“Even knowing God’s care, I cried,” said Éderson, one among many Christians affected by floods that have devastated southern Brazil over the last two months.
Éderson and his pregnant wife Camila were forced to flee from the rising flood waters. When the waters receded, they found that their home had been damaged beyond their worst fears.
“Everything was gone,” he continues. “Everything we had acquired, memories – all mixed with mud. Garbage.”
The home of Éderson and Camila was rendered uninhabitable by the floods. They are among 389,000 people who remain displaced by the disaster
“It hurts. That day hurt.”
“A moment of deep pain”
The floods that struck the Brazilian state of Rio Grande Do Sul in early May killed more than 170 people and displaced half a million. State officials have described it as the worst disaster in the region’s history.
Around 389,000 people in the state have been unable to return to their homes – including Éderson and Camila.
This church building in Porto Alegre was devastated by the flood waters
Humanitarian experts say that the city of Porto Alegre has become “a ghost town”.
Pastor Emanuel, who leads a church in the city, describes “a moment of deep pain” to see the church building extensively damaged, furniture destroyed, Bibles soaked and covered in mud.
Yet Pastor Emanuel also told us of the church’s continued faith in the Lord. “The flood may have taken away our physical infrastructure,” he adds, “but it did not shake the essence of who we are as a church.”
Can you help our brothers and sisters rebuild their lives?
Congregations and Christian families have begun the painstaking work of rebuilding and repairing homes, businesses and church buildings. But there are many weeks and months of hard toil ahead of them.
We are so thankful for everything our supporters enabled us to do for our brothers and sisters when disaster first struck.
But now they begin the long work of rebuilding their lives. Please uphold them in your prayers as this work continues. If you are able, could you make a contribution to the work of building repair, the replacing of furniture and other essentials lost to the flood waters, or the provision of supplies to those who are today still displaced?
Image credit for top image: CarolSiBa
£10 ($12; €11) could buy a hygiene and cleaning kit containing four toothbrushes, toothpaste, toilet paper and sanitary pads, along with detergent, a kilogram of washing power, two litres of bleach and a steel sponge
£40 ($48; €44) could provide a food parcel containing rice, beans, sugar, salt, cooking oil, pasta, tomato extract, wheat flour, corn meal and milk – enough to feed a Christian family of up to four for a month
