November 18, 2006

Missions Partnerships

The following comes from our mission website. Some neat stuff going on here.

mozambique partnership

Missions goes full circle when those reached, reach out and lead their own people to Christ. This cycle has gone on for many years around the world, but in Brazil, it's taken a further step. In 2000, Brazilian Baptist churches created their own missionary agency, Brazil Fundamental Baptist Mission. Their pioneer missionaries, Divino and Maria Amorim, have been in Mozambique since 2002, and their congregation now numbers 50.

In 2006, the missions cycle continued. Joel and Joan Troester, veteran BMM Brazil missionaries, signed on to help Divino and Maria and their new Brazilian coworkers, Odenilson and Maria Luiza, in a partnership ministry between BFBM and Baptist Mid-Missions.

Merging Brazilian and American cultures gives the best of both worlds for church planting in Mozambique. The Brazilians and Mozambicans share the same Portuguese language, and the Brazilians are looked up to as a big brother by the Mozambicans. Baptist Mid-Missions has more than 85 years of church planting experience to contribute, as well as the financial resources of North American churches.

Although this kind of partnership is relatively new for BMM, it follows the biblical “two by two” pattern of Christ sending out his disciples and of Paul and Silas. Teaming with their Brazilian coworkers, the Troesters will plant churches through evangelism and discipleship. Their target is to start several strong churches and then start a Bible school where the nationals can be trained to teach their own.

Joel says, "The Brazilians are the product of missionaries coming to them. They have been on the receiving end. Americans can learn from them concerning the things that were done well and the things that could be done better." Baptist Mid-Missions as well as BFBM hope to add more missionaries to the team in the years ahead.

Posted by Andrew on November 18, 2006 10:39 AM.