June in Review

June was a great month for us! We are completely assimilated into our routine and we finally feel like we are making meaningful impacts here.

Classes

Our classes reached record attendance! We had to get additional chairs to seat all the children and we are trying many different ways to get more tables to accommodate all the kids.

Some kids have had to stand up for activities because we don't have enough seats!

The reason we have so many children this time of year is that the kids are on their “winter” break. Most of the time the kids go away to the “interior” (country) to visit relatives and celebrate a successful harvest for the feast of São João (St. John the Baptist).

The kids drew pictures of what São João Festival is like

It’s like our Thanksgiving, but it is one of the largest holidays here. They decorate with banners and eat corn on the cob, boiled peanuts, corn bread, and other fall foods. But, because the economy isn’t very good (inflation is at 8%), not many of the families in our community could afford to travel. Of course, that is mixed with the fact that our classes are just awesome. Kids are bringing their friends and their siblings and cousins.

Typical decorations of this time of year

We celebrated by going to the historic center this year, but after the first hour it was too crowded to even see the concerts or hear any music so our night was pretty tranquil.

Typical banners for this time of year

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We have settled into a new routine for the classes. We have different classes for each day of the week. 

• Tuesday: Art  
• Wednesday: Film
• Thursday: Music
• Friday: We have a volunteer, Sonia, who comes to do an extra-fun activity
• Saturday: Catechism and Games

Sidewalk chalk outside

Kara with Gabriel and Giovana
Coloring the new popular kind of coloring pages here

Irma Dulce

In addition to our work with the children, we are volunteering at one of the largest nonprofits in Brazil, the Irma Dulce Center. Blessed Irma Dulce (soon to be Saint) is like the Mother Teresa of Brazil… and she is from right were we live. 

She started a social service agency that is extraordinary and huge. A network of free hospitals (which we used), a bakery, services to the homeless, single mothers, elderly, you name it. We are privileged to be able to partner with them to teach English as a second language in the historic center of Salvador on Saturdays. We have fifteen adult students.

Our House

As we said before we had a mold infestation in our house, which we controlled with bleach and vinegar (at one point toxically mixed). This worked for about a month, but it is back. We’ve gone over a week with constant heavy downpours every day and the water is seeping into our walls again. This made our wardrobe as well as most of our clothes grow mold. But, we cannot clean it until it dries so we can wash everything.

Mold in our dining room.

But, the mosquito situation is improving. After we went away for a week, most of them that were in our house died off and we have been extremely careful about keeping every last one of them out. We wage a serious war on those that sneak their way in with little electric racquets.

Our electricity keeps burning out, but we are looking forward to the power company coming and connecting a new line this coming month. Maybe we can have a warm shower without burning our wires through. Hehehehe. 

The white wire powers our entire house. 

We celebrated our three-year wedding anniversary in June. We went for a romantic dinner next to the beach. It’s been a crazy-fun adventure. Looking back we have no regrets. Even though our life is absolutely insane, we couldn’t imagine it any other way.

We are coming home for some doctors appointments for two weeks at the end of July. We will then have more to report after that. Thank you to all who have been supporting us and our mission financially and with you prayers. Keep it up, we depend on you all to carry Jesus to these far parts. Love you all.

Recovering from Heartbreak

We were planning on making this blog post a pregnancy announcement, but as many of you already know, we unfortunately miscarried our dear baby. This is our second miscarriage since our wedding three years ago this month. Miscarriages are seriously one of the most difficult thing that a human person could have to endure. 

Thank you to the many of you who expressed your sympathy and for those who took time to write to us with encouragement. Many people asked us why we announced our pregnancy to so many people so early and the reason is that our baby's life is worth being celebrated, no matter how short. Life is a blessing and even though we are suffering now, we do not regret telling anyone about the life with which we were graced for 11 weeks.

Because of the difficulty of the process and the many many medical procedures we have had to endure, we took a week off from the mission and spent the time allowing Kara's body to recover, grieving and sleeping, processing all that just happened, and also we were able to plan for upcoming weeks. It would be most helpful to us if you would continue to pray for us as we grieve. It seems to be the most helpful thing anyone can do to help. 

We also want to give everyone a heads up that we will be returning to the US for two weeks at the end of July/early August in order to get some added medical advice. Please pray that we are able to continue our missionary endeavors while growing our family. 

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Here's what happened in Alto this past month...

Our Portuguese skills went through the roof as we did all of the courses for the children for two weeks... alone... all in Portuguese. We were scared for nothing. The children were incredibly patient and thoroughly enjoyed all of the projects we planned. 

Some of our projects included: 

• Teaching the kids how to make pizza
• Pentecost headbands and coloring projects
• Learning the story of Esau and Jacob 
• Playing ping pong (thanks to those who donated to help us get the set!)
• Sidewalk chalk and soccer outside on a rare sunny day
• Leaning popular songs

In addition, we are able to send 25 to 35 young people on a youth conference this month thanks to several of you who donated! THANK YOU. The cost was $2 per person and for the young adults here, that is a lot of money. What a blessing to have our friends pull through and help us out. 

A minor problem happened when the rain didn't stop for three weeks straight and our walls started growing black mold. We rapidly got a major mold infestation in our whole house. Our office had a twin bed in it, but in just 48 hours the entire bed because green, so much mold that the bed frame was beyond being saved. Our walls are block and cement, so we were able to bleach the walls clean and we used vinegar on the floors and all of our clothes. After three days of working and God's grace with two days of significant sunshine we are now safe from the mold! The rain has let up. Although it rains every day, it is just a little and the sun in out a lot more now. Our neighbors helped us out by making a drainage hole in our retaining wall to let the flood waters out (keeping it out of our basement floor). They also cut down the trees that were in the front of our house which lets a lot more sunshine down below to dry out the cement for soccer games!

It was my turn for Zika Fever. It's a strain of Dengue fever that has become an epidemic here in Brazil. When you get bit by an infected mosquito you get a fever, headache, dizziness, and an itchy red rash that covers your whole body. Kara had it last month and it was my turn to overcome it this time. It wan't as bad as I anticipated, and now that I got it, I think I am immune from getting it again. 

Thanks again for your prayers, stay connected to our Facebook page and Instagram page so you can see pictures of the kids and more about what we're doing here.

Back to Brazilian Craziness

We made it back safe and sound to bombs, rain, humidity, and a plague of mosquitos…. But all these things we endure for the CHILDREN!

We have been back a little over three weeks now and we have been settling in and getting back onto a “normal” schedule. When we got in we came home to our house in the favela we quickly realized it was completely mosquito infested! We spent the first two days cleaning and getting our house back in order. We went grocery shopping and unpacked all the goodies our friends and family helped us obtain while we were in the US. Among those things was a screen, which we installed on the two windows in our room. We also installed the privacy stained glass window clings so the kids can’t hang on our fence and watch us.

We were welcomed with a party in our house along with a visiting priest from the Community of St. John. Lots of people came out and we were finally back in the mix of things.

The second Sunday we were here we had seven baptisms at church! With only about 50-60 members, that grew our congregation quite a bit! See the photos below – it was a grace filled event with so many new members to our small church here in Alto.

Although there are droughts in Sao Paulo here in Brazil, there has been no shortage of rain in Salvador. There hasn’t been ONE day here where there hasn’t been some rain and several times there were flash floods. See the video below of the rain while we were in church. Some other favelas here in Brazil have been washed away. Since favelas are often built on hills, when one structure washes away it knocks into others and it is like a domino effect and an entire favela can become ruins rather quickly. We are at the bottom of our favela, which could be scary, except our house is pretty structurally sound and so is our neighbors so that should help us with all this rain. Some locals told us it's the worst rain in 20 years -- which would explain why the sideways rain is coming in our shutters! A few nights we were up all night soaking up the water from the floor.

The other US missionary here with us, Gabriela, left last week. She has been here for a year and her time of service is up. This is very sad because she was fluent in Portuguese and a huge help with the children. In the traditional Brazilian fashion… we had a going away party for Gabriela (see below).

Also, this week Fr. Francis Therese, the priest in charge of our mission, left for at least 4 months or so (maybe forever!!!). This pushes us “into the deep” and will really challenge us. One of our English speaking Brazilian friends who helps out here, Gabriel, is also away (in France) and will be gone another two weeks. We are on our own in our little favela. Now, please pray for the grace for it to work!

Thanks to all of you for your support. We really appreciate it and are so happy to be back in Brazil!

Jaw Dropping News

So like we said in our last post…. We have our visas!!  We have even more good news, someone who is a friend of Br. Francis works at American Airlines and donated “Buddy Passes” to us. This means we will fly stand-by, but we only have to pay for the tax for our flight. We just have to let the airline know a week in advance with a couple dates that we would like to depart, and they will let us know which flight will be the most likely to have room for us. We are beyond grateful, and very touched given the fact we have never met this generous woman!

So now the big questions is, why aren’t we back in Brazil yet?? I guess we have some explaining to do! We had to take care of a few things before returning. One being jaw surgery for Kevin. Long story short (and in the most layman’s terms) Kevin’s jaw was broken at one of the hinges. He had worn down the cartilage of one side, causing the bones to rub against each other, wearing them down as well as his teeth (he ended up needing a root canal in Brazil because of this. Another long story.) He had been trying to see a doctor, but our Missionary Insurance wasn’t going to cover it. FINALLY we were able to work things out, and Thursday he called a doctor (one of the best in town) who said he could do it first thing in the morning. Wow! Thankfully, it was only a laparoscopic procedure. No breaking of the jaw and wiring it shut for weeks, but he will need some physical therapy to get it working right, as well as his root canal finished. We are just so thankful that we didn’t have to wait any longer, and having this completed is one step closer to going home.

Although we can’t wait to get back to our mission, we are grateful for the quality time spent with our family and friends (and Benji, of course!)  The love and support that we’ve received while in our waiting period has been amazing. Our families opening their homes to us, meals being bought for us, free tickets to shows, and even a long weekend getaway at the Palms in Las Vegas! We are overwhelmed with gratitude by everyone’s generosity.

Thank you!!

Prayers Answered: Visas in Hand

For those who don't already know... WE GOT OUR VISAS! Yes, the prayers of everyone as well as the efforts of the many of you who reached out and gave us contacts to work with REALLY paid off. We picked them up 20 days after dropping them off. NOT EVEN 3 WEEKS. When we dropped them off we were told it could take over 6 months and to not plan on going back any time soon. Alas, this was no challenge for God who is always faithful. A lesson for us to make sure we are relying on Him and not ourselves. When you have the King of the Universe on your team, He is always victorious. 

I talked to Derry Connolly this week, the President of John Paul Catholic University in Escondido, California. We talked about how God continually brings us through trials and proves himself to us, He has never lest us down and he is always faithful, and yet we still get nervous, worry, and lack trust. 

This Lent we are offering our prayers and sacrifices for TRUST (for us and for all of you). May God prove his faithfulness to you in some way (He knows what you need) and may you understand it deep in your heart. 

Thanks again for all your prayers. Keep them coming, they are efficacious. 

Prayers for Our Visas

Well, it looks like we will have more time with you all than we originally thought! We were hoping to return to Brazil at the end of January, but our visas are not going to be approved in time. In fact, we had a disheartening appointment and do not know what time frame we will get approved. It could me MONTHS. Please keep our visas in your prayers. We really need to go and work with the Community of St. John on assisting them with mission administration and we are dying to get back to the kids. Anyone who knows anyone who might help us... governors, congressmen, bishops, etc. please reach out to us so we can try to expedite this. You can email us at kevinandkara@bringhope.org. Love you all. Hope to connect with our US friends and family with our added time here in the states.

A Long Overdue Update

Well, we have been gone for three months now and we are finally back in the US and ready to give you an update about what we have been doing and what the future holds in store for us.











We arrived in Brazil in October where we set up camp at a 300 year old convent. The convent is now a monestary (but still called a convent because of the historic nature of the building). This massive 50 room + building sits in the historic center of Salvador, Brazil... the first place that the Americas were founded (i.e. it doesn't get older than this in the Americas).


The Historic Center of Salvador, Brazil

The convent is the monestary for a group of five priests from the Community of St. John (a French religious community). All the priests speak French and Portuguese, with two speaking English. We are accompanied by three lay American missionaries and one Frenchman who later returned home.
 

When we arrived in Brazil this October. Meet our mission family.

Our days at the convent were jam packed from 5am to 10pm with occasionally one or two hours of free time in which we cleaned, napped, and got caught up on the flood of emails that were taking over our inboxes. We had no time for anything as every hour was filled with prayer, outreach, and meetings. It was a very intense period for Kara and I as we learned how to be married, but still live a monastic life. It was as rewarding as it was challenging. We are very sorry that we were not in better contact, but we literally had NO time to talk. Our parents were scared at first because they didn't hear from us for a month at a time.


 

Every day for a month and a half we walked to Alto da Esperanca, a favela (i.e. ghetto) that is about a 15 minute walk from the convent. We did this to make our presence known to the local community so they would know who we were and that we were missionaries.


The innery courtyard of the convent.

A favela is a small community of hapazardly built shanties that are very basic brick houses stacked upon each other. There are no roads, no proper sanitation, and no police protection. The entire community is controled by drug lords and the only industry is drug trafficking. Every person in the favela is personally affected by the conditions of poverty as well as the dangers and uncertainty of the drug trafficking. This is where we want to work.

A view of the outside of Alto da Esperanca

In this favela there is a small three story house, Mary Magdaline House. This house has been vacant for 14 years. Over the past 3 years the brothers from the Community of St. John have been restoring the house to a safe and livable condition. The top floor is a classroom, the middle floor is a small apartment, and the bottom floor is a hang-out for the youth group, a small library, and a tutoring room.

A vew from Mary Magdaline House, the favela's Catholic Chapel

Our second month and a half was spent preparing for moving into this house in the favela. We spent countless hours working on preparing the house to be a home. Yes, it's in the favela, but it is now a warm and welcoming home where Kara and I can be a real presence to the community there. We've painted the apartment level, got furniture and household items, and we are in the process of decorating. Most importantly, we set up shop so we can work from this location (getting our phones and internet working enough to not need to return to the convent every time we need to check our email).



Kara playing with the street children after school

Now, what is the purpose of living in a drug-trafficking community in Brazil? We get this question all the time. Drug trafficking is a way of life for the people in Alto (the shortened name for the favela). While not every person is a drug trafficker, everyone has some tie to the business. Children are recruited as early as grade school and by the time the children are in high school they are already fully "in." To make matters worse, the public schools in Brazil are only half-day (with one group going in the morning and the others in the afternoon). The children are unsupervised for half of the day - roaming the streets with no adult supervision. The result is very clear... the children begin to get involved in the drugs earlier - since they get money and social support by doing it.

The kids are so hungry for role models.

We are in Alto to provide an alternative to this lifestyle. We have an afterschool program for these children that keeps them off the street. We teach them art, music, theater, dance, and of course, Catechism. The hope is to provide much needed structue, discipline, and values for the children of the favela. Once they get older, they will be able to come to our newest project, a bakery, where they will learn life-skills both in terms of potential employment and as a way to have life-skills to help their future families.

In addition to the 15 hours of work each day, we also found time to take private Portuguese leassons from a local school. We spent about 6 hours per week in intensive lessons with our tutor who did not speak any english (except for a few Michael Jackson lyrics). Our Portuguese is progressing and we are able to get around, take the bus, and have important conversations. Right before leaving we had a couple dinner parties where we spoke in all Portuguese to our guests who did not speak english. We are anxious to continue to learn so we can have more intensive conversations and I would like to speak more financial and business language.

"Let the little children come to me."         Matthew 19:14

 

It's probably obvious now, that we will be returning to Brazil. Probably at the end of January. We want to go back to Alto and live in the favel and minister to the drug traffickers and the children while I work with the Community of St. John and Missions of Hope on finances and Kara works with the children as a teacher and tutor. We are currently home in the US awaiting our visas. But this time, we have a letter from the Archbishop of Bahia (the state we live in), giving us permission to get a visa for one year and renewable for five. This will give us the maximum ability to have the flexability to come and go with ease. We were so proud because we set an appointmet with the Archnishop's secretary and obtained the letter and made several trips back and forth to secure this letter by ourselves in all Portuguese... a huge accomplishment and just what we needed to boost our confidence in our ability to actually become fluent some day.

That's as brief an update as we can give. Hope you're as excited as we are. Thank you to all of you who supported our mission financially this year. We have been humbled by the generosity of untold numbers of people who made our work with the children possible. From them to you, "Obrigado" (thank you). Your gifts are really making an immediate impact on the lives of these children. We are privelaged to see it first hand and we hope this blog will be a place where we can share it with you.

 

 

You will be able to donate, follow our Facebook page, and access all of our information at this website. www.bringhope.org/kevinandkara