from the community went to watch and heard the true meaning of Christmas — Jesus Christ. God be praised!
In the next few months we will have dance, music, drama, drawing and painting workshops for the kids. In March they will present a show in the church as the final product of all the workshops.
SPORTS MINISTRY IN THE CHURCH
This year, with the help of the Eagles who have come to stay with us three times, we can finally join boys and girls who love soccer into two organized teams. They meet three times a week to practice soccer, pray, study the Bible, and worship.
The first opportunity they had to serve in the church was with the event at the neighboring McDonald’s on behalf of children with cancer. As weencouraged people to buy Big Mac’s, we shared the gospel through songs, dramas, dances, games, giving pamphlets with the gospel message and inviting them to go to our youth conference in September (4-7th).
Since then, many other jobs have been done in local churches, schools and poor communities. Some kids and teens have accepted Christ in their hearts and have starting coming to church. Some players have helped us at Vila da Conquista with soccer teams, which has been very important for the project.
In the last service of this year, the pastor is going to present to the church the sports ministry officially. After many experiences with the Eagles,Daiana caught the vision and has transmitted that to the teams. She and Pastor Gilberto will be responsible for this ministry in our church. Daiana is going to lead the training of sports ministry leaders with the Christian Athletes starting in January.
