Hey from Rio de Janeiro!
Its been a week and one of the most amazing weeks ever. we left at 8 am on saturday last week after saying goodbye to some of the best amigos i have ever met. Some of the most amazing people in my DTS, and though i am completely one sided on this matter, i believe we had one of the best dts´s ever... we left at 8 on saturday, traveling to Denver, then Washington DC, then to Rio. We arrived in Rio at 11 am on Sunday with ALL of our luggage and all of our people... Amazing... we were expecting to loose at least one of either... We were met by two men who have come to be very good friends, Roger and Lazero. speeding off from the airport we went to the YWAM base in Santa Cruz Acada which is a little outside the main part of Rio but the base (´Jocum´ is YWAM) is located in a favella which is a term for the slums here. The one we are staying in is actually a nicer one but we still can´t leave by ourselves ever, unlike the favella we were just at for 3 days, Borel. Borel is a very dangerous favella with 1 out of 10 men riding around on motorcyles with huge machine guns. the traffic, drug dealing, is HUGE in all of Rio and especially the favellas. There are constant raids from the corrupt police and huge shoot outs but nothing happened like that while we were there except one man was shot in the foot.
Jocum here is amazing with great food, rice and black beans everyday for lunch and dinner combined with either chicken or beef. They made us cheese burgers and first day which was hilarious and very tasty. Theres an amazing futbol field here that is just one ministry lazero runs and me, Benji, Bruce, and Mat have had hours upon hours of futbol with kids and some adults along with basket ball in the marketplace here in Santa Cruz.
The weather has been awesome with a consistant 87-94 degrees and high high humidity but yesterday and today have been raining so its a great break from the pools of sweat that we sleep in as misquitos multch my our entire bodies.
Dancing is huge here as well as all the arts. we have done a lot of music things like playing at a school for kids about 8-16 years old and dancing. me and benji have learned the basics to ´capuara´ and most of the team has learned authenic, brazilian samba. I´m very excited for tonight because there has been a DTS that was from this base here that arrived from outreach the day after we came, so we have been playing volleyball and dancing with them. Been playing uno and just getting to know them. I have come to seriously LOVE these people. so relaxed and layed back, that´s how all the brazilian culture is. very chill and fun loving. everyone loves to party and laugh. But this dts team has been so fun and tonight is their dts graduation ceremony so we´re doing it brazilian style. we are having the graduation at 7 oclock and then we are heading about an hour away to a legit brazilian party of about 10,000 people and gonna party till about 5-6am just dancing, singing, and laughing... i love these people!
oh, did i mention that there´s a pool on the base here...?
our ministry stuff has really just been building relationships and playing/loving on kids which has been amazing. most of every people here, even more so in the favellas, know the gospel competely. they have heard it so much and even at these big parties we´re gonna go to, most of the people are sick about religion. So our approach is to genuinely care about them as people, their social issues, who they are, and not even think about religion unless they open it up for that.
I am praying that God will use our team in awesome ways and if we get to see the result of our actions and our love, that would be such a huge bonus!
and the only thing that could follow that up is... seriously, the women here are beautiful... haha... i plan on finding my wife in the next 3 months.... ;)
Hope you are doing well! I tried to just hit a few things that have happened in just a week. thanks for taking the time to read this!
-Sean O´Connor (aka. ´Sean Connery´)
3 comments:
Sean - Hello! I am Barbara, Guy's (Bruce's) Mom. I cannot tell you how much we appreciate this write-up. I've passed it to Guy's family as well. Let's just say that he doesn't provide quite as much information as you do. Please know that we support you and are praying for you all in what you're doing. Stay safe - and keep writing!
Hey Sean...It's Marky King. I know Barbara and Bruce Kauss. That's how I read your blog. Isn't it great how we are all connected? I just saw your parents at a church party last evening (we were doing the Samba! :) I've visited Rio; it's one of the most fun (not safe...but fun) places I've been. I know the whole religion thing is difficult there. I will pray for you. Say "hi" to Bruce. I'll forward your blog to Katie. She'll like hearing what you're doing.
Hi, I am Bruce's aunt. We are proud of him and are praying for your team. We are retired ministers and nothing thrill us more than for our young relatives to carry on the work that we are no longer able to do. Keep on keeping on and keep us posted.
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