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Life is fleeting…live each day to the full!

Last Friday I got news that a friend of mine, Fofo, from Brazil and one of the boys I’d worked closely with in Fortaleza had both died. Fofo, a guy who worked on the YWAM base when I was in Fortaleza had died the day before after falling off a building. Daniel, not really a boy anymore but a young man, had been shot by the police a week earlier.

I cried as I read the news. My heart was broken. It still is. I know Fofo is in heaven. Daniel I don’t know. He took steps towards Jesus while I worked with him, but where he was at last week I don’t know. I breaks my heart that he didn’t get a chance to live longer and it breaks my heart that injustice is allowed to flourish. I know he made some bad choices and wasn’t living a perfect life, but knowing his circumstances and knowing that he had a rough deal from the start makes it harder. And knowing there are so many others in Fortaleza and the world who are in the same situation, yet still alive makes me cry out to God. Cry out to the one who is Justice. That He would bring justice on the earth.

These things are hard to process living so far away. It’s easy to forget until I remember.

Saturday I spent the day with some friends. We had a lovely time hanging out at the Plaza, a shopping area of town. As we were walking down the street we passed a man who was begging. My heart was touched and so I went and got him a cup of coffee and talked to him for a bit. His name is Vincent and he chooses to beg instead of committing a crime to support his wife and children. He knows God loves him and I prayed with him for a job, knowing God is a good God. Later on we gave him some food…I don’t know Vincent’s full story, but I know God knows and is fighting for him. I would have like to hear more of Vincent’s story. I wonder what his life has been like. Is he one of the many who’ve lived their whole lives in hardship, or was it something that happened suddenly as he was going through life? What are his dreams and hopes for the future? What are his children like, what are their dreams? Maybe I’ll meet him again some day and be able to ask these questions. Although I hope it’s not begging on the streets, but working

Meeting Vincent and with Fofo and Daniel passing away, makes me realise even more how fleeting life is. And how much, how incredibly much I have to be thankful for. And how often I look at the little I lack instead of the abundance I have. I am so rich. So very rich. And the greatest riches I have is knowing God and being known by Him and having people who love me and whom I love.

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