South American Division to Support 50 Cross-Cultural Missionaries

On Tuesday, November 12, the South American Adventist headquarters conducted a significant program to consecrate and deploy cross-cultural missionaries from its territory. Fifty families are set to serve in various countries within the 10/40 Window, regions where the message of Jesus is not widely known. While some members of this group have already begun their missionary work, others will undergo training to prepare for their upcoming roles. The total investment to support this initiative over the next five years is projected to reach $16,947,500.

During the meeting, Stanley Arco, president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in South America, stressed that the same impetus that led the pioneers to send John Andrews to Switzerland in the 19th century is what drives Adventist leadership today. He encouraged the missionaries to let themselves be guided by God and to depend entirely on Him.

The Executive Secretary of the Adventist General Conference headquarters, Erton Köhler, recalled that the South American Adventist Church is the one that will send the most missionaries outside its territory within the global plan called Mission Refocus. “We need to be protagonists in the local mission, but partners in the global mission,” he said.  

Unique Missionary Experiences

Each missionary's journey is distinct, making it challenging to outline a universal experience for all. Brazilian missionary Paulo (a pseudonym for security reasons) exemplifies this uniqueness. He is married with two children, and his family's decision to embark on mission work was driven by significant childhood influences, particularly through reading the biographies of prominent missionaries like David Livingstone (1813-1873). Paulo's family is one of 50 that have committed to serving in the upcoming 2024 mission.

Having never lived outside Brazil, where he was born and raised, Paulo acknowledges the challenges ahead as he prepares to relocate to a country with a markedly different culture. He emphasizes that any potential success during his mission will be attributed to divine assistance. “Learning another language, adapting to different customs, food, climate, clothing, and beliefs reinforces my belief that success will not be attributable to human strategy or ability, but rather to the presence and power of the Holy Spirit,” he remarked.

Mission in Iraq

Everson Torres, a 39-year-old pastor from Goiás, served with his family (wife and two children aged 7 and 5) in the northern region of Iraq, in the city of Erbil. For historical purposes, Erbil is located about 60 kilometers from the legendary Nineveh (of the ancient Assyrian Empire), famous in the book of the prophet Jonah, who was sent there to preach to the inhabitants of the region. Torres and his family lived for nine years with the natives of this region known as Kurdistan, a semi-autonomous area with about 2 million inhabitants. They were part of the global Adventist project to send missionaries to regions of the 10/40 Window in 2015.

In his case, Torres was registered as a pastor and had authorization to care for the Adventist community in the region. The Seventh-day Adventist Church was one of 16 Christian organizations authorized by the local government to carry out activities in the country.

Even so, the typical challenges of being in a region like this were faced. Starting with the Kurdish and Arabic languages, which are predominantly spoken. In addition, Torres and his family encountered a majority of Muslim people, but he remembers that one of the missionaries’ secrets is to understand the local culture and strengthen friendships. “Fortunately, people really like Brazil, and I soon identified myself as Brazilian. We talked about topics like food, soccer, and even the old Passat [car]. When I lived there, this vehicle was widely exported to Iraq. This whole approach was part of the process of contacting the inhabitants of the region,” he recalls.

The missionary says he learned a lot about other religions and understood that people have in common the need to talk to friends. For a while, he played basketball with locals, and an adult even approached him in search of more information about the Bible.

One of the biggest challenges was living close to the region where groups linked to the Islamic State operated. The extremist organization often carried out murders and other types of crimes not far from where he lived. Because of this, even relatively short distances had to be carefully planned in order to ensure safety. In practice, the experience in Kurdistan allowed him and his family to live closely with many war refugees and resulted in a unique learning experience.

Torres and his wife had always wanted to take on a missionary challenge like this. They had both participated in similar movements before going to Iraq. “My wife even sold beauty products for a while so she could go on a mission with the riverside people of the Amazon. In other words, this type of work is already part of our family,” says the missionary.

The original article was published on the South American Division Portuguese website.