RUTH Hollingdale left her home church of St Aldate’s, Oxford in October 2003 to work in the Anglican Diocese of Recife, Brazil.
Sent by the South American Mission Society, the church where Ruth is based is in a local slum area or favela. Apart from job-training programmes for adults and a crèche facility to help mothers go to work, they also have a dentist and paediatrician who visit weekly, and are in the midst of building an orphanage.
The church invited Ruth to co-ordinate the medical and health initiatives of this project, and assist in other areas of ministry and evangelism.
Six months have passed and Ruth is settling into her new role. The Portuguese lessons have been a hard slog and she considers a miracle is needed to master the language! The provision of a flat around Christmas time and a companion to share it with seems to have suffered a setback as the landlady wants it back later in the year. Trying to set up home in another culture and language is hard work and the thought of another house move is disheartening. Nevertheless, Ruth believes that God has these details under control!
There are plans to start a new street kid project in Recife next year and Ruth has set up a prayer group in preparation for the venture and to raise up interest. Ruth’s work on the streets has been great preparation for this. On two occasions before Christmas she visited a street boys’ drop-in centre called SOS Crianca. Despite financial difficulties and an almost derelict building the project befriends and helps some of the most troubled children she has ever met. Ruth says, ‘It broke my heart to meet young teenagers already transvestites and to see others with such glazed eyes caused by glue-sniffing.’ She continues to work alongside the health workers in the favela. She explains:
‘I seem to be acting as a bridge between our middle class church and the favela. My willingness to work inside the favela is stirring up other folks in the church that have felt too scared to go there, and up till now only help from a distance.’ Prayer for a willing team to be raised up from within the church to work ‘hands-on’ with the favela community is a priority. Briga de Galo favela desperately needs some drainage/sewage ditches put in because every time it rains people’s houses flood with sewage water.
Ruth has been showing photographs of the poor conditions to folks at her church to mobilise people to do something about it and make a difference.
If you want to find out more about Ruth’s involvement in Recife or wish to receive her prayer letters or links to her photographs, please contact SAMS’ South West Area Representative, Tim Greenhalgh by email: swareasec@samsgb.org
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