Archive for November, 2011

  • Sickened

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    As I was trying to come up with my Christmas wish list, as my mom has been asking if I want any books, I was browsing on Amazon for books that might be interesting to me. I searched for books on Mozambique, missions and, of course, street kids in Brazil. As part of my ongoing research, which I dove into in college and have kind of slacked off on, I search for new titles about people rescuing kids off the streets and out of prostitution in Brazil and around the world. As I was searching today, in amongst the books about rescuing kids out of prostitution, there was one written by a sex tourist.

    Sickening.

    I know I’ve found sickening websites for sex tourist detailing the bars and locales you can find child prostitutes at, but that was years ago. Hadn’t found anything like that since college, when I was diving headfirst into research for projects about child prostitution.

    It caught me off guard that there would be someone so sick in the head as to write an entire book detailing about his life as a sex tourist around the world, with much of his travels being in, of course, Brazil.

    I feel like writing a complaint to Amazon about it, but I don’t know how. When there are so many people working to stop such an ugly thing as child prostitution and sex tourism, how can there be people who write about it, glorifying it?

    Makes me sick.

    Next post will be more upbeat, i promise.

  • Thankful

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    Looking back on the past year, I have alot to be thankful for.

    Moving- We moved in July, just from one side of the city to the other. We went from having drug dealers as next-door neighbors, to a diplomat. Yep. Our old neighbors would smoke pot all the time, and we actually saw them dealing crack one night, in front of our door. And now our next-door neighbor is a diplomat from a spanish-speaking country. His car has diplomat plates and all.

    My job- A year ago I wasn’t working, and I was at home and driving myself cra-zy. I started working at the International School in February, and it is a huge blessing. I am around many Americans, yet I speak lots of Portuguese, and its really helped me learn more of the language. Its also good because the teachers are American and are really a sort of support system for me. The kids at the school are from all over the world– we have kids from Pakistan, Japan, Syria, Namibia, China, Tanzania, etc. I love seeing all of them mix together and have fun and learn together.

    Paulo’s company- Even though sometimes its tough, Paulo’s company has made it past the 1-yr mark! Thats big for a small upstart company! We’re both grateful that he’s been able to get new clients in to keep the company working. He’s learned alot, faster than he would at a regular job.

    Family- my in-laws have really helped us alot this year. I’ve gotten sick a few times, and my mother in law has always come over or had me over to take care of me. We usually have lunch at their house on Saturday, and when they are traveling, it seems odd to break that routine and not spend Saturdays with them! And I get to see my family in a month for Christmas! Now that’s really something huge to be thankful for!

  • Design for Life {by Paulo}

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    {my dear husband wrote this, as we are in a time of asking God what he would have us do. this is what he felt. he’s the amazing webdesigner who designed my site, of course!}

    This is the sketch of what my heart burns for..

    I dream of night and day constant everlasting prayer and worship that will affect people, that will change hearts. Not a mega-maniac concept that sees the big and imagines nations changed, that will be a realistic outcome of our intimate prayer life, of hearts being touched by a passion that burns stronger by the day that it stays in the presence of the Holy.

    I want to rescue kids from prostitution and the streets, I want to grow old with them and walk and watch as Holy Spirit transforms their lives. I want to rescue teenagers away from drugs and teach them what I know, teach them what I have in my hand. Teach them how to translate their life story into design.

    I have a dream of forming a design agency made up of young adults rescued from the streets. We will serve the church and help NGO’s and institutions to create relevant and high quality design so that they can bring out their message and in partnership they’ll help us to train and develop more “life designers”, to rescue others from destitution. I want to design for life, to give them a future, to teach them that each line they draw, each typography they work on can mean a chain being broken, how it can mean a message of Hope being brought to the world.

    I want this agency to spread bringing future and proving that Design and Creation can truly announce our essence: that we were created to create, we were designed by God to design, to design life, to design hope, to create the Kingdom of Jesus in this world. Design as a lifestyle, as a fruit of constant worship. This is my dream, this is what I long for; serve the Church and strengthen our Message of Love and Hope by in return giving Hope to those who apparently have no future.

    This is what I’m walking towards, this is what I will look like when I go into full time ministry. I will design for hope, I will write code for the Body so that I can free others to code with me, so that through my art, through my sketches I can show others a way out of the streets, i can give them jobs, show them that they’re life story can be relevant to others around the globe, all they have to do is be willing to pick up a pencil and draw that first line, express who they are, simply design.

    Design for Life
    Pray for Change
    Live for Love

    -Paulo

  • As we also do come {poetry}

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    As we also do come
    before your world
    before your gate
    that leads us on
    we take the quick bow
    we pray the short prayer
    gasp into our hearts
    fervently look down from there
    to enter divinely
    to come, we all come
    through all of our seasons
    the world turns as one
    we ache as we grow old
    we wilt as we grow tired
    yet all our bones will crumble
    and we’ll be burned in the fire
    as it consumes our livelihoods
    we press into it further
    consume, consume, consume me
    now we go even higher
    take me back to outer space
    to the depths, the heights of grace
    further in and further up
    we breathe again, so surely
    our hearts ache again so remorsely
    we need you more than anyone
    more than anything we can figure
    yet as we pass from this heartbeat
    another comes thundering after