In recent years I have come to realise that I need God to help me with the issue of anger.
It became even clearer to me on the day that a mob of Brazilians pushed their way into the train at Brás as I was attempting to get out of the train with a suitcase in one hand and the hand of my little boy in the other threatening to lose contact with him. I shouted, ´Stop!´several times in English before I realised that I would be more effective if I was shouting in portuguese! So, I began to shout, ´Pare´and eventually we were able to leave the train. But I had completely lost it and I felt a mascara smudge of emotion afterwards.
I think the Holy Spirit may have been doing some work in me because today I was back at Brás and I could see that there was a crowd ready to push their way onto the train as we slowed to a halt at the station platform. As the doors opened and the crowd surged forward with no consideration to the people in front of them trying to leave the train, I found myself saying, `Com Licença´(Excuse me). This lasted a few seconds until someone banged hard into my shoulder and I said, ´Come on, let´s show some manners people!´in my best English accent, not caring whether they understood or not.
I am not sure how close to holiness that is, but I did feel a little calmer and I only held the grudge against the person who banged into me until I reached the top of the escalator!
Monday, April 25, 2011
Monday, April 4, 2011
Reaching out to the homeless
Every day we see homeless people on the streets of Sao Miguel and every day I remember that we are The Salvation Army so shouldn't we be doing something about it?
In the UK The Salvation Army has Lifehouse Centres which provide professional help and support for people who, through different life circumstances, find themselves homeless or suffering with an addiction to drugs or alcohol. Whilst working in the UK whenever I met someone with a need in this area it was a fairly easy task to link them up with the nearest Salvation Army Centre. It is different here.
In Brazil The Salvation Army has many social projects but they tend to work mainly with children and adolescents. This is also a great area of need in this country where the population has become accustomed to the fact that hundreds of children live on the streets and thousands upon thousands of them live in favelas (shanty towns). The Salvation Army here is doing a valiant work through education and child care to help improve the circumstances of these children. However, there is so much more that needs to be done and there are very few other organisations doing it.
So, when I meet a person who is homeless in Sao Miguel my first problem is that my portuguese is not good enough to have a conversation with them and my second problem is that I have nothing to offer them in terms of a solution. Having said that I cannot do nothing so I have been trying to reach out to the person under the blanket (see earlier blog) who seems to live on the streets around my own apartment block. My first attempt was useless. It was a hot, sunny day and I thought I would give her a drink. As I came closer I could see that the person is, in fact, a woman who may not be as old as she looks. I spoke what I hoped were words of kindness in portuguese and put a carton of juice into her hand. Her eyes were crusted over and when I saw that she couldn't see I tried to open the carton for her but this startled her and she ran away. I began to walk after her but as she settled down near a crowded bus stop I decided that I would not like to create a scene so I walked on. There have been two more occasions when I have been able to simply place a carton of juice or a bag of fruit in her hand saying, 'Hello, this is for you', and walked away. I hope that she will grow to recognise my voice and maybe one day we will be able to offer her more help.
We have a few people who come once a month to pick up a food parcel from the church building. They just want to take the food and go. We suspect they sell it, certainly J is using it to buy drugs, but if I can maintain this monthly contact with them maybe one day we will be able to offer them more help. At the very least we pray for them by name and I believe all prayer is powerful and effective.
For the past two weeks we have had some meals left over from Alpha and so P. along with Cadet G. has taken a bag of about 10 meals out onto the streets on a Sunday afternoon. It hasn't been difficult for them to find people who are hungry and living on the streets.
We have also started a Sunday Breakfast Club for children who come to Sunday School. A couple of months ago the Sunday School leaders told me that some of the new children were complaining of being hungry half way through Sunday School and they discovered that they had not yet eaten anything that day. So, they now provide bread and hot chocolate at 10am on a Sunday. Interestingly, the Sunday School has increased in number since we began doing this!!
So this is it so far. Compared to the organised and professional work that The Salvation Army is doing in the UK it is not really very much. However, we need to start somewhere and we are praying that God will guide us into a clear understanding of how we are to focus our mission in this area.
In the UK The Salvation Army has Lifehouse Centres which provide professional help and support for people who, through different life circumstances, find themselves homeless or suffering with an addiction to drugs or alcohol. Whilst working in the UK whenever I met someone with a need in this area it was a fairly easy task to link them up with the nearest Salvation Army Centre. It is different here.
In Brazil The Salvation Army has many social projects but they tend to work mainly with children and adolescents. This is also a great area of need in this country where the population has become accustomed to the fact that hundreds of children live on the streets and thousands upon thousands of them live in favelas (shanty towns). The Salvation Army here is doing a valiant work through education and child care to help improve the circumstances of these children. However, there is so much more that needs to be done and there are very few other organisations doing it.
So, when I meet a person who is homeless in Sao Miguel my first problem is that my portuguese is not good enough to have a conversation with them and my second problem is that I have nothing to offer them in terms of a solution. Having said that I cannot do nothing so I have been trying to reach out to the person under the blanket (see earlier blog) who seems to live on the streets around my own apartment block. My first attempt was useless. It was a hot, sunny day and I thought I would give her a drink. As I came closer I could see that the person is, in fact, a woman who may not be as old as she looks. I spoke what I hoped were words of kindness in portuguese and put a carton of juice into her hand. Her eyes were crusted over and when I saw that she couldn't see I tried to open the carton for her but this startled her and she ran away. I began to walk after her but as she settled down near a crowded bus stop I decided that I would not like to create a scene so I walked on. There have been two more occasions when I have been able to simply place a carton of juice or a bag of fruit in her hand saying, 'Hello, this is for you', and walked away. I hope that she will grow to recognise my voice and maybe one day we will be able to offer her more help.
We have a few people who come once a month to pick up a food parcel from the church building. They just want to take the food and go. We suspect they sell it, certainly J is using it to buy drugs, but if I can maintain this monthly contact with them maybe one day we will be able to offer them more help. At the very least we pray for them by name and I believe all prayer is powerful and effective.
For the past two weeks we have had some meals left over from Alpha and so P. along with Cadet G. has taken a bag of about 10 meals out onto the streets on a Sunday afternoon. It hasn't been difficult for them to find people who are hungry and living on the streets.
We have also started a Sunday Breakfast Club for children who come to Sunday School. A couple of months ago the Sunday School leaders told me that some of the new children were complaining of being hungry half way through Sunday School and they discovered that they had not yet eaten anything that day. So, they now provide bread and hot chocolate at 10am on a Sunday. Interestingly, the Sunday School has increased in number since we began doing this!!
So this is it so far. Compared to the organised and professional work that The Salvation Army is doing in the UK it is not really very much. However, we need to start somewhere and we are praying that God will guide us into a clear understanding of how we are to focus our mission in this area.
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