Brazil Mission Trip
By Geremy Varner
This summer me and 15 others from Impact were blessed to go and serve our brothers and sisters at a church called Igreja de Cristo do Campinho in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. As soon as we arrived at the church, they greeted us with open arms filled with love. It felt like I had been a member at this church forever because we went from strangers to friends in a matter of minutes.
We all loaded up on buses and drove out of town to help put on a youth retreat for their students. It was amazing getting to sing the same worship songs in both English and Portuguese, and language was no barrier to worshiping God, or for fellowshipping with one another. The weekend was filled with bilingual messages, prayer times, small group discussions, and of course a lot of fun and games. One thing I really enjoyed was the exchange of culture that took place. During free time we taught them a couple of American games they had never heard of, such as kickball and ultimate football, while they welcomed us into their soccer games (BTW if you didn’t know, Brazilians are really good at soccer).
After the retreat we went back to the city and had the wonderful opportunity of volunteering at a very underprivileged school right next door to the church. This is a school the church in Rio has been praying to partner with and reach out to for a while. God is good, and opened the door for our group to be able to walk in. Once again we were greeted with hugs, high fives and countless selfies. We practically felt famous with the amount of attention and love we were greeted with by the students. It was so cool getting to hang out with the kids. While in the school, we not only got to paint their auditorium, but also got to visit every class in the school and do a cultural activity with the students. We got to spend about an hour in each class where we read a book together and did some sort of cool arts and craft project. While speaking about God was not allowed in the public school, our goal was to show the kids the love of Jesus through our actions.
I believe this mission was accomplished because the week after our group left Jefferson and Thomas (the preacher and youth minister at the church in Rio) were welcomed back into the school with open arms to advertise for the free volleyball classes the church offers. This opportunity had never been granted before and Jefferson was excited to inform us that one week later 16 kids from the school showed up to the first volleyball class. GOD IS SO GOOD!
Not only that, but we got to participate in several activities at the church. We had a youth game night, where I learned the Brazilian way to play UNO. If you haven’t played the Brazilian way, I have to teach you sometime! It was awesome. We got to be a part of a bilingual worship service on Wednesday night and see two of the youth get baptized. We also got to help with their big heath and service event the church was putting on on Saturday. Many people were able to come and receive resources and see doctors and get check ups. Our job was to hangout with the kids while their parents were receiving medical attention.
