How God’s Word turned a criminal
into a sculptor

Hermes de Souza, a sculptor and former prisoner, founded the Nova Uniao da Arte community welfare scheme for young people. Sao Paulo, Brazil. Photo: BS Brazil (BRA02PC-5)

SÃO PAULO, Brazil — “Jesus Christ is the only mechanic able to fix human beings.” Hermes de Souza, a former gang leader, drug trafficker and mugger who spent 10 years in prison, has more reasons than most people to declare his belief in the power of God’s Word to change lives.

Mr de Souza’s own life started to change very quickly after he received a letter in prison from an evangelical missionary. The letter explained that Jesus had made a personal sacrifice for him. Realising this had an immediate and dramatic effect on him.

Took time

“The next day, I put aside drugs,” he says. He had already turned his hand to wood carving, and he began working harder on his sculptures. It took some time to convince the prison authorities that he really had changed, but eventually he was able to establish a workshop and start to teach other prisoners to carve wood. This process, including staging an exhibition with the assistance of the Prisoners’ Aid Foundation, greatly boosted his self-esteem and facilitated his move to a semi-open prison.

When he was finally released from prison, Mr de Souza visited a former cell-mate in União de Vila Nova, one of the most violent areas of São Paulo. It was here that he was given a sign.

“God spoke to me and I decided to undertake work with children and adolescents in this community.” He established the Nova União da Arte (NUA) welfare scheme, through which young people have access to training in areas including wood carving, marquetry work, dance and drama.

Items produced by the young people are beginning to be sold in Brazilian shops, and some of the project’s work is even gaining international recognition. For Mr de Souza, NUA brings both personal satisfaction and the opportunity to bring God’s Word directly to young people.

“The project is a great network of cohesion and evangelisation. I speak here about the ill-effects of drugs, of the countless reasons for not entering a life of crime and of the great friend we can count on at all times, Jesus Christ.”

A longer version of this article appeared in A Biblia No Brasil, July-September 2002. (WR 372/12 - 11.02)