We got in at 1:00 am last night. We’d just come from a wonderful dinner and Tango presentation in a restaurant and theater downtown. The musical group (piano, string bass, 2 violins and viola) was led by a central person with a small accordion, which was both percussive and amazingly expressive the whole night. Four traditional couples came out in several costumes, and then at the end there was a contemporary couple, who was the most amazing of all. For an interlude an Andean quartet performed with drum, reed flutes and guitars. They were terrific also. Everyone thought the evening was a high point of our week . . . a must for any future group.

In the morning we left for a second slum visit, where we interviewed people. Next we walked through markets and engaged the leaders, one of whom had lectured to us on Monday morning. He’s an author, and a very good CCDA-type community organizer. We ate lunch in a typical place and then went downtown to see the historic seminary ISADET, a 125-year-old school, the first in all of Latin America.

ISADET is now a combination of the mainline seminaries. The Rector (President) took us through the rare book room of more than 1000 volumes of ancient Spanish and Latin manuscripts given them in 1951, and an evangelical student, now a Mennonite, showed us around and then went with us to coffee to discuss what we’d seen and heard at the school. ISADET was a hot bed of human rights in the 60’s and 70’s when the military coup took over. One professor was among the “disappeared”, a group of 30,000 people who were arrested and never seen or heard from again. Many were taken up and pushed out of airplanes. Others have been found in mass graves. This military junta was more severe than the Nazi’s in some respects. They were brutal, and this place went through terror. I’d known of this from previous visits, but it was shocking to the class to hear it and to hear how the Baptists, Pentecostals and others basically put blinders on and preached a gospel that ignored all this, which explains how little credibility they have now.

Every Thursday the grandmothers of lost children march around the plaza so that the disappeared are not forgotten. Today at 3:30, we will march with them which should be quite an experience.

Greetings from Sao Paulo, Brazil: Thanks to the CCDA board, I have been given the privilege to take this class on Latin America for two weeks and share the experience with my wife.

Thus far it has been amazing! If you are like me, you have rarely thought about the country of Brazil. Yet Sao Paulo is one of the largest cities in the world, with over 20 million inhabitants. (Some say the entire metro area around the city is close to 40 million people.) And I thought Chicago was big! We have been riding the subway, and it has been quite an experience. Can you imagine public transportation for a city of 20 million people? To say the subways are crowded would be an under -statement. Just think Times Square Station in NYC on New Year’s Eve, and that is what we have experienced here each time we have taken the subway.

The city is so huge, everywhere you turn there are neighborhoods of thousands with a mixture of high rises, flats, and Favelas (or what we would consider slums), all in close proximity to one another for miles and miles. The view from the window in my hotel shower is a view of high rise after high rise with extreme density.

One of the highlights of my time here has been my exposure to churches and leaders with a strong commitment to ‘mision integral’ or holistic ministry, very much aligned with the spirit of CCDA. We visited a church in a poor suburb right outside Sao Paulo that is incarnating its life in their community. They operate an after-school program for family and children, a pre-school and a type of foster home for at-risk children ages 6-18. Even though they are a small church of 200 members, they are making a huge impact in their neighborhood and are even partnering with the local government to meet these extreme social needs. (It reminds me of so many CCDA ministries across the nation making a huge difference in the midst of hard places).

I would like to share a few very strong reactions I have experienced while being here in Brazil: First, with the exceptions of New York City and LA, we have very little idea of what it means to live in a big city. Huge cities around the world are redefining the definition of urban density, with millions of people living in such close proximity with extreme wealth and extreme poverty often existing side by side. The social and economic reality this creates for the poor is unbelievable, and people struggle to survive. My question in the midst of this reality is, ‘Will the church and God’s people incarnate their lives in the midst of these huge, complex urban centers to be the presence of Christ, or will we leave the secular cities alone to look for safer places to minister and live?’

Other Questions: In this generation, will we ignore the needs of the poor in our own backyards and around the world, or will we use our religious freedom and economic privilege to extend our hands to our suffering neighbors, regardless of their race, class or immigration status? Will we use our Christian leadership and influence to help our nation find a way to provide health care for the 50 million uninsured, curb unchecked gentrification that leaves no room for the poor in some of the most desirable real estate of our cities, and create more equitable educational opportunities for all children, or will we be content with looking after our own interests?

Also, I am concerned about how to prepare and nurture the leaders of the future in the church and in CCDA committed to ministry among the poor. I think my time here in Brazil with Ray Bakke and the Bakke Graduate University is a model of the kind of educational approach we need to embrace if we are going to respond to an increasingly urban and poverty filled world. As we are exposed to real-life contexts and realities in cities and poor communities and we take the time to reflect theologically about what we see, we allow God to lead us and to shape our missional response to the poor in community with others. As we learn from one another and from indigenous leaders who are not simply the object of our mission but our partners and teachers in God’s Kingdom enterprise, we learn to see God in rich and diverse ways that change us and our ministries.

My prayer is that all that we do in CCDA would challenge and empower us to be passionate advocates for the poor all over the world!

Peace,

Noel Castelanos