The feeling of wanting to make an impact in someone else’s life and putting mission into practice was what made 22-year-old Luana Collen leave her sixth period of Social Work at the State University of Ponta Grossa (UEPG) to live a year in the mission field. “In 2018, when I was 19, I participated for the first time in the [mission] project where I live - in the interior of Paraná. Now, I decided to leave my [home] and live this experience here in the Amazon”, she says.

Luana represents the group of 36 young people who are linked to the One Year in Mission (OYiM) 2021 project in northwestern Brazil. All left home, work, or college to live the experience of being full-time missionaries in the region.

The initial training program usually takes nine weeks, but due to the pandemic period, this edition lasted only five weeks. "The training is intensive and starts early with cleaning the headquarters, working in the kitchen, taking Bible classes, amongst other activities", explains Psychologist and Psychopedagogist, Eunice Bertoso, who is also a volunteer and the coordinator of the group of young people during this first stage of the project.

Eunice explained that being a missionary in the Amazon was a dream for her since she was a little girl, hearing the stories of missionaries through letters that were read on Sabbath mornings in her church. As soon as she and her husband retired, they applied to volunteer in the region.

Strategic Preparation

The training took place at the Instituto de Missões Noroeste, located in Puraquequara, a suburb of Manaus. The place, in the midst of nature, is an environment aimed at communion with God and for that first contact with the challenges of being a missionary in the locality. Ronivon Santos, a Pastor and the Director of the Institute, explains that the place does not only receive missionaries partnered with OYiM. “Amazon is a region where the need for missionaries is great, that's why we coordinate several long and short term mission projects that take place simultaneously here in our vast Amazon region”, he details.

To learn about the projects, access: missoesnoroeste.org .

The intensive training that young people receive as soon as they arrive is part of the preparation so that when they arrive at their mission destination, they have some practical experience in the communities of the States of Amazonas, Acre, Roraima, and Rondônia.

“It's exciting to see the youth give up so much to be missionaries. The graduation we do at the end of the course marks the beginning of a dream for them,” emphasizes Adventist youth leader in the northwest region and OYiM coordinator, Pastor Anderson Carneiro.

Missionary School

“I don't even have words to describe the joy of receiving this diploma. Maybe this is one of the most important graduations of my life”, 18-year old Elane Cavalcante described emotionally. She will be going to the Foz do Canumã community, in the Amazonas.

During the missionary school training graduation, several leaders were present including the president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church for Northwestern Brazil, Pastor Sergio Alan Caxeta. “Our region is a mission and of the inhospitable places [that have] not yet [been] evangelized. These young volunteers came to join the army of evangelists.”

On Monday, May 31st, the young people left the Institute and went to the Amazonian communities, to begin their one year in the mission field.

This article was originally published on the South American Division’s Portuguese news site