A class project

Allison, Josh, Zeca, Rómolu, Patrícia, Carlinha and Ronaldo, the church planter from Altamira that has been working in Surubim.

In some previous posts I have written about our church plant in Surubim, a remote community about 4 hours from Altamira. I just got back from a trip there. This time, however, I used the experience as a practical learning experience for the training group I have been working with. Our group has been meeting together for a few weeks now, talking about missions and what it would be like for them to live in a community for 3-6 months and disciple the leaders. We learned some teaching material, and then went on this trip to apply what we learned.


Surubim was an ideal location because all of them had been there before and knew the main leader, Zeca. Also, recently a woman named Carlinha moved to the community from one of our churches in Altamira, and more importantly she had been through some leadership classes and involved in leading a small group in Altamira. She is excited about helping out and has been holding a small group in her home since arriving in Surubim this summer. Zeca has been through some leadership material already, but still feels a bit nervous about leading a meeting on his own. We hoped to encourage both of them and to help them logistically plan for how to move forward.

We arrived Sat. and took the afternoon to visit with Zeca, Carlinha and some other potential leaders. We explained that we wanted to meet with all of them on Sunday morning to begin training them as a group.

One of the logistical problems with this area is that the people are spread out over a large area. The people work all day and it is usually dark or getting dark by the time an evening meeting would start. A long walk through a dark jungle path, often in the rain, is difficult. That any one shows up at all is a testament to their desire to meet together. The distance between Zeca's house and Carlinha's is about 4 miles. We took a group from Zeca's house to Carlinha's small group, but we realized that it was going to be too far to expect them to go that distance when we weren't there to give a ride.

On the road to Carlinha's house from Zeca's.

Carlinha's small group, meeting outside her house

Carlinha is going to be a great asset to the fledgling group of believers in Surubim. We are hoping to help Zeca start his own small group which will meet weekly at his house, and then once a month the two groups can meet together for a larger church service.

Sunday morning, Allison, Rómolu, Patricia and I met with the leadership group, or at least what we were thinking would be leadership. In reality, when a group congregates out in the bush, it is normal for neighbors to just stop by and hang for a bit. So included in our meeting were several people who just happened come by, some not even believers yet. So they stayed and listened. We had prepared a lesson on how to study the bible, each of the three took a section of the material to teach. Next month we are going back and will be teaching about how to lead a home group. Up until this point the visits to Surubim had been primarily evangelistic, with several believers in the community it is now time to begin releasing them to meet on their own. For me, this is one of the most encouraging steps for a church plant, watching them begin to walk together in faith and taking those first few steps on their own.