ND

For the last few weeks, every Wednesday and Friday afternoon, three of us have been visiting Paddy 1 with questionaires in hand, chatting to mums, grandmothers, aunties, kids, bar owners, and maybe one or two dads. We have been really well received in ‘Paddy’ so far. Many of them knew about ND already because some of their kids have been to the farm and already have talked about us at home. Here are some of the things that people have said to us:
One of the questions we ask is “What are the negative things about living here?” Here are some of the most common responses: “There are no safe places for our kids to play”; “drugs”; “There is so much violence and drugs”.
Another questions we ask is “What are the positive aspects of this community?” “Positive?” (usually accompanied with either embarrassed laughter or a lot of thinking space before and after) and then “there is nothing good about this place.”
Most of the families are one parent, several have a grandmother as the legal guardian (due to an alcoholic or drug addict mother) and nearly all have been broken in some way by the curse that is so obviously over the community – drugs. We have encountered so much hopelessness and yet so much courage and determination too. We see fear in the eyes of many while others have given up battling for a better tomorrow and have become bitter and angry. We have had warnings to be careful because if we got on the wrong side of the traffickers, it wouldn’t be good … but one of the teachers in a small nursery school in the middle of the slum told us that if you sow into the lives of their children, they will support you all the way because in their heart of hearts they want a different future for their own.
We have met key people in the community – like two young lads who stand out as pillars of the community because while so many of the kids around them were choosing drugs and crime, they didn’t, and people now come running to them to sort out drunken fights and misunderstandings. Then there is Maria (not her real name), who lives up the back of the town and is a social worker and president of the ‘municipal council for the rights of children and teenagers’. She has invited ND to join and to attend once a month meetings – I have known about it for some time but never known anyone who was involved. It just feels like the door has opened now and the timing is right. We are going back to talk some more with her tomorrow. We literally stumbled upon her when we were on our way to visit another family.
I would love to share with you about every house entered, every family, every feeling, every thought and all the ideas that are filling our minds as we begin to think about how we can help these kids at ND in the future … but time will not allow so as we go I will just do my best to keep you up to date as much as I can. I hope it is enough to help you to catch the vision. I would also love to be able to send you photos but nowadays with facebook and the internet world getting every day more accessible, it just wouldn’t be wise at this stage. I am sure you can understand.
Oh man, I will be honest with you, the task before us is very daunting and we desperately need more long term staff who will be committed to this work – committed to learning Portuguese (if they are not Brazilian that is!) and staying for a longer time … like a minimum of two years … we need a team who will commit to these kids long term and we don’t want to start something that we can’t continue. What would be the point! But I know that our God can do anything. This is His vision and we are doing His work with Him. He is with us and He goes before us.
Apart from the need for more staff, we also need a van and more monthly sponsors. I will keep updating you all … please pray!
“Beware in your prayers, above everything else, of limiting God, not only by unbelief, but by fancying that you know what He can do. Expect unexpected things ‘above all that we ask or think.’” Andrew Murray


Riemy, Ronald, Gabriel and I (Morven) went to do a post camp follow up visit in a childrens home in a town about an hour and a half from ND. We spent a fun day with the kids and at the end of the afternoon there was a birthday party for a brother and sister who were celebrating their birthdays that day and the day before (see photo above). So sad to look at them and think that their family don’t want them … I can never understand why more people don’t adopt. Why wouldn’t you? Sorry … but I just meet sooo many kids who are longing for a family. For example, a boy called Joseph (not his real name) who is 11 and would love to be adopted but the chances of anyone taking him and his sister are so slim because he is no longer little. I know soooo many people that could give him a home … hard to understand. We felt the absence of one of the girls who we met at camp … Gina (not her real name) is 14 and ran away from the home about 3 weeks ago. The staff heard that she has fallen into the hands of traffickers in one of the slums. We felt so sad by the news and we started praying. Ronald remembered the story of the 99 sheep from the Bible and the good shepherd who went after the one that ran away … I had the opportunity to chat with one of the staff members, Poliana (not her real name) at more length during the visit, and I encouraged her to go and rescue the girl and not leave it up to social services because they won’t do anything. Every day that goes by is so crucial. When we got back we really started praying about the situation and have continued to do so. Yesterday Poliana emailed me to say that they have decided to go and find Gina (not the usual way of doing things) but they feel it is right. Please pray with us that she will come back and that if she can’t go back to that home, that we might be able to find somewhere else for her. Thanks so much.

Well … today we had planned to do more visits (and questionnaires) in ‘Paddy 1′ but it was raining really really hard! So Ronald, Thais and I sat in my sitting room and talked about what to do. Ronald told us that one time he was doing a mission somewhere and they asked God to stop the rain. In the whole of the region where they were the rain continued to pour down, throughout the whole city in fact! But where they were, right above the square where they were doing a presentation about Jesus, the rain stopped for the time they needed! Well that encouraged Thais and I so we prayed that God would stop the rain. I even said “God if you do this, it would be sooo encouraging and we would know even more how much you want to help these people and how much they need us to do this work. I promise I will write it on the blog tonight so you get more glory!” Hence the reason I write to you now at 23:12! As we were praying the rain stopped … and it held off the whole afternoon so we could do the visits. Needless to say, it has been raining since! THANK YOU GOD!

Stepping into new territory
Yesterday we began visiting the homes in a small slum near the farm which from now on I will call ‘Paddy 1′ instead of using its own name as I think it might be wise to be a little bit more discreet about this work as these are our neighbours and we want to keep their trust. I have always felt it far from a concidence that the closest community to ND is so poor and full of very broken and hurting people.As some of you will already know, the last couple of years we have felt a growing desire to do something for the kids in ‘Paddy’ and in another slum just across a very short bridge from there which I will call ‘Paddy 2′. I can’t tell you how excited I am that the work has begun!!! I believe this is an historic moment for NEW DESTINY. We believe that God’s heart is breaking for these kids and it is like he is saying to us ‘come on, now is the time!’ So here we are, taking these first steps to work out what the real needs are and what we can do, and to begin getting to know the people. All week leading up to yesterday, I felt a heaviness all around me and a kind of panicky sensation in my head, I recognise it to be that fear of stepping into unknown territory … but we just pushed through these feelings and kept praying and then suddenly we were in the car on the way and that was when I felt the peace coming back again. Whenever we do stuff that God wants us to do that has the potential of rescuing people from darkness into light, we step into a spiritual war, as we also have an enemy who doesn’t want us to mess with his playground! But as soon as we start doing the work and obeying what God is asking us to do, His presence is so tangible and the fear and anxiety just goes. Wow!

So yesterday afternoon, Thais, Ronald and I went off with our ND t-shirts on and questionnaires in hand. We visited the first four houses that we came to (where there are children). In each home we filled in a questionnaire about children living there between the ages of 7 and 17. In a few months time after we have got all the information in our hands literally, we will have to make that decision (won’t be easy) about which kids to start working with first on a weekly basis. Would you like to know about some of the kids we met yesterday? Yes? Read on …

Well, there’s Susana (not her real name), 12 years old, who stays on her own for a large chunk of the day. She lives with her gran and an aunt. Her mum lives an hour from here and she hardly ever sees her but Susana made it clear she doesn’t want to see her and her face was angry as she talked about her. She told us that her mum has already had children taken away from her by social services and that she doesn’t deserve to have children. The aunt Susanna lives with has psychological problems and is in a local council centre during the day. Susana said she had heard of ND and was longing to come to the farm. She is very lonely. The school referred her to a psychologist but noone at home was willing to take her there so she couldn’t get the emotional help she so needs.
Then there was Elijah (not his real name), 9 years old, who a month ago stood stood and watched as a local lad of 18 years old was murdered right in front of him. The usual story, owing money for drugs. When he got home he just kept on screaming ‘it wasn’t my fault’ over and over again and his mum’s reaction was to basically say ‘if you don’t shut up I will beat you up’ – that old aggressive cycle.
Then there was Juliana (not her real name) who has two children who are old enough for us to work with – the family have been in the house since 1986 but up until two months ago, it had a basic roof structure but no ceiling, so the walls and floor and all the contents were just dripping wet with damp mould all through four months of rainy season every year … Juliana said the smell was unbearable. Now they have a cement ceiling but the floors are just rubble. Her sister was in visiting with her 14 year old daughter and her baby … yep, 14 with a baby – that is pretty normal to be honest.
We have only just begun and you can see how desperate the need is already! In every house the same answer to the question ‘what would you say was the most serious problem in the slum and what most worries you for your children’s future?’ Drugs.
Right now our team is so small but there are enough of us to do something and so I believe something is what we must do.
We will continue the visits until we finish visiting every house in ‘Paddy 1′ (two or three afternoons a week) and as we go we will just keep praying that God will put on our hearts which children to start ‘Transformers’ with later in the year.

If you pray, please stand with us for these kids and their families … if you don’t usually pray, why not try it … you might be surprised at what happens!

This weekend we ran a camp for 14 kids between the ages of 7 and 17, from a childrens home about 40 minutes from here. All the children have been freed for adoption by the judge because all their stories are so bad … two brothers abandoned by their mum a year ago and she never appeared again; a family of four kids who were poisoned by their dad – he put poison in their food then when they were sleeping set their beds on fire but somehow they all escaped unharmed and the poison didn’t kill them! He is now in prison for life as is the mother.

Another brother and sister in the house have a mother who is a prostituted woman and she worked in the same room as Jennifer slept every night … one of the boys was adopted and then his adopted father abused him so he was sent back into care. Another wee guy (10) in the group, has had two heart operations and in two weeks time will undergo intestinal surgery followed by an ear operation as he can only hear in one ear and his stomach is in knots. He is head over heels in love with Jesus as were all the kids – the home where they live is run by a Baptist church and the kids have seen how God has answered so much prayer and have felt His presence so have been changed.

We all had an amazing weekend, and when Gabi shared his testimony on the Saturday night, which they could relate to so intensely, because it is so similar to so many of theirs … it was just truly inspiring and you could see in their eyest that these young people were daring to dream that they too could be used to transform others lives!