Bethlehem Lutheran Church

On June 20 a team of Bethlehem members and friends traveled to Sao Paolo, Brazil to help families fulfill their dream of having a home with running water and electricity. As they live out God's call to "serve with the strength God provides" (1 Peter 4) and to put our faith into action, we ask for your prayers for the families and the Bethlehem team.
 

bom día, we arrived safely in Brazil, the 11 of us, exhausted, full of anticipation. It is the 20^th of June 2008.  Each of us brings along our own expectations or no expectations at all. 

Although we don't all know one another we share a common goal: to build sturdy, straight, dry, dignified, simple brick homes for our brothers and sisters in the land of the Southern Cross.

The airport in Sao Paulo is large and bustling. We gather our belongings and travel by bus, east, to the coastal town of Guarjia. This will be our base. This is where we will build. We find Guarjia to be a city not unlike other large urban cities. There will always be poor, but the enormity of the poverty is profound. 

Try to imagine a foul smelling soggy shelter built with concrete corrugated metal and rotting particle board. Look out the window upon a slimy, garbage laden river that meanders behind this property. Fill this moldy structure with a few pieces of broken, flea ridden furniture. Now, raise your family in this place. Now imagine this is real. Now you know what we have seen.

It is our purpose to bring new beginnings to these men, woman and children living in the slums of Brazil. It is our prayer to bring love, health, pride and most of all hope.