BRAZIL

BRAZIL
Mission Aid Brazil Society, Box 34228 17790 - #10 Hwy, Surrey, BC V3S 8C4 missionaidbrazil@gmail.com
Spring 2015

A Note of Appreciation
by Iraldo Luna - Seminary Student

The afternoon knows. The afternoon knows what the morning

didn't even suspect." (Anonymous)
And alas our turn has come. Time to depart. Depart to the final
stretch of seminary. And it is with grateful hearts to God that we
say these words!
We faced challenges and so we learned. We learned a lot. We
cried and laughed many times. We threw conversations to the
wind, and to our hearts as well (as seminarian Elton says). We
learned even more, and with most certainty the importance of
having a home and of caring for a family. We had the blessing and
the joy of receiving our first two precious children, Julius and
Sarah. We entered here as one, one couple (husband and wife)
and left as five (a couple, father, mother, son and daughter), or
better yet, we left as more than 30, we left with a little from
everyone. We learned to love one another and learned that
people show love in different ways.

Schedule for Mission Aid Worker

Chris Boersemas visit to the Churches and Schools
April 10

April 12
April 13
April 14
April 15
April 16
April 18
April 19
April 20
April 21
April 22
April 24

9:00 am
1:30 pm
7:30 pm
7:30 pm
1:30 pm
7:30 pm
8:30 am
7:30 pm
1:30 pm
7:30 pm
1:30 pm
7:30 pm
7:30 pm
7:30 pm
9:00 am
7:30 pm
7:30 pm
1:30 pm
7:30 pm
9:00 am
10:30 am
1:30 pm

Imanuel Christian
Dufferin Christian
Carman West Church
Winnipeg Redeemer Church
Tyndale Christian
Coaldale Church
Coaldale Christian
Calgary Church
Parkland Immanuel
Edmonton Providence
Neerlandia Covenant Christian
Neerlandia Church
Yarrow Church
Langley Church
John Calvin School
Vernon Church
Prince George Church
Ebeneezer School
Smithers Church
Credo Christian High School
William of Orange & Credo Elementary
Cornerstone

And it is for many reasons that the John Calvin Institute (JCI) and
Aldeia Training Centre (ATC) will be in our thoughts, hearts, and
prayers. They will always have a special and memorable places in
our lives.
We would like to thank our brothers and sisters of the mission
boards of the Canadian Reformed Churches for all effort,
dedication, and prayers in the maintaining of the IJC and ATC;

Tour - April 2015

Come - see and hear whats going on

To the directors of the IJC, Pr. Julius VanSpronsen, and Pr. Kenneth
Wieske, and to all professors who came through here, for all your
efforts, for all your prayers, for each class taught, for the
teachings in the Word of God and also in the lives of each
seminarian; as well as to your families who showed support while

you assisted and understood all the efforts given by you brothers.
To the previous ATC administrator, Josinaldo Mendona, and to
the current administrators, Chris Boersema and Ryan Van de
Burgt, for caring for the details (that often go by unnoticed) in the
maintaining of the ATC and for our pleasure in the good use of this
wonderful place;
To the secretary of the IJC, elder Ademir Souza, for his patience
and dedication and for our meetings.
To our beloved seminarians brothers and their families for the
happy, sad, funny, and joyous moments we created together;
To our beloved brethren of the IRBs, of Ref. Churches of other
countries and other churches of Christ for your prayers, care, and
all your love dispensed on our families;
To Mr. Z (ATC employee) who so many times brought to our
porches the shoes and toys forgotten by our children under some
tree, or on the soccer field, and also (how could I forget!!!) for
arriving to work early and turning off the outside lights to our
common areas to save electricity.
To all who are, and were a part of some part of this story, our
thank you very much!
We ask you brothers and sisters to continue with your prayers in
favor of the seminary, the seminarians, the lives of our future
pastors and also current pastors and may all honor and glory be
given to our good and wonderful God.
Famlia Luna (Iraldo + Anny + Julius + Sarah)

Update on the Work of Shaun Raap

by Shaun Raap
During this past year, the year of our Lord 2014, I was able to
complete a variety of projects on behalf of the Mission Boards
(Aldergrove Mission Board, Mission Aid Brazil Society and Yarrow
ATC [Aldeia Training Centre] Board). One of the biggest
milestones accomplished was the passing on of a spreadsheet
created for the Yarrow ATC Board. All the funds that run through
CLIRE to the ATC are now organized with a simple-to-use
spreadsheet that tracks all money Yarrow has in Brazil. Now
Yarrow is able to see everything, from the reserve funds for future
projects to the caretaker funds at the ATC, from the comfort of
their own home/office in Canada.
Currently I am working with the directors of CLIRE in assisting
them with organizing the administration, more specifically, the
finances of C L I R E. We are working on budgeting and
brainstorming ideas what CLIRE could do in order to cover their
expenses. Additionally to this I have started to work with the
missionaries on creating a financial plan for the Instituto Joo
Calvino or the John Calvin Institute, which is the seminary of the
IRB (Igrejas Reformadas do Brasil). We hope to have something
completed by the end of April, in order to present it to the synod
in May 2015.
This year also Mission Board plans to build a manse for the
Wieske family. The main ATC building will then be made available

for the seminary, providing additional classroom and office space

and also housing for additional students. I am involved in the role
of coordinating between Brazil and Canada as well as working
weekly with the building contractor Joo Batista (a member of
the IRB church in Greater Recife), who has already done a
significant amount of work on the ATC. Besides my regular work,
these 3 tasks will keep me more than busy for the next few
months. We continue to be excited about the work in Brazil. It is a
blessing to be able to watch and be part of the work of mission
and the IRB federation as it grows and matures in faith.

Searching for a Reformed Education Worker

The notion of an education worker playing an important role on a mission field has been around for a long, long time. Read it in the
history section of the Brazil Education Report, which was written in 2012; that section's concluding paragraph includes:
The consistency of convictions regarding education by Reformed churches over 400 years is quite remarkable. Education has always
been considered to be of profound importance by Reformed churches. On the mission fields as well, schools have almost always been a
deliberate component of the mission
strategy.
Interested in mission? Love Christian teaching and discipleship?
Canadian Reformed missionaries in Brazil
Intrigued about Brazil? Then this might be for you!
have been promoting the idea of a
The Mission Aid Board is thankful to be able to invite applications for a Reformed Education Worker
Reformed Education Worker for a long
(REW) in Brazil.
time. Though the anticipated focus of the
The successful applicant should:
work might be in family and church

be godly, mature, and experienced in teaching or leadership

settings rather than schools, there is a

be (or be able to become) an effective communicator in Portuguese

widespread consensus that Christian

have prior experience as an office bearer

have the capacity to work collaboratively and sensitively within Brazilian culture
education is an important component of
the generational transfer of the faith.
The REW will be expected to:

collaborate with Brazilian church members, councils, and educational leaders

After many years of talking about hiring an

work closely with our missionaries

education worker, the Mission Aid Board

promote Christian education

in January 2015 concluded that it was the

find, develop, and promote programs which help families and children learn Biblical doctrines
right time to take action. An
and way of life in the Brazilian cultural context

generally, encourage and assist Brazilian Christians to teach their faith to their children
advertisement has been drawn up, and
the Mission Aid Board is looking forward If you have any interest in exploring this unique opportunity to work in a part-time or full-time capacity,
to interacting with potential candidates please contact the Mission Aid board chairman, Rob Vane at rvane@farmfed.ca by April 30, 2015.
who might have an interest in this area.
Please send the application to missionaidbrazil@gmail.com.

New Years Day!

by Shaun Raap and Brenda Raap
New Years Day is a day celebrated throughout the world in
somewhat the same sort of manner. It is tradition to bring in the
New Year with champagne and food, of course with friends and
family. Brazil has similar customs. But one needs to learn the
order and type of food, when to go where and what is normal,
before you can appreciate how this tradition works in each
country. We would like to give you a taste of our first experience New Years in Brazil through the eyes of a foreigner.
I should prelude this with last year our kids were sick, so this
year we were going to New Years like we never did before (in
Brazil).
Like most reformed churches, we ended our year with a service to
our Lord. This in itself is normal, but what was not so normal were
the fireworks that were constantly going off. I guess if your church
is closed and insulated the sound would be buffered, but when
your church is practically an open-aired service, your heart rate
stays at a healthy rhythm. Needless to say, we were wide awake
for the whole service.
After church we went home to get ready to go to our friend's
house for a barbeque. This, we heard, was the barbeque of all
barbeques. So we wanted to get going to enjoy this barbeque. As
we arrived at our road we noticed something peculiar, something
eerie: the neighbourhood was darker than usual. It wasn't all the
houses either, just some.
This is never good news for us. You see, the neighbourhood we
live in, as beautiful as it is, is not well equipped with
infrastructure. We live in a touristy destination, and at times
hundreds of people flock here to get out of the big cities and
enjoy the beaches. Now you all can imagine what will happen to
the electricity when hundreds of new users turn on their air
conditioners, lights, fridges, etc., on infrastructure not designed
to handle it. Brown outs are sure to happen, and they sure do.
The weird thing is, it is just certain houses that use certain wires.
In our neighbourhood, the electrical company explained, there
are four wires on the lines and two of those wires go to each
house. For some reason whenever power goes out, it is one of the
wires that goes to our house. I asked the electrical company if
they couldchange our house wires because our house seems to

always lose power. They said it is just a coincidence and could

happen to any of the lines. Sure it could, is my thinking. Anyway, I
digress the article is about New Years, not electrical problems.
So, when we got home to no power, we had to do things old style
candle light. Once our skewers were made, it was around ten, so
we thought it would be a good idea to head out to our friend's
house. Can never start too early Don't want to be rude and show
up just before New Year's day.
Well, we were wrong. We never knew this, but in Brazil, families
apparently get together before the midnight and then after
people go around to each other's houses to celebrate, often
staying up until dawn. It wasn't a big deal, our friends welcomed
us with warm hugs and we stayed with them for a while. We didn't
stay long though because at midnight they have fireworks on the
beach and we wanted to see them. So we went back to our house
and walked down to the beach with the rest of our
neighbourhood. It was nice time. We asked Seth's friend where
would be a good spot to watch the fireworks, and he took us to an
empty spot. We are not quite like the Brazilians who like to be
right next to everyone, so it was a nice quiet spot. Fireworks
started in the distance on both sides of us, and we felt a little
disappointed with how far away we were from them. However,
he quickly he took us right beside a grand display! We all jumped
out of our skin when the first firework set off. But it was a good
view!
So New Years in Brazil, is the same as in Canada, less the
guaranteed power, Champagne on the beach, intruding on your
friend's family dinner, and front row seats to the fireworks show,
without a buffer zone or safety fence. Oh and some of our kids fell
asleep on the
beach after the
fireworks, so we
never did get to
h a v e t h a t
barbeque. Ah
well, next year!

Donations Mission Aid Brazil does not assess the churches with any set amount in order to meet our budget
requirements. We depend solely on the generous donations of individuals, business and church deaconries. We are most
thankful for these donations, and strive to use them in a stewardly and fiscally responsibly manner.
Cheques can be made out to Mission Aid Brazil and mailed to the following address. Alternatively, donations can be given to
your local deaconry, with the request to direct it to Mission Aid Brazil. You can also take advantage of making on-line
donations by going to the Mission Aid Brazil website, and following the directions on the Canada Helps tab on the donations
page.

www.brazilianreformedmission.org
Mission Aid Brazil Society, Box 34228 17790 - #10 Hwy, Surrey, BC V3S 8C4