MISSIONÁRIOS IN PIAUÍ, BRAZIL
I am a Portuguese man born in Mozambique to Indian parents (Goa), married to Sandra, who is Brazilian. From our love (marriage), we have four beautiful children: Rebeca, Carina, and Dário, born in Portugal, and the youngest, Érika, in Piauí (Brazil). With so much racial, cultural, and religious mixing, I feel a sense of existential uncertainty. To which God clarifies for me that: “…my ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:9b). Trusting in the ways and thoughts of the Lord, I am informed that, after all, I am a heavenly citizen (Hebrews 12:22) and that my mission is to promote the kingdom of God here on earth (meaning, “…to the ends of the earth” – Acts 1:8b).
Our goal is to plant churches, make disciples, and cooperate in building social infrastructure in communities, such as schools, health centers, and water wells.
I was called to be a disciple of the Lord Jesus at the end of 1993 through evangelistic studies at the Bible Action group, but also through youth camps. I met my wife at the Bible Action group in Cascais. At the time, I was a soldier in the Brazilian Army, where I served for almost 9 years. From November 1994, already married, we became founding members of the newly formed Bible Action group in Ouressa, led by the missionary couples Castro and Carpenter. In March 1999, during a visit to the Castro couple’s mother church in São Paulo, Brazil, God, in His irresistible grace, called us (yes, Sandra too!), in a missions service where the preaching was centered on the text of Isaiah 6:8: “…whom shall I send, and who will go for us? And I said, ‘Here am I. Send me!’” The focus of the missionary work in that service was the interior of northeastern Brazil.
Obedient to the call, we have been serving the Lord in the interior of the city of Teresina, Piauí, Brazil, since December 2001. It is a place of extreme need, located in the village of Bom Jardim. There we reside, evangelize, and teach. Since August 2002, the Lord has led us to serve Him by founding a small school with preschool education. The text from Micah 6:8, “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God,” was the word God gave us, confirmed daily in a practical way in our lives and in the lives of about 70 children who attend the “Come to Me” school every day. The “Families with Christ” ministry was born with the school and, subsequently, the planting of a local church.
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