In the north east of Brazil in Trapiá, in the state of Rio Grande Do Norte where BMS mission workers Mike & Daveen Wilson have been for over 20 years, there are few opportunities for work or education and the region is very dry and the people live simply. There are no shops or amenities and the nearest road is 15 miles away. I was privileged to enter in to this loving and hospitable community and involved myself by offering whatever skills I could with surprising results.
I taught English to a keen class where we also learnt some cultural British aspects – that not everybody in the UK drives a BMW and lives in a four-bedroom house on the basis of a supermarket workers’ wages. They were stunned!
I also gave guitar lessons to some guys who learnt at an alarming rate with incredible natural ability. Due to me having a laptop with music recording software we recorded the church’s first album with original songs written by a variety of church members and local people which was fantastic on so many levels. It strengthened friendships, cultivated creativity, built self-confidence and self-worth, and we were having fun, learning about God and how we see or relate to him, praising the Lord, and even helping other churches to view the Trapiá Baptist Church more favourably. The list could go on.
As a trained clown I also had an opportunity to entertain some of the poorest kids in the region with fun, games and prizes with a gospel message at the fourth anniversary of the Trapi Baptist Church and about 20 people were baptised over the course of the evening. At other times I was privileged to be part of Bible studies and encouraged the group to engage with the text in different ways, resulting in us seeing where we were both individually and communally within the narrative, which was impacting and challenging for all of us.
There are so many other stories to tell but it would take a small book to do them justice, but I feel that in my time in Trapiá, although I gave everything that I had to give, I actually received much more. I’m looking forward to going back in the summer of 2008 to help to cultivate creativity and music with a view to us finding and knowing the living God in a way that gives hope to those who have yet to drink from water that can quench even one of the most barren regions of Brazil.