Planting Churches for Christ

We began our church-planting ministry in May 2000 in São Paulo, Brazil, a city of over 20 million people. While serving in this metropolis for almost a decade, the Lord enabled our team, with the help of many others, to start two churches and an evangelistic pre-school ministry that now ministers to approximately 140 students each week day. 

In April 2011, we officially launched Igreja Batista Liberdade [Liberty Baptist Church] in the city of Itupeva, which is part of a growing area approximately 50 minutes west of São Paulo. We have been amazed once again to see the Lord work through HIS people to build HIS church! Countless people from the States and Brazil have contributed to the growth of this church through their prayers, volunteer labor, financial gifts, and participation in outreach events. We know that it is “God that gives the increase”! The growing church family is now meeting in their own building, and the ministry is being led by Gledson, the national pastor that we mentored from December 2012 – April 2018. We completely transitioned out of the Itupeva church plant in May of this year, and we will be reconnecting with supporting churches and individuals in the United States during the months ahead. 

We moved to Brazil when our oldest daughter was only 18 months old. Just a few months after we arrived, our second daughter was born, and in the years to come the Lord blessed us with two more daughters and one son. All seven of us have thoroughly enjoyed serving the Lord together in Brazil! From our junior in college to our kindergartener, all of our children are a tremendous blessing to us! We enjoy seeing them grow in Christ and using their talents and abilities for His glory.