FROM CBN NEWS

Brazil may be most famous for soccer, samba, the Amazon and the statue of Christ the Redeemer towering over Rio de Janeiro, but in Christian circles Latin America’s biggest country is renowned for its large number of missionaries carrying out the Great Commission.

Brazil is second only to the United States in terms of sending missionaries across the nation and out into the world.

Their approach is far from typical, as these missionaries use everyday jobs and personal connections to carry their faith across borders.

CBN News traveled throughout Brazil to see first-hand how the people behind this global movement are redefining what it means to serve.

“BRAZILIAN MISSIONARIES DON’T PREACH, THEY SERVE”

From the bustling metropolis of São Paulo with more than 22 million residents to small villages half a world away, Brazilians are being called to spread the message of Jesus Christ.

They include 45-year-old missionary Daniele Silva from the city of Belo Horizonte.

“I’ve known about missions since 2005, but I decided to answer this call in 2014,” she revealed.

Instead of preaching from a pulpit, Daniele serves coffee in small cafes she has opened in the Middle East and Asia – places where traditional missionaries aren’t often welcome.

“In addition to generating income for that nation and generating local jobs, I can build relationships with people,” she told CBN News.

“AN OPPORTUNITY TO BUILD RELATIONSHIPS AND LATER SHARE THE LOVE OF CHRIST”

“With each person who enters, in my case a coffee shop, it’s an opportunity to make friends, to strengthen relationships, and over time, share the love of Christ with others.”

She has faced plenty of barriers, such as new languages, strange foods, and unique cultures.

“In the beginning, I had a lot of difficulty communicating,” Danielle admitted.

“I didn’t know the language. Food was another shock. It was very spicy compared to what I’m used to in Brazil.”

“I also traveled to very remote areas where there were no roads, and the conditions were so tough.”

“BRAZILIANS HAVE THE ABILITY TO CONNECT WITH PEOPLE”

Marcelo Crivella, a well-known evangelical pastor turned politician, once served in several African nations, including South Africa.

“The Brazilians can connect. I was the only white person in the middle of this great crowd during the time of apartheid, when Whites and Blacks couldn’t talk to each other. It was forbidden by law,” he recalls.

He remembers those days with fondness. “I would love to go back there.”

Marcelo says Brazilians’ natural warmth, hospitality, and cultural diversity help their missionaries connect across borders like never before.

“WE CAN GO EVERYWHERE BECAUSE WE’RE A MIX OF EVERYTHING”

“Here in Brazil, we are not red, we are not white, we are not yellow, we are not black, we are Brazilians.”

“We are a mix of everything, that’s why we can go and be accepted in all these countries.”

Today, a total of 400,000 missionaries are serving around the world.

The United States is the number one missionary-sending country, deploying roughly 127,000 of those missionaries.

Each year, about 38,000 Brazilians take the Gospel across the planet.

“BRAZILIANS HAVE A DEEP UNDERSTANDING OF GOD’S COMMAND”

Dr. Todd Johnson, a leading religion researcher at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Massachusetts, says Brazilians have a deep understanding of God’s command to go into all the world and make disciples.

“Brazilians have done a wide variety of things from planting churches to working in hospitals, to doing aid work of various kinds in some of the toughest places in the world,” he told CBN News.

They’re also changing how missions are done.

“Brazilian churches want to grow and expand to other nations, so they realise the traditional way of doing missions needs to be challenged and reshaped,” explained Breno Vieitas of Last Call missions

NEW MODEL OF MISSIONS HAS MISSIONARIES WORKING REGULAR JOBS

Breno spent 13 years serving in Mozambique and Spain.

He says the old model of raising support can be tough, especially on families.

“I remember being so concerned about raising funds as a missionary,” Brent recalled.

“We had so little, and what little we had, we shared with the Mozambican missionaries.”

MAKING MISSIONS SMARTER AND MORE SUSTAINABLE

Now, he’s leading a nationwide push for Brazilian churches to encourage missionaries to work regular jobs while also serving in ministry.

His objective is to make missions smarter, more sustainable, and more effective.

“I’ve returned to Brazil now from the field to mobilise our churches for this new vision,” he told CBN News.

“My goal is to spend the next several years raising a new generation of Brazilian missionaries who can be more effective in the field.”

That includes reaching for tough territory, even in places like Europe.

“EUROPE IS NOT DEAD FOR MISSIONARIES”

“No, Europe is not dead, we are just getting started,” insisted Rebeca Teixeira, a Brazilian missionary to Europe who is part of this new generation.

With the Brazilian Foursquare church, her family has planted churches in Portugal for years.

Now, she travels across the continent, encouraging young believers to reclaim Europe for Jesus.

“My heart is to empower and encourage these young leaders wherever they are,” she told CBN News.

“If it’s in Portugal, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, I don’t care — a place is just a possibility to see the action of God.”

“This is what South Americans really think of: legacy — enduring, lasting legacy — throughout families and generations.”

TWO MILLION BRAZILIANS JOIN ONLINE RALLY FOR MISSIONARIES

In 2020, Brazil made history when 140,000 young people packed three stadiums for The SEND, a 12-hour rally to mobilise a new wave of missionaries.

Nearly two million more joined online.

One of the most powerful moments came as tens of thousands of Brazilians lifted their shoes in the air as a symbolic pledge to take the Gospel to the nations.

“Missions is done in the following way: It is with the hands of the ones that give, the knees of the ones that pray, and with the feet of the ones that go,” Rebecca elucidated.

She’s just part of this new wave of Brazilian missionaries being trained to work bi-vocationally and blaze a path, not just about passion, but also about sustainability, as they carry the cross of Christ to all nations.

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