Welcome to our 2024 Brazil Missions Page
July 2nd – 18th | We will post updates about our 2024 Brazil Missions team and updates throughout our trip in July.
Stay up to date here, so check back often.
July 16th – 18th
Hello church family!
We’re finishing up our time here in Brazil, thank you for your prayers and support as we were here to serve alongside Pastor Ewerton and Natasha.
July 16th, We spent most of the day working at the church. We were able to clean and get it ready for this week’s service, as well as some of our guys set up some technical equipment for the church. We had some issues at first, but praise the Lord we were able to make sure everything came together.
The rest of the day we prepared the things we needed to in order to be ready to leave.
July 17th, of the members of church, Marcía who is an English teacher, wanted to take us on a hike up one of the main mountain in Peruíbe. Us and John (the student we met on the English night) hiked through a small part of the jungle and ended up at a secluded beach. We swam in the ocean and hiked some giant rocks to that overlook the water. It was awesome to walk through God’s beautiful creation, as well as spend time with members of the church who just wanted to love on us and spend time with us.
In the evening, we joined the church family of Calvary Peruíbe for a goodbye barbeque and fellowship. We all gathered together at a local event center and enjoyed delicious meats, salads, pastas, and desserts – all lovingly prepared by the church members. Lively conversations and laughter filled the room. It was also our opportunity to perform our skit and puppet show for them, which was special. It felt like a grand finale to our work during the week.
As the evening wrapped up, it was time for the hardest part of the missions trip – saying goodbye. It was a bittersweet time full of hugs, tears, and kisses. We’ve made so many wonderful connections in our short time here, and it’s definitely hard to say farewell so soon. Thank you church family at Calvary Peruíbe for your warm welcome and wonderful hospitality! We love you all.
July 18th, today we finished the final details to leave. In the morning we packed our suitcases and weighed all our bags. Then Pastor Ewerton wanted to take us to see one more area, the local market where vendors set up their stands and sell all sorts of fruits, meats, souvenirs, etc. Pastor Ewerton and Pastor Paul treated us all to some final pastels and sugar cane juice. Afterward we made our way back to the hotel where we gathered the last of our stuff and said our final goodbyes to Pastor Ewerton, Natasha, Gabriella, and a few church members.
We loaded into the van, made our way to the airport where we now begin our 24+ hour travels.
Please pray that we can rest and have safety as we come home. We can’t wait to see you all and tell you about all the wonderful things God did here in Brazil.
July 14th – 15th:
Hello family at Calvary Prescott! God has been so good. He’s protected us each day and given us numerous opportunities to see Him work in us and through us. We started the day on Sunday, July 14th with great anticipation. Throughout the week, we had been inviting many people to church, and we were all eager to see who would come and what God would do that evening.
Before service, there was a lot of preparation to be done. We spent most of the day cleaning the church and getting everything set up. Jesse and Sara prepared to run kids ministry, Benji and Corey set up sound and media, Hayden and Jackson helped with worship, Nate prepared a message to share, etc. It has been really cool to see everyone work together so well as a team and how we each have specific skills and knowledge that benefit in different ways.
Finally, it was time for service! Little by little, smiling faces came through the doors and greeted us, until as worship begun, the room was packed! The space was filled with familiar faces, first-time visitors, and even a few people we had invited during the week! Two people we had been praying for, Lucas and John, both came and Lucas even brought his younger brother. After service they all joined us for dinner. Please pray that God would continue drawing them to Himself and that they would eventually place their faith in Christ.
Like the week before, worship was a sweet experience. Singing some verses in Portuguese and others in English, Pastor Ewerton and the worship team did a great job cultivating an environment of unity as we all sang praises to God together. Next, our whole team was invited to the stage and the church congregation prayed over us. It was humbling and encouraging to have all these people, most of whom you’ve never met and can hardly communicate with, praying for you so passionately. Afterwards, Nate taught on the wonderful freedom we have in Christ and Dave shared his personal testimony of how God pulled him out of the bondage of sin and into the freedom of Christ.
We closed out the evening with dinner with Pastor Ewerton, Natasha, Gabriella, Douglas, John, Lucas, and David (Lucas’ brother). It was cool getting to know them a little better and we hope they will continue to stay connected with church after we leave. Overall, Sunday was a really awesome day of seeing God at work!
July 15th,
Pastor Ewerton took us to an old nearby city called Itanhém, which is a native name that means “the singing rock.” This city was founded by a priest who came and preached the gospel to the native tribes during the mid 16th century. We were able to visit beautiful areas along the coast where he would sit and read his Bible as well as go to the peak of one of the mountains that overlooked the city. There we had our daily devotional time together.
After that, we had lunch and Pastor Ewerton showed us a bit more around the city. Specifically, he took us up a steep hill where a 300 year-old church sat. Unfortunately we weren’t able to go inside, but it was still cool to see the historical site. While we were up there, we were even greeted by some monkeys.
The Lord really blessed our last weekend here in Peruíbe! There are only a few days left for us to finish the plans God has left, and we are ready for whatever it’s going to be!
July 12th – 13th:
Hello Church, Thanks for keeping up with what’s going on here in Brazil, God has been so faithful!
July 12th, we spent the day getting ready to have an outreach at a square where some shops and other events were happening. The forecast said it was supposed to rain most of the day and most of the night, so we spent the whole day praying that there would be no rain and we’d be able to go out and spread the Good News. God answered our prayers because we were able to go out and set up all of our equipment with no issues from weather at all!
While we were setting up, a man and his son came riding through on their horses, and let some of our team members ride the horses. We told them what we were doing and they said that they would come back and watch our drama when it was time, and they did.
Once we were finally set up, we started with worship led by Pastor Ewerton and Hayden, which drew a few people in to watch the skit. So we quickly got ready to perform. As we were starting, there were several distractions of people and technical issues, but we all trusted the Lord, did the skit, and God did an awesome work.
One family stayed to watch the whole event, and Pastor Paul and Pastor Ewerton were able to speak to them when it was over and invite them to Sunday’s service.
It was a fun and somewhat chaotic evening, but God blessed it very much.
The main focus for Saturday, July 13th was putting on a women’s event at the church to launch Calvary Peruíbe’s women’s ministry. Natasha, Hethur, and the other ladies from the church had been faithfully planning and preparing for weeks, and we were all excited for what God would do.
Before heading to the church to get things set up, we enjoyed lunch at the nearby buffet. While eating, we ran into a good friend from 2 years ago: Leo! Last time our team came to Peruíbe, he had been one of the English school students who had helped us translate. It was certainly a God-ordained “coincidence” to encounter him at the restaurant and chat with him for a bit. Earlier in the week, we also reunited with Douglas – another student translator from our past trip. Please pray for both Leo and Douglas as they become adults, pursue their careers, and go to college – that God would watch over them and draw them close to Himself.
After lunch, we walked over to the church and got to work setting things up for the women’s event. The ladies did an excellent job with decorations and food. Walking into the room, you could tell a lot of love and care had gone into preparing for a sweet and memorable time.
The evening started with heartfelt worship and then Natasha spent some time laying out the purpose and vision behind the women’s ministry at Calvary Peruíbe. After that, Hethur gave the main teaching for the night on what the Bible says about the role of women in marriage and in the church. The women were all blessed by the message and several of them came to Hethur afterwards to talk and receive prayer. We can’t wait to see how God works through all the wonderful women here at Calvary Peruíbe!
We’re nearing the end of our time here in Peruíbe and it has been such a blessing. Please keep us in prayer as we fellowship with the church and seek to leave them encouraged and energized for what ever God has in store
July 10th – 11th:
As every day, we started with breakfast and then made our way to the church. There, we spent time cleaning and setting up for the second Men’s event which would be held later that night. When we were finished, we locked up the church and started to walk back to the hotel. However, we took a detour to walk back down the beach instead of taking the roads we’d typically take. On the beach, we got coconuts to drink and then walked along the shore until it was time to go up toward the hotel. After that, we met Pastor Ewerton and the family for lunch.
When that was finished, we had some time to rest before the Men’s event would start, then earlier that evening, we made our way to the church to finish the preparations for the event. Soon after, the girls left with Natasha to have dinner and finish some preparations for the upcoming Women’s event, While the guys waited for the men to show up.
It was really cool to see several of the men from the last event come and hear Nate’s message on how God teaches men to love and treat their wives. It seemed to be well received, and afterward a few guys even came up for prayer with Pastor Paul, Pastor Ewerton, and Nate.
It was awesome to see God continue to work in the lives of the men here at Calvary Peruíbe, and we are continuing to pray that God will use us here to teach and encourage the church body.
The next day, July 11th, we had the opportunity to visit Instituto Eu Acredito, which translates to “I Believe Institute”. It is a small Christian-based school and we were able to spend the afternoon there with children. We performed our puppet show and skit, and then had an absolute blast with the kids making balloon animals, putting on temporary tattoos, and doing face painting.
Many memorable interactions took place while we were at the school. For example, Hayden was blessed by a little girl who beautifully sang a Christian song for her in Portuguese. We also got to talk with the staff after the kids had left, and it was great hearing their mission to love on, educate, and share the Gospel with the kids in the surrounding low-income community. Before we left, we gathered around the owners and prayed for them as a team. It was a really sweet time and we can’t wait to see how the Lord will work through their efforts.
Later that evening, it was time to prepare for the weekly prayer meeting at the church. While at a grocery store near the church, some of the team had the opportunity to talk with a family and then an employee about our missions trip and Calvary Peruíbe. It’s been cool to see how God has continually put people in our path to engage with! At the church, the prayer meeting was a wonderful and encouraging time of heartfelt prayers and praises to God. There’s something very special about believers of different languages all praying together in unity and love.
Finally, to celebrate Pastor Paul’s birthday, we wrapped up the day with some iconic Brazilian pastels for dinner. The crispy pastries stuffed with ground beef, various cheeses, and other delicious toppings really hit the spot after a busy day.
We’re more than halfway through our stay here in Peruíbe, and we could not be more thankful and joyful to be apart of what God’s doing here through the church. Please continue to pray for safety, strength, and opportunities to share the Gospel. We love and miss you all!
July 8th – 9th:
On July 8th, we woke up to rain, slowing our plans down for the morning. So, to get the day going, we ate some breakfast and had our devo together. After we finished getting ready, we piled into a van which took us to a group home. Children live there who came from terrible situations with parents and families. For the protection of the children, we weren’t even allowed to take photos with them. However, it didn’t quite work out the way we had planned.
When we arrived, the staff told us that there were only two girls there because most of the kids had gone to stay with relatives in other cities for a special Brazilian holiday held on the 9th. So we went in, and were greeted by two teenage girls and a little 2 year-old boy. We put the puppet show on for them, made them balloon animals and gave them special face paintings of whatever they wanted. Despite the change of plan, and the short time we were there, God blessed it very much.
After we left, Pastor Ewerton took us to see the lot where the new church is going to be built. The location is in a neighborhood with a public school across the street. While we were there, we were able to pray that the Lord would put all the pieces in place for the new building. It was awesome to see the place God provided where the official foundation of Calvary Peruíbe will be laid!
On July 9th, we spent the day in the city Santos, which is about an hour and a half drive from Peruíbe. It was our opportunity to rest and enjoy the day together as a team with Pastor Ewerton, Natasha, and Gabriella.
As we arrived in the city, we were welcomed by bustling streets, beautiful greenery along the shoreline, and a good dose of rainfall. We marveled at the massive cargo ships leaving the Port of Santos, which is the largest seaport in the southern hemisphere. From there, we visited an aquarium and then went to a delicious Brazilian steakhouse for lunch. The waiters would walk around with various meats on long skewers and cut off servings right at the table. All the food was amazing!
Afterwards, we enjoyed a nearby coffee festival as well as visiting the oldest building in Santos, which is now a coffee museum. Overall, the day was a special time for us to experience some key characteristics of Brazil, fellowship as a team, and recharge after a busy few days.
All in all, we had a slower couple of days, but God was still extremely faithful and blessed our time much more than we could have ever expected. With the team being halfway through our trip, we are still excited to see the great work God is going to do.
July 6th – 7th:
Hello church family!
Thank you for keeping up with our experiences here in Peruíbe. Your prayers mean so much to us!
On July 6th, we woke up to rainfall which canceled our plans to spend the morning working at the church. Instead, we started making plans for a 4th of July party to host at the church that evening. Local English school students would be coming to experience what an Independence Day celebration is like in the United States.
Later at the church, we started cleaning and setting up the space for the party, which included wiping down the church’s large glass doors. As they were being cleaned, one of the door’s hinges came loose, so some of the guys spent some time trying to fix it. They weren’t able to completely fix it, but they were able to get to be able to open and close. However, as the final screw was being tightened, the door came loose again and with a loud crash, the glass door suddenly burst into a million pieces – covering the floor and inflicting minor cuts on some of the guys. We were all in shock. After we made sure everyone was okay and bandaged the wounds, the glass was carefully swept up and a large wooden slab was cut to fill the gap in the entrance. Overall, it was both a shocking and saddening experience, but we were all just thankful no one was seriously hurt. Thankfully, the rest of the party preparations went smoothly and the excitement really started to kick in with patriotic decorations and music ready to go.
That evening, we started the party with ping-pong and other games. It was great meeting the students and helping them with their English. Some of them had such great English, you would never have guessed it wasn’t their first language! After games, Jesse gave a brief talk on the history of July 4th, the Declaration of Independence, and the Founding Fathers. Next, Nate talked about the meaning behind the American flag as well as explaining how the colors and stripes remind Christians of Jesus and His death on the cross.
We wrapped up the night with food, some fun group dances, and a team trivia game. Many meaningful connections were made with the students, and we can’t wait to spend more time with them later during our trip!
On July 7th, the team was focused on getting ready for the Sunday evening church service. That morning we had breakfast, and then Pastor Ewerton picked Jackson, Hayden, Corey up and took them to the church for Worship Practice. A couple of hours later, the rest of the team showed up to clean and set everything up. After that was finished, we had our daily devotional time together, and then went to lunch. After lunch, we all headed back to the hotel for a few hours to rest. When it was time, the team got ready and headed to the church to finish the final preparations for service.
When members of the church started showing up, several of the team lined up in front of the door to greet them. Many handshakes, hugs, and even some kisses were exchanged. One of the people to walk in was an older woman who, as she came down the line, gave each of us a hug and a big kiss on the cheek. While it may have been a bit odd for us, Pastor Ewerton later told us that she is a very sweet and very affectionate woman who was like the church grandmother.
We then all entered the sanctuary to begin the service with worship, and then a message from Pastor Paul about trusting in the promises of the Lord. God really blessed our time with around 70 people showing up when a typical Sunday for Calvary Peruíbe is around 40. After the service, several people stayed to talk to us, and we even met someone we would have never expected.
A man approached Pastor Paul and explained that he runs a food truck and that he remembers us eating there from the last time we came in 2022. He said that he had no idea we would be there this time, and that he decided to attend that night “coincidentally,” though of course we know that nothing happens coincidentally, and that it was appointed by God for the man to attend on that specific night. We were also able to see several others who we met last time.
Overall, God blessed our time with the English students and the church service, and the team walked away feeling encouraged and excited for the rest of what God has instore.
July 4th – 5th:
July 4th and 5th were packed full of amazing opportunities and interactions! God has been so good in guiding our steps in the people we’ve met and the places we’ve been able to go.
We visited two centers for orphans and underprivileged children: Instituto Relfe and Colônia Veneza. Both were very special times for the team to spend with all the kids. We were able to present our puppet show and the drama, teaching them the Gospel and how much God loves them, and at Instituto Relfe, the children were very excited to perform several choreographed dances for us.
The rest of our time at the centers was spent hanging out with the kids and doing things like facepainting, temporary tattoos, balloon animals, and playing games. Paul, Nate, Jackson, Jesse, and Sal even played a soccer match against some of the kids. Despite our team’s best efforts, the energy and skills of the Brazilian boys proved to be more than us Americans could handle – We lost.
While we had many opportunities to bless the kids, we were also very blessed by them. Their big smiles, friendly hugs, and overall excitement made for many memorable interactions. An example is a little girl who came up to Nate as he was pumping balloons and simply told him “I love you” in English, which meant a lot to him. Another example was when we arrived at Colônia Veneza, the children greeted us in a long procession led with a hand-painted sign that read “Welcome friends of calvary church” in Portuguese. We felt very welcomed and loved!
A very special part of our visit to Instituto Relfe was a woman who all the children call Tia Mardi (Aunt Mardi). She has faithfully served at the center for 20+ years, knows all the kids by name, and lovingly hugged each of them as they arrived for the day. When Pastor Paul was talking to the children about God’s love, he used Tia Mardi as a picture of how God wants to embrace and love each of us. As the kids heard this, many of them stood up and ran to hug Tia Mardi (shown in picture below). It was such a touching moment. Before we left the center, Tia Mardi shared her testimony with us of how God healed her of cancer and encouraged us to never stop trusting God, no matter what happens. She also expressed how thankful she was for our visit and that the drama really blessed her.
Later, we held a Prayer meeting at the church. Similar to our Men’s and Women’s prayer, members from the church showed up and we all sat around in a circle praying. It was amazing to hear how passionate their prayers were even when we couldn’t understand what they were saying and knowing that God heard every word!
The next day, some of the guys went to a nearby market to pick up some water and snacks. While waiting in line at the checkout, Benji dropped some water bottles and a kind Brazilian man named Rodrigo ended up helping him out. Benji thanked him in Portuguese and then he responded with “don’t worry about it bro”, in English! Benji and Corey started talking to him and it turns out that he owns a gym right next to Calvary Peruíbe. Meeting him turned out to be completely ordained by God, because he was able to help us translate when we had a difficult time checking out. As we were leaving, we tried to invite him to the upcoming Men’s Event, but he told us that he had to care for his sick wife. So, we told him we’d be praying for her and that we hope to see them at church soon.
Later that night, we held the Men’s Event at the church. The men of our team arrived early to set up, and soon after the men of the church, as well as friends they invited, began to show up. We then ate some food and had fellowship, trying to get to know them mostly through the translator app on our phones. After that, we began with worship which was led by one of Pastor Ewerton’s faithful servants named Gastão, then Nate gave a powerful message on Biblical Manhood. The event went very well, and several of the men received it, so we plan to do another Men’s event next week.
We are so grateful to God for all He has been doing thus far, and are looking forward to what else He has in store! Thank you all for keeping us in prayer as we host events at the church and do street evangelism next week. Some of the team has also been starting to get sick, so please pray that we’d be restored to health and that God would give us the energy we need. We love and miss you all!
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Read MoreNov 09, 2017July 2nd – 3rd:
Hello church family!
We miss you all and want to thank you for your ongoing prayers and support.
We spent all of July 2nd and most of July 3rd traveling from Prescott to Brazil, and even after 25 hours of continuous travel, the team was ready and excited to make the trek to Peruíbe.
Our Travels kicked off at 6AM in the church parking lot, where Pastor Raj prayed over the team, and after saying our final goodbyes, we boarded the vans with Don and Leo behind the wheels. We arrived at Sky Harbor Airport and, after a bit of chaos checking 19 bags, we got through security with no issues, and boarded the plane to Houston.
Pretty quickly, we were able to make some new friends. On the flight to Houston, Hayden sat next to a kind woman named Jan who works for Smokey the Bear. Towards the end of the flight, Hayden was able to explain what we were doing, and Jan assured us that she’d be praying for our trip. Later, Hayden made a great connection with the flight attendant, named Theresa, on our way from Houston to Sao Paulo. Theresa had noticed our team shirts and explained how her sons regularly go on mission’s trips, and that she was very excited to meet a team going to share the gospel in Brazil.
Pastor Paul and Nate also had the opportunity to converse with a Christian couple named Phil and Lorrie while we waited to board the flight to Brazil. They were on their way home from a missionary conference in Cyprus and were exhausted after all their travels. Paul was able to pray that their missionary efforts would be blessed, and that God would get them home safely. It was great to encourage and also be encouraged by fellow believers busy making disciples!
Soon after, we met up with Dave and we all boarded the 9-hour flight from Houston to Sao Paulo. We arrived in Brazil exhausted, and quickly made our way through the airport. After getting through immigration and customs, we were greeted by a smiling Pastor Ewerton as he led us to the vans that would drive us to our final destination: Peruíbe.
Along the way, we made a brief stop at a convenience store and enjoyed our first taste of Brazilian food: pão de queijo (cheese bread). While we ate, we were approached by a couple of curious girls and their father who had heard us speaking English. The older of the two girls knew some English and excitedly welcomed us to Brazil, while the younger told us “Jesus te ama”, which means “Jesus loves you” in Portuguese. It was a wonderful welcome to Brazil!
After a couple hours of driving, we finally reached our hotel and got settled in. We then had lunch, and went to Calvary Peruíbe where we had our first team devotional and met a few members of the church. Our days of travel were closed out with plenty of warm hugs, reflective Bible study, and an encouraging video call with our church family back at Calvary Prescott.
We are so thankful for how God provided such smooth travels with no delays, cancelations, or dangers!
