Noura Deeb is an 18 year old Christian Arab living in Nazareth- Israel, a member of the Local Baptist Church in Nazareth who recently came back from a mission in Brazil.
Noura would like to share a letter about her experience as an Arab Christian missionary in Brazil.

My experience in Brazil:

The 7th of October 2009 I arrived to Joao Pessoa airport, a city in north east Brazil, where I was planning to volunteer for three months, in hope that God will use me to change peoples’ lives.
A young couple, a Swedish woman and a Brazilian man, with a boy who has been living with them for a year, waited for me.
We were heading to a town called “Conde”, when I got there it did not seem like a town to me! The roads were not paved but sandy; donkeys were laying on the sides of the road and chickens were in the middle of the road.
The first month was challenging, I volunteered with the couple in a school that was free of charge for kids from 3 to 11 years old. The school was a very nice place with warm hearted staff.
However, it was a small, poor school with a director who had big dreams for her pupils. I tried to help as much as I could but I was limited because of the language. The pupils were very curious and they would always ask me questions in Portuguese.
The school, called Education Foundation, was started by an ambitious Brazilian woman, Maria Josiene. It is free of charge. It takes care of 262 kids. Some of them stay there all day long and the school feeds and bathes them because their parents cannot afford to.
The school is in need of computers, teachers, sports fields, bathrooms, a library, and more classes. Despite these needs, the love of many people for this school gave some kids the chance to have an education like any kid deserves.

Throughout the first month I saw that I had a chance to go to a’ YWAM’ base and to volunteer there with the community in a city called Recife, also in the north east but a more dangerous city.
By then  I already loved many things in Brazil but came to dislike some things in it as well, like crime, drug addicts and prostitution, which Brazil has a lot of.
That second month I saw a different Brazil. We would go out and visit families. We would cook soup and go out to the community and give them soup with bread.  
 On the first day we had to go and give out soup, the person in charge asked me if I would care to share a word with the people. To tell you the truth I wasn’t comfortable with that, what a girl like me would tell women and men who just couldn’t afford food. I shared from Mathew 6:26, a verse that is one of my favorite verses and I think that it was appropriate for that occasion too.
 That month I also helped with teaching some girls English. At that point, I was able to handle a conversation on my own, and I have made some friends from the base who helped me in Portuguese.
The girls came from a hard background. Some of them had no mothers and others had no fathers. This is how many families live: a woman would sleep with a man. He leaves her while she is pregnant. She gives birth. Another man comes to offer her a deal she cannot refuse or a deal she won’t refuse. He gives her protection and little food. They have babies and then the children of the other man get kicked out. These kids become addicts by sniffing glue or prostitutes who sell their bodies for the value of a shekel, maybe a bit more if they are lucky.
I didn’t know all that from the girls, I got to know it from my friends in the base and another ministry I was involved in that was evangelizing street kids. We would go out at night, around 7 o’clock or so, and we would go to a street that was known to have street kids there and we would talk to them and sing, or play games. We would just spend time with them so they can see Jesus’ love through us. This month was challenging spiritually with many heart aching sights that just made me thank God daily for what He has given me and my family.

The third month I went back to Joao Pessoa, but I didn’t stay in Conde, the so called town. Instead I stayed in the city, which I can admit looked like a city, and by the way Recife did as well, though it was dirtier.
That last month was a pleasant unforgettable experience. I spent it in a house known as the Next Step, for boys moving back into society.
 “Next Step is a ministry which offers a home for boys to live in, while they begin a new season of their lives. These boys have no parents or are no longer wanted by their parents.“
My experience in this house was lovely. I found out that I could actually be a friend and have fun with these boys and I believe that this house makes a big difference in their lives.

When I first arrived to Brazil I thought I would change people and help them. But God had a different plan for me.  I was changed to help bring a change. I’m grateful to God that I could go through this experience and serve Him the way I did.