It’s the largest country in South America – the fifth largest in the world – with a population exceeding 211 million people. It is the leading exporter of numerous commonly consumed products, including beef, sugar and coffee. It is home to both the world’s largest rainforest as well as its fifth most populated city. We are talking about Brazil – a nation of vastness and contrast.
Thanks to your gifts, Harvesters Ministries is training pastors and planting churches from within the depths of the Amazon to the centre of the urban cities. One such region is Minas Gerais.
The Work in Minas Gerais
The southeastern state of Minas Gerais sits along the urban coastline of Brazil, where most of its population is concentrated. Harvesters began work in Minas, Brazil’s principal coffee-producing region, in 2018. At that time 11 pastors started their Harvesters training and, before the pandemic began, they had finished Phase B, ‘Preparing for Ministry’, and had planted their first churches.
Betim
The first church, led by Pastor Lourisvaldo, was planted in Betim, a city near Belo Horizonte. It opened in 2019 with 19 members and has since grown healthily in the knowledge of Christ and in the number of new converts.
In 2020, four people were converted in the midst of the coronavirus crisis. This year, the small church has already reached seven new believers. Each member of the church has learned through discipleship what it really means to be a church, to bear witness and to evangelize. They have practiced this, and the result is that people in their families who previously did not believe in Jesus are now giving themselves over to Him.
Santa Helena de Minas
In 2020, the Betim church planted its own church through evangelism in Santa Helena de Minas, Pastor Lourisvaldo’s hometown. Santa Helena is a city located in a rural region totally lacking in hearing the true Gospel of Christ Jesus.
Pastor Lourisvaldo has been making regular trips to disciple a group of people in this city and develop the faith of new converts.
Although the pandemic has hampered face-to-face meetings, much of the discipleship in these two churches, Betim and Santa Helena, has been done through virtual meetings.
