that was us, a year ago One Year Ago    A year ago on June 9th we went out on a limb and trusted that God was calling us to reach out to show His unfailing love to the girls and women in prostitution here in João Pessoa.  We had no idea what to expect, how we would be received, or what it would look like going forward.  We have been amazed and encouraged by God’s constant guidance, the openness the girls have had with us, and the relationships that have blossomed.  There have been many mountain top moments and recently some very deep valley moments.        In our last update I shared that one of the girls who had left prostitution had returned, this month we had another blow.  The girl who left prostitution six months ago whom we have been meeting with weekly, trying to help her find work, figure out education, is back on the street.  This was a really hard hit, even though we knew it was a great possibility, there are often many false starts before someone is able to really break free, it’s hard not to feel like we should have done more. But the situation she found herself in was almost impossible.      Her husband had been shot, miraculously he wasn’t killed since the bullet passed through his groin, narrowly missing his artery and vein.  But because he wasn’t killed, he needed to go into hiding, they had to move from her Mom’s house and into his mother’s house which was at the end of a impassable bumpy road governed by a gang faction that would mean at least the people who tried to kill him couldn’t get at him.  We visited with them there, prayed with them and encouraged them to pray together.  But they were stuck, he is a fugitive from prison and now escaping gangs.  I sat with her to go over her education and work experience (grade 4, no work experience), and monthly expenses and income.  We are trying to connect with other organizations that also connect people to work while also finding out how we could help her get back on to sorting out her education.  They have little to no income.  She was helping her mother sell snacks at the market to the truckers who were unloading in the middle of the night, asking for fruit and vegetables or finding some that had fallen, unwanted to the floor. We were helping where we could with some basic food goods, but also trying to find a balance between helping become independent and her becoming dependant on us.   A very desperate situation that ended with her back on the street, feeling like she was out of options and us feeling a lot like we had failed her.  Despite the fact that we know women who are trying to leave prostitution often make several attempts before successfully transitioning, we still felt sad and disappointed, not in her but in ourselves, in the system, we want to be able to do so much more but it takes time, resources and more people to do it.        The next time we saw her on the street I was intentional about having a very frank conversation with her, I could see she was acting differently around us.  I assured her that nothing has changed about the way we feel about her, the hope we have for her or that we are walking with her.  She cried and I hugged her and we promised to continue to fight with her. I recently read an article about women trying to leave prostitution, this is a quote from it, Prostitution, if it is anything, is a choice between homelessness and having men we don’t like, do things we hate, to bodies we don’t know how to love. For this reason, those in prostitution have a tendency to boomerang in and out of it, like the jaded wives of an unfaithful or cruel husband. We pack our bags, we leave in a triumphant storm. But we find few options available to us.     Leaving Prostitution and Staying Out-Nordicmodelnow! The article was written By Alice Glass, a survivor of prostitution      We dream of a day when we see these girls freed from this emotional, spiritual and financial slavery. Donate-Join the Team Missão Restauração Not long after we moved to Joao Pessoa we were introduced to a couple who care for young at-risk girls.  Over the past 20  years, they have cared for over one hundred and eighty girls.  Some of which have been adopted by other families, some have been returned to their extended families, others lived there until they turned nineteen and then they were helped to find work and a living space. It was obvious from our first meeting that this couple has poured a lot of their life into these girls. We decided early on that we wanted to help, we just weren’t sure how.  Homes like this for girls can prevent them from ending up on the street. Working alongside another group called Ezekial 47 who had been looking for an opportunity to serve, we have started an Alpha and games night.  We go once a week with a snack and a fun game and then we watch a video and chat.  The girls are loving it and every time it’s over they say, ‘already?’. We look forward to continuing the relationships with these girls long after Alpha finishes.   Vineyard Jampa Three weeks ago we held our first Sunday with our wee baby church.  Right now it’s more like a small group but the times we have had together have been rich.  We are forming the foundations of a leadership team, so we are focusing for now on getting to know each other, the values we hold, and praying about what God wants for this new gathering.  We all want to see a strong foundation built so we will take it slowly in these first steps. For a month or so before we began we had been meeting with Ricardo and Nadir, current pastors of the Recife Vineyard, as well as a family from Joao Pessoa who are very eager to take part in planting a church with us.     Sunday, June 3rd was our first official service here in our house, in our outside kitchen that God has so abundantly blessed us with.  We sang and prayed together, discussed the values we want to carry in this church and ate lunch together, it was a rich time and we are so excited to see this seedling of a church being planted. Faith: Dyslexia+ADD+Central Processing Disorder + Second Language= A Layer Cake of Learning Challenges Faith turns 12 on Monday! She celebrated early last week. A month or so ago we were asked to meet with the coordinator of Faith’s grade.  She sat us down to discuss Faith’s performance in school.  She had been helping her on her tests and noticed that Faith couldn’t remember the context of something she had read, that she read very slowly, and that had difficulty writing as well.  She felt strongly that this was not only because she is working in her second language. She was saying what I had already suspected for a while.  She recommended a psychologist and we began the process of having her assessed for dyslexia and Attention Deficit Disorder.  At the end of the testing we sat with the psychologist and she told me what I already knew in my heart; Faith, like her Daddy, is dyslexic.  I cried.  Not tears of sadness or disappointment but instead of relief.  Now we knew why- now I knew it wasn’t because I had failed her as a teacher.  We now knew what we were dealing with and could confront it appropriately. We were referred to a psychiatrist to complete the evaluation for Attention Deficit, she then referred us to an audiologist to see if Faith also has something called a Central Auditory Processing Disorder, which basically means her ears and her brain is not communicating properly.  This can happen with kids who had a lot of ear infections or who had hearing issues early in life. When Faith was two her eustachian tubes were full of fluid, she heard as though she was underwater, for more than a year while we went through the process of testing and waiting for surgery. This disorder can show itself with many symptoms that look like dyslexia and ADD.  The good news is there is a cure.  Several sessions of training will help to rewire her brain.  It doesn’t rule out the possibility that she also has dyslexia and ADD. On Wednesday we started the testing for this issue.  For those of you on Facebook, that is the explanation for the photo I posted.  Faith is in the little sound booth trying to decipher different sounds.  One of the hardest parts about this disorder is being able to hear in loud places.  Faith has often complained she can’t hear what the teacher is saying when there is noise in the class. This week Faith will finish the testing and we will know more.   .  We prepared her for this possible outcome by ensuring her that dyslexia, ADD or this new possibility doesn’t have anything to do with her intelligence, that in fact, most dyslexic people are smarter than your average bear, Einstein, for example, was dyslexic, Phil likes to emphasize this fact. We have already begun working with a psychoeducational therapist to help Faith with reading and writing.  Please pray with us that she can find her way with the help of the specialist and that we can help her too.

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• Please pray for these children and that sexual, physical and mental abuse will never happen!
• Please pray for CDR.  Even with lower prices, the school is suffering due to the poor economy. 
• Please pray that this improves and wisdom for us to lead the school through this time. 

We were back a week when I left for a week to Belém to go to our Senior leadership meeting.  It was really good to be with some of the missionaries that I serve with.  Once I got back, Elba left and is still gone as of this writing to Santarem for a week long training of caring for Pastors.  We both had adventures getting to our places of destination.  I went right in the midst of a trucker’s strike, and on the way to Santarem a truck overturned causing Elba to take an even rougher terrain to get around the truck.  In addition to the training, Elba shared the word for Valentine’s day which was celebrated in June 12^th here.  I am sure the word was a lament because we were separated from each other on Valentines day.

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Hi everybody! This is Ronã.

We are finally back home after one week of traveling. But all this trouble with the airline company didn’t damage the great experience I had with you guys. That was definitely the best trip I’ve ever had.
When I was denied for my tourist visa the first time, I felt so disappointed. I had prayed so much for the visa, and God knew I really wanted to visit the U.S. What I didn’t know at that time was that He was preparing a greater experience. He wanted me to enjoy the U.S. and Canada with my son.

Some people asked me what was the best experience in the trip. The answer is hard to tell because I had several great experiences.
I loved getting to know Allison’s family. They were so good to us all the time.

Family in North Carolina

My mother-in-law, Mona

Family in Columbus

Family in Montreal

Family in NYC

                                                                           

VIneyard Tuttle Crossing

Alive Vineyard in Neward

Northside Vineyard

VCDC

Home group of Jim and Jo Ann McCann

The Lovely LaVerne

The Helsers

Climbing Stone Mountain in Atlanta with my mom-in-law

Going to the spring OSU football game

Seeing Niagara Falls

Going Ice Skating

Seeing the snow for the first time

NYC blew my mind!

Visiting the Columbus Zoo

Oly and his cousins

I want to mention here how proud I am of Oliver. He did so well on this trip. He’s definitely a blessing. With all these travels, we expected him to be very upset, but instead, he was spreading his joy everywhere he went. Allison also put a lot of work into planning this trip. I’m so grateful for the wife I have.
Now is the part when I tell you what I took away from America. I know that you guys have your own issues, but I never felt so safe and never saw so many opportunities and high quality of life as I did in America. You guys share of what we wish we had. And when I see that almost all the missionaries that I know are from the U.S. or Canada, and how the churches in North America has being supporting churches all over the world, I understand why God blessed you all.
In a few days we’ll start our new mission in João Pessoa (Jampa). We want to honor your prayers and support. Pray that God uses us in many ways.
I also want to ask for your prayers for one of our supporters. His name is Steve Kocher. He recently had a heart attack, followed by triple bypass surgery. Let’s pray for his healing and recovery.

Steve Kocher

                                                       
As you can see from Ronã’s pictures and comments, our trip was truly a blessing in so many ways. I want to thank you for welcoming our family with open arms into your homes and hearts. Your generosity and faithfulness through prayer and support allow to do this amazing work God has put before us here in Brazil. Thank you!

Love, 

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Hello Everyone!

Our time here is beginning to come to an end as we will be leaving to go back to Brazil on June 1st. I can’t say enough about what this trip has meant for our family. It will be an experience that we will hold onto for many years into the future.
Since our last update, we had the privilege of taking a 2 week road trip up through New York and Canada to visit family and friends. What an adventure!
I have a cousin on my mother’s side who lives in Brooklyn, NY, so we spent a few days there doing some sightseeing.

Ground Zero Memorial

A stroll through Central Park

Time Square

 In Canada, we visited family in both Montréal and Toronto.

Family in Montréal

Family in Toronto

Oliver playing with cousins!

We also had the pleasure of spending a few days with our very good friends and mentors, Art and Cyndi Rae. Art and Cyndi have been on sabbatical for the past year in Cambridge, Ontario, and they will be headed back to Brazil in August to continue training leaders in the Living Waters program. We had missed them so much!

Since coming back from our road trip, we have started meeting with our supporters again to reconnect and making some new connections. This week, we had the pleasure of visiting the Schoppelrei family who are apart of the Morrow County Vineyard.

Out to dinner with the Schoppelrei family

Financial Goals:

We believe we are about $500-$700 away from our monthly goal! This is amazing! So many of you have already signed up to donate monthly, which has been so encouraging. Your desire and commitment to support us has confirmed even deeper the calling that God has on us for our new mission in João Pessoa. We know that we truly have a great team backing us as we move our lives and our family to this new work. Thank you!
If you have already signed up to support us monthly, it would be really helpful if you would send us an email to let us know how much you have committed to. This will help us to know exactly where we are at and how much more we need to raise.
allison.rupert@xingu.org

If we have not met with you already, we still have a little bit of time available. We would love just to catch up with you and answer any questions you have about our work in Brazil. Let us know.

DONATE

Love, the Moura Family

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Thank you! To all of you who read, pray, support and love us thank you! We love you all! Home for The Holidays What Were We Thinking? Winter in Canada is COLD! Although we are questioning our sanity going back (as are many others) for apparently the coldest winter in 36 YEARS we thoroughly enjoyed being with friends and family and making some new connections during our time in Canada.   Christmas with my big beautiful family! Our very wintery drive to Ohio Our time in Canada was short, and we apologize if we were unable to connect with you on this visit, please know there is an open invitation to visit us in Brazil or we will have to make sure we see you on our next visit! Winter’s beauty at our home church Thank you to all of you who loved us, kept us fed and warm and reaffirmed to us how much we love our Canadian family! Making winter memories! This wonderful family puts up with us and lets us call their home our home when we are back in Canada, we love you Fellmans!! or as we like to call ourselves ‘Snellmans’! The Way Forward As we have shared our stories of what God has been doing through us during our first year in João Pessoa and our ideas and hopes for the future, we have been so encouraged, things have evolved and we have vision and so much excitement for the future.   We are beginning to see the girls in their homes, this gives us the opportunity to meet and begin to build relationships with their families neighbours and friends, and we know that that will only increase as we get to know them more. As we prayerfully move forward we can see where God is giving us  more and more opportunities to expand our relationships and the Kingdom through these growing relationships! We are continually surprised at how God has connected us in such a short time.  A year ago we arrived in a city of almost a million people and the only people we knew left the city.  We now have a large circle of friends and a ministry we love!  Blessed beyond measure! Join the Team-Donate to the Snells University Alpha Last August Phil began running Alpha in a state University English class. The opportunity came about when one of the people who had been taking Alpha in our home suggested it might be a possibility.  The professor gave one stipulation, ‘If even one student complains, we have to shut it down’.  At the time any kind of religious based study was prohibited in the University.   Not only were there no complaints, there were passionate discussions that often flipped from english into Portuguese as they asked the hard questions and wrestled with what they believed. It went so well and the students enjoyed it so much that we have been invited to do TWO classes this year!  This is great news as it introduces us to new people. When we return we will be starting a new small group and inviting the people in the class to come. Educating Luke and Faith As most of you know we made the decision last year to put Luke and Faith into a Brazilian school.  After four and a half years of homeschooling (which is a calling….and I don’t have it!) and going from living somewhere where they were surrounded by other kids to a big city where we live behind walls, we felt that the healthiest decision for them and our family was that they start going to traditional school. Ready Set Go! The school year just started! It has been the best decision we could have made!  They love being surrounded by people, even though it has meant a lot of blood sweat and tears as they learn to read and write in their second language.  They both passed their first year which is a small miracle in itself and as a mother, I see it as fruit of the strong willed personalities they have, they persevered and it paid off! The school they attend is private and fully Portuguese. The public school system in Brazil is not equipped to handle the kind of accommodations immigrant students need and unfortunately the system is broken in many other ways.  There are frequent strikes and students suffer because of it. The cost of schooling privately is high, but the benefits for our children and us as a family are immeasurable.  They finally feel as normal as they possibly can as missionaries in a foreign field.  Not to mention they are getting an education and becoming fully bilingual.  When they reach high school age (only a year away for Luke!) they have the option of entering a dual diploma english program that will give them a Brazilian diploma and an American one.  Both Luke and Faith want to pursue their post-secondary education in Canada, so this dual diploma will ease the transition. Homework time The downside is that the cost is something very difficult to carry on our limited budget. We have started a go fund me to help with the cost of this crucial need for our kids.  We are asking friends, family and supporters to consider giving towards this campaign or investing in them by sponsoring them on a monthly basis.  Investing in a kids education is priceless and you are indirectly helping our ministry by helping us keep them in school.   Here’s the link to give to the campaign. If you would like to help monthly with their expenses, just reply to this email and we can discuss how you can go about doing that. https://www.gofundme.com/Lukeandfaith Prayer Requests As we settle in to our other home it stirs all kinds of emotions, although we love where we are living and what we get to do, having your heart in two places can make transitioning difficult, especially for our kids. Please pray that they have a great transition back to Brazil and back to school and routine  Please pray that we are able to pick up where we left off. Leaving so early into the ministry was hard, the girls asked often, ‘you’ll be back right?’.  We have tried to keep in touch as much as possible but we know it’s also possible that we may have some ground to make up.   Please pray for wisdom as we move forward, our greatest desire is to always be in step with our Father and what His plans are.   Please keep our friends and co-labourers Allison and Ronã and their son Oliver in your prayers, they are about to start the process to fundraise and move to João Pessoa to join our team!  We are so excited to have our team grow!   Finally, please pray for the girls we are ministering to, that they would increasingly feel the Father’s love so deeply, that they would have the courage to take the necessary steps forward to see their lives changed!

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The Snake

The first day someone almost stepped on this boa constrictor, which was wrapped around an iguana. We caught it, took some pictures, and then set it free back in the swamp.

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Cristovál started with an evening of games. The next day one of the big events was a cross-country run, where your team only got points when everyone was at the finish line. This encourages the stronger ones helping the weaker ones.

The

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