In September, 2004, 13 chiropracTORS and volunteers journeyed to Fortaleza, in the Northeastern region of Brasil, for a Mission of Light trip to serve Brasil's amazing people. The Brasil Team spent 5 days serving the people of several different communities, old and young alike. We were honored for the opportunity to watch as lives unfolded and came to greater expressions of light and life right before our eyes. The heart can only speak to the heart, and the Love that is shared with the people is a gift exceeding all words and expectations.
Following the week of service in Fortaleza, I journeyed a little farther south into the states of Recife and Paraiba and was received by the people of several new communities to the Mission of Light family. In Recife, I was blessed to stay in a very impoverished and quite loving community established by the Sisters of the Assumption from Quebec, Canada. The small house with four sisters welcomed me into their lives, their home, their church and their community. What transpired in the 2 weeks to follow was far beyond, far beyond anything I could have imagined! Literally a door to door campaign and introduction, I walked the narrow, hilly streets with Sr. Janice to meet the people in their homes. Following a day of rest and brief introductions, the house where I stayed was opened up to the people and they lined up, waited and visited for hours, and word spread quickly of the Mission of Light.
I was also blessed to be able to travel 2 1/2 hours north to another State, Paraiba, and to meet with several different groups of people, serving at many, many different levels. I spent time working with a group established by the Columbo Brothers of Italy. This group, working with the focus of building healthier families, had only been open for a few months and were already seeing 300+ people per day. In Paraiba, I also met and served with an African woman named Efu who had established a holistic health and education center for women. Phenomenal spirits, doing incredible work, in unbelievable conditions -- the joy of service was overwhelming -- it showed in the people who served, and most especially, in the lives of the people from the community that had been helped.
When my new friends in Recife heard that I was leaving, after more than 2 weeks of serving them in their homes, their church and their community center (an abandoned building being re-built one brick at a time) -- the entire community came, bearing gifts, love and bounty from their tables to wish me a safe journey. We danced, we laughed, we cried and we promised to see each other and continue to build this bond that surpasses all borders and language barriers, very soon!!!
I share with you one of my last e-mail communications from Brasil, October 12, 2004: "I will leave Brasil, for now, this coming Thursday...I will have encountered myself, my heart and my capacity for Love, my ability to serve without expectation, and my dedication to continue helping to ignite the fires of Light & Life in the people I meet around the world. I have known since I was 12 years old that I was going to do some kind of 'healing' work...some piece in the healing consciousness of the world's people. In Fortaleza I was given the rare, beautiful gift of seeing a glimpse of that possibility. In Recife, I learned what community truly means. I return from Brasil open, on-fire, and ready to continue 'throwing the pebbles in the pond' for the next seven generations to feel..."
Brasil 2006?? And for many years to come!!!
