Well, this is just a very quick update for anyone who visits the site that the Genesis projects are still going strong in Brasil, but our activity in the UK has been more limited over the last couple of years.

With reduction in team numbers and time available, fund-raising effort has been fairly minimal, but with some cake sales and other activities still happening occasionally.

Bernie took another team to Brasil in February 2015, who had a great time and spent a little over two weeks meeting the people from the church, the community, prisons, police, rehabilitation centres, etc. This was such a success that another trip is being planned for June/July 2016, intended to coincide with our friend Gio’s graduation ceremony.

The Feb 2015 trip team outside the barbershop and nail bar project, next door to the welding project.

For Dayspring there is another cake sale this Sunday 29th November.

With apologies for the lack of updates recently, here’s some news about our latest fund-raising event.

To raise funds jointly for GCP and Life Association India we put on our second garden party and barbecue on Sunday 8th of July.

All we really need now is people...

Our good friends Dave and Bee are heading out to India later this year to work with Life Association and it seemed too good an opportunity to miss, combining these great causes and mixing the cultures to put on a great summer event – we hadn’t heard of “Braz-Indian” before, but we think it has a good ring to it!

Despite Britain having pretty much the worst summer on record, with a month of rain in a day on more than one occasion, we were blessed with sunshine all the day from before setting up to after we finished – amazing.

The attractions included…

The repeat of our fantastic barbecue with possibly more meat than I’ve seen in one place before…

The Barbecue

Dalit candles and lights, cards, cakes, cupcakes, jams, marmalade, bunting and more to buy…

Cupcakes and candles

Then we had our hook-a-duck again…

Hook-a-duck

Plus guess the weight of the cake and the number of sweets in the jar, the bouncy castle, face painting…

Face Painting

…and best of all, over 70 of the nicest people you could ever want to meet!

The result was a lot of fun, great community spirit and a total of over £650 raised for the Genesis Community Project and Dave and Bee’s work for Life Association India – well done to you all!

Many thanks go to more people than we can list, but especially Chris and Sandra for the use of their garden, Charli for the cakes, Nigel for the bouncy castle and Bernie, Phil, Gill, Hilary, Dave, Bee, Sheila, John and Fiona for organising everything.  Apologies if I’ve left anyone out – it was really such a team effort.

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Quiz night flyer (click for full size version)

Following the successful quiz night at Baraka in Garforth, Genesis Community Project is joining forces with PASCA for another spectacular brain challenge.  There’ll also be cakes, a raffle and hot drinks – and you can bring other drinks if you want to.

So join us on Saturday 28th April, at 7:30pm with a team of friends – we’re expecting some good team names (can you beat “Quiztina Aguilera”?) – or join a team on the evening and see how you match up.   Please remember that you will need to buy a ticket, buy in advance at only £5 each including a chilli (go here to buy online at guestli.st.com ) or a cost of £7 each on the door – we’d like to know numbers beforehand if possible so we can cook enough chilli!

We’ll see you at the Mosaic Warehouse at number 10 Sweet Street, LS11 9DB where there’s plenty of free parking. The full details are on the attached flyer – all proceeds will be going jointly to PASCA and Genesis Community Project.

Here’s the flyer as a downloadable PDF – feel free to print it out and share it on your church bulletin board, etc…

PASCA and GCP Quiz Night

Genesis Community Project and the Baraka Coffee Shop will be holding a quiz night on Friday 17th of February at Baraka, Main Street, Garforth.

Bernie, Sheila, Hilary and Phil are back from their trip to Brazil and had an amazing time.

If you want to hear some stories of their time then come along to 62c on Sunday 4th Dec at 7pm.

Photos, food, drink – it will be a great time – see you are there.

Bernie is still in Brazil…

Wednesday

This was a holiday in Brazil when the Catholics, amongst others, visit the graves of dead relatives to give offerings & pray for them. So some of the church go to the cemetery to talk to people and pray for them.

I met a guy who helps lead a church and is interested in KK, so it turned into a meeting about that.

Thursday

We went to the bank in Belo Horizonte but the traffic was terrible and it took forever to get there. Then it was a frustrating experience, as banking seems to be in Brazil.

Then we went on a buying trip. If I ever build a house in Brazil I want Elias to come with me to buy all the materials as he has friends everywhere in every kind of business!

The rest of the day I taught English and watched a spelling competition – the head teacher asked Elias to pray for the competition! After that we went to buy fish for dinner, which turned out to be a shop with 2 huge tanks containing large fish.

Sleeping in this area is a challenge at times. All night long there is music blaring, dogs barking, people shouting, roosters crowing, motorbikes, cats, fireworks and the occasional gunshot.

Friday

Visited a computer business early in the morning to meet a guy who is helping Elias and supporting the project. He gave me his newly published book to read on prayer! Then we visited 2 schools. The first school was for 7-14yrs and I saw a lot of kids from Washington Pires.

Next we went to the school I visited in April in Washington Pires, for kids aged 11-16yrs. I was greeted by the headteacher like I was a long lost friend! I really like this woman and what she is doing for the community. Her heart is huge, she is well respected and she looks to Elias for support with the kids. They work well together for the community.

When we came out of the school there was a young girl of 14 waiting to talk to Elias. It turned out she was 4 months pregnant by one of the traffickers and was desperate for help. She had been abandoned by the father of the baby and lived with her Grandma. They had no food and she’d had no medical care. Elias took her address and promised to help. She looked really upset and I didn’t know what to do so just hugged her. She really cried as I just prayed for her, feeling useless. Seeing things like that young girl just re-emphasizes the need for the project to help in real times of crisis. That girl had seen Elias go into the school and waited over an hour for him to come out.

After lunch I taught a class of English; I love doing this and see it as a way to help prevent some of the other kids getting into trouble with drugs or the Police.

Friday & Saturday

Spent a few days at Ed & Gio´s which is a nice rest and time with the family. Gio is not very happy with me for being more at Washington Pires than her house so I have some amends to make! Went to the supermarket on the Friday which meant walking there and going home by combi van. Spent the rest of the day washing clothes, playing with the kids, relaxing and speaking to Amy & Simon on Skype.

On Saturday Karen, Gio & I went out shopping. This meant a very evil bus ride, literally every bone in your body rattles as you are thrown around and lifted off your seat. Then we looked around an outdoor market and drank fresh coconut juice, yum. Followed by Pastel a very traditional kind of light pastry filled with meat or cheese, followed by ice-cream… by now you are getting the idea of what a Shopping trip is! Couldn´t find a coffee shop though :o(

Then around 5pm when we were at home it started raining. This turned into the worst storm they have seen since Gio was a child. It went from blazing sun to hail the size of golf balls. The road outside her house was literally a flowing river over the deep pavements, a garage wall collapsed onto the car 3 doors away. Then we noticed water was running down the upstairs walls inside so we had to shut the electric off, move all the furniture into the middle and mop up with towels. very scary! It went on for over an hour and people were clearing up outside for hours afterwards. Ed went out with a jug collecting ice for Ciaparinas ha ha. We were due to go to a church service and celebration dinner for a 50th wedding anniversary so continued to get ready for that. We were late arriving but that´s not a problem in Brazil!

Sunday

Again spent the day relaxing with Gio´s extended family, also helped Ed with an English class he was doing. Spoke to Graham & Jess on Skype :o) so it was a good day. I returned to Washington Pires in time for church in the evening and to settle in Elias & Milene´s house. Church was a bit strange without the team there and no other English speakers, but everyone was very friendly. Ricardo took the service as Elias had to take Milene to the hospital. I got a bit scared when Ricardo called me to the front but it was only to pray for the church. Phew, I managed half in English & half in Portuguese :o)

Monday

Spent the morning at the project preparing English classes for the week. I´m really grateful for Amy´s material which has been very helpful and also decided to extend the food topic as it´s such a passion for Brazilians ;o) Also some of the older kids came after school & before lunch for me to help them with their English homework. Next time I would love to do Homework clubs here, they would work really well.

In the afternoon I spent time with Milene at the house as she is still unwell. She is 3 months pregnant and has some problems so prayer for her would be good. From what I can gather her pregnancy with Nicole was difficult as well, and I´ve already met several women here who have had stillbirths or lost children within days of birth. They also have a good friend who is a pharmacist so that´s been very helpful as well.

In the evening we all just chilled watching a kind of X factor only 20 times cheesier! This was a great evening for me as it´s the first time I´ve really seen Elias relax with his family. Already this week I am seeing more of a normal routine and it´s good to experience.

Tuesday

Spent the day at the project taking an English class in the morning for 10 young kids. I loved it. I just lavished love & praise on them and if they learnt anything I saw it as a bonus ;o) Actually they are really keen and have remembered stuff from the week before and now learnt new stuff. They just lap up the praise and affirmation which is so important for them. Most of these kids are very poor and I´m finding out more about their home situations which are very sad.

In the afternoon I took a class for adults and teenagers. This time more women from the favela came. Again they were very keen to learn and appreciated the praise. They were also keen to know when the next class was. After that I helped bag up fresh food the project had just collected from the food bank to be given away in the morning. As we were doing it several kids came, obviously hungry to try to get some food early. They had probably been sent by their mums. They were given bread and told to return in the morning for more.

If you got to this point…thanks for reading ;o) Appreciate your emails and prayers especially as I´m not too well at the moment. Also prayer for continued growth with the language would be good. I´m studying every spare minute I can as it´s easier here when you´re surrounded with the language, but I´m not convinced how much is staying in my brain ;o) Finally prayer to make the most of the rest of my time here and concentrate on what God wants me to do would be fab.

Tuesday,

Very Busy day. Phil went house building again in the morning. After giving out food to the community, I went to the bank with Elias, whilst Sheila & Hilary started the English class, many thanks to Amy for writing us some lessons! We had 9 children in the first class between 3yrs and 10yrs. I joined in half way through. They were great kids, very keen to learn and seemed to enjoy the way we taught them. We majored on affirmation and self esteem, giving them lots of praise which they just lapped up.

After lunch we went to visit the school where Elias’s primary school teacher works. I’ve mentioned her before as we went to her house for lunch on the Sunday. Over 1,600 kids go there: half in the morning and the rest in the afternoon. Now I’m not sure what you would expect to do on a school visit, maybe learn about the curriculum or the structure of the school, but of course this one was Brazilian style. So we met every person working there and had a good inspection of the kitchen which feeds each child a snack and a meal every day. We were told how important this food is, and that Elias has helped find extra food for them. Lots of children from Washington Pires go to this school and lots of the kids are hungry.

Then we began a tour of most of the classes. The children were first asked where we came from, 99% thought USA! Then they were asked if they wanted to hug & kiss us! So without a word of a lie, we each hugged about 500 kids that day! It was so moving as the kids lined up one by one for a hug. I tried to pray that God would show me who needed that extra little bit of attention and spent a bit of time talking to them and just loving them. Silviana told us these children are starved of love & affection so it is very important that they receive both as much as possible whilst at school! It reminded me so much of what KK (Kidz Klub Leeds)is about. Every class had kids who had parents in prison, parents who had abandoned them, parents who had been murdered, siblings who had been murdered, parents who were drug traffickers, parents on drugs, children from homes of great poverty and we hugged kids with HIV. What a privilege! Everyone on the team was a wreck by the end but all thought it was an amazing visit. This school is an open door for Kidz Klub, please pray for direction for me & Elias as we think this through!

As we were leaving the school Elias got a call that some more kids had turned up for English so we raced back to do a class for about 12 teenagers and adults. The team are learning quickly how to adapt and be in the moment! Then it was straight on to a visit with Elias’s parents, which of course involved food! They were lovely and it was great to honour Elias in this way. I think we were the first ever foreigners they have received in their home. Then another rush back to get ready to present shopping for the team. Elias actually let us roam free around the shopping centre….well, only when he’d given me Milene’s mobile set to speed dial ;o) At the end of this day we were all shattered!

Wednesday,

More building for Phil & English classes for the rest of us, 12 younger children today. These classes have been test classes to see if it will work for the future. I can definitely say it would and would build quickly. We all loved taking the classes and getting to know some of the kids better. Then we went for Lunch to Cicero the politicians house. It was strange to see his secretary was very involved with the making of the lunch for us all! I’d love to see her job description! We had a great time and made to feel very welcome. Afterwards, the team had a chance to have a meeting and talk to Elias through Edmilson. This was a very important time for them as they learnt more from him about the history of the how the work began and his vision. They were also able to express, with a great deal of emotion, their thoughts about the time in Brazil. We ended with praying for Elias again a very emotional time!

Finally, we had church in the evening, Giovanna came along so that the team could say goodbye to the church. I could also thank the church for how they have received the first team. I spoke half in English and for the first time at the front of church, half in portuguese….I wonder what I said ;o) It has really been amazing and we have been blessed much more than we have blessed them, they outdid us every time…..dam ;o)

Thursday

We set off at 9am for a city tour of Belo Horizonte! The reality was a couple of hours sat in traffic and driving in crazy Brazilian traffic before the first stop at the market in Belo. This is a great place full of different foods and traditional items, the team loved it. After lunch there, we drove to a huge church called Lagoinha, www.lagoinha.com. This has 5000+ people and has a huge social project in a nearby Favela. It also does lots to support Pastors like Elias, putting on free conferences and workshops for them. The church also has a school, nursery, restaurant, cafe and shop on site. Then we drove by the new football stadium for the world cup in 2014, I have no idea how the city will cope with the extra people! Then we visited the lake at Pampulha. This lake is 22kms long and is surrounded by grass and huge houses. It’s still in the city but is a real oasis in the middle of chaos. Then to the airport to drop the team off. After safely handing them over to TAM airlines Elias & I said our goodbyes. As soon as I got in the car I got incredibly tired and am very grateful to be going to Ed & Gio’s for a few days. I’m sure Elias could do with a few days without me as well ;o)

Finally got a chance to write a bit of an update. I have had no internet for a week and been really busy, so it’s been impossible to write before.

Saturday

Was a great day. We travelled to another city called Itabarito to visit a project run by my friend called New Destiny. It´s an outdoor activity centre run by a scottish lady called Morvan who has lived in Brazil for about 15yrs. She has also worked with Ed & Gio in the past. So this project takes kids from the Favela for camps and gives them an amazing experience. It was a very moving visit for the team and also shows them more of the area as it´s a hour and a half journey.

Then in the evening we had a presentation from the people in charge of the rebuilding of Simones house project. At the meeting was a Journalist, architect, engineer and a Lawyer, all woman. This was a great group of people with a huge committment to the project and to Elias. They showed us plans for the house, how it was all going to happen and also how legally they were going to put the house in Simones childrens name so that if she died no-one could take the house away from them. I then told them of my involvement and the others said why they were there. There was a real sense of us all being a team together. The building will start Monday.

Sunday

We should have had a Baptism at a Lake but it has been raining constantly for over 24hrs! So as well as the rain the lake is flooded. Thankfully they cancelled it! So we spent the morning preparing the English classes we will do next week.

At lunch time we went to the Fazenda of Elias´s former primary school teacher and her husband and daughter. This is a farm but not like a farm we know, its basically cut back jungle with loads of fruit trees, sugar cane, sweetcorn and lots of cows & horses. We were again spoilt to pieces and had lots of food produced on the farm such as Orange Juice, milk, cheese, meat, cake made with Sweetcorn. everything was amazing. They´d made little messages for us in English to welcome us and when we left gave us chocolate with again another message! The couple who own the farm help Elias and the project by donating food, picking up food from the wharehouse, and others things. Then had church tonight. For several reasons today was a difficult day for me, also some cultural difficulties occurred for the team so I appreciate your prayers and support.

Monday

Spent time at the project talking to lots of kids throughout the day. It was a really special time getting to know some of them better. They helped us with Portuguese and we helped them with English! Phil helped with the 1st day of building Simones house. We went to check on the progress and started chatting to some of the men helping they are all from the community and most of them not in the church. They have all been in prison but respect Elias & Ricardo lots. It,s a really good strategy to involve them because as well as it being a way to just get along side them, the community need to accept Simones house without being jealous about it. Suddenly one of them produced a guitar and we had a singsong ha ha. Then straight after Ricardo got one of the young men singing to lift up his tee-shirt. he had a scar from his neck all the way down his stomach. He also had 2 gun shot wounds on his stomach and one right on the back of his neck. They explained he’s been shot by the drug traffickers 6 months ago. I have no idea how he is alive. After that Elias found him a job and he has turned his life around. That incident is a good example of life here, one minute you are singing & laughing, the next hearing the most dreadful of stories. Before Elias & the church arrived 2 murders A WEEK happened in Washington Pires!

Later that afternoon we revisited the elderly man who had the terrible ulcerated leg. We went with a friend of Elias who’s a pharmacist. Since our last visit the man had had an amputation above the knee and was already home the day after the op! This is because the family are expected to care for the patient and also the hospitals are not always very good! I was surprised to see the man was much more alert and able to talk. He was obviously very close to death the first time I saw him. Geraldo the pharmacist was great with him, took his B.P, blood sugar, checked him over, gave some pain relief and explained to the family how to care for the man and his stump. It’s scary to think that only 3 years ago before Elias arrived nothing like this would have happened.

Monday night was a BBQ at Elias house for us and some others we have been getting to know. An elderly guy at the church who has been with Elias since the beginning bought all the food and wanted to cook for us. It’s impossible to convey how much we are being blessed!