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I ask for only 4 minutes of your time for an important Video Update about exciting developments and decisions made toward a big transition for the next season of life and ministry. We are ending one chapter in Brazil and beginning a new one in the US.
(Sorry for the audio filter distortion because of wind and background noise. And the video was sped-up so it would fit within 4 minutes)
Strengthening in 2022
This second half of 2022 has been invested in specific ways in our ministry, our team, our church and our family (more on this post). Over the entire network of Campus Outreach the emphasis on "strengthening" has been repeated and encouraged. Seeing how the book of Acts clearly states this as an emphasis in the early church has been very encouraging. Here are just a few examples:
Acts 15:32 - "strengthen the brothers" was the focus of the Jerusalem leaders in visiting Antioch.
Acts 15:41 - "strengthen the churches" was the focus for Paul and Silas.
Acts 16:5 - "the churches were strengthened" was the result of Paul and Silas' ministry.
Acts 18:23 - "strengthen the disciples" was the focus of Paul's missionary team.
I want to highlight a few ways we are focused on STRENGTHENING on the following fronts:
CAMPUS MINISTRY
The first half of 2022 was our initial return to the campus after 2 years of pandemic hiatus. UFMG returned to in-person classes, and we were trying to find our bearings and also make new connections with the 50% turnover in the past two pandemic years. The second semester of this year provided us with more opportunity to organize our staff and think strategically about how and where to invest in relationships. God has really opened doors for us. Specifically, our team has made significant relationships and been able to engage in spiritual and significant conversations at the Physical Education/Physical Therapy college and the Engineering school. With so much unknown at the beginning of 2022, God has STRENGTHENED our initiatives and our impact on the campus.
COBH TEAM
Earlier in October, we had what used to be an annual Staff Retreat and Training that we call Staff Stimulus. The last one we had was in 2019. This year was a time to get away from the routine, spend quality time together and STRENGTHEN our interaction with training presentations and discussions about community and contextualization. Our church pastoral staff and our Brazilian Advisory Board joined us this year and God used it to open up some important conversations about how we think about the culture and context in which we are inserted on the campus and also about our fellowship as part of the body of Christ and a ministry team.
CH CHURCH
Campus Outreach has a rock solid commitment to the local church, and our tenure in Brazil has had a lot of investment to STRENGTHEN our hub church. I have served as an elder since 2007, Tathiana spent 10+ years as the volunteer children's director and more recently I have walked side-by-side with our new pastor who was confirmed right at the beginning of the pandemic in March of 2020.
A memorable event in the past weeks is Pedro Albuquerque - my friend, former discipleship brother, my co-laborer and now my boss! - was confirmed as an elder in our hub church, Comunidade Horizonte. It was a celebration of God's desire to see this ministry and this church be led by godly men who are committed to the local church.
Also, Tathiana and I have had a drive to STRENGTHEN some of the marriages of leaders in our church. From opening up some impactful counseling tools that have helped us with some couples with young families to pre-marital counseling with one girl from Tathiana's last discipleship group. It isn't easy, it requires a lot of personal energy and spiritual warfare. Our desire is to see these couples have an impact because of their spiritual and emotional maturity in their homes.
God is moving and active in our midst, please pray that we would be used as agents for His love here in Belo Horizonte.
Family Calling
in Personal
In the next few weeks, we will be opening up more about how we used this year to evaluate and think about the best way to strengthen our family and our personal ministry for the next season of life and ministry.
We have dedicated time to prayer and consideration of the next ten years of life and ministry. We have enjoyed celebrating how God has worked in us and through us, and continue to be excited about what He can and will do in the next chapter for our family.
Please stay tuned for more via our updates and social media accounts. Thanks!
3 Jobs
Sometimes I feel like I have 3 full-time jobs. Hear me out, I'm not complaining. As a veteran on a missions team, there are always a multitude of opportunities to contribute. There's never a dull moment! As I try to maintain a balance, sometimes I need to put it all down on paper to help sort things out. Please process with me.
JOB 1:
Our Leadership Team for CO Belo Horizonte, under the leadership of our Regional Director Pedro Albuquerque, is always "on"; especially this semester. We are in the first semester back on campus in 2 years of hiatus due to COVID-19, and there are lots of executive and strategic ins-and-outs as a result. Our team is doing a great job re-inserting themselves into the new campus reality (50% turnover in student body, new campus regulations - basically starting over on a campus we have spent 20+ years). Thoughts about the future of our team and initiatives are always on the radar. Shepherding and pastoral needs abound on ministry teams, and post-COVID is no exception. We are trying to lead like Jesus, with resolve, grace and mercy.
JOB 2:
Almost two years ago, we took a big leap in the pandemic to establish a non-profit to be our operational arm here in Belo Horizonte. Primarily meant to run our English initiative and be above reproach before the Brazilian authorities, we also used the new organization to rebrand our campus ministry under the name "Multicampus" - a more contextualized option for the Brazilian college campus. This year I took the lead for structure and operations for the non-profit and the campus ministry. It's been a lot of discovery and working out kinks in terms of how it all fits under the umbrella of our ministry team and structure. The financial reality is also very new - working with accountants and software for processing English class payments under a fairly heavy Brazilian bureaucratic system of taxes and reporting. I like being able to use my creativity in the rebranding, but there is a lot of competition for those hours I could dedicate to developing a visual logo, organizational model and social media presence.
JOB 3:
And lastly, equally important in our overall ministry is church leadership. I have been leading our Elder Board at Comunidade Horizonte since our previous pastor transitioned in 2019. This has included a "few" big things…preaching a handful of times per year, pastoral search process, confirming a wonderful new Brazilian pastor at the very beginning of the pandemic, a very limiting urban COVID context, closing out location due to limitation in the pandemic and moving to a temporary location - and now in 2022, working alongside our Elders and Pastoral staff to enact a reaction strategy coming out of COVID this year. Churches have been hit hard - because PEOPLE have been hit hard by the pandemic: divorces, strained relationships, job losses, health problems, and a spiritual lethargy that is hard to overcome. We are working hard as a church to move back into a place of direction, vision and strength together with our members to reach within and without, under the grace of God.
Continue to pray that these efforts are not in vain, and that new leaders are being developed to take the reigns in the coming years.
20 years of Teams
in Team, Personal, Admin & Resource, Campus
In celebrating the past twenty years in Brazil for our 20/20 Giving Campaign, I want to highlight the privilege of serving with a TEAM over these two decades; a dedicated, faithful, multifaceted and multicultural team. Campus Outreach holds teams as a value, as an important part of who we are and what we do in ministry on the campus. Not only are the ministerial benefits significant, but my personal experience and growth has been multiplied so much more because of the teams with whom I have served.
Although our team is constantly shifting and changing, my experiences on the CO team in Belo Horizonte can be characterized by the following chapters of my 20 years and my role on the teams which they span.
2002
Newby: 2002-2004
When I arrived in Belo Horizonte, the original launch team that landed 4-5 years previously was still here. They had paved the way for many things and had understood the need for contextualizing our ministry approach. I looked up to them all. During this time the first generations of Brazilian staff were hired. This was a time to really learn about personal ministry and my understanding of the gospel in real life.
2007
Growth: 2005-2007
There was growth in three specific areas in the second chapter. First, our team and our campus communities were growing because of the fruit of new believers, discipleship and new staff. Still, the majority of the original launch team was still laboring with their young families. Second, I began my new family! Tathiana were married in December of 2006. Thirdly, 2007 also birthed the church plant of Comunidade Horizonte, our local church authority.
2010
Baptism by Fire: 2008-2011
August 2008 began one of the hardest seasons of my life. It, also, was the season that God moved me to embrace the leadership He had in store for me and the personal growth and maturity in my sanctification to become more like Jesus. Our team had many staff leave, both in harmonious, need-based transitions and also in contentious, combative division. This affected both our growing campus ministry and our young church. This was also within my first two years of marriage. It was very, very hard. This chapter resulted in a renewing of resolve and an opportunity to step-up to lead when others had stepped away.
2018
Resource Director: 2012-2018
For about seven years, I had the joy of contributing to our mission and our team via our operations. I took on a role I knew I was gifted and prepared for, but in which I had no experience, nor a subteam to work alongside me. Our renewed team and once again growing movement was in need of structure for the long-haul. It was sweet to provide in these ways in order for the campus ministry to push forward in confidence knowing that the operations were being handled. We developed and recruited what we call a Resource Team, and I handed the reins to that team off because God had prepared others to take over.
2022
Experienced Veteran: 2019-2022
The current chapter began in 2019, when I was already serving on our Leadership Team, and when I made the move back to the campus and to shepherding staff and executing our strategic plans. The team is younger (or we are just older) and I now meet freshmen who were born after I moved to Brazil. However, that's what a veteran is. Even as a church "elder" on our session of elders, I continue to see God using our gifts, experience and commitment to the gospel ministry here in Belo Horizonte and Brazil.
Nations & Generations
in Discipleship
As we get closer to my 20-year mark on staff with Campus Outreach, I want to celebrate one of the reasons I have continued in vocational ministry. The motive that drew me to work with Campus Outreach was the commitment to life-on-life, multiplying discipleship. Simply stated, it's what I believe Jesus did as the framework of his earthly ministry and what we see in the New Testament, both in the foreground and background, in the primitive church and on the early mission field. The charge Paul gave to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:1-2 has been my motivation in ministry for decades, "You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others."
During the first 10 years in Belo Horizonte, there were many men in my life with whom I had the absolute privilege to engage in discipleship. During those years, from 2002-2012, I was much younger, had no children and related on more of a leader-peer level. Those were very sweet times, because the men I led were also my dear friends. Times were not always easy, and today I don't have the close relationship with all of them I did then; even some who criticize me today. However, I continue to press on because this is what I believe the Lord has for me.
Below I will highlight a few names and faces. These are men who have continued to dedicate themselves to the generational impact of discipling men in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. There are many who will be left out, and I do not mean any ill-will towards anyone. For the sake of readability, I am attempting to keep this short, while also celebrating all the men who have continued to dedicate themselves to the generations among different nations around the world; Brazil, USA, the UK, and beyond.
Thiago
Thiago, was my roommate for years after he became a Christian. He is small in stature, and soft spoken by nature, but the Lord is using his very potent dedication to the Scriptures in big ways. Thiago is a leader and elder in our local church in Belo Horizonte. He was a deep-thinking, The Matrix trilogy-loving, frugal college student full of existential questions to which he didn't have any answers. How I love seeing him, his equally impactful wife and his growing family every Sunday as he worships the Lord and, at times, teaches from the pulpit.
Pedro
I met Pedro when he was 16 years old; a spiky-haired teenager all about Judo and having fun. His sister was involved in our community, and he came along for the fun parts. The Lord worked on him. What a testimony of the ministry of purposeful friendships that ask hard questions and don't shy away from even harder answers about God, sin, purpose and eternity. Pedro and I had a long discipleship relationship because he came to Christ before ever starting college. Pedro was one of the guys I considered a "purposeful non-hire" - meaning that I purposely did not want him to come on staff because he was ready to go into the marketplace to make an impact. However, God had other ideas…better ideas.
Pedro came on staff in 2015, fruit of a process that confirmed his character, his vision and his gifting for joining our staff team. By 2019 he had grown in leadership and experience, positioning himself to take over as our Administrative Director and leading the Admin team. His wife, Priscila, has been on staff with our team since 2008. Together they have grown into a couple that leads by example and by conviction, and driven by the grace of God in their lives. In 2020, in the midst of the global pandemic, Pedro officially took over as our Regional Director of CO Belo Horizonte, the first time a native Brazilian has been in overall leadership in our 20+ years of history. It has been amazing to see all this unfold, and to support him in his Christlike leadership.
Alan
Alan was the guy that wanted to do everything during college. If there was an opportunity, he was involved. So when this group of US exchange students arrived on campus with our Cross-Cultural Project in 2002, this wide-eyed freshman was all about it. That was just a start, because what began as an opportunity to refine his English grew into a real friendship. I'll never forget when Alan asked me one day, after a few years of already studying the Bible and asking hard questions about God and faith, "If I never become a Christian, will we still be friends?" That took me by surprise, but also challenged me to check my own motivations; if I loved these students conditionally because of ministry, or unconditionally because of Christ in me?
Alan did in fact become a Christian. Immediately, he was a man captivated by gospel. Over the following years we dug into the scriptures and Alan wanted to be as involved as possible with what our team was doing on his campus. He got his family involved in church, in Bible studies; his immediate family, his extended family, his classmates and so many others. He quickly knew that this was what he was going to do for the rest of his life. He made sure we knew his desire, and didn't take "no" for an answer. Alan came on staff in 2006 and worked directly on the campus for years as a Campus Staff and as one of our Campus Directors. Many things coincided among his experience, family and desire to lead that culminated in Alan, his wife Júnia and their little boy moving to the UK to partner as a CO staff with a church plant in Manchester. Today, they have moved to Birmingham, England (not Alabama!) to continue to labor with a Campus Outreach team that is reaching out to the multicultural campuses there, with direct ties to more nations than I can list here.
Diego
Diego was that guy on campus who joined a Bible study group in order to prove me wrong. I mean, he was a law student and really smart, so what risk did he run? Well, that backfired because he became a Christian in 2010 and never looked back. We were in a few different versions of discipleship groups for several years, but our relationship has only grown closer. Today, Diego is my brother-in-law! He married Tathiana's sister, Fabiana, in 2015.
Diego is a professional, not on staff. He, in many ways, is what I long to see more often in and through our ministry - dedicated Christian professionals stepping into the marketplace, raising first-generation Christian families and committed to the ministry in and through the local church. His struggles and battles to believe and hold firm to his faith are much different than those of us in vocational ministry. But, to be directly involved in his struggles and see his faith grow deep roots in order to sustain the oftentime desert-reality of the marketplace is amazing. Jesus sustains; Diego and Fabiana have been a testimony of this truth. Their generation is growing as they welcomed their first child in November of last year. Maybe one day they themselves will go to the nations outside of Brazil.
60% - The Good and The Ugly
Sixty percent (60%) is more than half, but not quite full. Sometimes 60% is really good. Sometimes it's just plain ugly.
Let's get to the ugly first:
60% is about how normal our return to Brazil has been since January 23rd. When we expected schools to start-up in February, COVID-19 got in the way. In Belo Horizonte, elementary schools have been delayed from starting in-person classes for the new school year until Feb 14th. Our kids, and Tathiana, thought that was really ugly.
Our COBH team was planning our first team-building retreat since September of 2019. However, COVID-19 got in the way and we decided to cancel for now as we had several positive COVID tests pop-up on the team and in our church.
Our car needed some service, nothing major, but because of a lack of mechanics and parts caught in the supply chain issue, we are on day 4 of being "car-less". That limits what we can get out and do by about 60%.
Overall, life and ministry feel about 60%. That's not a complaint, it's still just the overall reality of a late-stage pandemic in a tropical metropolis.
The good 60%:
Our trip to the US for connection with family and supporters was really great. COVID-19 did limit us some, as during the end of the year the Omnicron variant was in full swing in Chattanooga, TN and Birmingham, AL. We had several meetings canceled and overall decided to not expose ourselves close to our return trip as not to test positive and risk not making our flight back to Brazil. So, the trip was a great 60%. It's better to have a 60% visit than not come at all!
Lastly, our 20/20 1-Time campaign celebrating 20 years on the field has closed its first 2 months, and we are happy to report that we are already at 60% of the goal, with over $12,000 in donations so far. Thank you to all who have donated, encouraged and prayed for this important campaign.
Please continue to pray for us as we try to live-out 2 Timothy 4:2, "preach the word; be ready in season and out of season."