News > Latin America

Brazil-São Paulo  UBF

May 29, 2013

"He appointed twelve –designating them apostles—that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach"  (Mark 3:14, NIV)

I.  God's work in 2012

During 2012, all the leaders made a good fight of faith to follow Christ. Everyone prayed sincerely to make disciples. So I can say that all our co-workers fully agreed to pray with the same topic: Make disciples of Jesus.

By reflecting on the past year, I can see that God really blessed each of us, and made our faith, hope and love grow among us. So then, we thank and praise our God, who guided us to pray and build a church that is Christ-centered and full of brotherly love that creates disciples of the Lord.

We held the Latin America Directors’ conference in January, the summer conference in February, the leaders’ conference in April and the disciples’ conference in October. It was only by God's one-sided and wonderful grace that we served these 4 events. All this was possible through the hard work and sacrifice of all the members of the church. Through the conference of leaders and disciples, God established two second generation missionaries: Peter Park and Samuel Kim as disciples of Jesus. Thus, the two missionaries Nathan and Omar and the 3 second generation missionaries, Moses Park, Peter Park and Samuel Kim, became partners in the work of God.

Second generation missionaries got involved in the ministry by inviting students to Bible study and teaching the Bible one to one. In this way they served as shepherds and teachers for the students. Thus, they gave a good example for the ministry of the church, the missionaries and to the rest of the young generation. 

In September, brothers Loshua Park and Peter Park traveled to Venezuela to participate and serve the summer conference in Venezuela. Through this event they experienced the living work of the Holy Spirit and received God's great vision.

This year, God entrusted us his precious sheep and used us as his workers. They are Reinaldo, Henrique, Ghilherme, Daniel, Medeiros, Jackson, Diogenes, Alexandre, Eliseu, Rafael, João Tarifa, Mariana, Arturo, Alejandro, Wendel. These students have studied the Bible, the word of God, continually and are GROWING spiritually in the word.

Among them, brother Reinaldo is a fruit of our prayer. He is an alumnus of the Faculty of Engineering and is in the final year of the race. Although he lives in a mundane environment with unbelieving friends and works in a company, he has studied God's word regularly each week. I pray that he may be born again through the ISBC 2013 and have a personal encounter with Jesus Christ.

During 2012, missionaries Elias Park, Timoteo Han, Joshua Ahn and Kim Mateus, were used as messengers of Sunday worship. Through out study of the book of Revelation we received the power of spiritual discernment to see today's world with the eyes and heart of God.

Through God's word in the book of Revelation God worked in our hearts. We have faith in the second coming of Jesus and the hope of the kingdom of God. Shepherdess Ataiena and Jeanne, who married in 2011, became pregnant this year. They will have their children in 2013. May God supply all the needs of these house churches abundantly so they may raise their children in the Lord.

This year God blessed Missionary Joshua Ahn. For many years he was serving the ministry and working as a researcher at USP .This year he got a good job at the Consulate of the Republic of South Korea in São Paulo. We all rejoiced when we saw how God has led him and how he is leading this family. I pray that they can work with the attitude of the faithful steward, as Joseph son of Jacob, revealing the glory of God's work right through the consulate.

The key verse for our church in 2013 is 2 Corinthians 9:6: " Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously " By treasuring this word in my heart, I pray that we may be able to save lost souls, having the hope of the reward from God in the future. And I pray that we can make disciples of Jesus, learning from the Lord deeply through the study of the Gospel of Luke and Leviticus in 2013.

II. My Pastoral Life

When I was weak and stressed out, God called me near to Him. So then, not despairing because of my failures, I received the grace of the Lord at every moment. In times of trouble, God gave me a sincere desire to pray and, by the grace of God, I learned the power of prayer in this year. This has given me a desire to go deeper into the word and prayer.

Through my participation in the Latin America Directors’ Conference in January and the strategic mission forum, in November, God opened my eyes to see how God is carrying out his world mission work in this time and how He is using Brazil as a kingdom of priests and a holy nation to send missionaries throughout the world.

I want to serve the Lord's work and awaken from my spiritual slumber. So I pray fervently for Brazil and for the continents of Europe and Africa. I pray that God may help me to be faithful to his mission of making disciples of Jesus in Brazil.

I pray to continue to read the Bible and good books but also that I may continue to have the right attitude in my daily prayer life in 2013.

Missionary Elias Park