Sometimes I cry when I look over camp photos: hundreds of faces who participated in the 5-day Bible camps I was privileged to help with over eight years. Quite a few have passed away, succumbing to the violence we prayed so fervently they wouldn’t partake in. All were from the community built around the rubbish dump where my husband and I have been serving full-time since 2013.
Some, however, we still see numerous times a week – at church services, in their homes, at Bible studies. Some have professed Jesus as their Saviour and I am honoured to serve our Lord alongside them in our church and community, sharing the hope we have because of Jesus. They are more than friends; they are our family in Christ.
Others, we see every now and then – at the grocery store, doing home visits in the neighbourhood, at the rubbish dump, or they pop in to a church service or soccer game to say hello or ask for help in a time of need.
Rony’s story
Rony always had a quick smile and a sweet demeanour, attending the camps as a young boy (pictured below). We see him every week, but he has not been involved in the church.
Every time we see Rony, he never fails to thank us and those who served in the camp ministry over the years, visiting Brazil to help run the camps. He stopped us about 10 years ago and said, “I got a job through the mayor’s office. I learned to drive the tractor on the rubbish dump. Tell the team!” A hard worker, he’d always wave to us as we passed Rony in his tractor.
We’d run into him and Rony would say, “Please tell the group that I did not go down the wrong path. Tell them I have a job and am doing well. Thank them for coming to us.” Not long after, Rony told us, “Tell them I have a house now that I worked for. Tell them their visits and care of us were not in vain.”
About six years ago, he came to a church service with a young lady by his side, and their small baby girl in his arms. A few years later, another sweet daughter was presented to us: “Tell the team I have a family. Tell them I take care of them well, I did not enter a life of crime. Thank you for what you did for us.” At the end of March this year, Rony brought his little family to church. I taught his daughters in the children’s class while Rony and his wife listened to God’s Word being preached in the main service. At the end, Rony approached Marcelo, tears running down his face. He said, “I have a job, a house, a family, but I understand that none of that matters if I don’t have Jesus.”
I have a job, a house, a family, but none of that matters if I don’t have Jesus.
Church mission teams
A church’s faithfulness in sending short term mission teams year after year; the arduous labour of mission workers who came before us, who “tilled the ground” and shared the gospel; the continuing relationship we have with Rony through the years: all these things have been tools in the hand of a gracious God who is patient, and who desires “everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3.9).
We are reminded that we can never know the timeline and process by which the seed of God’s Word begins to grow. It is often a long process. We are called to be faithful and patient, to continue scattering seeds.
We water, work, and wait, trusting fully that the growth happens because of the Lord. As 1 Corinthians 3 reminds us, some plant seeds, some water them, “but God has been making them grow.” We praise the Lord that our dependence is not on ourselves but on Him: “The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it” (1 Thessalonians 5.24).
Please pray for Rony and his family that the Lord will continue to open his eyes to understand his need for a Saviour. Pray that they trust in Jesus.
Holly Vieira serves with her husband, Marcelo, in Benevides, Brazil, where they are involved in church planting and community outreach.