New homes for active growing congregations—that’s the good news for three of the Verbo churches in Brazil. In the last few weeks Verbo Jacarepagua in Rio de Janeiro and Verbo Alfaville in São Paulo inaugurated new installations to accommodate numerical growth and to better serve the needs of members and visitors with amenities like ample and safe parking (always a plus in Brazil), expanded Sunday school and kitchen facilities, and even a swimming pool.
New homes for active growing congregations—that’s the good news for three of the Verbo churches in Brazil. In the last few weeks Verbo Jacarepagua in Rio de Janeiro and Verbo Alfaville in São Paulo inaugurated new installations to accommodate numerical growth and to better serve the needs of members and visitors with amenities like ample and safe parking (always a plus in Brazil), expanded Sunday school and kitchen facilities, and even a swimming pool.
Building Project Will Start Soon{mosimage}
Meanwhile, after years of negotiating with the city government over permits, the main Rio de Janeiro church now has the go-ahead to build a church and school complex within walking distance of an Atlantic Ocean beach on the city’s growing south side.
Sergio Coutinho, presiding elder of the Verbo Ilha de Guaratiba (a congregation on the outskirts of Rio) and coordinator for the Rio congregations said growth has accelerated since the ministry began emphasizing prayer, especially for healing and the miraculous. “We are showing our people how to pray effectively for people’s needs and for the sick no matter where they find them: On the street, in stores, in church, on the beach. They are learning to express God’s love and power at all times and in all circumstances,” he said.
Prayer Is Priority{mosimage}
Their commitment to a culture of prayer and the manifestation of spiritual gifts in all the members is so great that all the ordained Verbo pastoral staff traveled to Ecuador recently for a week-long seminar and practice time on the prophetic and healing ministries sponsored by Verbo in Quito. Others traveled to Guatemala last year for a similar conference.
“All this has to do with our main theme, which is to show the world that the Kingdom of God is here now, and that Christians can and must make a difference in every area of human activity. We’re committed to prayer, but we’re also committed to other outreaches,” Sergio added.
{mosimage}Book Teaches Business Principles
“We just sent the Portuguese version of Doing Business God’s Way, by Dennis Peacocke of Strategic Christian Services, to the publisher and are preparing his course on business and finances to train businessmen and professionals about how to apply Biblical economic principles in their businesses and in the public arena.”
A third major area is education. Brazil, once heavily influenced by Catholic and Afro-Brazilian spiritist cultures, is becoming increasingly secular and humanist. Moral and ethical values have become highly relative. Drug use and sexual promiscuity are commonplace. Verbo is investing as much as possible in Sunday School facilities, materials and teacher training in order to provide badly-needed Christian instruction to as many children as possible.
Sunday Schools Get a Boost{mosimage}
“Developing good Sunday schools is the first step,” Sergio says. “We hope that the programs in our various churches will then be springboards for preschools and finally a grade and high school system like our churches in Central America have. The building we’re about to construct in Rio de Janeiro is actually a school building with an auditorium that will serve as the church meeting hall.”
In Sergio’s church the concept of education took a different twist when one of the ministers, Bruno Barros opened a Christian kung fu academy. Bruno earned black belt instructor’s status in China, turned the ancient kung fu philosophical base into a set of practical biblical principles that he teaches his classes as an evangelism tool and as a way to train young people in godly disciplines and values. The church has grown as the students’ parents have joined the congregation after seeing their offspring's’ positive changes.
{mosimage} {mosimage}
Your Involvement Is
Eternally Important!
We in Verbo Ministries represent a family of churches that believes in worldwide evangelism, the spiritual and functional unity of the Body of Christ, and the personal holiness of its members.We have established churches in 13 nations and are dedicated to preaching the Gospel and training men and women in Christian discipleship.We take to heart the statement in the Epistle of James 2:17, “Faith that doesn’t lead us to do good deeds is all alone and dead!” For this reason we have established schools, health clinics, and food distribution, vocational training, and other programs for the poor. We undertake emergency relief work whenever possible. We welcome partnerships with thosewho want to promote the Kingdom of God in all its aspects. We respond to all inquiries at our website, www.verbo.org
Tax deductible receipts are issued for all contributions.
{mosimage}