Arabs, Jews, and God in Brazil

NOTE: Samia Hanna, the daughter of the CHLF Team Leader in Israel, recently experienced a life-changing mission trip with Arab and Jewish teens going to South America, and dancing and teaching in the name of the Christ. This is her story:

On the 5th of August, 2012 a group of 21 Arab and Jewish youth from 'King`s Kids Israel' and 9 leaders left to an outreach i Brazil for 18 days. The purpose of this outreach was to share the gospel with non-believers and to serve among the believers. We spent a week in Belo Horizonte, and the second week we spent in Pitangui.

Right: Samia at the base of the Cristo Redentor in Rio de Janeiro. It is thought to be the largest art deco statue in the world, and the 5th largest statue of Jesus.

Everyday we had several performances where we performed dances to Christian songs in different languages Arabic, English, Hebrew and even Portuguese, and we also did few pantomimes. We performed for different kinds of people and for different ages. Sometimes we would perform in churches while other times we would go to poor neighborhoods or to schools where teenagers are already in their age involved in all kinds of drugs, smoking, marriage … We also performed in places that had non-believers and adults who are drug dealers or addicts.

But not only to adults, we also spent time playing and sharing God`s love with little kids. While sharing the Gospel we also told the people there about Israel, and how Arabs and Jews don`t get along so well in our country but we proved that politics won`t break the love and the friendship that the Arabs and Jews in our team share, because God created this love between us and no one can take from us.

During these 18 days we learned a lot about God, about people in Brazil, about ourselves and about the other youth in our team. We experienced the Lord in different ways; we experienced his love and learned to share this love with people who are in need of it because they don`t have anybody to care for them and to love them. We learned to pray from the bottom of our hearts for people we don`t even know, for people who have done a lot of bad things and to really ask for forgiveness for them and that they would know the Lord as their savior. Each one of us had his own special experiences and we all learned a lot. We were really touched and blessed from this outreach. We all changed, and we spent wonderful times together. We will never forget these 18 days.

Photo: Samia, 3rd from the right, with her new South American Friends.