August 2002

Dear Friends,

We arrived in Charlotte on July 10. After some time at Tim’s parents’ house, last Friday we moved into an apartment close to the campus of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where both Jenny and Tim Jr. will be attending classes this fall. Please note our new address and telephone numbers below. We will remain at this address during our interpretation assignment in the U.S., then return to our ministry in Brazil after a six-month stay here.

Our last semester at the Mission Training Center in Florianópolis ended well. Before leaving, we planned the center’s second graduation this coming November. During one of our intensive courses recently, our students doing internships returned and brought with them news of their recent ministries. Elizane reported to Marta’s language-learning class of her excitement in learning to communicate among the Caiuá Indians. Another couple, Doni and Eliane, spoke of their efforts to plant a church among the southern Gauchos in Rio Grande do Sul, with another couple, Itamar and Meire, we had trained the year before. Through this experience, Doni, who had been a professional basketball player, hopes now to continue his studies to become a pastor.

In June, Marta was one of the speakers at a women’s church retreat at a beach hotel close by. The theme was the role of women in the home, church and society. She also led a Wednesday afternoon Bible study this semester on the fruit of the Spirit, which was a source for her own spiritual growth, and taught the adolescents Sunday School, a challenge she discovered was very rewarding.

Tim continued his teaching at the center, in a number of graduate programs in São Paulo, northeastern Brazil and California, and in the local church. Each setting offers its unique challenges and rewards. Whether it be initial mission awareness by members of a local congregation, the practical training of lay ministers and evangelists, or the academic preparation of a new generation of seminary professors, it is exciting to witness first-hand the outreach of the church as leaven in a broken and unjust world.

In May, Tim was elected president of the board of directors of the Caiuá Indian Mission, a 75-year partnership between the PC(USA), the Presbyterian Church of Brazil, and the Independent Presbyterian Church of Brazil. The mission has established a number of schools, a hospital, a clinic, and a number of churches over the years among three Indian groups, the Caiuás, the Terenas, and the Guaranís. During his two-year term, the board will promote a number of consultations (among indigenous church leaders, school directors, and hospital personnel) to consider this Brazilian organization’s sense of mission for the near future.

One family in particular, the Farias, has been a loving and faithful witness to us. Sônia and Carlos are about the same age as we are. Their children, Nicole and João, are in their early twenties, like our two eldest, Jenny and Tim, Jr. Sônia went back to school and recently graduated with a degree in psychology. She has a passion for evangelism and together with her husband, Carlos, they have evangelized all (ten, I think) of their neighbors in the apartment building where they live. She dedicates much of her time to ministry and counseling among HIV positive patients at a local hospital and in the community. Carlos has a passion for both evangelism and social justice. He is a lawyer and for many years worked as the executive director of a large utility company. Recently he ran for office as vice-mayor, under an opposition party. Despite these responsibilities, Carlos and Sônia are actively present at nearly every church gathering and their leadership is easily recognized. Nicole, their daughter, has her parents’ passion for ministry. Two years ago, she quit law school to pursue seminary training at the Presbyterian Seminary in Londrina. Son João has a quieter approach to his faith, but he is just as true. He, like myself, loves to surf, and has just the kind of genuinely friendly disposition to take a 50-year-old missionary, yours truly, to some of his treasured spots along with his girl friend and surfing buddies. Like his parents and sister, he is a helper, sensitive to the needs of others.

I mention the Farias to you because, they, like many other Brazilians, have contributed to our own sense of faith and mission. With the church alive in many parts of the world, mission today, is more often than not, a two-way street. Just as we have learned to be more faithful from the Farias, I am sure that on a larger level, our denomination can gain the same renewed faith and sense of mission from our partner churches.

We hope to hear from you while in the U.S., and would love the opportunity to share with you at your churches.

In Him

Tim & Marta Carriker
2701-M Westbury Lake Drive
Charlotte, NC 28269
(704) 921-3127 (home)
(704) 661-3652 (cel. Tim)
(704) 661-3653 (cel. Marta)

The 2002 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 258