The Other Recycling Community

Down the street from the International school is an area covered with piles of items to be recycled. Two years ago, the church that meets at the International school, the Acacias Community church, began an outreach there, and discovered 45 families working together in this recycling collective, many in deep poverty.
Since then, during holidays and other special times, they have provided programs and outreaches. Until recently, they were also serving soup once a week through the soup ministry. Through this, two of the women were led to the Lord and are now active members at the Acacias Community church! We were excited to include this group of children in our Easter Celebrations this year!

*Note: The painted rocks you see in the video were the "eggs" we hid for the Easter Egg hunt!

Carmen and Guga led a group of older kids, while some other volunteers from the church set up a little area for the smaller kids. Over five children raised their hands to invite Jesus into their life.

Easter Celebration at the Matadoro

The majority of the Trash dump community has been relocated to the Matadoro (the old butchery). We were able to have a small celebration with them on Saturday, April 11th.

*Note: The painted rocks you see in the video were the "eggs" we hid for the Easter Egg hunt!

We were excited to get in touch with Massa Humana, a great group of young people from a local church. They are working hard to partner with other people who are interested in the plight of this community as well, and doing a great job. Due to other pressing needs, they had not been able to do anything special for Easter--so it was great to be able to share with them our abundance.

Paulo, one of the Massa Humana helpers

This week, Massa Humana made sure to visit and share with the children who are still located at the Trash dump. These families are waiting on houses to be built for them at the Matadoro (the government had started to give the homes away to other people, meaning that there were not enough homes for everyone from the dump. They have promised to build more, but no work has been done yet). 

What a Year: 2014

It has been incredible to see the transformation for this community, as well as see the transition to local leadership in Massa Humana. They are truly doing a fantastic job running this ministry to this needy community, and we are more than happy to step back and support them with prayer!

Project Smile

Firm Promise Baptist church has been calling together some dentists and other groups to come together and provide the community that used to live at the Trash Dump with toothbrushes and toothpaste. They called it Project Smile.

How exciting to see them come and make a difference in these children's lives!

Children's Day Trash Dump

They are not still located at the trash dump (except for 14 individuals who are waiting on homes to be built), but are now located on the westside of Carpina (Pop. 100,000). It is quite a transition for them, but they were ready to celebrate. They are located at the old town cow butchery, which has been shut down for years.

Firm Promise Baptist church did an amazing job of having games, food, trampolines, jump rope, and a ball pit. The kids (over 100) were busy running from one station to the next, having loads of fun. We are so excited to see this church step up and make a difference in their community!

Update and Prayer Partnership

The Federal law in Brazil states that at the end of 2014, all open (current) trash dumps must be closed, and the people working there relocated and trained to work at a sanitary landfill. Over 40 families have lived their whole lives a couple miles out of town, sorting through trash to pull out whatever is recyclable to barely make a living.

This year the government built housing for the community on the other side of town, but didn’t visit or help anyone relocate. The government then started giving the new homes to other people! The trash dump community worked together to move and inhabit the homes, even though they were not completed, and they did not have permission yet. Fourteen people still live at the dump (there were not houses enough for them), and the adults in the community still walk 5 or 6 miles a day to get to the dump, that will be closed at the end of the year. They have no other job skills, and have not been trained, as the law states, to work at the new landfill.

A local Baptist church (Igreja Baptista Firme Promessa)  has taken over this ministry, reaching out to the children every weekend, and providing soup to the community. Overall, the community is happy and so excited to have their own (first) homes—most of them lived in trash lean-tos at the dump. But many of the houses are incomplete, there are still 14 without a home, and the future is uncertain. Also, they have been outsiders all of their lives, and that doesn’t go away overnight.

It is with great joy that we let you know that a group of young people have taken the calling of serving this community, and it is no longer a Living Stones program. They have asked us to join them in a prayer partnership, and so we will continue to report on what God is doing, and hope you will continue to lift these families up in prayer. 

Raissa (front middle) and her amazing team. 

Firm Promise Baptist Church

Four people from the Firm Promise Baptist Church have taken over visiting the trash dump, and providing soup and a special time with the children every weekend.

We are so grateful to Cesar Ribeiro (far left) and Raissa Alves (close to the right) for heading this up! They have let me know that about 15 of the families have moved out (on their own), because they know the government is going to shut everything down at the dump at the beginning of next year. But many of the families have no resources to be able to leave on their own. Please keep the families in your prayers, and the volunteers from Firm Promise Baptist church.