Holy Sardines vs. Voodoo People

Early on Christmas morning (6:30!) I received what at first appeared to be a frantic phone call from Audrey. Here’s what he said:

I just had to call to let you know what happened late yesterday (Christmas Eve)! Some of the kids who come the the children’s worship every Saturday come from families that have macumba (voodoo) temples. We knew they were needy and took some of the Christmas baskets to them yesterday.

They were really quite perplexed, wanting to know why we were doing this. I mean, it’s kind of like them vs. us. We told them that their kids love Jesus and are so excited to learn about him and worship him. We also knew that they were having a difficult time financially. We knew how much Jesus loves them and so we wanted to help out with no strings attached.

If you could have seen just seen their faces!

You’ll never guess what happened?

They wanted to know more about this Jesus we talked about — he was so different than the one they had heard about from other Christians. The end result is that they accepted him on the spot and declared that from that moment forward that their macumba terreiros (voodoo temples) were closed! This was not just one case, but TWO separate cases!

And you thought that you were simply trying to give some hungry kids some beans, rice and sardines!

1000 words

Christmas Eve in Ubaúna

I’m sorry to do this…

Really neat stuff in from Ubaúna! I hate to be a tease but I just don’t have time to write it all up this morning. Check back tonight or tomorrow for some really cool feedback from the “Christmas Child” project (including photos).

Feliz Natal!

Not a creature was stirring…they were all eating sardines

Just when you think it’s good, it goes and gets even gooder!

I can’t wait to tell everyone what has come in for the Ubaúna Christmas Child program… but I’m not gonna tell yet because everything isn’t in yet. Let me just say that it’s looking mighty good!

However, I can tell you that the “Christmas Basket” we’re giving is even better than I thought. I told Audrey to do it up good and he took me at my word!

Each basket will have:

• Rice
• Beans
• Sardines (believe it or not, a real delicacy!)
• Macaroni
• Salt
• Coffee
• Cornmeal
• Powdered milk
• Soap
• Dish detergent
• Crackers
• Sugar
• Toy
• Candy

Dang! I would love to be there to help deliver these on Christmas morning! There’s going to be some happy folks running around Ubaúna in a week!

And YOU are making it happen…

Speechless

There are times when words simply fail you. This foto is a perfect illustration.

Raquel was given up for dead on a Thursday but left the hospital in better shape than before she became sick on Sunday.

Go figure…

Thank you for having prayed for her!

Christmas in Ubaúna

It won’t snow and Santa’s reindeer won’t be able to land on top of the houses (he’d fall through). But kids in Ubaúna will experience the joy of the season.

Generous folks in Wilmington are gearing up to give kids a Christmas who’ve never had a Christmas.

It won’t be like here with loads of presents. It will have food (beans, rice and a few pieces of candy) and a small plastic toy. It will feed them for 7-10 days; it will brighten their day; it will make them ponder where the United States is . . . but they’ll have no doubt that this fellow named Jesus cares about them.

“How many?” you coquettishly ask.

That depends on you.

Wanna help? Click here.