RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (BP)--International Mission Board missionary Eric Reese taps on the interior ceiling light, illuminating the cab of his Chevy pickup. Reese doesn't need to see inside his vehicle. But after six years of working with the urban poor in the favelas (slums) of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, he knows those outside the cab need to see in.
Eric slows the truck to a stop. A man steps toward the open driver-side window and cocks an AK-47.
"Calma, calma," Eric says. "We just finished an evangelistic presentation. We're just leaving."
When the traficante (drug dealer) steps away from the window and waves him on, Eric, 42, puts the truck in gear and moves.
It's 9:20 p.m. With his truck windows open, Eric can't mistake the sound of gunshots echoing through the favela as he heads home to his wife Ramona and their two children.
With frequent shootouts, prostitution and drug trafficking in the streets, the slums are no place for children. But Eric came this evening with the sole purpose of sharing the Gospel with the kids there.
"If you can reach those kids," he says, "you can change that neighborhood."
It won't be until 1 a.m. that Eric receives a phone call, identifying the shots he heard as those of a drug dealer protecting his turf. Sitting at his computer in the wee hours, Eric will read the latest headlines about a shootout that began with the distant shots he heard earlier.
"I believe that God honored our presence here," says Eric, who is from Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Ga. "If God can open the water of the Red Sea and say, 'My people pass through,' God can say, 'Y'all will not fight now.' I think the grace of God said, 'Calma.' I believe that."
Eric's work for the day is done, but his work in the slum communities of Rio de Janeiro is far from finished.
"In these communities, it's an ugly evil you've got to deal with," he says, "but you've just got to deal with it. We can't stand here and just let these people shoot and kill each other without the Gospel being preached."
Seeing past the violence and corruption of life in the favelas is an ongoing challenge. But the same self-destruction that hinders some from coming to Christ is precisely what compels the Reeses to share in earnest.
"Communicating the Gospel with these folks cannot wait until tomorrow," Eric says. "You've got to share it with them today because you don't know what their tomorrow holds." Read More
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