A challenge called community center “The Sower House” (and sowing is what we do!)

Running the community center continues to be a huge challenge with a small team of 4 missionaries and a big group of 80 kids and teens! We just keep asking God to send more full-time workers, we really need them. The group of kids is really big and the only reason why it isn´t even bigger, is because we limited the number to 80; which means that by now we have quite a long waiting list of kids who really need a place too. 

And the misery and needs also grow! The more we get to know the families we work with, the more needs and problems we see! And that can be really difficult sometimes, as we don´t always see that much change while working with the kids. We know it is our job to sow, to show the kids who God is. He has His own way of working in their lives and often a real change only happens later on in life, we might not see much of this change yet. So we still see teenagers who make wrong decisions (teen pregnancy, crime and drug traffic) and when you look at it, it seems like nothing changed in their lives, but the message they received at “The Sower House” will not “return empty”. So we know that our work isn´t in vain, on the contrary, we know our work is essential in the development of these kids and their understanding of who God is, so that they might eventually, one day in the future, get to the point where they’ll truly surrender themselves to God. The kids are with us for only a few short hours a week, the rest of the time they live in a very harsh, problematic reality, and the influence this reality has over them is huge. But God´s power is greater still! 

And so we notice that our work is often heavy. If you look around you and see everything that happens, you could easily give up… but God calls us to keep our eyes fixed on Him and on the things we do not see. All of this does encourage us to stay very close to God, totally dependent on Him, because we continuously realize that we´re not capable of bringing any true change. Who are we after all? We feel very incapable... and that is good! Because that is what keeps us in the right place with the right attitude: dependent on God and His power, because if He doesn´t work, then everything is simply lost!    

  

The Casa Semear Team

Back to work!

The last months of 2012 were very busy for us, the Casa Semear team, because we organized several different events and day trips for the kids and their families. In the midst of everything that was going on, we couldn´t find the time to update you properly through this weblog. So, here´s a short overview of everything that happened:

Day trip to the beach

In November, we took the SemearKids, group of 8-10 year olds, on a road trip to the beach for a day! Most of them had never seen the sea before, so you can imagine how special this outing was for them!

Team retreat

Also in November, we, the Casa Semear team, took a week off work to rest and seek God together. We spent quite some time praying for the project, for the families and the kids that God has given us to take care of and we also spent some time together just dreaming and talking about Casa Semear´s future. It was a very good, fruitful time! 

SuperWoman program: Celebrating the end of one more year

We organized a fun evening full of activities for the SuperWoman teen girls to celebrate the end of one more year together. As a group, we thanked God together for a very good year full of friendship, growth and learning.

Christmas celebration

On the 15th of December, we had our yearly Christmas celebration together with all the families, kids and teens who participate in Casa Semear´s program. It was a beautiful celebration where we were able to preach the Gospel to the more or less 150 people who came out to be with us that night. The kids also actively participated by presenting a sung musical that explains God´s plan of salvation. And of course, handing the kids their Christmas presents was a very special moment too, as it is always wonderful to see them happy and with big smiles on their faces!  

At the start of a new year

January was a month of holidays for all of us at Casa Semear, so only now are we back to work with the kids at the community center and also trying our best to be back here at the weblog to regularly update you about everything that happens at Casa Semear, about the things God does in us and through us in the lives of the kids and families He gave us to care for. We´re excited and feel challenged by everything that lies ahead of us in this year of 2013! We´d like to count on you to pray for us and support us so we´ll be able to do our very best and together participate in what God is doing in the community He put us in.   

For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who said, "Light shall shine out of darkness," is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not from ourselves; we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.  For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus' sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death works in us, but life in you.

While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

2 Corinthians 4:5-12 & 18  

The Casa Semear Team

Overview of 2012

Here´s a short video with some pictures of everything that happened at community center Casa Semear during 2012! 

We´re very grateful for everything God did in and through us at Casa Semear and in the hearts of the children, teenagers and families we were able to work with during this year!


All honour to Him!


The Casa Semear Team 

Social Awareness Day

On the 27th of October, we had a new and very well succeeded event at community center Casa Semear. In collaboration with Mackenzie University (one of São Paulo´s public universities), we organized a social awareness day for the community around Casa Semear.

 

It was wonderful to see how God provided everything that we needed to run this event; in a quite short period of time we managed to get a number of different volunteers and professionals to come and serve the community in different ways and we also got all the materials we needed for the different services we had planned to offer.

Together with the more than 40 volunteers that came out that day to help us, we were able to offer the community a day filled with joy, advice and health orientation. It was a very busy day, with lawyers, dentists, story tellers, candy floss, social workers, nurses weighing people and measuring their blood pressure, diabetes tests, hairdressers and a lot of fun and games for the children! We had a total of 300 people come to Casa Semear that Saturday, and were very pleased with the results. We would like to make this a yearly event and already have a number of ideas for next year.

 

A huge THANK YOU to all the volunteers, students from Mackenzie University and all the different professionals who came out that day and donated a bit of their time and energy! 

 

Praise God for what He has been doing!

The Casa Semear team

Camp-in with the young kids!

Two weeks ago it was national children´s day here in Brazil, and at community center Casa Semear we organized a very special party for our group of young kids (5-7 years old) who participate daily in Casa Semear´s program. 

For the first time, these Super Little Ones (a name they themselves came up with for their group) had their very own camp-in party at Casa Semear! The group of more or less 20 kids arrived on Friday morning around 10am and they had a lot of fun during the whole program that lasted till Saturday 1pm. 

 

The kids had a great time together: lots of fun during the many games; they did lots of arts and crafts, had barbecue for lunch, decorated their own piece of cake, participated in a photo-shoot, jumped a LOT on the big trampoline we set up right in the middle of the house, watched a movie, worshipped God and slept in real tents!!

What for us as a team became two extremely exhaustive days (this couldn´t be any different of course ;0), for the kids became two days filled with joy, fun and friendship! When we look back on it, we say: It was definitely worth it! It´s so great to be able to offer these kids a different environment for a bit, a day full of laughter and joy, a time to just have fun and to forget for a while about the problems they, although still very young, already face in their lives…

We want to thank every one of you who cooperated with us to make this party happen! Be it through your prayers or by giving us a hand: Thank you so much! We specially want to thank uncle Walter and aunt Rose: thank you so much for your presence and support!

The team of Casa Semear