fé = faith

Have you ever gotten a chance to be around people
that just exemplify what faith truly looks like? No, not people that talk about
what faith should look like, but people that actually look it.

This week God set up my team with a weeklong divine
appointment. We got to teach/live at a little 3 classroom school called the
Casa de Samuel in a favila (what we’d call a slum) here in Brazil. There are
around 75 kids that attend here between the first half and second half of the
day. The kids are precious. The pictures don’t even begin to do justice how
much fun they were to play with, teach and love on this week. Most of these
children come from terrible homes in which a parent most likely abuses alcohol
or does drugs. The goal is to end the generational curse with the kids so that
their story doesn’t duplicate their parents.

The divine appointment this week wasn’t with the
children though, it was with the staff. The little staff were the people God
wanted me to meet this week and especially a 22-year-old girl named Marina. I
(along with John) was so
blessed to get to spend every morning teaching her class along side her. With
my broken Spanish, her understanding some English and frequent use of the
English/Portuguese dictionary we’ve had a great week. Marina is one of those
people that loves so well that you can’t help but feel special when you are
around her. She’s a delight to be around. She is so gentle and patient with the
kids and cares for them so well. 1 Peter 3:4,5 says that a woman’s beauty
should be measure not by outward appearance but “the unfading beauty of a
gentle and quiet spirit, which is great in God’s sight. I think it’s safe to
say that Marina is great in God’s sight. She is a rarity but there is more to
this story…

In one of the very few moments that the kids
weren’t yelling “professor, professor!” I asked Marina if she gets
paid to teach at Casa de Samuel. She doesn’t. So she spends 7am-6pm
Monday-Friday solely out of her love for the kids and because it’s where God
has called her. After inquiring more with our fun language barrier, I found out
that she doesn’t live with her parents nor does she work another job. This girl
has little to no income. Logically the next question asked was “well how
do you eat?” Her response, she smiled, pointed up and said
“God.” how do you pay for your bills? same cute response,
“God!” God has called her to be here, she is being obedient, so He
will provide for her. it was almost like a “duhhh Ryan…” If that
wasn’t enough she then wrote on the board “fé = faith.” 

 

Obviously that’s the Portuguese to English
translation but all you have to do is look at Marina’s life to see the
translation of the word faith to the actual action of faith.

I think most people would call her “crazy.” She’s
working how many hours for no pay? That crazy part is that she isn’t “crazy” at
all. She is doing exactly what God has called her to do and she is choosing to
depend on him to provide everything she needs. Marina’s life = faith in God.
Would that still be a true statement if your name was in place of Marina’s?
What in your life is requiring you to have faith in God? Can you live without it?
Seriously, can you? Can you live without God? Maybe you’ve even set up a pretty
good life in which you don’t really need God. He is good sure, but you can make
do without. I want to challenge you to read spend some time studying the
gospels and take a deeper look at what it looks like to be a Christ follower
and then actually do it. Maybe it’s time to be a little more “crazy”…

   Ryan (macaco)

A few pics from the week…

John and I teaching “oh wonderful love!”

my girl sarah. I tried to convince her that i was her dad but she wasn’t having any of it.

Our team with the staff of Casa De Samuel. What a blessing it was to spend a week learning from them!