São Paulo is the second most-densely populated city in the world, only behind New Delhi. It is easy to get lost there, especially if you are poor. Brazil just does not have the resources to contend with the poverty.

The good news is the evangelical movement is growing rapidly. A generation ago, only three percent of the population considered themselves evangelical. Today it is around 25 percent. It shouldn’t be considered a coincidence that the economy is also growing at a very rapid pace, also.

However, poverty still needs to be addressed in Brazil, both physical and spiritual. People flock to São Paulo for the jobs but they just aren’t there. Favelas, or slums, are seemingly everywhere, sometimes built within garbage dumps. No community is immune, including Soberana, where we minister.

Before we think ourselves as more fortunate in the USA, please remember this: New York City recently announced that 41% of all pregnancies ended in abortions. We might be better off financially but maybe we suffer from a different poverty.

We need to minister to our neighbors, both in our backyards and our neighbors 5000 miles from home—wherever God leads us.

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The trip now is only four months away and we need to start preparing ourselves physically, emotionally and spiritually. Our prayer request now is that God prepares our hearts to meet our neighbors in Soberana in their need and not as Americans. We need God’s help to melt away the cultural differences so they can know and have true hope.