Bororo

On Friday morning we left General Carneiro at 6:30am in order to arrive at the Bororo village. The Bororo people are indigenous but have embraced some aspects of the western world. The government build homes for them (very small, but better than huts!) and there is a catholic church in the village. Unfortunately, the Brazilian workers who built the homes allegedly left many Bororo women pregnant and that has caused a lot of friction between this village and "white people" (Brazilians) as well as between this village and other Bororo villages who now accuse them of not being pure Bororo. The leader of this village told us that the catholic church has been present in their village for over 100 years, and yet this was the first time a social assistance group of this magnitude had come to help them. We had 2 dentists, one doctor, a pharmacy, a youth ministry team, and a children's ministry team. The Bororo people still speak their own language, but they also speak Portuguese fluently. They are very suspicious and critical of outsiders. Some of the children told us that they had been instructed to not tell us any words in their language. Many children and adults did not know their ages and unfortunately there were many men and women of all ages drunk. We were not aware of this ahead of time, but about a month ago there was a terrible accident with a truck which was full of Bororo people in the truck bed. Many were killed and those who survived were badly injured. This has brought on a terrible depression among these Bororo people and their solution has been to drink.

The children's ministry team had a program for the kids in the morning and again in the afternoon. We picked out the games, stories, and art projects that we thought would work best in the outdoor setting. We also had the workshop in which I used some of the "Claves" material as well as taught the wordless book and John 3:16.

We had some time after lunch to walk around the village and visit some of the homes. I found a little girl (she says she is 10 but I doubt it) who was in a cast from her hips all the way down to the toes of her left foot. Rafaela and her aunt were in the truck accident and sadly her aunt passed away. She was sitting in a chair outside of her house and her mother was painting the faces of some of our team members. Her grandmother and another person were inside the house making terrible wailing noises and were drunk. Rafaela looked like she hadn't had a bath in a month. Her toes looked like they were badly infected and she had a large lump on her head. Her mother was a very bitter woman and when one team member didn't want to be painted she said, "So you are disgusted by us?! Is that why you don't want to be painted?" Naturally, we all quickly got in line to be painted! :) And yet what stood out in this home full of miseary was the constant smile on Rafaela's face. I had Steve go get here for the afternoon program and she was so excited to be able to leave that house for a bit and participate in the fun. Steve stayed by her side the whole time and took her home when she got tired and it started to get chilly.


Here is most of the children's ministry team...

We had some crazy guys on the team this year who were anxious to lead some of the singing and dancing! They did a great job, and of course Michael was in the middle of the bunch!


Jônatas doing his "magic"... you can see the small homes in a circle around the village.

Thanks, Steve, for the great open-mouthed picture! :) Anyway, I am teaching John 3:16 with lots of gestures and plenty of excitement... By the end of the day the 7-10 year olds were reciting the verse perfectly!

After teaching them the wordless book and John 3:16, we had snack time!

Here is Cristiane teaching the colors of the wordless book using the bracelet. She was asking him to repeat the meaning of each color and at this point he is explaining what "sin" is. (Everything that we THINK, SAY, or DO that doesn't please God).
We used the "quadro scênico" in the morning...

and an adaption of Benjamin's Box in the afternoon.