Brazil - At a Glance

Brazilians are a diverse, energetic people, descended from native Indians, African slaves, European settlers, and immigrants from many other countries. The only Portuguese-speaking country in South America, Brazil is a land alive with natural wonders, from stunning waterfalls and the Amazon rainforest to deserts, mountain jungles, and white-sand beaches. It is the fifth largest country in the world and boasts the ninth richest economy. In spite of the natural resources and wealth of Brazil, the disparity between rich and poor is one of the largest anywhere. The city of Rio de Janeiro has approximately 9 million inhabitants, of which an estimated twenty percent live in relative to extreme poverty, primarily in the favelas (shanty towns) that crawl up the city’s mountainsides.

- Fifth largest country in the world
- Ninth richest economy
- 186.5 million total population (2005)
- 53 million, almost 30% of the total, live in poverty
- 22 million of them live in extreme poverty, living on less then $1 a day
- Gap between rich and poor one of the most extreme found anywhere in the world
- Outside Africa, the largest black population in the world
- Almost half (44%) of the total population are people descended from Africans shipped there as slaves
- The favelas are home to millions of Brazilians, most of them descendants of slaves
- Black Brazilians continue to be largely excluded from the wealth that their ancestors created
- Total population of Rio de Janeiro is 6.5 million (2005)
- One million (about 15%) live in the favela slum communities

Sources: www.wordmadeflesh.com; www.wikipedia.org; Brazil: An Oxfam Country Profile by Jan Rocha (1999)

Prayer Requests
- For God’s best for David while he lives and serves in Brazil from August-December 2006
- For continued wisdom and discernment for David during this season of next steps in ministry
- For David, as he learns basic Portuguese and seeks to establish relationships with new friends in Brazil
- For safety in and around the WMF staff neighborhoods and when they are downtown
- For continual deepening of relationships with the kids on the streets and people in the neighborhoods
- For the problems of drugs and violence in Rio
- For the church in Rio to truly be the light of God in the darkness and among the poor
- For all of the WMF staff visa situations - For the friends of WMF as they live and survive on the streets of Rio

Rich, Rebecca, & baby Anna Nichols and Ben Miller
(Jenna was in Rio when we took the picture)