Caption: Victoria Nogueira gives a devotional, while Arthur plays the guitar, and the students listen to them. [Esther Hadassa de Lima]
by Esther Hadassa de Lima (Warrior Post Reporter / São Paulo, Brazil)
Every Friday, secondary students have the opportunity at PACA to spend their lunch at the Middle School plaza, with the student leaders of Crew, worshiping and learning about God, as part of the “Dunamis 1Luv” program.
The Crew, at PACA, started last year when some of the high school students participated in a course created by Dunamis 1Luv. This ministry inspired them to meet during lunch on a weekly basis to worship, pray, and spend some time with God.
The Dunamis Movement was started by Pastor Teofilo Hayashi, whose focus is to establish the kingdom of God on Earth and thus transform society. The aim of the Dunamis 1Luv ministry is to transform schools by bringing God’s kingdom through love and the manifestation of the supernatural.
Arthur Silva, a Junior in high school, started attending PACA last year in August. Studying at PACA was not his first choice, but he believes God had a plan for his life studying here. In October, Arthur did the course to be part of Dunamis 1Luv. Since completing the course as part of Crew’s leadership team, he uses the talents that God gave him to bless other people’s lives and show God’s love.
“When I came to PACA, I had the mission to obey and worship God, and I can do that by being part of the Crew,” said Silva, one of the Crew leaders.
Every Friday, Silva sings and plays the guitar during the worship moment at Crew. The songs are in Portuguese, since most people speak Portuguese and only a few students speak just in English. The goal of the worship time is to give thanks to the Lord. By the end of the worship songs, Junior Victoria Nogueira gives a devotional and invites students to pray with her.
The leaders of the Crew want students to know more about God and have an intimate relationship with the Holy Spirit.
“The Crew is a moment where students can talk with the Holy Spirit, feel His presence, and listen to Him,” said Victoria Nogueira.
Compared to the daily Bible classes and weekly chapel sessions, the Crew students provide an informal opportunity to spend time with God that is 100% hosted and organized by the High School students as part of Dunamis 1Luv.
Joaquim Medeiros, a seventh grade student, goes to Crew every week. He started attending because he wanted to have an intimate relationship with God and to feel his presence. This week God spoke to him when a student prayed for him and gave him a word of wisdom about his identity and his life.
“A few people were praying for me and a Crew leader prayed about a problem I was dealing with about having the pressure of trying to be perfect to everybody,” said Medeiros “Then I felt bright and light in my life, at this moment. I felt a pressure on my knees. I fell down and began to cry, but not of sadness, of joy. Then I laughed, and noticed that what the Crew leader told me was true, I didn’t need to be perfect to anybody, but instead I needed to do everything for the glory of God.”
Initially, The Crew would gather at the soccer field, but then the meeting was moved to their current location in the Middle School Plaza, so that more students, such as sixth through eighth graders, could participate and attend Crew.
Changing the meeting location helped Crew to grow. At first, they only had 10 to 15 students attending regularly. However, this year the Crew has grown to include up to 40 to 50 middle and high school students who show up every Friday.
Now, the weekly attendance of the Crew is reaching even more students during lunchtime. The Crew is based completely on student leadership while teachers simply observe from a distance. They use a Biblical reference from First Timothy as their student leadership model.
“Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity” 1 Timothy 4:12.
