Partners

One of our main goals for furlough has been to recruit partners for the Outback team. We will have Brazilian partners in a different town than ours (1 hour away) and a veteran missionary couple that has started this project and will be there once a week, but will not be living there (lives 4 hours away). I am 5 days from heading out and we do not have anyone committed to go with us full time. However, we do have some others interested in going for 1-2 years. We could have 2 different families visit us this year to see about future work with us. Tomorrow (Friday) we have a meeting with one of those families and our administrator. Pray that this meeting goes well. (For a small donation I will even tell you the middle initial of one of their names).

Some people have asked what the personnel needs are in the Outback and it is really hard for me to be exact with that answer because the field is really wide open. We will be planting a church so God can use the different skills of many different types of people. Roger Smith, the veteran missionary who will be working with us each week, believes God uses the personalities/characteristics of Pastors or missionaries to form what type of church one will have. For example, in South Brazil, a couple of athletes teamed up to start a church. As you can imagine, the church has many athletes, an outdoor basketball/soccer court and lots of sports outreaches. Another church may have a strong music program because of the great musical talent of the lead missionary. So any church planter will draw different types of people to the church.

I feel like my strengths will be in doing Bible studies and gathering groups of people. We can use people to help with gathering groups together; whether it be through sports, music, conversations, English classes, activities, and special events, each area would help make contacts for people to do Bible studies. We could use someone who enjoys working with children, others who like youth work, others who could work with couples/parents, and still more workers for the more mature adults and the elderly (I tried to put that kindly). I am terrible at singing, so musicians would be a big help.

Interested in missions? Consider the Outback of Brazil with a population of 350,000 people, 17 different towns, and 1-4% evangelical. Join our team as we reach the unreached!

Francisco and Dalva, Brazilian missionaries in the Outback for the last 9 years.