10,000 people hear the Gospel in the Amazon

Do you happen to know how many people your District hopes to reach with the gospel in 2020? Is it hundreds, or thousands? Well, in 2019 the Amazonian Ecclesiastical Mission Region (known as REMA in Portuguese) of the Methodist Church in Brazil reached at least 10,000 people with the gospel between March and December, through one single outreach activity, repeated only 6 times in the year.

I am in Brazil with the Vice President designate Carolyn Laurence, and we have had a fascinating day learning about the outreach of the REMA hospital boat to the Amazon communities along the Tucumã river. The church in this region gathers a group of medics and evangelists, from Brazil and from overseas, who visit several communities for 6 days at a stretch, offering vital medical care and more importantly, vital spiritual care. Evangelists share the good news of Jesus Christ with communities, and where there are people within the communities who make firm commitments of faith, they are in turn discipled and trained to become local church leaders. The boats can house 22 medical personnel and evangelists, and the REMA district would very much welcome British Methodist medical personnel to take part in this powerful mission outreach.

The REMA District is a growing district of the Methodist Church in Brazil, and the District Bishop, Fabio Cosme, shared his four areas of focus: prayer, evangelism, intimacy with God and discipleship. As we prayed on the mission boat together before we departed, and as I reflected on what we had learnt that day, it was evident that this is a District that does nothing without prayer and without first seeking God. It is a District that harmoniously brings together social outreach with evangelism and without shame, and as with other places that I have visited in Brazil, encourages its members to develop a deep intimacy with Christ. May we open our hearts to learning from our partners and use these biblical strategies to build God’s Kingdom in the UK.

Every blessing,

Sandra

bishop fabio cosme second from the left

carolyn lawrence and pastor max in the mission boat medical store

rema mission boat