Bringing Jesus to the streets of Brazil’s megacities BY DEBORAH MEROFF
T
onight, as most of the children you know are being tucked into bed by loving parents, more than 7 million Brazilian boys and girls will rock themselves to sleep on city pavements. Many of them will seek comfort in crack cocaine. Most of the rest will seek oblivion through aerosols, rags soaked in paint thinner, or glue. Solvents are cheaper than food—and who will care if they should accidentally suffocate, or damage their brains, kidneys, or livers? Certainly not the “street cleaners,” those self-appointed vigilantes who rid society of these small nuisances by putting a bullet through their brains as they sleep. An estimated 10 million children live on the streets of Brazil. Some are as young as 3 years old; many will never grow up.Take a walk through the major cities and you will see prepubescent girls standing in the shadows, waiting for the next cruising car to pick them up. On other corners, heavily made-up transsexuals flaunt their hunger-carved bodies; nearby, homeless families spread out their belongings and lie down on pieces of cardboard. Millions of others—a quarter of the population of Rio and São Paulo—crowd into everspreading slums. While most of us push such realities out of sight and out of mind, a few Christian organizations have chosen to do something about the marginalized people in Brazil’s cities. Among them is the New Dawn Evangelical Community (CENA). CENA is an indigenous ministry, born 18 years ago for the purpose of rescuing and rehabilitating at least some of the lost souls of São Paulo. With approximately 22 million people, São Paulo is one of the world’s largest cities. But
CENA has found Jesus’ power enough to transform even the most desperate of drug addicts, prisoners, prostitutes, transvestites, homeless people, and slum-dwellers. Every day CENA workers visit São Paulo’s favelas (slums), prisons, and a 13-story apartment block used by prostitutes. The ministry includes a street church right in the middle of “Crackland.” Twice a week, 150 destitute men and women look forward to coming here for a good meal, shower, and change of clothing. “We started the church 10 years ago because nobody else wanted these people,” says CENA director Paulo Capilletti. “Most are drug addicts and people without homes. But many have accepted Jesus.” Another unreached group in Brazil’s megacities is their estimated 6,000 to 8,000 transvestites and transsexuals. A CENA counsellor explains that men who reject their gender have usually suffered intense abuse by their fathers. “It’s not enough to put different clothes on them,” she stresses. “They need inner healing. That takes a long time.” It also takes Jesus. This counsellor has seen a great number of transsexuals healed after being introduced to the Lord. A few have even gone on to become missionaries in other parts of Brazil. The men, women, and children CENA rescues from the streets can elect to live for a time at their 700,000-squaremeter property in Juquitiba, a 90-minute drive from São Paulo. The farm was donated to CENA eight years ago and is currently home to about 50 people, including staff. Each person contributes to upkeeping the buildings or grounds, preparing meals, and performing other duties. A garden provides some of the food, and a pond has been developed for
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fish culture. Woodworking equipment is available, and men can learn brick-making and other construction skills as they work on new building projects. “That’s why it takes so long,” smiles Capilletti. “We do things over until they’re right. Marginalized people are not used to finishing the jobs they start.We want to give them the satisfaction of seeing the completed project, done well. Everything we do here is to help motivate men and women to give their work and leisure time to God. Then they’re ready to leave. Some people stay for months, some two or three years.” Capilletti hopes to make the farm self-sufficient, eventually able to accommodate up to 700. Plans include 18 small cottages for children, a school, and a gymnasium. A staff missionary says that all of the children who arrive at the farm are addicted to glue or crack. “We get them off through a natural process, without medicine, by providing good food and lots of play time. Going off glue they usually sleep for a week. Adults who come to the farm often bring drugs and have to be searched. But children are more open. They leave everything behind when they come. Those who stay know God loves them and has a plan.” Individuals or families ready to leave the farm can complete the circle of restoration by living for a while in one of CENA’s two family houses. Capilletti and his family—which includes a baby girl that a prostitute abandoned to CENA— live in one of them.The houses are distant enough from inner São Paulo that residents won’t be tempted by old habits. “People on the streets here in Brazil are caught in a vicious circle,” notes Capilletti. “They need to learn how good it is to live as a real family. Friends help to provide them with jobs so they can earn money. Many others in São Paulo are trying to rescue people, but what they do isn’t complete. We want to rescue and restore people. So we work until a person is ready to go back to normal life. Many leave the rehabilitation process in the middle, but those who finish can get work.” It’s a long investment of time and patience on both sides, he adds. “Seeing marginalized people move to normal life takes five to 17 years. That’s why most churches don’t want to work with these people. They want a quick fix.” Within walking distance of CENA’s small inner-city office is the “Mercy Club,” a newly renovated former sports club. Capilleti calls the place a miracle. “Six years ago our street church was packed. I started to pray because I couldn’t help the people properly. That day I found this old club.” Consumed with a vision of all that it could become, Capilletti was certain this building was God’s answer. Not long afterwards a donor gave US$100,000 toward the purchase price; another sent 140,000 German marks. The club is open 24
hours a day and allows some 24,000 individuals each month to get another chance, not just to stay alive, but to start over. Besides showers, beds, meals, and medical attention, homeless adults can receive counselling and even learn a trade, like baking. Street children can get basic tutoring, computer or English classes, and enjoy sports clinics in the huge gymnasium. CENA receives no government funding. Most of its operating costs are met by churches and individuals within Brazil. But that means most of the mission’s 20 full-time staff members struggle to live on the equivalent of $100 a month. Jesus loves the children—and the men and women— who inhabit the back streets of our megacities. Through committed believers like those working in São Paulo, he also redeems them. ■
An estimated 7 million children, some as young as 3, struggle to survive on the streets of Brazil’s cities, with only each other to count on.
(To learn more, go to stopkillingchildren.com, a site dedicated to documenting and exposing incidents of violence against Brazilian children. Jubileecampaign.org is a Christian site offering research, reports, and advocacy for human rights.) An American journalist based in London, England, Deborah Meroff has been reporting on the international body of Christ for two decades. Her most recent book is True Grit: Women Taking on the World, for God’s Sake (Authentic Media, 2004).
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