Well and truly plastered

One of the first tasks was to prepare the walls for the murals. The builders did an excellent job. Work started at the beginning of September and within a month our derelict walls were like blank canvasses.

Different strokes

The project aims to produce three murals. Anyone expecting replicas of Renaissance masterpieces will be disappointed. Joel is setting out to give each of the scenes a very Brazilian flavour.

The first will be the Garden of Eden, where, according to the Bible, the human story begins and Adam and Eve's tragic choices bring death into the world. The second will be the Last Supper, where Jesus announces the new relationship to be inaugurated between God and Man through his death and resurrection which will destroy death for ever. The third will be the City of God, which, according to the Book of Revelation, will be humanity's final destiny where 'there will be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying nor any more pain, because all these things will be gone for good'. It will form a backdrop to a new community garden we are hoping to create that will tell the 45-year story of Cidade de Deus.

Simply connect

When this stunning artwork suddenly appeared on a wall in the City of God's main road last year, I was so impressed by what I saw that I wrote to the artist who had daubed his e-mail address on the bottom of the picture. Joel Bergner turned out to be an American mural artist based in Washington DC who had come to Cidade de Deus for a couple of months to teach English and painted 'Three Generations' in his spare time. We asked Joel if he would like to come back to the City of God and transform our church's boundary walls.