Chris has just returned from a productive trip to the country of Brazil. In collaboration with Great Commission Youth Ministry (one of our Global Youth Coalition partners), we are looking to train 35-45 leaders through the first-ever Master’s Degree program in Youth Ministry in Brazil. This training will be utilizing our Youth Ministry Strategy program. It is our vision and passion to equip these ministry leaders to do ministry in a healthy, balanced, and Biblically-modeled way.
Here’s what Chris had to say about the trip and the pictures shared above:
Thank you to the hundreds of people who commented on our posts and offered to pray for my trip to Sao Paulo, Brazil to establish collaborative relationships with some fellowships and seminaries there!
I just returned from that trip and as you see here in the pictures we’re working with the Word of Life Ministries, at their Bible Institute there. You can see in these photos, we worked together for several days working out all the details for the very first master’s degree in youth ministry ever in the country of Brazil. In addition, I met with a key Pastor there and also the director of Word of Life for the whole country of Brazil.
I was also able to have some strategic meetings with the Alliance World Fellowship president, Rev. Dr. Jura Yanagihara, who oversees all the Alliance Churches around the world.
Thank you for your prayers!
About Word of Life Theological Institute
From their website:
Pioneered by Harry Bollback and Harold Reimer, Word of Life Brazil was the first international outreach of Word of Life Fellowship. With a growing burden to reach young Brazilians with the gospel, the Brazil ministry was officially established in 1957. The first youth camp was held in Atibaia the following year with 300 young people. Today, the ministry is led by John Reimer and based near Sao Paulo where it includes a four year Bible Seminary program with over 200 full time students, youth camp, the Estancia – a Bible conference center, weekly marriage and family seminars, and the EMME singing group.
About Alliance World Fellowship
From their website:
The Alliance family is diverse and united. More than 400,000 believers worship in 31 languages in more than 2,000 U.S. Alliance churches, with 30,000 Alliance churches throughout the world.
Following Jesus is not intended to be a solitary journey. As a family of believers, we uphold each other in the faith, bring comfort when needed, celebrate life together, and combine resources to accomplish God’s work. We can do much more together than we can do apart. That is the challenge our founder, A. B. Simpson, gave to believers many years ago. And that is what has made The Alliance one of the most effective missions organizations the world has known.
When it comes to sharing the reason for our hope, faith, and joy, we reach more people when we work together. Our partnership in building Christ’s Church worldwide is getting the job done!
We hope you, too, will join the thousands of people who regularly participate in the worldwide work of Alliance Great Commission Ministries.
About Ministries in Brazil
From an article on the growth of evangelical Christianity in Brazil in 2023:
Evangelical churches have grown 543% in 20 years in Brazil, according to a survey carried out by the Centre for Metropolis Studies (CEM) of the University of Sao Paulo (USP).
In 1990, there were 7,033 evangelical churches in the country. In 2019, the number increased to 109,560, with 17 new churches opening every day.
Evangelicals, who were a minority in previous decades, could become a majority in the coming years, the researchers expect.