Our Ministry

OUR VISION: We will be on Mission with God to reap the harvest by bringing the message of saving faith in Jesus Christ to the urban poor population of the Greater Florianópolis, Santa Catarina area.

OUR MISSION STATEMENT: We will seize opportunities for personal witnessing to the unsaved and for co-laboring with local Baptist partners and other Great Commission Christians to be catalysts for beginning and nurturing church planting movements in the Greater Florianópolis area of Santa Catarina, Brazil utilizing methods which include social ministries directed toward the urban poor.

A. CHURCHES

Our Greater Florianópolis Urban Poor Team is working to mobilize church planting teams and use volunteer teams from the United States in strategic areas. In previous years we had worked with one church at a time. Most recently we had worked with the Forquilhinhas Baptist Church. We are currently working with four church planting teams to start churches in five areas: Bairro Ipiranga, Frei Damião, São Sebastião, Pinheira and Estiva. These are areas where there was previously no Baptist work. As we work in these neighborhoods, we depend on the leadership of the Lord to develop the best strategy for reaching each place. We are blessed to work with a very committed group of Brazilian Baptists and wonderful volunteers from our partnering churches who share our passion to reach out to the lost and to begin new churches.

I. BAIRRO IPIRANGA

The team working in this area is formed by our urban poor team and other people closely related to the Creche e Orfanato Vinde a Mim as Criancinhas (Let the Children Come Unto Me Orphanage and Day Care). The orphanage offered the use of a large meeting room in their facility for the evangelistic meetings. We began the work there by targeting the families of the children in the day care center as well as in the immediate neighborhood.

II. FREI DAMIÃO

This is by far the poorest community we have ever worked in. It is also a very rough neighborhood with a lot of drug problems and domestic violence. We pray that as more and more people come to know the Lord, the neighborhood will continue to change and that it will no longer have the reputation of being a violent, drug-infested, dangerous neighborhood. The church planting team we are working with there is also from the Jardim El Dorado Baptist Church. In 2002 and 2003 we had two volunteer teams from the United States that worked in Frei Damião at the public school. From October through December 2004, we had the Circo da Vida (Circus of Life) tent set up in the area. Along with other volunteer teams, many services were provided for the community: medical, dental and vision clinics, hair cuts, children’s activities, craft classes, and daily worship services. Now, after these years of intense work in the neighborhood, there are weekly meetings in 12 “house churches” there, many have been baptized, and the community is changing because of the presence of these Christians and the witness of the church.

III. SÃO SEBASTIÃO

This is a fairly new community with a lot of new construction going on. A Christian family moved there and opened a market. Through their strong desire to see a church planted, and joining with a church planting team from the Jardim El Dorado Baptist Church, we began work there in 2005. There is now a congregation there. Celso and Ilda sold their supermarket and the church meets in the space previously occupied by their store.

IV. PINHEIRA

Our team is working with a team from the Central Baptist Church in Kobrasol to reach this beach resort area. The people who live in this area permanently are typically fishermen or caretakers for the many summer homes in the  neighborhood. Pastor João and his wife, Vanessa, are living in the neighborhood and we are praying the Lord will show us the way to reach into the hearts of the residents of Pinheira.

V. ESTIVA

The community of Estiva came to our attention while writing a human needs project to help the drug rehab center for teenaged boys. It is the small community where the drug rehab center is located. It is a poor community and we have tried to meet some of the social needs along with preaching the gospel. The greatest social need of the area is the constant shortage of water. Through the Pure Water, Pure Love project of the WMU, we have just begun work on two wells for the community. God has already been opening many doors and we pray that the barriers to proclaiming the gospel in this neighborhood will continue to be broken.

B. SOCIAL MINISTRIES

As social workers our ministry here in Brazil has been with the urban poor population. For fourteen years Ron directed the Baptist Friendship House, and was there for one more year transitioning the administration into the hands of Brazilian leadership. In more recent years we have worked with small churches interested in beginning various types of social ministries. Together we have begun several very nice institutions designed to meet specific social needs. Ron has written twelve project-grants designed to create and maintain these institutions. Each one was written to ensure three basic procedures: 1) To offer a quality program designed to meet a specific need, 2) To begin a new church and 3) To leave the institution financially self-supporting.

I. BAPTIST FRIENDSHIP HOUSE (CASA BATISTA DA AMIZADE):

For the first fourteen years we were in Brazil, Ron directed the Casa Batista. With the help of many volunteers, we provided a variety of programs to the community, designed to help provide new sources of income, enrich their lives, and provide spiritual guidance. We had a day care program and classes in industrial sewing, haircutting and styling, manicure and pedicure, fast food cooking, party food preparation, flower arranging, typing, keyboard, guitar, English, gymnastics, embroidery, crochet, knitting, fabric painting, etc.

II. HOPE CENTER FOR EDUCATION AND TRAINING (CETE: CENTRO DE EDUCAÇÃO E TREINAMENTO ESPERANÇA:

The Barreiros Baptist Church of São José, Santa Catarina, Brazil began its social programs with a soup kitchen called Projeto Comida e Vida (Food and Life Project) in 1992. It later formed an association called the CETE with the development of a daycare program and semi-professional courses. It then created the CASA LAR, a temporary shelter with a capacity for eight babies up to two years of age. It has expanded its services with the addition of a new building that can house thirty more children up to 8 years of age. To help maintain these services they operate the CETE POINT PIZZA RESTAURANT/SCHOOL with total profits going toward operating expenses for these programs. Older boys and other “street kids” are trained to be waiters as well as pizza and short-order cooks. All of these programs continue to function with the purpose of providing a better life and a Christian witness for the residents and students involved. They also planned to take advantage of this opportunity to grow their church in the immediate community where the center is located and to plant other churches in neighboring communities, both of which they have already done. My involvement in this process began with the creation of the CASA LAR. SBC International Mission Board Hunger and General Relief Funds given by Southern Baptists together with several volunteer teams has turned this dream into a reality. You can see more about this ministry on the CETE website.

III. NURREVI: NUCLEUS FOR RECOVERY AND RESTORATION OF LIVES (NURREVI: NÚCLEO DE RECUPERAÇÃO E RESTAURAÇÃO DE VIDAS):

The NURREVI Project refers to a drug and alcohol treatment center for WOMEN which is a ministry of the Central Baptist Church of Kobrasol located in São José, Santa Catarina, Brazil withthe purpose of providing a Christian social service to meet a specific need and to also provide aChristian witness for the residents and to take advantage of the location to plant a church in the community of Maciambu, where the center is located. Weekly worship services are held in the community. International Mission Board Hunger and General Relief Funding along with several volunteer teams has turned this dream into a reality. The Central Church of Kobrasol has been actively involved in the project and are now working on starting a new church in Pinheira (Praia do Sonho). Ron has been involved with this project from its beginning. See more about NURREVI on their website.

IV. THE CVM LIBERTY PROJECT: DONA GENY JÚLIA FEIJÓ RECOVERY CENTER:

The Liberty Project refers to a drug and alcohol treatment center for teenaged boys which has been adopted by the Ipiranga Baptist Church, with the purpose of providing a quality treatment program, a Christian witness for the residents, and to take advantage of this of opportunity to plant a church in the community of Estiva, where the center is located. SBC International Mission Board Hunger and General Relief Funding along with volunteer teams from the Pavillion of Hope and For We Care in Calgary, Alberta, Canada have helped to turned this dream into a reality. Ron has been involved in leading Bible studies with the boys and in weekend activities such as horseback riding, camping, etc. You can see more about the total ministry of Vinde a Mim on their website. It includes a day care for 270 children, an orphanage for up to 30 children, and the Drug Rehab Center.

CADI – Centro de Assistência e Desenvolvimento Integral – Center for Holistic Assistance and Development

CADI is a ministry of the Jardim Eldorado Church. It is a community center located on land donated by the City of Palhoça that seeks to meet the social, physical and spiritual needs of a very needy community. With the help of many volunteers from partnering churches, the vision of having a ministry in the center of Frei Damião is becoming a reality. Phase One of the construction is almost finished and there are several ministries already in place: a daycare for 50 children, industrial sewing classes for 26 women, woodworking and computer classes for teens and adults, sports clubs and music lessons for children. The CADI has an adoption program in place that allows individuals to “adopt” a child, providing food, school supplies, uniforms, medicine and immunizations. These are children enrolled in the CADI. The families are also part of the program and receive some assistance in the way of training for entering the work force and assistance with obtaining necessary documents. Many of the residents of Frei Damião have made their living collecting trash and sorting through it to find recyclable items that can be sold. One of the ideas of the CADI is to provide other options for their livelihood and helping organize the recycling business to protect them from exploitation. A most recent project through the CADI was the Striving for Dignity Project. As we got to know the people of Frei Damião and visit in their homes, we discovered that many homes did not have bathrooms. With the help of General Relief Funds from the IMB, bathrooms were built for 17 families. Other urgent repairs were made on a few homes as well. Labor was provided by the residents themselves. They all helped each other build the bathrooms. This was just one more step to restoring dignity and showing God’s love in a very practical way. You can visit the CADI website to learn more about this ministry.

VI. Multi-ministry programs

We have also helped several churches develop multi-ministry programs in their own neighborhoods. Many times these include craft classes for women, tutoring for school children, English lessons, guitar lessons, cooking classes, etc.