I could sing of your love forever..

These past two weeks of outreach have been life changing and I've been putting off blogging due to my lack of ability to put these past two weeks into words. Where to start? What to write about? I think I'll do multiple blogs in attempt to update you on everything. On my experiences, on my heart, on these beautiful people located in Vieira Rio De Janeiro, on everything the Lord did in our short time in Rio and on the injustice these people are facing.

We left late Wednesday evening Feb 16th after a prayer time over this outreach. We lugged ourselves and bags through the cool night rain to the bus stop..then to the metro..then to a 6 hour overnight bus towards Rio De Janeiro. We arrived Thursday around 7 am very sleep deprived as you can see in the photo ;) We then met with two Rio YWAMers and they drove us 3 hours outside the city to a small farming community of Vieira. Vieira is located geographically between Terasopolis and Nova Friburgo the two areas hit hardest by the recent Brazilian floods. We weren't sure what to expect and we were all prepared to do manual labor such as gutting out houses, and doing similar relief work. We were housed at a church for the two weeks, sleeping on floors and church pews. We soon realized this church was a central hub for relief efforts and they had  LOTS of donations to distribute including many clothes which they kept in a GIANT pile in the back of the church. They also were receiving many food donations here and one of the nights at 11pm we got to help unload an 11 ton truck of donated food from Joice Myer. It turned out to be a really fun night :) with lots of "assembly" lines going on to help the process go faster :)

On day two of arriving they took us up to see where the floods had started and to view the destruction. We walked over piles and piles of boulders that had crashed down from the mountain side. We saw houses completely leveled with nothing but the cement foundations left. We saw where cars had been thrown into houses. We saw huge cement bridges that had been moved miles down river. We stood on a foundation where a family of 6 used to live but were killed in the tragedy. I viewed this all but it still didn't really hit me. I hadn't seen what the area had looked like before so for all I knew, it always looked like this. The Pastor who was guiding us around began to tell us how it all happened. How the flood came at 2 am and only lasted 20 minutes but rushed with such force (110km/hr) through this little town that it destroyed everything in its path. The landslides and rock slides caused the majority of the damage as well. The first two days were pretty heavy, just taking it all in. Sam, a friend on my team who is Brazilian and speaks the language could understand all the conversations around us. He said everywhere you went people were talking about death, talking about how "the water" took it. He overheard one lady talking about how her baby was buried against her will, and others talking about 16 dead bodies that were found. Those of us who couldn't understand the language felt at a loss for the first two days, we could tell so much pain and grief and disaster was happening around us. How could WE help. What could WE do for these people. The floods happened a month ago but the effects of it still remained. The people of this community were so beautiful. Those who worked at the church were such servants to us always making meals and cleaning. They all had such wonderful hearts and you could tell they all had such stories to be told as well. It was amazing to be part of such a tight knit community. A community that has pulled together to help each other out because it's all they have left.

Sunday we were to sing some worship songs for the church. Sam, our worship leader really had it on his heart to sing How He Loves (by john mark mcmillan). He felt as though it was something the church needed to hear. The church that morning was held outside next to the giant clothes pile. We got up in front and began to sing open the eyes of my heart in both English and Portuguese. Then we sang How He Loves. As we were singing I looked out at the faces of these dear people. These people who we barely knew, but people who wore the pain and grief on their faces. my heart broke. As we were singing I began to cry praying to God to comfort these people, to show them his LOVE. To show them that he is still here with them, they are NOT alone, they have not been forgotten. They are so special to him!

My heart was crying out, I could see the pain of the gravity of what they had been through. We sang the chorus of the song in Portuguese.. nos ama..como nos ama.. he loves.. oh how he loves.. the spirit was so thick in that place that morning.. we sang the song over and over. Tears began to stream down their faces as well. It was the first time I really felt what God heart was for these people.. how he is grieving along with them in their loss. After the song we walked around to the front of the church and I realized I wasn't the only one on my team crying, others had been touched as well. Our heart continues to break as well decided to have prayer over these people while the service continued on. We went into the empty church and began weeping, sobbing, letting the extremity of what was going on around us to really sink in. We spent the time as a team crying and praying for these people.

I felt like all they had seen was a flood of destruction and it was time for a NEW flood for a flood of Gods LOVE to rush over this town. We had heard from the pastor earlier that many people, including the church leaders, believed that the flood was punishment from God. That they had all done something wrong. That the only reason their newborn babies, children, friend would be killed was if they had done something wrong in the eyes of the Lord. Their view of his love was SO skewed. We just prayed that they would know that although God may have allowed a flood to happen, its not his heart to destroy and punish. He allowed it but he was there with them the whole time, he grieves with them, he feels their pain. And he will comfort and love and provide in this time of devastation and aftermath.

As the days continued, we continued to speak a message of love to these people. We listened to their stories and took the time to get to know them. We built relationships. We shared testimonies and spoke in church various time about God's love and about his heart for them. We sang songs of love. We also helped manually with gutting houses, putting together relief kits one day, and helping to dig dirt to lay a house foundation. We as a team were blown away by the grace and outpouring of the Lord on our team. The way he used us on our lack of preparation or skill, the way he spoke through us to bring hope to this town. The last day we were there we hiked up to where the floods started and had morning worship and intercession on the rocks by the river. We felt it was important to bless the land with good things.. with life. It was such a special time to end our experience here. To be able to pray once more over all that had taken place (photo below). While there Lucas, one of our Rio translators, told us how we had impacted this community. It was so humbling to hear how we were used by God. He explained how messed up their view of God's love is and how since the first day we arrived we were speaking a new message of love, how we met these people in their grief and drew close to them on a relationship level. He too thought that we would just come and do manual labor because we couldn't speak the language, But God had a different plan. Brazil is a relational culture and we made the most influence by doing just that.  To see grown adults, young children and whole congregations weeping and hugging us begging us to not go touched my heart and humbled me. God you are incredible! You bring us to this small town in the middle of huge cities in the middle of massive countries and you use us. You fulfill your plan for us during our time there. I'm so thankful to be a servant. a messenger, a lover of Jesus. A lover of a King who has the bigger picture in his mind. A Jesus who is FAITHFUL. A King who brings justice to people who feel they have been forgotten. This town of Vieira will always have a treasured place in our hearts and someday, Lord willing, I'd love to go back.. see this beautiful mountain community on it's feet once again. And to see the fresh Love of God flowing throughout it..

fundraising.

Recap on whats to come:
2 weeks in Rio de Janeiro helping with flood relief
1 month back in Sao Paulo studying photo
6 weeks in South Africa on outreach working with child-headed homes
3 months traveling through Egypt, Israel, Greece and Jordan studying the bible
3 months in Germany, Switzerland, Europe studying Humanities and Science
1 month of outreach in an Asian country.. possibly praying about Tibet and Thailand

 ...then home for Christmas..








As many of you know I am still in need of funds to continue this 18-month program.
So I am inviting 30 people to sponsor me 20 dollars a month for the next10 months. That's starting in March and ending in December.
I even have set up a DONATE paypal button on the right side bar of my blog to make your life easier ;)

It's my desire to see the Lord's heart for His people in different countries, different circumstances, and different generations. His love is never-ending. He sees the pain and devastation across the nations and His heart breaks along with ours. I want to capture their stories. To expose injustice and to show the beauty in HIS creation. To be open to growing and learning and loving all along the way. To see community rise up and learn that love conquers all and overcomes all. Love is an action; LOVE IS A CHOICE. A choice that can change hearts, lives, and nations.

Thank you for not only investing in me, but in God's purpose for my life over these next months.
so what do ya say? ..3...2...1.. lets do it ;)

"overtime as you develop as a photographer you will see the importance of your photos and feel less like a taker and more of a giver.." -our teacher Brett Marshall

A couple times since being here I've felt like I don't quite have a heart connection to Brazil the way we did in the Philippines, I believe it's because of the issues we were working with in the Philippines and just how much that tugged on our hearts. Yesterday though was one of the first few day where I felt really apart of this lovely community we live in amongst this giant city. A few of us were walking to the bus stop and passed some of our young neighbor boys that we had gotten to know riding their bikes. We said "hey Misael! Oi! Tudo Bem! ..hey Nicholas! how are you?! They said hi back and we slapped hi-fives. Then when we got to the bus stop I noticed this man waving at me and I realized it was a father of a family I had come across on one of my walks a few weeks ago, I had been back to their house a few times to say hello and play with the little girls. I waved back and he pointed saying his family was at the restaurant, I think he was leaving early because he had to go somewhere. I walked over to the restaurant and said hello to his wife Christiana and hugged and kissed the little girls and talked to them as best I could without knowing Portuguese haha. Then said chow and went on my way to the bus stop. I just loved seeing people outside of where I normally see them, its so cool to meet people and then see then later out walking the streets or riding bike or buying groceries :) :) Its a nice little place we live in here and after doing my photo story on these two dancer sisters I feel I have a close relationship with them too :) Thats when you really start to feel a connection to a place you are staying.. when you start having strong relationships in the community. and when you get to give back.. so excited for Rio Outreach!! FOUR DAYS TILL RIO!! pray for us as we spend two weeks serving there!! :) Last night our team had a relaxing evening at Bidu's house. Bidu is a friend from a church here and he invited us over for dinner at his apartment, it was on the 10th floor in a BEAUTIFUL modern building haha it felt like luxury compared to where we've been staying.. and it had the most beautiful view.. such a sweet time of laughs and story telling in the kitchen and good conversation gazing over the balcony at the night skyline..

long distance love..

..a letter from my man :)

he sends his angels like the wind..

I sit here again on the porch surrounded by the darkness of night. The weather resembles fall back home.. warm enough to be comfortable in a tshirt and shorts but a slight cooling breeze blowing through. The leaves scattering beneath my feet and the occasional slap of the window shutter mixed with the distant laughter of children in the streets become the sounds I tune into. I'm reminded of a passage I read in Hebrews this morning.. "He sends his angels like the wind".. My heart is at rest. Most likely due to the fact that its the weekend ;) This evening has been so life giving so far. Me and two other girls went on a long walk at sunset to another area of town and found a tall outdoor staircase that led to a great view of the city below. I don't think I realized the beauty and extensiveness of this city until I was able to view a portion of it from above. After getting back Tim told me he had purchased a guitar for our team! I was so excited I miss playing and being able to have live worship. I took the guitar and played a little and worshiped alone. it felt soooo good :) :) just what I needed. Such a beautiful start to the weekend. This week was a crazy one for all of us we had so many assignments due and we were being challenged a lot in class.

Our speaker was a guy named Brett and photojournalist from Kentucky he taught on photo stories and literally everything he said I wanted to write down. He is a wise man with incredible insight on the world and how to relate to people and was "pushy" in a good way with us really challenging us to get out there and meet new people and really encouraged us over and over again in way we are here and our purpose as photographers and how this is a once in a lifetime opportunity and to really give it all we've got. I think he came at just the right time as many of us were settling back and getting lazy. (you can read about my photo story under my assignments tab). This week was full of long days of shooting for a story of a ballet studio i'm doing downtown, walking there and back a bunch of times, skipping dinner to be able to be at the dance classes when they start, then staying up late editing and also on top of the photo story having research papers due and quizzes and other presentations and photo assignments. By far the busiest week yet. One habit i've gotten into since being here is getting up early. I try to wake up at 6:30 or 7 every morning to have that bit of quiet time to myself to get ready for my day and spend some time with the Lord.

I've been following a read-your-bible-in-a-year thing and its been great so far :) As I read through Romans the other day I felt a lot of questions coming up but then those questions would get answered in the next few verses. Its been cool getting back into the old testament as well and the promise to the Israelites but how they turned so badly from the Lord. Isaiah is one book were I have trouble understanding, I know there is so much good in it but I get overwhelmed trying to figure it all out.. but then I'll read in the new testament and see where is makes references to the prophecy in Isaiah and it all makes sense again :) The bible is awesome like that, there is so much in it and I'm excited for our middle east coarse when we get to study it more in depth.

The struggle of trying to mix outreach/ministry into our busy schedule with school is still a constant battle. Where we are at right now and with our business its really become important to recognize the ways we can serve day to day with people on the base and people we talk to in the community. It may not look like the way it did in the Philippines with bar ministry and speaking in churches, but its the day to day little things and learning how to act out the LOVE of Jesus moment to moment. exciting news though.. YAY... we have TWO weeks of outreach starting Wednesday night :)

Wednesday our team stops classes for two weeks and takes a 6 hour bus to Rio De Jinero to help aid in flood relief from the nations most recent disaster. I'm so excited to go and experience this tragedy that this country has gone through and to really hear peoples stories and be able to work along side of them to bring hope back into the devastation. Please keep this time in your prayers and that we can really serve them and bring fresh hope, and love into those communities and really be humbled and work along side of them.

I think this update has succeeded its length and I applaud you if you've read the entire thing please feel free to contact me anytime you want more info on what we are doing I will try to update more often as internet connection allows. (marisa.groff@gmail.com)


[What I want is the world to remember the problems and the people I photograph. What I want is to create a discussion about what is happening around the world and to provoke some debate with these pictures. Nothing more than this. I don't want people to look at them and appreciate the light and the palate of tones. I want them to look inside and see what the pictures represent, and the kind of people I photograph. - Sebastiao Salgado ]

Meet. LAYNE

Layne staffed the previous track and is here to help start ours up. She has graciously taken on the role of leading and teaching the photography school this quarter. She has been a huge help giving us her wisdom having already done the around the world track. Sadly though she is only here for a few weeks and in about two weeks she will be heading back to Kona to join up again with her track who are on their last phase in Kona putting together their publication.






LAYNE:

• shes addicted to coffee
• has beautiful curls
• as a serving heart and amazing leadership skills
• LOVES photojournalism and is GREAT at it
• she believes in the importance of movie days and snack times in class.. and its a beautiful thing :) :)
• Random Fact: she took kindergarten twice ;)

talk with a stranger.

I've been called many names over my times of travel. I've been asked if I'm Brittany spears, or Hillary Clinton. But yesterday I was called something new.. I was called a fairy..

A couple weeks ago our team had gone downtown for the day. While we were standing outside starbucks a young man maybe in his twenties stopped and asked me for directions in Portuguese. I responded in English saying I'm sorry I don't speak Portuguese. He was like "Oh you speak English! Me to!" haha So we began talking and getting to know each other, we told him about why we were here and how we are doing service work and studying photography. We explained how we are missionaries and get sponsored to do this, he made a joke about how we're buying Starbucks haha we replied that sometimes you just need to treat yourself with something familiar thats not rice and beans haha. His English was great and it was fun to talk and joke with a Brazilian and have them understand you and get the American humor. Some from our group then walked with him across the street to the bookstore and we continued talking about what YWAM was and why we love photography ect. We then went our separate ways excited for the new friend we had made.

With all that being said the other day I was chatting with him on facebook and he asked if we had found any charities to work with. I responded that we hadn't really and we were very busy with our schooling. He went on to say that he thought it was really cool that we had come all this way to help people. He thought it was funny that we came to Brazil to go to slums and help with flood victims rather than go to clubs and parties. He said we were inspiring.. and that we was touched by how selfless we are. He asked why we did what we did and I explain that we love Jesus and we feel called to share that and serve and love others first and foremost the best we can. He said I was like  a little "fairy spreading my spell all over Brazil" :) To me that was the best compliment ever. Even though we are busy with school and we may feel like we haven't touched the country of Brazil or made a lasting impact its neat to see the way God takes a small random interaction downtown and turns it into someone getting touch and inspired by what we are doing. We never know what will come out of taking the time to talk to someone and share a little about what propels you and gives you life. Jesus.