Brazil Update: The Beautiful and the Broken

Service | by Pastor David Parker

Oi Downtown Cornerstone!

I can’t believe we’re over halfway through our trip, and although it’s been a full week, we’re thankful for God’s grace to us in so many ways. 

We’ve had an emotionally intense couple of days ministering and serving in some of the most horrible and broken places we’ve seen, while at the same time seeing specific answers to prayer as we served. It’s been powerful watching Jesus move and work in and through us as a team, and those He’s put before us to love, serve, and share the gospel with. 

I wanted to share something Edward wrote today that helps put to words some of what we’ve experienced the last few days. Please keep praying for us, and that Jesus would continue to go before us in every way. If you want to check out more updates, and some of the images we’ve been able to capture, visit our Facebook Page and the Instagram feed.

Para a Glória de Deus!
– Pastor David

Never have I walked among such beautiful and broken people.

As we looked out over the city of Rio we could not see the end of the poverty. The favelas, or slum communities, sprawl for miles. In and around these homes there are relentless threats of power, privilege, hunger, disease, violence, sexual exploitation, fear, loneliness, and unyielding addiction. 

We prayed and claimed the power of Jesus’ name over everyone and everything in the city. We took a deep breath, and descended into the city to serve, because we have been so radically served by Christ.

It was a challenge to not be overwhelmed as we witnessed first hand the strongholds the enemy has in this place. We visited Crackoland, where hundreds of lost and lifeless souls, including boys as young as 8 or 9, subsisted on crack cocaine. Their faces were often disfigured by sores and crooked jaws permanently misaligned from the perpetual grinding of teeth. Their bodies wobbled in contorted ways towards us to line up as we offered food, drink, and prayer.

The night before we had circled a loop of highway where a dozen nearly naked transvestite sex workers walked the sidewalks, before pulling into an emergency shelter which offers services to many homeless men among the lowest of the low. 

Despite all this, there are sparks and whispers of Jesus everywhere.

Two men who we prayed for in Crackoland made the decision to access rehabilitation services just an hour after we left. At the men’s shelter, twelve men responded to a call to salvation after we humbly offered testimonies and a worship service.

An industry of oppression surrounds Rio, at the same time we can’t help but believe that the small things, the small people, are being mended. Through every triumphant smile that exploded from ancient and fresh faces alike, every tear that was shed by hurting people over whom we prayed the promises of Christ, there is no doubt another brick of His Kingdom is being cemented into place.

I can understand why people give their lives to places like this. Places where the least of these live and whom we have given our lives to for these past few days. Grace is like water and pools up at the low places, and we have been to the lowest here in Rio. And God is at work, and the Gospel is being preached, and the city is being transformed, one life, and one moment at a time.

-Edward Sumner

To follow more updates from the Brazil Team, check out the team’s Facebook page here or search the hashtag #dccbrazil2014 on Twitter or Instagram.