Today's my first day back. For the past week, I was in Rio de Janeiro working with two organizations -- one focused on church planting and the other on social justice. In a profound way, both are working for the Kingdom of God. 

Restore Brazil is an organization run by Jay Bauman, who is both a prolific leader as he is a social media nut. You can find him on Twitter at @baumanjay and on his blog. Please check out his organization, Restore Brazil.

Rio de Paz is an unabashed human rights organization run by Antonio Carlos Costa. They work for human rights for prisoners and social justice for the poor living in the favela. They're organization focuses on three main plagues of Rio: violence, poverty, corruption. Antonio is also has a strong social media presence, albeit, in Portugese.

Once in a while I take a little extra time and comb through the older DVD’s at the local movie rental store. Because I live in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles there is a wide variety of indie and foreign films available. This last weekend I encountered a Brazilian television show that captivated me with the first episode: City of Men

City of Men is a television show by Fernando Meirelles and his collaborators on the heels of his critically acclaimed film City of God. Started in 2002, the show ran for 4 years in Brazil and was followed in 2006 by a feature film titled Children of Men.

City of Men is an intimate look into life in Rio de Janeiro’s favelas, hillside slums controlled by local drug lords. The show follows the lives of two fatherless teenage boys, Acerola and Laranjinha. A high beat score of local music, twisting warrens of alleys and houses, and the constant presence of anxiety and survival tinges each episode with adrenalin.