Adventure in hospitality

We first met Wesley at the church we attend. He had come from Brazil and could not speak a word of English. But he just wanted to be with God’s people to worship on Sundays.

He comes from a very poor part of Brazil and had the opportunity to come across to Britain with the intention of earning some money to send back to his wife and family and to the congregation of the little local church where he is a member. New and in need in a foreign land, we felt that God was calling us to open our home. We came to the conclusion that we should ask Wesley to come and live with us. As a couple in our late 60s you might think that was quite a challenge. But somehow God gave us great peace about it. Wesley was delighted. So he came to join us in our house in a Surrey village. He had a job working at nights loading and stacking shelves at a supermarket and would send as much money as possible back home.

After a year or so his wife Leila and his two children came over as well and there followed three years of us all living together and attending our church. It was a great time of rich fellowship and a privilege to see the children growing up.

Flying back

But then it was time for them to go back to Brazil. They asked us if we would like to go back with them for a while. ‘Why not?’ we thought. It would certainly be an adventure. We had never done anything like this before, but it would be a way of showing love and reaching out in fellowship to their little church.

So on May 9 this year we all set off with 12 large suitcases, altogether weighing 360 kg, to take the plane from Heathrow to Sao Paulo. We were to spend 11 weeks in Brazil and got to know Wesley and Leila’s church very well. Arriving at Sao Paulo after the long flight we then took the bus to Conghas Internal Airport (where there was a terrible crash last summer). This was followed by a one-hour flight to Uberlandia Airport in central Brazil.

There we were met with a huge welcome. Pastor Elias and many of the members of the First Batista Church of Patrocinio, where Wesley and Leila come from, greeted us. There were also the mothers of Wesley and Leila and many other relatives. Between them they held up two large banners with messages of welcome in English and Portuguese. This is not the kind of thing that happens normally to my husband and me! There was much emotion, tears and hugs. From the airport it was another two hours driving to the town of Patrocinio. From door to door, Surrey to Patrocinio it had taken 22 hours.

Patrocinio

With the money he had saved, Wesley had been able to purchase a modest house just four weeks before we all returned. It was just big enough. Unusually it has a large garden. This will be very useful to raise chickens and grow vegetables to sell. Patrocinio has 80,000 inhabitants living in simple single storey buildings with high surrounding walls and strong doors because of burglars. There are lots of motorcycles (the cheapest way of getting about) and old cars from the 1970s and 80s. Cowboys canter up and down the streets sometimes and horses and carts are still used for work. Nearly everything is bought on credit because the people are on very low wages. The Lord had brought us a long way from Surrey!

First Baptist Church

The church is led by Pastor Elias, a good Bible teacher and faithful man of God. Just as Wesley had to struggle with the language to be part of our church in England, now my husband Paul and I were having a similar experience. There are 40 or so members and the little building is painted nicely inside. New seats and a pulpit had been bought with some of the money Wesley had sent. The church people showed such love to us, it was marvellous to experience.

Let me just tell you about a couple of people. There is an elderly lady in the church named Lurges. We met her with her little hand-cart collecting cardboard. She collects it to sell for recycling. This is how she has to make a living. She is so poor, but she gave me a pair of bedsocks she had made to keep me warm in ‘cold England’. Then there is Geraldo. He is an elder of the church. He delivers building materials, such as sand, in his lorry. But he has little work. Many others are out of work and there is no help from the government.

Serra Negra

Unemployed people live in this very poor area. It is about four miles out, on the edge of town. Until quite recently the inhabitants here lived in tents.

This is a place of violence, drunkenness, drugs and shootings. But First Baptist Church has a vision to reach people for Christ here. At present the church rent a small building for children’s work. On Sunday mornings, Eunice (the pastor’s wife) and Terezina get the 8.00 am bus bringing all they need for the ministry. This includes food and saucepans. They cannot leave anything at the meeting place during the week or it would be stolen. The church is looking for a piece of land to buy to build a simple meeting place. Wesley and Leila feel very burdened to evangelise here and bring back teenagers who have been along to the children’s work in the past.

Healing

This brings me to a most interesting event. While staying in Britain, Leila had become progressively ill with joint and muscle pain. Three times she paid to see private doctors. They diagnosed Fybromyalgia. We hoped that when we got back to Brazil it would start to get better. In fact it got worse. But Leila was desperate to be involved in the evangelistic work, and one morning she woke up and said, ‘I believe the Lord wants to heal me’.

Later we were at a big evangelistic crusade. The preacher said, ‘Don’t let the devil rob you of what God wants in your life’. Ill health, which prevents people serving God, and troubles in marriages were mentioned. In the midst of all this Leila was instantly healed. She jumped up and down with joy. I have never seen anything like this before. This is my best memory.

Montes Claros

Wesley was born in Montes Claros, a city of 400,000 people and about seven hours from where we were staying. We visited there and had a great time of fellowship. The city has a huge indoor market selling everything. We also saw favelas, the slums, but it was too dangerous to go in.

Here we met Alberto. I must tell you about him. What a great testimony! Before his conversion he was everything imaginable — a transvestite, drug trafficker, and black magic priest destroying people’s lives with curses. But he met the Lord Jesus Christ and was totally transformed. Now, even though he has AIDS, he travels around as an evangelist. We met him in the outdoor market. He was with a girl with a market stall. The girl was an unbeliever and had a debt problem. On this day the Lord had led him to try to help her sell her goods. Wonderfully, on this day she sold enough to clear her debts.

Sao Joao da Ponte

This little primitive country town is about 70 miles out from Montes Claros. It is where Wesley’s mother was born. Everyone seemed to know Wesley there and, as we visited, he gave his testimony to many old friends and relatives. It is a town dominated by Roman Catholicism. This has its good side, in that you don’t need to lock your doors, people are honest. But it makes it hard for the gospel.

The little Baptist church could especially do with our prayers. It has only about 14 people and they need a pastor. One family come in by horse and cart from their farm six miles away. Wesley gave his testimony and preached. Even I had to say something to encourage the church.

Home again

The little church in Patrocinio did not want us to leave. They wanted us to come and live in Brazil or at least come back for another long stay. We shall see. But the end of July saw us back again arriving at Heathrow. How wonderful it had been to meet such lovely brothers and sisters in Christ in South America and share in their hopes and fears, their difficulties and their triumphs. Through the internet we are able to keep up to date with Wesley and his family and with what is going on in Patrocinio. What an adventure we had experienced. And it all started with opening our home. ‘Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling’ (1 Peter 4.9). If you opened your home for Christ, who knows what adventure the Lord might have in store?