Florida Baptists take Gospel to Brazil's cities, villages

JACKSONVILLE (FBW)-Mission groups from several Florida Baptist churches journeyed south this summer to the equator and beyond into Brazilian cities and rural areas. Their missions were as varied as their destinations, but their aim was the same: to take the Good News to the people of South America's largest nation.

Cuiaba'

Sixteen students and adults of Fort Caroline Baptist Church, Jacksonville, worked with members of Igreja Batista Communitaria to minister in the neighborhoods of Cuiaba', a city in central Brazil. The church, planted by the International Mission Board, is led by Pastor Eduardo Baldaci, who asked the Fort Caroline group to organize a community outreach event July 29 in preparation for a week-long evangelistic outreach.

The Floridians handed out fliers in neighborhoods to promote the block-party type "carnival." Team members provided free haircuts, vision screening, blood pressure checks, and health care awareness programs along with free food, candy, toys and games. EvangeCubes proved to be a popular witnessing tool.

"These were extremely effective in capturing people's attention and in sharing the Gospel in an understandable way," Pastor Richard Powell said. "Children and adults alike were responsive to this method of sharing."

Before leaving Jacksonville, the team wrote their personal testimonies which had been translated into Portuguese. These were distributed among the crowd. Police officers who provided security for the event stopped traffic so that team members could approach cars to hand drivers their testimonies, an occurrence Pastor Baldaci called "a miracle of God," according to Powell.

In a prior trip to Cuiaba', Fort Caroline had provided the Brazilian church a sound system, speakers and guitar. Those, along with a new video projector aided in the nightly worship services, which were conducted in Portuguese and English. Several made professions of faith during the carnival and nightly services. Five new believers were baptized by Powell and Student Pastor Joe Otwell in a swimming pool behind a local believer's home.

The visiting Americans were interviewed on local television and were invited to meet Matto Grasso State Governor Blairo Maggi, Powell said. The governor's staff, including Pastor Baldaci as a member of the Environmental Department, joined the group for a brief prayer service.

Guy Key, an IMB missionary in Brazil, is the brother of Powell's ministry assistant Norma Anderson. They grew up in Brazil as the children of Southern Baptist missionaries, and were instrumental in arranging the partnership with Igreja Batista Communitaria and Fort Caroline Baptist. Powell said the church is "prayerfully considering the next steps in the partnership.

"We believe that, just as people and congregations partnered with Fort Caroline Baptist Church 25 years ago to help us get started, it is time for us to do the same."

Altamira

Darrell Orman, pastor of First Baptist Church in Stuart, led four men from his church to Altimira, a city near Belem on the northeast Atlantic coast of Brazil. Orman is a veteran of 10 trips to the nation and partnered on this trip with First Baptist Church of Altamira and Memorial Baptist Church.

The Floridians were the advance team for administering next years' area wide crusade with Texas evangelist Sammy Tippit. The men, including Robert Bennett, minister to senior adults, and Brian Smith and Dwayne Smith, lay leaders at First, Stuart, shared Jesus door-to-door and led in nightly services in local churches. They also made contacts and gathered facts in preparation for the 2007 crusade.

The senior adult ladies of First Baptist Stuart made bracelets for the group to use in their evangelism efforts in Altamira. Leather strips were decorated with brightly colored beads, with each bead representing a step in the salvation process. The decorative bracelets proved to be valuable tools in sharing about Jesus, according to team member Brian Smith, who has been to Brazil three times.

"It is always exciting to see people respond to Jesus. It recharges my batteries to witness at home again," Smith said. "Our church is excited about the impact of the salvations. It awakens them."

The August 2007 crusade will be held in a 5,000-seat indoor soccer stadium. Members of this year's mission team are hoping that 20-30 fellow church members will join them in Altamira for the crusade. Beyond that, they hope the church will continue its long-standing commitment to the Baptist churches of Brazil.

"The Brazilian pastors are hungry to have help, and the Brazilian people are receptive," Smith said. "It is an incredible feeling to go to a foreign country and personally lead dozens of people to faith in Jesus."

Maues

Seven members of First Baptist Church in Middleburg set out on an Amazon adventure Aug. 14. They flew from Miami to Manaus, then traveled east 150 miles by boat into the region near Maues. The all-male group included two salesmen, a building project manager, a truck driver, a business manager and a civilian contractor with the military, along with a 15-year-old student. They traveled with two interpreters and three Brazilian volunteers.

The Middleburg group worked with Tory Nickerson, a Florida Baptist Convention volunteer coordinator, in planning their first visit to Brazil. According to team member Timothy Sharron, Nickerson chose a few communities in the area that had not been previously evangelized. Teams of volunteers, with the help of translators, missionaries-and big help from the Holy Spirit"-shared with village residents using the EvangeCube. In just a week, the volunteers visited 17 villages along the Amazon River, but left with a sense of the daunting task still ahead.

"We needed about another three days and more people on our team," Sharron said.

Sharron's team shared Jesus with a grandmother, her two daughters and several children in a house reminiscent of "something the Seminoles lived in 200 years ago." While livestock wandered in and out of the residence, the three ladies made professions of faith and promised to attend that night's service. Although Sharron doubted that they would make the arduous trek to the service, they were there, on the second row, with their husbands, who also made professions of faith.

The three evangelistic teams reported an estimated 400 persons made professions of faith.

Calling the trip "life changing," Sharron said he hopes to return to the region to check on the new Christians.

"We have a love for these people and, bigger yet, a burden for their discipleship, and for the other 33,000 communities on the Amazon that don't have an evangelistic body of believers," Sharron said. "We have seen God work in a mighty way."

Satere Maue villages

In August, First Baptist Church in Orlando continued its long tradition of ministering to the people along the Amazon River. Of the 26 mission team members, only nine were first-time visitors to the region.

"One trip and you're hooked," said Steve Smith, media/communications pastor.

Team leader Jim Nassar, director of information technology at First Baptist Orlando, is a veteran of 21 trips to the Amazon, and has witnessed the strides made in the team's relationship with the isolated villages of the Satere Maue Indians.

The Orlando team's base was a 78-foot floating house, which traveled hundreds of miles down the Amazon to the Satere territory. In tight quarters team members, ages 12 to 60-plus, slept and ate on the boat's 18'x30' deck. During the day, they led Vacation Bible School, offered medical, dental and vision care, and built latrines and shower stalls for the villages. Nightly worship services were translated from English to Portuguese to Satere.

"You always set out thinking that you're going to help the people, but when all is said and done, you get as much out of it as them, if not more," Nassar said. "You never go on a mission trip and come back the same person. It's an incredible blessing."