TeamDuggan

S. is a changed woman, not through a self-help program, an intervention by friends and family, or through a recovery center. S. is changed because of Jesus’ love demonstrated by redeemed but faithful sinners like you and me. At twelve she was raped by her mother’s significant other. Her mother then threw her out on the streets where she survived by rumaging for food in the trash. A lady befriended her and took her to her own favela where a dozen men raped her. She returned to her favela, presented herself to the drug lord and asked to be taught to kill. After training she went back to kill the men who raped her and thus began a life as a hit-woman for the drug traffickers. Her story continues with horrendous events that led her to drug dependence, murder, prostitution, neglecting her resulting children and worse. How could anyone with that history be changed? There aren’t enough twelve-step programs in the world that could address even a fraction of her pain. Yet God didn’t abandon her and he put her in the path of a church family in Caju that led her to Christ and helped her return to a productive life. Today S. is not only living in a small apartment on her own, she lives and works in the same favela that nearly destroyed her. And she is taking the message of true healing to as many people as she can.
But in real life, there really never is a “happily ever after”. S. needs your prayer. And the ministry of missions needs your support. Are you willing to be a conduit for transformed lives? You don’t have to be a theologian, a pastor or have a fancy degree. Remember that most of Jesus’ disciples were hardly what one would call educated or professional. We have three clear ways to respond:
Pray – place a comment here to be added to our prayer letter
Give – help support missions in Latin America
Go – place a comment here to begin a dialogue about how God could use you in missions.

One of the greatest privileges in my career is to meet, encourage, and partner with people who are doing the unimaginable in the most difficult locations. Caju is a large favela (think economically, socially, and spiritually destitute) area in Rio de Janeiro. Every year 6,000 people are murdered in the 800 favelas in Rio, a rate that eclypses many war zones around the world. Each favela is run by drug chiefs who openly manage not only the drug trade but also the very lives of all who live there. These are not places where those who can afford to do otherwise ever venture. Avoided by all but the most desperate, these favelas are not abandoned by God. He calls people to step into the chaos and bring light to the incredible darkness. Fabio and Leah grew up in middle-class backgrounds, yet knew they were being called to bring the transformational power of the Gospel into Caju. Starting with just a few people five years ago, their church now has over two hundred people whose lives have been retrieved from hopelessness and early death. There is no other explanation for how these two have been able to reach into one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the Western hemisphere and find favor in the eyes of those who kill without remorse.
What an amazing sight to be present as heavily armed men allowed us to enter their territory and engage with them and the people they rule through terror. It may be a place angels fear to tread, but not for those who know that God has called them to bring a power greater than the AK-47s and Uzis that are regularly used against police, enemy gangs and their own residents. Pray for Fabio and Leah as they faithfully obey the call to bring the transformational message of the Gospel to a desperate and hopeless people.

I recently returned from a two-week trip to Brazil with a team from Carver Bible College in Atlanta Georgia. The purpose of the trip was to engage our traditionally caucasian EFCA movement in becoming more diverse in our representation…maybe even reflect the diversity of the big “C” Church. We chose Brazil since it is much more diverse than many Latin America countries and racial diversity is not an issue. We also prayed for God to move on the hearts of the team members to consider missions, and He answered that prayer along the way. We spent time with the desperate and the comfortable, those who reach out to the hopeless and those who reach the middle class. We saw and experienced new things in each location and saw God’s grace in so many Brazilians who sacrifice a life of seeking material success (Brazil is the fourth fastest growing world economy) in order to see God’s kingdom built.

Our team was quite diverse as well. It included a Guatamalan, Jamaican, Philipina, British, Korena American, caucasians and African Americans. We had some great discussions on the nature of the church, ethnic differences, historical roles and new opportunities for reconciliation. Personally I learned so much from my brothers and sisters in Christ and was challenged to consider perspectives I had never heard.

Along the way we prayed together, slept in comfortable and not so comfortable conditions, rode many hours in tight (by our standards) vehicles, and developed a fun comraderie. This next week I’ll be posting blog entries about our days together and share photos of some of the highlights. Thanks for following along!

By the way, although this is offset by a week or two, I do keep up to date info posted through Twitter. Follow me at BDugganRN on Twitter and I’ll return the favor.

Or, in the words of Michael W. Smith, ” And friends are friends forever, if the Lord’s the Lord of them.” Those of you who follow my blog and Facebook sentiments should understand that whenever life gets busy, overwhelming, needs processing or the dear hubby is traveling more, that you should pray harder, and that God is working in my life and that of our family.

This last month was filled with conflicting emotions as our family said goodbye to several folks whose lives had intersected ours and while examining my emotions, I realized it is truly better to have loved and lost temporarily,(as these folks will sit on my front porch in Heaven) than to not have loved at all.

Friendships take hard work. In Brownie scouts at the ripe age of 7, I learned the song, “make new friends, but keep the old, one is silver and the other is gold.” This song has played and replayed in my head over the last weeks as new friends and old friends came and went.

As a missionary, the hardest thing for me has been the cultivation of friendship, only to have the friends move a continent away. Or to see my children finally find a true friend only to see him/her move a year or two later…or to leave my adult children in the U.S., or to watch our eldest son graduate and gather for photos in front of the same sign Brian and I stood in front of more than 25 years ago on graduation weekend, knowing that the large group of friends smiling back at us were experiencing emotions similar to the emotions I write about here.

Friendships forged during those intense college years or in foreign cultures are similar. They are pure gold, and stand firm over time.

College is a time for intense study and building strong relationships. Matthew was very fortunate to have a group of friends from the start that stayed together all four years. Two of their Spring Breaks were spent in Costa Rica and the other two were spent together as well. These relationships will stand for a long time even though they each will go separate ways. We thank God for providing this for our son and for all the Wheaties that were part of it.

The happy graduate with his proud family on a beautiful day in Wheaton Illinois. Congratulations Matthew!

Despite the rugged individualism that is at the heart of much of our culture, the fact is that God created us to work with others and that teams can accomplish more together than their members could individually.
Mark Lewis and I have been friends for four years now. He is the director of TouchGlobal’s Crisis Response and leads the mission’s compassionate outreach in crisis for the whole world. I lead the work of the mission for Latin America/Caribbean. Each of us has a claim to what the mission does in Haiti, and each of us have fairly strong personalities and leadership capabilities. It would be easy to start competing and undermining each other which would result in a diminished ministry for all involved. But this is where the example of Christ must be examined. Things like serving one another, looking to one another’s needs, submitting our own ambitions and desires to each other and living in an environment of trust. This does not mean we don’t disagree, but it does mean that when we do, our relationship is never at stake and that we trust the other truly wants the best for me.
We are exploring new territory by having both our ReachGlobal staff and TouchGlobal staff work side by side. We still don’t know what it will look like ultimately, but we do know that each of us is commited to the mission of our organization and to working together as team. Maybe we can even demonstrate a bit of Christ as we do it.

Clean water is one of the bigger needs here in Haiti. Wes is trouble-shooting a system our teams installed for a school of 500+ kids that reopened this past Monday in tent shelters. It is interesting and encouraging to hear fairly consistently that Haitians see schools reopening as one of their higher priorities. Just outside this sheltered area stand two tanks. Using a small diesel generator (yellow box), water is pumped from a well to a large tank, through the filter from one tank to the second one. It’s simple, it is easily maintained, and it is sustainable….all criteria for projects we undertake. And such a simple thing makes the education of hundreds of kids viable once again.

“Blanc, blanc!” That’s the call I hear as I walk among the towns and villages, now just rubble with tents filling every open surface. Americans are a draw just because we’re so different. But these kids were telling me about the Brazilians who came just a few weeks ago. We were so blessed to have our Brazilian partners organize and send a team so quickly. And they knew how to engage a community! After working, the team would grab a ball and start a game of soccer in the middle of the community. Suddenly they are surrounded by Haitians all eager to play. Only two of the team speak English, and none speak Creole. But so much can be communicated without a common language, such as, “I’m here to serve you”, “You are valuable”, and the most important, “I’m here to represent Christ, and he loves you.” Though we constantly have to remind our teams from the States that it’s not about the work but about relationship, our Brazilian friends just naturally understand that engaging with the community is what accomplishes the goal.