Expanding Ministry in Brazil

by Patrick Beard

As I arrived at the airport in Memphis I felt unprepared and anxious about my return to Brazil after 18 years. I had plenty of reasons to go, but the timing seemed off.

I was scheduled to meet Joe Spell, my traveling companion, in Houston, Texas. Bad weather at some other airport had delayed my flight and it looked as though Joe might be traveling alone. I certainly did not want to go if it were not God’s will, and missing my flight would have been fine.

I walked up to the gate to see a very relieved Joe and heard the final call for boarding our flight to Sao Paulo. The whole episode served as a confirmation to me, and I was put at ease about the trip.

After a nine hour flight we arrived in Brazil in plenty of time to catch our three hour flight to Joao Pessoa, Brazil. Following a stroll along the beach and a good night’s sleep we met Marciano who drove us another five hours into the interior of Brazil in a region that is known as the Sertáo.

The Sertáo is a mostly arid, poor region in Northeastern Brazil. The people are a mixture of Portuguese, Dutch, African decent and native peoples. The Portuguese is spoken slowly with a thick accent, and at times sounds more like Spanish. The foods vary slightly from Brazilian cuisine in the south, but beans and rice can be found at almost every meal. The traditional music of the region sounds more like Arcadian, than Samba. It is a unique part of the world, and easy to enjoy despite the harshness of the climate.

Another aspect of the Sertáo is the utter spiritual poverty of many towns and villages. Certainly there are churches, and many have adherents attending on a daily basis. However, a short conversation with most people will reveal a religion of tradition over substance, and more superstition than truth.

Marciano had a full schedule for Joe and myself. Just a couple of hours after our arrival at the Teixeira home in Patos we were on the road again about an hour or so to the village of Mato Grosso where we participated in a church planting week-end.

The week-end was sponsored by three or four Baptist churches in and near Patos. The team canvassed the area with a survey during the day and slept on the concrete floor of the local primary school in the evenings.

As we visited with many of the village’s inhabitants, we heard common complaints. We don’t know the priest, and we don’t understand very much of what he says. The same was said of a local protestant pastor. It became obvious that the people of this village were hungry for truth, and starved for love. So often religious leaders in this part of the world seemed to be more concerned about building an empire, than binding up the broken and setting captives free.

“Our pastor told us we would go to Hell for shaving our legs,” said one lady. “And I could not come to worship unless I was wearing a dress. I don’t even own a dress.”

It was painfully obvious that the few ministers who would brave the harsh rural life of these small towns and villages need good theological training. It was also just as obvious that any true success in ministry would be carried out by love in action.

About ten miles down another dirt road another village enjoys the presence of the Church. A small pink stucco home is now a meeting place for a church. As we got out of the truck a lady came to us and asked, “Are you going to preach today? I want to follow Jesus!”

This village was much poorer than Mato Grosso, and the people had a much more positive impression of the Church.

The growing congregation was begun by two young Brazilians who ride their bikes up the rugged dirt road to both preach and spend time with the people. These young men want to help the entire village by providing a water pumping station.

“The government does nothing for us,” one villager said. “The Church is the only one who helps us.”

The question still remains, “Who will go for us?” Another question adds, “Who will train the ones who will go?” Marciano and his wife Christina answered the first question when they left their native lands to start the ministry of ORE in Ethiopia. Today they plan to answer the second question as they establish a missionary training center in Marciano’s home country of Brazil.

God has already provided a farm for a training center that is located on 150 acres in rural Sertáo. Plans are to begin training the first 12 Brazilian missionaries this coming January. In addition to formal classroom style training, students will be paired with experienced missionaries and mentored into ministry. The farm is large enough to house groups of people for seminars and camps. Marciano hopes that the farm will eventually be self-sustaining from the agricultural pursuits on the acreage.

On our return to the States Joe and I visited with a missionary friend in the modern city of Campinis, Brazil. Ministers there are working on training videos to be distributed all over Brazil.

It was good to see just a small part of what God is doing in a dark world, and to investigate what greater part we may have in building God’s kingdom.

Jesus said that we are the light of the world, and salt of the earth. He also said that we would be known by our love. It is our hope that God will continue to use IOI as an instrument of His love as we support the work of missionaries like these in Brazil.