Brazil: November 2018

Sorry it’s been a while, but we can’t wait to tell you
All about Brazil!

I had never been to Brazil, so I really didn’t have any idea of what to expect. I had been invited by the founder of a safe house (pictured above) in Recife called Revive Brazil. (You can check it out H ERE).

“We run a safe house which is home to a maximum of 12 girls at any one time. If a girl is being abused or exploited then it is vital that they are taken out of that environment. The ReVive house provides a safe place for the girl to live and a chance to get back into education, receive the necessary help she needs, learn new things and begin to restore her life and renew her hope for the future. Our first house is in the city of Olinda PE and we have plans to open more.”

I am always blown away at the women that God introduces me to. Rosie (on the left) and Elise (on the right) are amazing women who have the love of a mother for every single girl that they rescue.

Because of YOUR generosity, we were able to help them get the rest of the mats so that the girls have plenty of room to learn self-defense! As Rosie and Elise are the GWP Leaders, we trained five days a week for the 5 weeks that I was with them. They learned so quickly- to watch them grow in knowledge and confidence was incredible!
The leaders and I began to teach the girls of the safe house once a week together. Because of you, every girl that passes through REVIVE BRAZIL’s doors will get the opportunity to learn how to find her voice, set boundaries, and defend herself and others. This is critical to a girl who feels that she has lost her power, confidence, and sense of self-worth due to abuse or neglect.

Rose, Elise and I were also able to go to a local high school and talk with a group of girls who were doing a presentation on domestic violence. It was an incredible group of girls and we got to teach them self defense after!

Revive Brazil is expanding with another safe house right next door to their original house, but this time for babies up to age 6! Thanks to you- we were also able to get an air conditioner for the babies room so that they can stay cool in the hot summer months (trust me, it gets hot!).

Living at the safe house with these girls was so much fun. Even though they spoke Portuguese, we found other ways to communicate. We did face masks and hair masks and did each other’s nails- all the fun girlie stuff:) Towards the end of my trip, Paul and Jullie Buster came out and we did so much fun stuff with the Revive house, including throwing our very first Brazilian Thanksgiving! It was delicious and they said we have to come every year to do it again.

From the Graceful Warrior Project and Revive International, we say thank you so much!! And a HUGE thanks to Andy, Rose, Elise and everyone else at Revive for being so incredibly hospitable and loving towards me and welcoming me with open arms- I can’t wait to be back!

We are also hoping to translate the Christ-based Curriculum into Portuguese- exciting stuff!!

You will have a chance to get to know the Brazil leaders through their monthly updates (through email and the GWP website) so stay tuned! Happy New year and we love you!