Our first stop was Pr. Dino’s small house behind the church. We went in and had a little breakfast snack before heading over to the training center. Pastor Dino though living in the same city had never heard about the training center and did not even know it existed. He was eager to go with us for a visit.
Immediately upon our arrival to the training center we met Pr. Mario. He and his wife live there and direct the ministry. I guess you could imagine it something like a year-round camp.
At the present, there are around 35 Indians living there. They come from several different places around the area and represent eight or nine different ethnic groups. Most of these are from 16-30 years old. Among this group there are two married couples.
This training center is set up for one main reason, but kills several birds at one time. The main purpose of the center is to train the Indians to become evangelists to their own people. It is a simplified Bible institute for the indigenous people.
Each morning these students sit in Bible classes and practical classes in which they learn how to share the Gospel with other people. They are taught how to draw their own stories in order to illustrate Bible truths to people who have no Bibles and in some cases, no written language at all.
In the afternoons all the students are put to work. The men work on construction of dormitory buildings, gardening, and are also taught a variety of other skills that will be very useful to them in the future. The ladies are taught how to cook and also take care of cleaning all the buildings and houses.
At night all of these students study in the public schools to increase their knowledge of Portuguese, Math, Science and other such subjects.
Transportation is very difficult, but the leadership is trying to get these students into different churches around the area for ministry on the weekends. They want them to get hands on training before they are sent back to their tribes.
Keeping in mind who these people are and the need to get the Gospel back into the tribes, the goal is to do what you can while you have them. Most of these students do not even have an elementary education. Therefore, this is only a two year program that attempts to give them a high school level Bible teaching enough to help them return to their tribes and share the good news of the Gospel.
One of the most interesting things to me was meeting a young man who calls himself “Phillip”. He comes from very far away. As a matter of fact, he is the one that came from the furthest distance. Yet, he knew other Indians that I have met before. I have met some of his relatives and also some of his friends. He knows other missionary friends of ours also.
It is amazing that even being hundreds of miles away from home in a place where no one speaks your native tongue, you can meet people that know your family. God is doing a work in this young man’s life. Though his family is somewhat against him, he knows that God has a great purpose for him. Since he has arrived at the training center, he has been notified that he would be next in line to be tribal chief and needs to return to help his family. However, he knows the Lord wants him to be trained and wishes to learn more before he goes back to his tribe.
Please pray for these students! This is one of the dreams I had before coming to Brazil – training the Indians to send them back to their own people to share the Gospel. God is at work answering prayers! Though these people may not be exactly like us in every way, we are able to encourage and help them in some ways. Who knows what the Lord may do through this.
–Jeremy
