“Theology goes beyond the walls of seminaries and churches”

Graduate Vanessa Kamila Moratti works with the missionary agency, Youth with a Mission (YWAM), in the Morro do Borel slum of northern Rio de Janeiro. She fell in love with the community (population: 30,000 people) during her YWAM internship as a teenager. She continued her psychology and theology studies in Londrina and applied to work with YWAM in Rio after completing her two degrees. Despite others questioning her choice to “leave her peaceful hometown to do ministry in a dangerous city,” she was determined to follow God’s calling.

YWAM has several community projects, offering training in music, dance, computer skills, arts and crafts and soccer. The agency also provides a daycare, library and a health and dental clinic. Vanessa’s responsibility is in the psychological area. She works at the Semear Daycare with 15 children each day. “[The children] do not have a meaningful adult role in their lives,” she says, so once a month, she meets with the children’s mothers to build awareness about their role in their children’s development. In addition, she works with 27 women from the Morro do Borel community, as well as children from a nearby community.

For her future, Vanessa says she wants to use her psychology and theology training to serve others because she believes “psychology is much more than healing the neurosis of those who have the money to pay for it, and theology goes beyond the walls of seminaries and churches.” She says psychology and theology can meet those who are suffering, wherever there is despair and hopelessness. Both can bring an “oil of gladness, instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair” (Isaiah 61:3).

Vanessa is a graduate of South American Theological Seminary (SATS) in Brazil.

Please pray for Vanessa, for wisdom, protection, patience and love for the people she serves.