A few years ago Mountain Springs Church changed the way it was doing missions in Brazil. For over 10 years, MSC had been sending a mission team to work alongside Ray of Hope Amazon serving the indeginous people surrounding the city of Manaus. Each year they would take food bags, medical supplies, and other basic needs to villages along the Amazon. Frustrated by seeing the same issues with disease, poor nutrition, and poverty year after year it felt like they weren’t really making a difference. Leaders of the team started looking at the problems and found they are just too big to tackle on a week long trip.
Instead of simply taking basic supplies to whatever village Ray of Hope happened to be visiting during their trip. MSC leaders decided to adopt two villages, Itaboca and Sao Pedro, and a children’s feeding center in Cacau. This change has enabled them to build real relationships with these villages. Through these relationships, they can address systemic needs and build sustainable, long-term solutions.
The first of these projects was initiated in 2018 to address the villagers’ need for clean drinking water. As Gloria the founder of Ray of Hope explains, “We can treat the parasite infections, but as long as they don’t have clean water they will continue to get sick.” The team delivered 100 water filters to the villagers in and around Itabocca and Sao Pedro. Additional clean water projects include more filters, large barrels with several filters for the schools and churches, and ultimately establishing a well for the village.
Exciting project. I’m excited to see where it will go.