Jesus Film.

On Monday afternoon, the project headed to a favela (a slum about 30 minutes from USP) to share the Jesus Film with help from a church there. We broke up into groups and handed out fliers to as many people as we could. Within 5 minutes I was in tears. Standing on top of the hill, you could see tons of homes built one on top of another, surrounded by piles of junk and stray dogs fighting. The hardest part for me was seeing the hotels and skyscrapers surrounding the favela, knowing that the people in those building looked out on to the favela every day – and the lives of both groups were totally opposite yet they existed in the same area. The actual film went off without a hitch, except for a few breaks in the 9mm film we used. Some adults showed up, but the crowd was mostly kids. The movie was shown at the bottom of a hill, amidst the piles of debris and concrete and litter. Because we had three roles of film to show (on the oldest projector I’ve ever seen), one other project student and I shared a two minute testimony of how we became Christians (which was really four minutes with the Portuguese translator). Some of the team took pictures while we were there, because the kids loved being able to see themselves right away after the flash went (so cute!!) but we were fairly reserved considering the closest building to the movie area is involved in drug making/buying/selling of some sort.

At one point, I was sitting next to a 5 year old named Giovanna. There was a rowdy group of kids sitting between her and the movie, but the whole time her eyes were glued to the images on the screen. I watched her watch the soldiers pound the nails into Jesus’ hands, and she truly looked mortified. She turned to me with sorrowful eyes and said a small voice, (in Portuguese) “Why did Jesus have to die??” All me and Kristi, an American student with us, could say in broken Portuguese was, watch the rest of the movie and they will explain at the end.

18 adults accepted Christ, along with almost every single child we gave a comment card to- I don't know the attitude of their heart. But to hold a 5 year old and hear them pray to receive Christ in Portuguese is about the best thing I've ever experienced!