The Brazilian Bible Society says they will be handing out more Bibles at the World Cup than the population of 23 of the 50 U.S. states.
Leaders of the BBS say that they have four million Bibles that will be handed out to competitors, officials and attendees at the 2014 World Cup soccer tournament.
“Brazilians are football-mad and their obsession with football will reach fever pitch over the next few weeks,” said Dr. Rudi Zimmer of the Bible Society of Brazil, reports the United Bible Societies. “We want the Bible to have a prominent presence amid all the excitement. It’s an unprecedented opportunity for churches and Christians here to share God’s Word with local and foreign fans, and we want to equip and encourage them to do that.”
In addition to the Bibles, over 20,000 copies of the Gospel of John will be handed out in Portuguese and eight other languages.
Over 1,600 churches have joined together as part of the outreach effort in what is called the “Fair Play Brazil” outreach. Those involved say “Fair Play Brazil” was inspired by the apostle Paul.
“Corinth was one of the largest and busiest cities of the Roman Empire and hosted one of the biggest sporting events in the calendar; the Isthmian Games,” said Zimmer. “There, Paul found the opportunity to preach the Gospel to people from all over the world. We and our partners share that same vision now – both for the World Cup this year and the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2016.”
Soccer’s major world event, the World Cup, arrives in Brazil in June 2014 and officials in the city say they’ve seen a rise in child prostitution as the event draws closer.
The National Forum for the Prevention of Child Labor, a non-government agency, says the government has been pledging to stop child prostitution for 13 years but has taken very few steps to stop it.
The NFPCL said that at the end of 2012, around 500,000 children were being forced into prostitution in Brazil. The total was five times higher than the total in 2001.
“We’re worried sexual exploitation will increase in the host cities and around them,” Joseleno Vieira dos Santos of Brazil’s Human Rights Secretariat told the Guardian newspaper. “We’re trying to co-ordinate efforts as much as we can with state and city governments to understand the scope of the problem.”
The increase in child sex trafficking is being attributed to a number of growing problems within Brazil’s poorer populations including extreme poverty and drug use.
After coming out as one of the harshest critics of the United States National Security Agency’s spying revelations, reports have surfaced that Brazil was actively carrying out counter-intelligence activities against the U.S. and others.
Brazil’s justice minister said that his spies were acting in a lawful manner when they followed around diplomats from the U.S., Russia and other nations while they were engaging in daily activities.
Jose Eduardo Cardoso took great pains to say the situations in his nation and the actions taken by the NSA were not the same.
“I see completely different situations. What happened in relation to Brazil and other countries was a violation. Emails and phone calls were violated, which is an affront to Brazilian sovereignty,” Cardoso told a press conference.
The U.S. State Department said the discovery reported in Brazil’s Folha de S. Paulo newspaper proves what they’ve been saying all along regarding all nations conducting spy activity on diplomats of other nations.
A Brazilian drug cartel is threatening mass terror attacks during next year’s World Cup.
The cartel, First Capital Command in Sao Paulo, murdered more than 100 police officers in the city last year. The threat of increased terror and violence came as government prosecutors worked to move cartel members to a more secure jail facility.
Six 2014 World Cup matches, including the tournament’s opening game, is scheduled to be held in Sao Paulo.
Soccer’s World Cup draws millions of fans from around the world and would be a major economic boom for Brazil. The recent spate of violence and the threats from drug cartels is putting tourism in question. Officials said that they could not guarantee the safety of anyone who comes Brazil for the tournament.
Rio de Janiero is scheduled to host the Olympics in 2016 and there are fears of violence causing delays in construction of Olympic venues or threaten safety for athletes.
Three-year-old Isabella Severo dos Santos was caught in her home when water from the broken pipe flooded the Campo Grande neighborhood. Water shot 65 feet into the air from the pipe and forced many emergency rescues.
“Our job was to get people out of their homes as the flooding spread,” Col. Sergio Simoes told GloboNews TV as rescue teams used rubber dinghies to reach areas of the neighborhood inundated with water. Continue reading →
The leaders of the BRICS nations are discussing the creation of a development bank that would be in direct competition to the World Bank.
The heads of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa have long complained about a western bias in the decisions made by the World Bank. The fund would develop infrastructure projects in developing nations. Continue reading →
The Brazilian Senate is debating changes to the nation’s abortion laws and doctors are calling for them to allow abortion on demand.
The Federal Council of Medicine says all abortions under 12 weeks should be allowed on demand. After 12 weeks, they should be allowed in cases of fetal anomalies and when the pregnancies are the result of unwanted in-vitro fertilization. Continue reading →
A river near the city of Petropolis, 40 miles north of Rio de Janeiro, burst its banks and flooded the city center launching mudslides that have killed at least 16 and injured dozens.
Two emergency workers have been confirmed among the dead. Continue reading →
Confirmed cases of dengue fever in Brazil have almost tripled in the first seven weeks of 2013.
Over 200,000 people have been confirmed to have the deadly virus compared to only 70,000 people during the same time period in 2012. Thirty-three people have died so far. Continue reading →
A dengue fever epidemic has broken out in southern Brazil.
Health authorities have reported about 600 residents a day coming to clinics suffering from the symptoms of dengue fever since the start of the year. Continue reading →