September 17, 2007

Dear Partners in Christ’s mission,

Grace and peace of our Lord be with you.
 
In July, Irene’s aunt and cousins visited us. Her aunt served in Brazil for over 30 years. The family decided to give her a surprise by taking her to visit the places where she used to work. We had a great time visiting with our cousins and aunt because we hadn’t seen them in a long time.

Michael did several evaluations on three new fields that were opened in February 2007. One of these was in Palmas, Tocantins, and it’s being developed by Ceciliana Bispo da Silva. Starting with no members at all, “Ceci,” as we call her, has developed an after-school program in a primary and secondary school. She uses her house to work with children and adolescents in her neighborhood. She works with the parents of these children by inviting them to a forum to discuss their needs. She also does personal evangelism and mass evangelism. She writes letters with a different emphasis each month. She has targeted 200 houses in her district and personally gives these letters to the owners of these houses. It is an interesting way of planting a new church in the middle class area in Palmas. Ceci is a graduate of the Lay Missionary Training Center in Cuiaba, Mato Grosso, and the Independent Presbyterian Church of Brazil (IPIB) seminary in Londrina, Parana.

Geber and Adriana Ferreira are planting a new church in Occidental, a small town in the state of Goias.

Geber and Adriana Ferreira are missionaries in Occidental, Goias. Both graduated from the Lay Missionary Training in Cuiaba, Mato Grosso. Adriana’s parents are originally from Japan. Adriana and Geber have both worked in Japan for several years, and so they come to their new calling with cross-cultural experience. They began their work six months ago from zero and now regularly gather 20 persons to worship in a rented room. They do a personal evangelism with the mayor, the chief of police, and other municipal personnel. Besides holding worship services in homes, they also do visitation and hold prayer services in the hospital and prison.

Israel and Sara Madeiras and their son Junior. The Madeiras are founding a church in a poor suburb of Brazil's capital city, Brasilia.

The Rev. Israel and Sara Madeiras serve a congregation in a satellite city of the Federal District of Brasilia called Paranoa. The core of this congregation is composed of a group of 15 believers and their families who used to travel about 30 miles to the IPIB church in Cruzeiros, Brasilia. In six months, the congregation has grown from 15 to 30 adults. Israel is an excellent musician. He teaches music to adolescents and young people, and the church has a small band and a choir. They also have a drama group that participates in the Sunday evening service. Both Sara and Israel do personal visitation and evangelism. They work both with people in business and poor people. They plan to begin leadership training by next year. Israel is a graduate from the IPIB Seminary in Londrina, Parana.

Michael also traveled to Barreiras, Bahia, with the Revs. Solange Mello and Arlindo Ribeiro, the moderator of the presbytery. The Board of National Missions of the IPIB wants to plant a new work in this particular city and asked us to provide a worker. We chose the Rev. Solange Mello to take care of this congregation. Solange graduated from the Lay Missionary Training Center in Cuiaba, Mato Grosso, and the IPIB’s seminary’s Brasilia extension. Therefore, she has both missionary and pastoral training. We felt that she would do very well in this work since she has worked in church planting for eight years.  Please pray for her as she begins her new assignment. She starts from almost zero!

At the IPIB’s seminary extension in Brasilia, where we both work, we have a counseling service to students when we are not teaching. Irene spent July and August to developing a Christian education course that she’ll give in October. It will be a three-day seminar for which she must produce materials to cover all important areas. I ( Michael) helped supervise the students during their seven-day intensive course in July. It was fun but a lot of hard work, as he had to travel about 100 miles each day from Brasilia to Luziania, Goias, where classes were held.

In August, I received news that my sister in Bangkok was not well. She passed away on August 8, 2007. I left for Bangkok on August 13 and arrived on August 17, having stopped in Washington, D.C., to meet with my brother. I stayed in Bangkok and visited my mother and family, then returned to Washington, D.C., on September 8.

Arriving in Sao Paulo on September12, I went directly to the meeting of the Board of National Missions of the IPIB. Leaders from mission agencies in Brazil came to give classes on mission and new-church planting, with special focus on the urban areas. Seventy percent of the 180 million Brazilians now live in cities.

Please remember in your prayers my mother and family, our four new-church developers and their work, our ministry in Brazil, and our home assignment and reappointment in 2008. We appreciate your words of encouragement! Thank you for being our partners in Christ’s mission.

Blessings to you all,

Michael and Irene Sivalee

The 2007 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 41