Igreja Batista Bíblica – Paraisópolis
My wife did an excellent job blogging about our visit to Paraisópolis, so I asked her if I could post her comments on here also. If you would like to look at her blog, you can visit TylerFamilyTales.blogspot.com.
Jeremy had the opportunity to preach for a Brazilian pastor who has a church in an area of the city called Paraisópolis (translated Paradise City).
It is actually the second largest favela (slum, shanty town) in São Paulo, and far from what I would call paradise. Jeremy preached here once before in 2004 when the church was just beginning. It was exciting to see how they have grown and expanded since that time.
Click on the picture above to explore the area using Google Maps Street View
Judson enjoyed his class and was proud of the picture he colored.
The neighborhood of Paraisópolis has about 100,000 people living in it. According to the stats that I have found, there are 1000 persons per hectare. For those of you who (like me) who have no idea what a hectare is, it is 10,000 sq. meters, or 100m x 100m. Only 25% of this population live in houses supplied with sewage system, half of the streets are not paved and 60% use irregular means to obtain power. These “irregular means” are usually hooking into wires themselves and not paying for electricity.
São Paulo is a city of extremely rich and extremely poor, and many times these two are located right beside each other. This is the case with this neighborhood as well. These apartments that you see in the background sell for over $1 million.
Please pray for Pastor Washington and this work in such a needy area.