The Preacher's Son - Juliette Duncan Page 0,4

thoughts and feelings bothering me again? It was strange and unnerving.

As the service began with a familiar worship song, I began to relax. Then a young woman from the prayer team played her acoustic guitar and sang a beautiful version of ‘Jesus Loves Me’ that left the congregation, and me, in awed silence. When she took her seat, the pastor, Sheila’s husband Michael, rose and greeted everyone. He opened with a brief prayer of gratitude and blessing for the congregation and then went straight into the notices. He seemed more excited than normal, and as I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear, I felt foreboding creep back in. No doubt we were about to learn about the project Sheila seemed to think Hayden and I would be interested in.

“We’ve wanted to do this for a while,” Michael said, his round face glowing. “We’ve finally raised enough funds to send some of you on a short mission trip. To Brazil!”

As Hayden squeezed my hand and leaned forward, I froze. I already sensed he was more than interested, but there was no way we could go on a mission trip halfway around the world. When Michael went on to say it was for three weeks only, I knew the cogs in Hayden’s brain were turning. I was due some annual leave, and my mother had already offered to have the children for a long visit this summer so Hayden and I could celebrate our tenth wedding anniversary with a trip somewhere. I’d been hoping the time together would shake me out of the restlessness I’d been feeling, but now I was only too aware that it was the ideal scenario for us to take Pastor Michael’s trip. I stared straight ahead as he spoke about the project and tried to look interested rather than filled with trepidation.

“Those who go will be volunteering at a project called Safe Hands, located in Camp Bano in the city of Curitiba. One of the newest projects they’ve embarked on is building. They’re building houses to help families move out of the favelas—the slums, and where possible, they train up family members to assist with the building work so that they then have a trade if they don’t have one already, with a view to offering them well paid work as the project extends. So, of course, anyone with construction experience would be a great asset.”

Michael looked directly at Hayden, who turned to look at me, his eyes shining. He seemed so excited that I had to smile even as my stomach sank. The last thing I wanted to do was spend my well needed time off work helping out on a building site halfway around the world.

“They have many other projects on the go as well, including a school, a small homeless shelter, and a growing youth project,” Michael continued. “The local youths, especially the boys, often fall prey to local drug gangs and end up getting involved with them as they see it as the only way out of poverty. Of course, what it leads to is prison and violence. Kids on the street are often rounded up by the local police and imprisoned for vagrancy, which can set them off in a cycle of crime.

“The Safe Hands organisation is doing its best to break this cycle. They welcome volunteers with teaching and support experience, especially those who work with troubled youth. Legal skills are also greatly appreciated. They have only one legal practitioner, but as the project grows, they’re being swamped with need.”

Now Michael was looking straight at me, and I was too embarrassed to look away. The excited expression on his face showed that he was obviously expecting me to be thrilled. No wonder Sheila had thought we would be interested in this. But even knowing they needed lawyers as well as builders didn’t sell the idea to me. What kind of holiday would it be doing the same work we did at home, but in such terrible conditions?

“But don’t worry, the trip won’t be all work,” Michael said, startling me as he seemed to directly answer my thoughts. “You’ll have weekends and evenings to yourself, and the tourist areas of the city are beautiful. Before you leave, there’ll also be an arranged trip to the local Nature Reserve, which is simply stunning. Before I go into this morning’s sermon, I’d like to show you a video that the organisers of Safe Hands have made as an introduction to their work.”

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