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Piercing the Amazon
Arms of Love partners with PAZ Castanhal and the Grove City Vineyard to launch a new children's home in the Amazon Basin, which will begin receiving children in 2006.
October / December 2004

Since the Arms of Love ministry was started in 1999, Arms of Love has helped establish children's homes in four countries: Nicaragua, the Philippines, Mexico and Senegal. Those projects currently care for more than 70 children, and our existing or planned facilities in those countries will eventually care for more than 120 children.

In 2003, Arms of Love was approached with a proposal for starting a fifth children's home in the Amazon region of Brazil. The Grove City Vineyard in Columbus, Ohio, had a long-standing relationship with a church in Castanhal, Brazil, called PAZ (an acronym for Project AmaZon). For many years, the pastors of PAZ Castanhal, Scott and Michelle Toth, had a vision to establish a children's home for children at risk in its region. A couple at the Grove City Vineyard, Scott and Becky Joellenbeck (pictured at right), shared that vision and felt called to move to Brazil to help develop and oversee the children's home project. But one thing remained missing.

PAZ Castanhal wanted to partner with an existing ministry that had experience in starting and operating children's homes. The Grove City Vineyard also desired to partner with a non-profit organization through which the necessary financial support could be raised and channeled. After many conversations and meetings, it became clear that the model and philosophy employed by Arms of Love was a perfect match with the vision of PAZ, the Toths, the Vineyard and the Joellenbecks, and our fifth partnership was born.

PAZ is a non-denominational church planting movement in Brazil that was started by Luke Huber in 1976. Since that time, over 270 churches have been started in the Amazon Basin. PAZ Castanhal, the host church for our new children's home, is one of PAZ's 15 bases of operation. The church currently has 528 members and 61 cell groups, with more than 600 attending weekly services. PAZ Castanhal has also planted 12 churches along the Amazon and its tributaries, which have another 785 people attending services. The Arms of Love Children's Home will be connected primarily to the main church in Castanhal, but will have relationship with the river churches as well.

In 2004, the Joellenbecks spent about a month working with the Arms of Love Children's Home in Managua, Nicaragua. During that time, the Jollebecks learned more about the Arms of Love vision and picked the brain of our Nicaragua directors, Emilio and Gladys Padilla. Scott and Becky also spent the year on-staff with the Grove City Vineyard as part of their preparation for missions service.

In September 2004, the Joellenbecks flew to Castanhal for a week, where they met up with Robert Benson, the founder of Arms of Love. During that time, the three of them spent a significant amount of time meeting with Scott and Michelle Toth and other leaders of PAZ Castanhal discussing the details of the vision, looking at potential properties, and developing a plan for the establishment and operation of the project. By the end of the trip, a property was selected for the site of the children's home, and with funds from the Grove City Vineyard and Arms of Love, the property was purchased this past September (see further description down below).

In early 2005, the Joellenbecks will move to Brazil and begin their formal training. They will spend most of the year attending language school learning Portuguese, but the Joellenbecks will also spend three months in an intensive program with an existing children's home in Brazil learning how to work with street children and other children at risk. Meanwhile, one of our goals in 2005 is to raise sufficient funds so that the first children's home can be built while the Joellenbecks complete their training .

By early 2006, the Joellenbecks will move to Castanhal and commence operating the new project. As in other countries, the children's home will rely on local staff and will be a ministry of the local church, PAZ Castanhal. The Joellenbecks will help train the staff and oversee the project, putting to use their recent training as well as their personal backgrounds in accounting, management and social work. And through the combined efforts of PAZ, the Vineyard, Arms of Love, the Toths and the Joellenbecks, an incredible new ministry will be born.

Where the Roads are Rivers

Around the world today, the Amazon region is commonly associated with thoughts of a dense, even mystical jungle that is home to a wide variety of vegetation and wildlife. Others immediately think of the rainforest and the environmental issues connected therewith. But for an estimated 225,000 Amazonian Indians, and millions of others who live in more urban areas in the basin, the Amazon region holds a much different meaning: it is their home, and their daily lives are often focused on survival.

The Amazon River and its tributaries are a mind-boggling natural phenomenon. The river is the longest or second-longest in the world (depending on how it is measured), about 3900 miles from source to mouth. And the Amazon is indisputably the largest river in the world in terms of the number of tributaries and the volume of water discharged. About one-fifth of the fresh river water in the world flows in the Amazon.

There are about 33,000 villages across the Amazon basin (only half of which actually lies in Brazil), most of which have less than 100 people. Because the jungle is generally too dense for roads, the river and its many tributaries serve as the highway system of the jungle. Villages are built along the water's edge, and small canoes or shallow riverboats serve as the primary or only means of transportation between villages or for bringing goods to the nearest city for sale.

Homes in these villages are very simple and very poor, and are typically built at the water's edge. The structures are often no more than bare wodden structures on stilts that rise above the river banks for protection against the rising of the tide or flooding.

For many residents of the river, fishing is their primary means of survival. The Amazon contains the largest selection of freshwater fish anywhere in the world. Fish traps woven from strips of palm leaves are constructed along the river banks or laid across narrow streams. Baited lines, spears, and nets weighted at the bottom are also used to catch different types of fish at different times of the year.

Others rely on agriculture for a living. The acai tree is one important source of nutrition and income for the residents of the Amazon. The nuts and berries harvested from this tree have long been believed by local Indians to hold unique powers or, at least, a wide range of health benefits ranging from providing energy, helping women after birth, or even sexual vitality. Shimming up the acai trees, harvesting the berries by hand, and then selling them up river is a common enterprise.

The PAZ church in Castanhal has already planted about 10 churches along the Amazon River and its tributaries. In reaching these communities, a significant focus is on meeting the medical social and educational needs of the residents. Boats owned by PAZ are used by medical teams to much-needed medical care to villages along the river, and are also used to transport pastors and other workers to those communities.

Some of the children who will live at our future children's home in Castanhal will be orphaned, abandoned or abused children from the city of Castanhal, but other children will come from the various river communities where the church plants are located. By providing these churches with the ability to care for orphaned children who need a home, Arms of Love will a new dimension to the churches' efforts to minister to the needs of these river communities.

Site of the Future Arms of Love Children’s Home

The property that Arms of Love has purchased for its future children's home in Brazil is truly incredible. About 30 acres in total, only a portion of the property will be used initially, while the remainder of the property will provide numerous options for future expansion, such as the construction of educational facilities, short-term team housing, agricultural use and/or recreational purposes.

A number of structures already exist on the property. At right is a picture of the three-bedroom house that is likely to be the residence of Scott and Becky Joellenbeck, the future directors of the children's home. A swimming pool is located adjacent to the house. Next to the swimming pool is one of the wells and water pumps that exist on the property, which will provide an ample supply of fresh water for the children's homes. A covered recreational area, including a brick barbeque and eating area, is right behind the water tower.

In the picture below is a beautiful fish pond, which is also close to the director's house. The pond is currently stocked with large fish and is fed by a nearby spring. We all enjoyed throwing food onto the water and watching the fish come up to eat it.

The property also includes various facilties for raising animals. One area is constructed for the purpose of raising goats, while another large facility is designed for raising chickens. Several large dog houses are the home of the resident guard dogs, while other facilities house a variety of exotic animals from the nearby jungle. A wide variety of fruit also grows on the property, which will provide much of the produce that will be needed to feed the children who live on the property.

The property is located just 7 km from the site of the PAZ church in Castanhal, and is even closer to the private school the children will be attending. Located so close to town, the children will be able to enjoy a peaceful lifestyle while still being part of a substantial community.