As I thought of what to write for this week’s blog post, I realized I had written about a situation where a criminal threatened to kidnap my daughter, but I never wrote a post about what happened after that. All of this happened within the last year in Brazil.

We take such threats seriously in Brazil. My friends up the street from us lost a child in their family to kidnapping and murder. How do we deal with such situations, when the police do little to help or protect us?

More Healing

Because of the threat and the danger on the streets, I didn’t take my daughter outside for quite a while. However, I continued to go out on the street. I didn’t want to live in fear, cooped up inside.

One day I prayed for a neighbor two doors away from us. The pain left. She started sweating because her body got so hot as God touched her. When I see what Jesus does as I speak, it stirs my heart. I want to keep going and see more.

Jesus Lives In Me And He Can Love Through Me When It Seems Impossible

That night I ordered burgers for my family from a snack bar. As I was walking to pick them up, I started crying.

Tears often come to my eyes as I think about what the Holy Spirit is doing. I know God wants to heal people, and I know there are many people around who have needs.

I was crying because I felt God’s love in my heart. I knew God wanted to touch somebody. I looked around. I was passing the criminal who threatened to kidnap my daughter, along with his mother.

When God’s love possesses you, it doesn’t matter who a person is or what they have done. You want to see the Holy Spirit touch them. This man is known as a dangerous criminal. People are afraid of him.

God’s love supersedes my natural abilities and what feels possible.

I walked over to the guy and said something like “Hey, I was walking by and I felt like I wanted to pray for you. God wants to do something in your life.” 

He let me pray for him. I released God’s goodness on him and blessed him. He didn’t respond much, but I tangibly felt God’s glory around him, as something like a weight or force field of energy, as I prayed.

Then I prayed for his mom. She was very sad. Poor woman! Her son was a drug addict and thief, and everyone wanted to kill him.

Please Pray For Our Neighbors!

Things soon settled down. Now we do take our little girl outside again, although we are still cautious.

Thank you to all who have been praying for our safety! Please join with us in praying for our neighbors! Jesus wants to save them and deliver them from drug addictions. God wants to restore their hearts and right relationships. May God’s peace dominate in my neighborhood, in Duque de Caxias, and in Rio de Janeiro!