Brazil

In recent years, teams from the Link Church have been going out every other year to visit the Rainbow House Children’s Homes near the city of Belo Horizonte, Brazil.

The Rainbow House Children's Homes are run by Ronaldo and Reginalda Pereira, and Carlos and Magna Lisboa. The children come to the homes for a variety of reasons. Some are orphans; others were abandoned as babies; others cannot live with their parents because they are homeless or have addiction problems. In the Rainbow Houses they find themselves in a secure and loving environment where they can play, learn and grow up to be secure and capable adults who will love, trust and serve the Lord.

Ruth Paton, a member of the Link, met the Pereira’s in 1994 when she was working with YWAM in the nearby city of Belo Horizonte. Their contact continued when she eventually returned home to stay, and she was able to set up a sponsorship programme with Gosport Christian Fellowship (GCF), the church she attended while living in England, to provide some regular income for the Rainbow Houses. Ruth continued to visit the Rainbow Houses after she returned to live in Scotland. Since 2001, a team from GCF has joined her on her visits to Rainbow House and, in 2003, Yvonne Dobbie of the Link also joined the team.

In 2005 the team was be the biggest ever with 4 people going from the Link and 5 from Gosport. Most of the time at Rainbow Houses was spent with the two families, helping out in the houses, playing with the children and taking them on outings. We also spent 4 days holding an outreach for children who live in the neighbourhood of Rainbow House 1. This involved singing, puppets, games, face painting, balloon modelling and other crafts. The aim of this outreach was to tell these children, many of whom come from impoverished homes, that Jesus loves them and died that they might have eternal life. This was the first time we had done this kind of outreach in Brazil and it was obviously a huge challenge, as we had to prepare and present our various activities in another country and in a different language! But the club was very successful, and we had over 80 children attending by the last day. We were also thrilled by the enthusiasm of the young people living in the two Rainbow Houses, who worked hard at the club assisting us with all the activities.

The next Brazil trip is planned for October of this year. There are three people going from the Link – Ruth Paton, Ruth’s sister Hannah Paton and Yvonne Dobbie.

(Watch this space - more details to follow!)