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Our Story
The Lord has blessed us with the privilege of having served Him as missionaries in the country of Brazil. It was over 52 years ago when we first arrived in Brazil not knowing the language and knowing little about the culture. What we found was a people who are full of energy and life. As one of our visitors once said, “The light has not gone out of the eyes of the people.” Although the overall conditions of living create a continuous struggle to maintain daily life, Brazilians are generally happy, generous people. Over the years, the living conditions have improved for many Brazilians. The culture has always been based strongly on the family and tradition, and this remains so even in the modernized Brazil.
Spiritually, Brazil has a mixture of many different religions from Candomblé (a type of Voodoo) to Christianity. Among the European descendants, the Roman Catholic Church was the dominant religion. The Candomblé and other spiritualistic religions had their beginning in Africa coming to Brazil with slavery and from indigenous Indian tribes of Brazil. In some areas of Brazil, these spiritualistic religions were accepted by many of the European descendants creating a mix of Roman Catholicism and Spiritualism. Protestantism has been in Brazil since the colonial days. It along with what is know as the Modern Evangelical Movement has grown in its influence in the past 30 years. Evangelical and Baptist ministries arrived in the latter half of the 1800s. In general, Brazilians are very open to discuss spiritual subjects creating an open door to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Our years in Brazil have opened up many opportunities to serve the Lord. We were involved in personal evangelism sharing the truth of a new and eternal life promised to those who put their faith in the Person and work of Jesus Christ receiving Him as their personal Lord and Savior. The Lord gave us the opportunity to participate in the establishing 18 local Baptist churches that are pastored by Brazilian national pastors. We taught in three Bible institutes helping to prepare men and women for the Lord’s work in Brazil. We know of over 20 who are in full time ministry because of training received in these schools. In 1990, we were involved in the establishment of a Brazilian mission which now has 30 missionaries in Brazil and other countries.
The Lord blessed us personally as a family. Our five children were raised among the Brazilian people, and, to this day, they and we continue to love Brazil and her people. We have two Brazilian daughters-in-law and one Brazilian son-in-law. One of our granddaughters was born in Brazil. We have deep roots in Brazil.
In 2023, because of health issues, the Lord moved us to the States. We continue to serve Him both here and, though somewhat limited, in Brazil. We welcome you to look through the pages of this site where we share some of the aspects of this needy mission field and what the Lord has accomplished through the ministry He began through us so long ago. Our prayer is that God will encourage your heart to continue to pray for the ministry in Brazil. Your prayers for God’s leadership for our present ministry are coveted as we minister here in person and in Brazil by way of the internet.
What We Believe
The Bible
We Believe in the infallibility and inerrancy of the whole Bible having been inspired or God breathed by the Holy Spirit to the human writers making the Bible the only authority and rule of faith and practice. We believe that God has preserved the copies of those original writings through the Masoretic Hebrew text of the Old Testament and the Textus Receptus text of the New Testament. The King James Version is the only fully reliable English translation available.
The Trinity
We Believe in the personal triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, equal in essence, perfection, and glory.
The Creation
We Believe in the Genesis account of creation as the inspired testimony of the divine Creator. According to the Genesis account, the eternal God created from nothing all that now exists in both the physical and spiritual dimensions. We believe that scientific examination must start with this premise, and when it does, there are no conflicts in its conclusions, rather it supports the biblical statement.
Satan
We Believe that Satan is a literal created being having be part of those creatures called angels. Because of his own personal pride and through his own volition, he rebelled against God´s authority and has become the archenemy of God and man. Through his influence and leadership, one third of the angelic hosts also rebelled. He introduced this same rebellion to the human race by tempting the first woman, Eve, to disobey God. Because Adam and Eve followed Satan´s leadership, the entire world came under the dominion of Satan through sin making him the unholy god of this world. His eternal destiny, along with all the other fallen angels and unconverted sinners, is the eternal lake of fire.
Jesus Christ
We Believe that Jesus Christ is the incarnate, eternal Son of God who, by means of the virgin birth, became the unique Person, complete God and complete man, sinless and perfect in both His divinity and humanity. We believe that He lived a perfect life and, by His own will, determined to set aside the manifestation of His divinity and glory to live as a man in obedience to God the Father and to be directed and empowered by the Holy Spirit. We believe that His very Being and perfect life qualified His suffering and death to be substitutionary in character for all mankind but efficacious only to those who believe. Because of His redemptive work, Jesus Christ is the only Savior of sinful men and is the exalted Lord before whom every knee shall bow and every tongue confess His lordship.
Resurrection and Return of Jesus Christ
We Believe in the bodily resurrection and ascension of Christ into heaven where He is preparing an eternal mansion for all those who have trusted in Him and received Him as Savior. We believe that Jesus Christ will first return in the heavens to take, by resurrection and transformation, all those who have believed in Him to be with Him eternally. After seven literal years, He will then return personally and bodily to establish His earthly kingdom promised to Israel by the prophets which will last for one thousand years. At the end of the thousand years, all those who have not accepted the pardon of God through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ will be resurrected, judged and condemned to eternal damnation in the lake of fire. Those who have been redeemed and have received eternal life will remain in the presence of God for all eternity in God´s new heavens and new earth.
Holy Spirit
We Believe the Holy Spirit is a divine Person and not just an influence. He is the divine Comforter promised by Jesus Christ to His disciples before His death. The Holy Spirit indwells, secures, teaches, guides and capacitates every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the divine Administrator of the churches of Jesus Christ. He is also the divine Person who convicts the unsaved person of his sin, of the perfect righteousness required of God, and of the judgment upon the sinner for His sin and unrighteousness. When a sinner repents and believes in Jesus Christ, it is the Holy Spirit that regenerates him making him a new creature in Christ. This is called the new birth resulting in a new nature and eternal life.
Spiritual Gifts We Believe that miraculous spiritual sign gifts ceased when the Bible was completed because the Word of God is its own authority and authentication. There was no further need of those sign gifts which were specifically intended for the Jews. The spiritual gifts of faith, hope and love continue as the evidential and motivational gifts in the lives of true believers.
Man
We Believe that man was created in the image of God as recorded in the book of Genesis and that he lived in innocence in the garden prepared for him by God. He was created to live in a perfect relationship with God. God created him in innocence putting a test of obedience before him. He lived in this state until he fell from his innocent state by voluntary disobedience to God commandment to not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Adam’s sin of disobedience resulted in every human being born with a sin nature placing all of humanity under the dominion of sin and Satan from the moment of conception. This sinful nature makes him seek independence from God being dominated by his own selfish desires making him live in disobedience to God and His law.
Sin and Sin Nature
We Believe that sin is disobedience to the commandments of God. The original sin began with Satan when he rose up in rebellion against God because of pride in his heart. Sin was brought into humanity when Adam and Eve followed Satan’s temptation to disobey God. Adam’s sin of disobedience resulted in every human being born with a sin nature placing all of humanity under the dominion of sin and Satan from the moment of conception. This sinful nature makes him seek independence from God being dominated by his own selfish desires making him live in disobedience to God and His law. Because of the sin nature, the sinner naturally is disobedient to God. He is not taught or coerced into commiting sin and is completely incapable of having or attaining the righteousness required by God’s holiness making it impossible for him to be saved by his own efforts through works. This condition is the basis of God’s judgment upon all men because all have sinned and are thus unqualified to be in God’s holy presence.
Salvation We believe that through the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, God has provided pardon from man´s sin, a new nature and eternal life completely by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. His death, burial and resurrection provided both redemption and reconciliation. The only requirements to salvation are repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We believe that the Holy Spirit convicts sinners of their lost condition and creates the new nature in them upon their faith in Jesus Christ. He then seals, secures, and indwells every believer guaranteeing the believer’s present capacity to serve and his future position with God. Thus, we believe that all who trust Jesus Christ for salvation are eternally secure in Him to never perish and to eternally serve God beginning from the moment of faith in Jesus Christ.
New Testament Church
We Believe that Jesus Christ established His church in Jerusalem during His ministry on earth being a local, visible assembly of baptized believers authorized by Jesus Christ before His ascent to heaven. On the Day of Pentecost, the already existent church was capacitated by the Holy Spirit by the indwelling of every believer. We believe that the church as described in the New Testament is local and visible and the institution established and authorized by Jesus Christ to preserve and to preach the inspired Word of God in this dispensation. A New Testament church is a visible assembly of believers baptized by immersion by a New Testament church that have joined together in covenant relationship to carry out the Commission of the Lord Jesus Christ to preach the Gospel and to establish local visible New Testament churches of those who are redeemed by faith in Jesus Christ. Each church is an independent, self-governing body, and no other ecclesiastical body may exercise authority over it. We believe that Jesus Christ gave the Great Commission to the New Testament churches only, and that He promised the perpetuity of His churches from generation to generation until the end of this dispensation.
New Testament Church Ordinances
We believe that there are two ordinances given to the Lord’s churches: Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. These ordinances are pictorial and have no sacramental or saving merit. Scriptural baptism is the immersion of penitent believers in water, administered by the authority of a New Testament church in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Lord’s Supper is a memorial ordinance, restricted to the members of the church observing the ordinance. We believe that there are two divinely appointed offices in a church, pastors and deacons, to be filled by men whose qualifications are set forth in Titus and I Timothy.
Separation of Church and State
We Believe in freedom of worship without interference from the government and affirm our belief in civil obedience, unless the laws and regulations of civil government run contrary to the Holy Scriptures.