This is a photo of the Águas Vivas (Living Waters) group. We took 10 people thru a 17 week journey that proved to be a blessing to all.  On our last night  7 Brazilians shared how God is using this course to bring healing to issues of abuse, abandonment, adultery, and addiction.  There are no magic bullet solutions to healing our relational brokenness, but the Living Waters course is designed to teach and model the biblical principles of a life long transformational journey into wholeness.  On our last evening together I reminded them that our lives are like onions, and God heals us one layer at a time. One woman attempted to count the layers of an onion and gave up at 39 layers.   I encouraged them to have patience, ongoing honesty, and humility to stay on this transforming journey.

For Art and myself, it was a profoundly humbling journey to attempt to teach these relational principles on a weekly basis.  After some evenings, when the translating of our thoughts into portuguese was especially stilted, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.    Art and I certainly relied on one another’s encouragement to keep going from week to week.   Thankfully we had the translated material to guide our teaching; and each participant was given a manual to serve as an ongoing reference.    Overall, we are completely overwhelmed by what has been accomplished within the first 8 months of being in Altamira with our limited language ability.

We have taken 42 people through the 5 lesson course “The Journey”. The purpose of this pre Living Waters Course is to raise awareness of how our past relational experiences shape our current relationships.  It is a course designed to facilitate discussion and reflection.   Participants are encouraged to share openly about their lives in a small group setting where confidentiality is a must, however, confidentiality seems to be a significant hurdle for Brazilians. Everyone who took this short course, “The Journey”  admitted that somebody close to them had broken their trust.  The prevalence of gossip and experiences of being judged by others are often cited as barriers to trust.  

I (Art) explain the need for confidentiality in our small groups if one is going to experience healing. Everyone seemed to understand the need when I explained this. I was also very direct in each group. I said, “If I hear that someone has broken confidentiality, you will not be able to continue in this group. That is how serious we are about the importance of confidentiality.  Some jumped right in having the faith that this group is going to be different while others took their time.