One day at a favela in Brazil we gathered around a group of children to love and bless them. I approached two young boys (about 6 or 7 years old probably) and worked with a translator to see how they were doing and what they thought of the music and drama. Another smaller boy came over and he pulled his shirt up and began to rub his inflated stomach. At first I thought he was just joking with his friends, but then they began to point at him and say to the translator that he had an intestinal parasite, or stomach worm. I had never actually met a person, let alone a young boy, with such a condition. Immediately we asked if we could pray for him and he eagerly welcomed it, but afterward his head dropped and a sudden sadness seemed to come over him. Something told us there was more to his hurt than just his physical affliction. We left the young woman translator alone with him to see if she could nurture him more and hear what was really going on, but he never told. Whether it was abuse or something else we don’t know. It was incredibly difficult to walk away from a situation like that knowing that Victor, a young boy, was hurting so badly, but we believe we played our part, loving and blessing him, in the time given to us. God bless those who reach out to that community regularly, those who are a committed source of hope and love to them.

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