Anna McNeil will be heading out for a summer of mission work in Brazil. Please remember her in prayer as she goes out in the name of our congregation. If you are able to help her with financial support, you can make checks out to Hope Springs and we will send the funds on to the mission group for her support.
Anna and her team will have some amazing ministry opportunities while they are in Brazil. Here are some of the ministries they will work with:
Boat Ministry
The Church of God has a 65 foot boat called the Boas Novas, or “Good News,” based in Santarem. The two-story boat will sleep 15-16 people, and has a kitchen and bathroom facilities. The pilot is the pastor of a local church in Santarem, and is a registered boat captain. Emergency equipment is available on board, including life jackets and other equipment.
Goals:
- To evangelize and plant churches up and down the Amazon River
- Conduct children’s ministries and outreach
- Serve the impoverished fishing communities through the distribution of clothing or food
- Provide support evangelistic services to strengthen new church plants along the Amazon
Evangelistic Campaigns
Evangelistic campaigns will be held throughout the region, targeting young people and children. These campaigns generally will be conducted during a weekend period, and will include teams of youth and workers from the local Brazilian churches. Attendance at the campaigns is expected to range between 100 to a few thousand people at each service or meeting.
Goals:
- To evangelize young people and children with follow-up in discipleship and integration into local church fellowship
- To challenge and mobilize local churches and pastors to reach lost souls in the Amazon Basin area
- To train young people in personal evangelism methods and to develop young people with the gift of evangelism
- To develop creative and dynamic means of evangelization through English-speaking and Portuguese-speaking bands, drama groups, mimes,
- To work as active team members in street evangelism, distribution of tracts, visitation, discipleship of new converts, integrational ministries, and other outreaches.
Youth Camp Ministry
Youth camps are being developed and constructed in each capital city of the five-state region. Youth camps are a very effective way of reaching and discipling young people. Workers are needed to lead this ministry. The main youth camp is located near Brazil Novo and Altamira on the Xingu River. The large property has river frontage of one kilometer on the Xingu River in the heart of the Amazon jungle.
Goals:
- To challenge teams from the USA to assist the region in constructing new churches for a week-long period, and then provide a location where these teams or any interested church worker could go for a few days of rest and relaxation while fishing for peacock bass.
- To construct the lodge house, dormitory rooms, tabernacle, and bathroom facilities to house the future youth campers
- To conduct a week-long youth camp for young people from the region
- To train Brazilian youth and pastors for the ministry of youth camps
Construction Teams
Constructions teams from various local churches in the United States visit our region to assist us in planting new churches. The construction period is generally for one week, with a day or two at the end of the schedule for relaxation through tourism or fishing. Church construction locations will be in cities or remote villages of the regions, and may involve transportation by boat, plane, bus, or VW bus.
Goals:
- To assist the groups in scheduling and logistics, providing the necessary materials and serving them as hosts in practical matters to make the construction process go as smoothly as possible
- To work alongside of the groups in mixing concrete, laying bricks, carrying materials, cleaning work sites, preparing meals, or any other task involved in the construction effort
- To assist some groups with street evangelism, child evangelism and VBS activities, youth ministry, clothing distribution, or other activities conducted alongside of the building team
Ministry to Youth and Children
75% of the population of Brazil is under 29 years of age. In order to reach the harvest in Brazil, evangelistic ministries must specifically target this strategic age group.
Goals:
- To serve the local churches in preaching and teaching on subjects of interest to youth
- To assist ministries directed towards reaching the children, such as the feeding programs conducted in Santarem and Manaus, by participating in arts and crafts, teaching, music,
- To provide training to children’s workers and youth workers from the local churches
- To assist in ministries directed towards reaching youth: sports programs, English language schools, youth camp ministry, visitation, worship and music ministries, etc.
- To teach English to Brazilian youth and to South American missionaries in training
Missiological and Ministerial Training
The experience in Brazil will not be a tourist experience, but will involve actual training and will challenge interns within the reality of missionary life.
Goals:
- Orientation and training within a missiological community of experienced missionaries, providing mentorship and formation for future ministry
- Confrontation within the reality of missionary work, preparing candidates for future contextualized ministry in reaching unreached people groups around the world
- Team ministry with Brazilian youth and leaders, as well as with South American missionary candidates in training
- Ministerial training integrated into local church ministry through teaching and preaching, and including all types of evangelistic outreach followed by the discipleship of new converts
- Integral formation involving spiritual, character, relational, cross-cultural, and ministerial formation
- Dynamic integration between academic training received in the USA and the practical application in cross-cultural ministry
- Integral evaluation of the calling and gifting of each candidate as a point of reference and recommendation for future cross-cultural ministry