"Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice, for the LORD has done marvelous things!"
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. --
Ephesians 6:12-13
(For those who do not know part of our family was robbed)
This is the latest update.
An unbelievable thing has happened:
The Police woke us up shouting wanting to know if this was where Raul Alvear lived. My husband jumped out of the bed opened the door and there must have been 8 or more policemen standing there. He said yes, the spokesman said did you have your car stole? He said yes. They said, do you have insurance? He said no. The police said then we must get a wrecker to bring it in but we need you to come with us.
By that time both Raul Jr and Arlei came to see what was going on.
In one of the most dangerous areas of Campinas they found the car…well most of it! They had ripped off with whatever tools they must have had handy the back spare tire damaging the back door pretty bad.
The 2/4-wheel drive was messed up. The wiring and what controls that had been messed with and caused a short in some of the things however Arlei got it to start. Brother Taylor told me it was called the brain. (Just that one part cost over 5000 dollars here because it has to be shipped from Nagoya, Japan! They had stripped the rugs and some other things. The police told us they were really getting ready to saw it up! We do not know the full extent of the damage that was done at this point however it is safe at the garage.
The fuse box was mostly destroyed and the wiring. It must have shorted out when at some point the alarm must have started to go off and they must not have known how to turn it off. I really don’t know. The coding system is all messed up.
However these things can all be fixed…a new back door or fix that one don’t know what will be decided, a new tire and realm, new wiring and fuse box, fix the drives that are messed up, buy new rugs and other things. Brother Alvear and I had just finishing paying that car off. It is a silver Mountaineer (2005). We had paid 45 thousand dollars for it! As you know cars are very, very expensive here in Brazil. Brother Alvear had forgot to pay the insurance so it was not insured. It had run out while we were in the states!
I cannot find our camera so it mist have went too!
The robbers were so brutal they even tore Raul Jr’s new pants getting the things out of his pockets. They stole his I Phone, my phone that was with him, all his documents, Bank and credit cards both his money and our money that was with him as he was running after things and going to pay his and our bills. They stole church money that was with them to help buy food for the conference and took the baby’s car seat that was recently bought of course was in the car…I really do not even know what all we lost but as I always say…material things…. Thank God no one was hurt. Thank God I was around the corner and when I heard the screams it was too late…My son said, Thank the Lord or they were so brutal they would have killed me for I would not let them take off without telling them their need for Christ…lol…that is just a part of my nature. We are calculating it is going to cost around 10 thousand dollars to fix everything in the van and get it back as normal as possible and Raul Jr told me he is going to need around 5000 to replace all they lost.
Thought this article might interest you:
The newspaper Globo reported some stark statistics today about how crime affects city-dwellers. According to the report undertaken by the National Confederation of Industry, “A Portrait of Brazilian Society: Public Security,” within the last twelve months more than 51% of Brazilians give public safety a failing grade; 79% say they have witnessed or experienced some type of crime within the last 12 months; 63% say they avoid carrying money while circulating around their respective cities; 57% report that they have increased the caution they take when leaving their houses; and 54% avoid going out at night.
Homicides
One alarming finding is that 8% of those interviewed report that they have witnessed a homicide within the last twelve months. Homicide rates in Brazil are among the highest in the world, yet support for capital punishment still only has the approval of only 31% of the population.
Another source says that Brazil second-largest consumer of cocaine in the world.
In front of many of our churches as Sister Kathryn from Brother Bookers church can testify that bullets often fly not only in the streets of the slums but in front of churches. Gangs, beggars, looters and whatever all present a potential danger. We are at all times ready to call on the name of Jesus.
Our church van had caught on fire a couple months ago so we were very sad but confident that all our troubles pass over God’s desk first.
I heard it said that, “You are never more like Jesus than when you are giving." So whether this means our money, our time or even our lives we have made the choice to give our all to the evangelization of Brazil.
I wanted to let you know the exact day that prayers were answered but the police told us to keep a very low profile and to be very careful and to wait a couple days as the bandits could be watching us both physically and anything we might say online. They told us they would be very angry with us. So please continue to pray for our safety.
If anyone would like to help us in any way please send funds to our home address.
Thanks so much for your prayers.
Brother and Sister Alvear and family
PS If you want more details please contact Rev. Bryan Taylor 318 339 8628
Funds for us:
South American Foreign Missions
PO Box 797
Jonesville, La 71343
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