Called to Ministry

As a MK (missionary kid), from a young age, missions and full-time ministry have been something to aspire to, simply because it was what I knew. Like a doctor's kid wanting to become a doctor and a teacher's kid desiring to become a teacher, I wanted to be a missionary just like my mom and dad,.

During my adolescence, our family participated in a church plant in a needy, slum neighborhood. The lead pastor, constansly encouraged all of the church family to discover their spiritual gifts so as to be used by God in the edification of the church and in furthering the Lord's Kingdom. It was during this time that I discovered the joy of serving and helping others grow in their knowledge of God and deciding that this was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.

For many years, I thought: "I will work autonomously so that I can organize my time and be able to have time to serve in the church. In the meantime I'll prepare myself to, hopefully, one day marry a man called to the ministry." I studied, worked and served, and God prepared my heart.

The urgency of missions grew in my mind and my desire for serving in areas that do not have healthy churches alao. As time went on, my church and I felt that I was prepared to begin full-time ministry.

I noticed that in my local church in Fortaleza, God had abundaly supplied other people who were qualified in serving in the areas that I enjoyed serving: kid's ministry, discipleship, counseling, teaching, training...

Not very long after, through a short mission trip, God made it clear to me, that I had gifts and abilities that could be useful in helping grow strong churches in South Brazil, where there are very few Christ-centered, Biblical churches.

In South Brazil, it has been noticed that not only are there very few healthy Bible teaching churches, but it has been dubbed as a "graveyard for missionaries", because of the long-process and difficult "soil" to share the gospel. It is an area that desperately needs to be reached with the gospel and the people taught what it means to be a disciple of Jesus.