Dear Praying Friends,
I remember writing a prayer email in 2009 about the Caju Baptist Life Church. "Greater things are still to come. Greater things are still to be done in this City! "God of this City" was the theme that year. And I remember the intensity of the moment as we entered the square in Caju around the midnight hour sharing the Love of Jesus with armed drug traffickers. The church was growing quickly- from 2 to 150 in discipleship and small groups in three years- they even stopped all drug flow in 7 different communities- for 24 hours.
Three years later, August 5, 2012, I was singing that song again, "Greater things are still to come. Greater things are still to be done in this City"... not in Caju, but in Benfica, in the Favela Arará . We were evangelizing drug traffickers and others out on the street at the midnight hour. Benfica is the home of the most feared drug faction, the Red Command-known for their violence and dedication to the Gang- and as the enemy to the drug faction in CAJU. Benfica is also home of the Baptist Life Church´s second church plant! Now with more than 500 in discipleship and in small groups this church continues to overflow into new neighborhoods- were darkness and death reign.
The first miracle is that people from Caju not only enter Arará the area most protected by the gang, where the drugs are sold but they make disciples of Jesus there. And Disciples of Jesus from Benfica go over to Caju too.
The church was planted in January and "going out" is an important part of making disciples- seeking the lost we, a group of 80 from the church and Pastor Mike´s group walked the Gauntlet like road walled in by homes and store fronts, made of clay, the common building material of the Brazilian Favelas.
In the middle of the 1/2 mile straight away is a square that is lined with speakers 12 feet high. This is called the Boca, where the drugs are sold and the most heavily concentration of war grade weapons are worn as ornaments by young street soldiers prepared for war. The music surges at an incredibly high decibel waiting for hundreds sometimes thousands of jovens, young people, to arrive seeking iniquitous activity.
This is the exact place that I found myself with five others, waiting to talk to "the boss" (Pastor Mike finds great joy in this). The music stopped. There was a flurry of activity among the traffickers- motorcycles sped off, cell phones and radios began to ring and beep and then came the gunfire, "Pow Pow- Pow Pow! The streets emptied but the gun fire continued. It grew closer.
We held up in the closest shelter, a store front that seemed to be connected with the drugs being sold in the square. It was not the place I wanted to be in this situation- Like the scene from the movie, The Ten Commandments, where the Israelites waited a bit anxiously for the angel of death to pass over- that eerie green mist that moved through the streets in the silence of night- we waited as death approached.
Cynthia said to me, "Do you hear the woman crying?" In the distance you could hear faint cries. "That is usually the cry of a mother looking down into the street over the body of her dead son". The gun shots grew closer. "The angel of death" was a few meters from where we stood - The steel bulked doors had been pulled down but not locked- whoever had come was in the square on the other side of these doors. "Pow Pow. Pow Pow" We waited.
After moments of complete silence it was if the owner of the luncheonette knew it was time to open the doors . The doors were lifted up and she stuck her head out into the night. "It is time for you to go- you must go quickly and do not hesitate" she said. We headed into the dark in the direction that we were going before all this began. The battle continued behind us.
Then suddenly there were shooters in front of us. We were caught in the middle. Nowhere to turn, staring into the night and seeing only the flashes of the gun barrels as bullets came out in our direction left me feeling a bit hopeless - But only for a moment!
There, 50 feet in front, alongside of the gun fire, in a slightly lighted doorway was the smiling face and calming voice of Pastor Fabio, "Come Craig, Come". Caraca! (Brazilian slang for "Wow"). He had come back for us. Those next 50 steps- though difficult- brought salvation. Franta and I were the last to arrive. There ,Pastor Fabio and thirty others were huddled in a small store front church!
We were still quite deep in the Gauntlet of Arará. The others had already made it out being close to the entrance of the community when the gun fire started. Pastor Fabio came back to gather his flock. Now that we were all together it was time to make our move. Quietly, huddled close together, as if we were trying to sneak out, we left the sanctuary of the church and went back out into the street. Shots still rang out behind us in the distance. This is where the song comes in!
It started with one voice- "Greater things are still to come. Greater things are still to be done in this
C-i-t-y"
"Louder church" encouraged fabio. "Greater things are still to come Greater things are still to be done in Here! He continued. With one voice we cried out- "There, is none like our God! Oh there, is none like our God! Greater things are still to come. Greater things are still to be done in this C-i-t-y".
And it so it went. All the way out- the intensity and passion grew. Silence and fear gave way to victory as the church, one more time, was where it needed to be- Proclaiming that God is the God of this city; He is the King of this People; He is the Lord of this Nation!
You are, Oh Lord! Receive the reward of your suffering oh Jesus!
Our voices were matched with the other 50 Jesus followers anxiously awaiting news of our well-being while gathered in the public square just outside of Arará.
The story continues because we did not end there. Pastor Fabio called us to take this spirit of life and victory to the other side of the Brazil Avenue- the man-made barrier that separates Benfica from Caju. All 80 of us entered "Caju's version of the Gauntlet- Clapping in unison and chanting Vida! Life! We outshouted the sound of Brazilian Funk music made by their Wall of Sound- Sharing the Word, Grace and light of Jesus there in the place where this church was born 7 years ago!
The next day I had a chance to speak with Leo, a teenager and Jesus follower from the Life church who lives in Arará. He went back home that night and reported that the battle continued for another hour and a half after we made our dramatic exit. We learned that it was the Special Force group called the Elite Troop or the Skulls (Caveirão) that came in to execute a High- profile drug king pin hiding out there. They killed two people. One was a suspected drug dealer.
The other, Leo told me, was an innocent 15 year old boy who was returning from a party next door to get more ice. His mother stood in the upstairs window as she saw her baby die on their doorstep. I wept.
Prayer
- While we were in the store front back in the gauntlet of Arará Chris, one of the California missionaries, shared the story of Jesus with a scared 12 year old that already bore the physical scars of someone caught up in the drug world and life style. Karen and Jamie hugged and prayed for a 7 year old girl who basically lives on the streets of Arará while her mom stays stoned on Crack behind the store on the railroad tracks in a place called crack land.
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- All 80 Jesus followers that participated that night shared Christ with somebody either individually or as part of a small group.
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- That night the Elite Troop, the Traffickers and the residence of Arará saw and heard the church being light in the darkness.
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- The church has a small group that meets near the place where Elijah died.
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- Please pray for Arará. Pray that the Lord through the presence of His Church brings Peace to Arará!
- Pray for this church plant that it continues to grow taking the peace and presence of the Kingdom of God to each home and place where Christ's followers tread their feet!
Delighting in Him,
Craig and Alessandra
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