They had no house and now build a “Belén Mission” shelter for 200 people

The “Missão Belém” (Belén Mission) builds in São Paulo (Brazil) a 17 -story building that will serve as a refuge for 200 homeless people with chronic diseases. Nova Guadalupe, name of the place in the Belenzinho neighborhood, is built by workers who are mostly people who had no house and were rescued by Missão Belém.

“About 95% of the workers are brothers who rescued the mission,” said Antonio Walter, an engineer responsible for the project to ACI Digital, an agency in Portuguese of Ewtn News, a company to which ACI Press belongs.

“We would normally look for professionals in the market, but, like a miracle, we find these people who know how to work in the different areas of construction, but also have love for the Belém mission,” he explains, while commenting that in two and a half years the place could be ready.

“Step by step, donation to donation, step by step, we will achieve it,” says Fr. Gianpietro Carraro. “And we thank God because with the goodness of so many people we can get ahead,” he adds.

The priest founded the Bethlehem mission 20 years ago, with Sister Cacilda da Silva Leste, in the Archdiocese of São Paulo. The initiative has already provided more than 150,000 attentions during this time. The approach is based on living the Gospel and prayer as ways of freeing people from addictions and psychological disorders.

Gilson Ferreira, carpentry assistant, was rescued from the street and drugs; And now he wants to return the good he received from the mission working on construction.

Like the other workers, he is in the work with a formal labor registry. And he is excited to build something that will benefit people who are in the same situation in which he was. “You’ll have everything here,” he said. “Medical attention, church and accommodation. Who knows, maybe even I benefit from it when I am greater.”

“If it weren’t for the Bethlehem mission, I don’t know what would have been of me,” said Raimundo Nonato Dos Santos, who separated from his family and lived in the streets because of alcoholism. The spiritual approach made the difference for him.

“When they rescued me, I didn’t even know how to pray the Our Father. The encounter with God was the strength I needed to free me. The joy of working comes from thinking that Nova Guadalupe will attend people who, like him, will need medical attention. Alcoholism left me with a very serious anemia. I could have died of not having been for the support I received,” he says.

Spirituality

The engineer Antonio Walter says that the first part of the work that will be completed will be the Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe, which must have masses between May and June of this year. He explains that in the work a family environment is breathed in prayer, which knows that such a company can only be carried out with divine help. “We started and we will end up trusting providence. We had no money to buy the land, but we managed to buy it and pay it in installments,” he says.

In addition to the church, there will be a plant that will be a diaphanous space, two more floors for the formation of caregivers, a plant for internal services, another for kitchen and the room for clothing, as well as a plant for physiotherapy and another for administration. The remaining plants will be used to accommodate sick older men and women.

All this was coordinated by the director of works of the Belén mission, Leônidas Alves Júnior.

“I give it as an example for my son,” he says. “His father, who lived from alcohol, drugs and the street, is now part of the construction of a building of this size, which will serve so many sick elders.”

To learn more details and collaborate with the project, visit the website: https://www.missaobelem.org/novaguadalupe

Translated and adapted by the ACI Press team. Originally published in Aci digital