BRUNSWICK

John Hansen says the Brazilian Relief Express is gearing up to leave, but there is still time to get on board as a partner to the ministry.

In March, the Times Record first shared Hansen’s story and the goal of his nonprofit ministry to the children of Natal, Brazil.

A lifelong fisherman who lives in Brunswick, Hansen says he is answering the call God has placed on his life to become a fisher of men.

Rather than pulling lobster traps along the coast of Maine, he wants to help pull children from a life of homelessness and prostitution. “Where my heart really is, is the children and teenagers, and helping them,” he told The Times Record earlier this month.

According to Hansen, there are 500,000 Brazilian girls under age 18 trapped in the world of prostitution. About 7 million or 8 million children live on the streets.

Hansen says he’s packing up to move to Brazil in September, but says he still wants to reach out to anybody who’d like to hear about the ministry to the most vulnerable in Brazilian society.

Churches, civic organizations and individuals are invited to contact Hansen at 319-6060. The area of focus is Natal, a large city in Rio Grande do Norte, a sister-state to Maine.

Those wishing to help this ministry can send tax-deductible donations to Brazilian Relief Express, 8 Shea St., Brunswick, ME 04011. Funds will be used to assist with food, clothing and housing for children.

Hits close to home

To many, these children may seem unlovable. Some Brazilians have grown desensitized to the immense need in their midst.

“They see these kids all the time,” Hansen said. “At night, kids cluster in bands of 30 to 40 to stay safe.”

This is a mission that is close to Hansen’s heart. Sharing that he had a tough upbringing in Massachusetts and then Maine, “I thought I was unlovable.”

After a brief stint on a swordfishing boat when he was 29, he went ashore in Brazil and met a woman who would later become his wife.

“She wrote ‘Jesus Loves You’ in the sand,” he explained. “It’s sad I had to go 6,000 miles to hear a message that I should have heard” here in Maine.

It’s that love that Jesus had for him that Hansen wants to share. He reflected on a passage in the gospel of Matthew where Jesus invites the righteous sheep into his kingdom during the final judgment, noting that when he was hungry and thirsty and needed a place to stay, they provided.

“When did we see you hungry and feed you? When did we see you a stranger and take you in or naked and clothe you?” they asked.

“In as much as you did it for one of the least of these, you did it to me,” Jesus Christ replied.

And in Hansen’s estimation, the children of Natal are certainly the “least of these” of who Christ spoke.

“That’s it for my life. I know we’re saved by grace but we need to be active. Faith without works is dead.”

Stepping out to minister

“The best church is outside,” a Brazilian pastor once told Hansen. “‘It’s a mission field,’ meaning we need to get out of our four walls and not just wait for (the lost) to come in, but invite them in.”

Hansen himself met the Lord because somebody cared enough to step out and share with him. He has now been going to Brazil for 18 years and speaks the language well. He knows how to handle himself in the most dangerous areas of the city. Schools are open to him visiting to share about Jesus.

By the time he rejoins his wife, Adriana, and 10-year-old son, Joseph, in Brazil this September, he hopes to be able to jump right in to ministry.

God says to put your treasures in Heaven. “I may be poor here, but I want to have a big account there,” he said.

One way he hopes to do that is to get on a Brazilian radio station, along with a pastor, and help youth deal with their problems. His focus is “reaching children in general and getting them off the street any way I can. To provide a safe place to sleep would be phenomenal.”

TO LEARN more about the ministry, visit BrazilianReliefExp.org or call 208-6374.

dmadore@timesrecord.com