End of Course Report!!!
Hey once again!
So, we have finished the outreach phase of our course and we are happy to have some rest while we look back on the last 5 ½ months. So I am writing to you the last update of the outreach; a summary of the whole course so that we can refresh your minds of the events and rejoice with us for all of the amazing things have happened!
Most of us didn’t have specific expectations, we just wanted to put our faith in God and see him move in mighty ways to establish his kingdom in Serra.
We set ourselves a very high target which we were not fully able to meet.
The last 6 months at a glance…
The course started on 28th September 2007, in Muizenberg, South Africa, where a total of 6 staff and 13 students from all over the world came to spend 6 months living and working with one another. Our purpose was to learn how to plant a church in another nation, to raise up local, indigenous people to lead their own church and see the church go from there to other areas in order to set up new churches (multiplication).
Lecture Phase
The first 3 months of the course consisted of 12 weeks of lectures where speakers came each week to teach on different topics that were related to church planting. We learnt how to live with other people who were from completely different cultures, nations and had different languages in order to appreciate more of the rest of the world that God has created and increase our abilities in being able to adapt to other cultures – something that would be useful and valuable later when we came to Brazil.
The lecture phase was very intensive and we covered a huge variety of subjects; ranging from how to resolve conflicts to looking at different world views, to discipleship and leadership, to Missions, Spiritual Warfare and money, to Church History. We learnt so much in this time and felt a lot more prepared for the practical outreach phase of the course for it.
Outreach Phase
The latter 3 months of the course consisted of 11 weeks of building the church so that we could leave it firmly planted when we left.
Arrival in Serra, Brazil
We arrived here on the 28th December and, straight away, met with our host church. The church, situated in Laranjeiras (about 20 minutes away), called Igreja Evangelica Vida were to help us in our task by sending us translators to come with us every day in order to talk to local people about God, communicate the gospel to them and invite them to weekly Bible Study groups that we were setting up. The church also provided us set many things up for us before we arrived and took care of our needs throughout our time here.
The beginnings…
We started our work by praying around Serra and asking God what the obstacles were to the Gospel effectively impacting the community and engaging in spiritual warfare. Later we continued by meeting local people and building up friendships. We developed strategies on how to begin conversations but also be honest about our purposes here.
The process was slow at the beginning but began to speed up and we soon had several groups started. We discipled them, using teaching based on the commands of Jesus, which we had learnt on outreach.
Seeing God move!…
We were stretched beyond our limits and had to work hard whilst putting our faith in God to do what was impossible for us. God came through for us in significant ways. Some of us saw disciples set free from alcohol. Other disciples found work, received inner and physical healing, were reconciled with family members and grew in their zeal for the Lord.
We were overjoyed to see God work through us in spite of our limitations, weaknesses and sometimes lack of faith. We could never have done this work without members of Igreja Evangelica and some other volunteers who helped us with translation, prayer and encouragement. We really learnt about the importance of working as a team, about partnering with a church etc.
With God everything is possible!…
We reached out to around 500 people and saw a total number of 190 adults come to Christ through our ministry. We began a church in Serra Sede; in the centre of town. Several of our converts testified about how God had worked miraculously in their lives. One man told the church how God had shown him in a vision two of our team coming to him, before he met them. This was a response to his prayer that God would show him which church to attend and what the real truth was. Another young man shared about how God had provided work for him. A young woman told how God had rescued her from a suicide attempt and had restored her through the work of some of the missionaries.
Looking back…
Looking back at this outreach phase, we can say it has been an amazing experience for us. God has taught us about perseverance, faith, taking on more responsibility, about staying passionate for Him and focussed, about working in an international team. In terms of ministering cross-culturally, this has been a training ground for us and we trust and pray that we will be able to use what we have learnt in the future. It has been a privilege to part of a church planting process and we have really enjoyed reaching out to the people and showing them God’s love. We have learnt how to work strategically to bring people into God’s kingdom and back into the body of Christ. We have met a great number of people who have fallen away from living for God so we have seen that God has used us to ‘bring home the prodigals’ and rebuild the walls of the church. It has been fun to be on God’s winning team and to observe, first-hand, people’s lives changing over the last three months.
Working together as team…
It was amazing to work together with every member of our team. We can clearly see that we needed each member and could not have done this work without them.
You made this happen too!…
We want take this time to thank each and every one of you that have taken time to read the updates, pray for us and God’s work here, for those who have supported us financially and those who have encouraged us and maintained contact with us… we could not have done this work, as well if not at all, without you. You have played a very important part and we value every single one of you.
Thank you!
The SCCSM Church Planting Team
Geraldo, Adelson, Stefan, Lorena, Emanuel, Victor, Jono, Dan, Steven and Anna
