Saturday, April 23, 2005
Visit to Boa Vista, Roraima – March 30 – April 6
Each November for the last few years, we have made pilgrimage to Manaus, for the Encontro da Fé Reformada Conference. Twice Andrew has spoken, and twice we have gone to hear the ministry and have fellowship with our “friends in the North.”
One of the highlights of the visit each time has been fellowship with a group who come down each year from Boa Vista, the state capital of Roraima, the most northerly state in Brazil – 12 hours by bus further up from Manaus, the other side of the Equator. The group hires a bus each year, with representatives from a good number of churches, but a large part from the Second Presbyterian. We have particularly enjoyed the company of Pastor Jonas and his wife Beth (pronounced Betchi), and they have never ceased to urge us to visit their church.
This year the pipe-dream became a reality. The 15th anniversary of the church provided the opportunity. The church planned four evenings of praise and Biblical exposition in the open air, with a training day on the Saturday for men (in the morning) and women (in the afternoon). And Sunday school on Sunday morning, Prayer breakfast on Tuesday at 6, and a “Chat” with the church young people on Tuesday night before flying out at 12:55 a.m. For the first time I accompanied all my teaching with PowerPoint presentations, and this seemed to be of help to the people. In the evening sessions I spoke on at least one of the miracles from each of the four “blocks” of miracles in the first part of Mark. Sunday Morning was aimed at the youth – Remember your Creator from Eccles 12. The Saturday morning teaching was on the basis for exposition – the nature of Biblical, apostolic, authority. Cora did a Bible overview with the women in the afternoon.
All went well, with the fellowship with Jonas and Beth deepening, and a strong sense that this will not be the last time we visit. We are convinced of the strategic importance of this church within the state, gathering as it does a very large proportion of the missionary force which reaches the indigenous people, as well as having good contacts with many pastors in the city. It was a joy to see the Biblical sanity of the church, with a lively congregational life centred on the Word, without being hide-bound or traditionalist.
Roraima is a real frontier state. The gold-mining boom of the 80s and 90s is over, but the sense of being at the very edge of the country is unceasing. Everything seems very new, planned, and yet with a sense of being thrown together. The presence of many indigenous people living in large and politically sensitive reservations around the city is markedly different from the South, where the Guarani are to all practical purposes invisible in terms of public life. The scenery which, to the north of Boa Vista reminds us far more of Southern Africa than anywhere else we have seen in Brazil is a surprise too. We knew it was drier, not rain forest, but we were not ready for vast Savannahs.
But some things are very much the same as other churches we have visited: great food, and a desire on the part of the locals to feed us with the best of the regional fare; warm people, hungry for the Word, and tremendously appreciative of the preaching; evidence of much theological confusion in the churches, and paganism outside (which are often the same thing) and because of that, a sense of great gratitude to God for the Bible-centred, Gospel-preaching true Christianity that we saw in Second Presbyterian. May God bless his dear people in the far North.
Each November for the last few years, we have made pilgrimage to Manaus, for the Encontro da Fé Reformada Conference. Twice Andrew has spoken, and twice we have gone to hear the ministry and have fellowship with our “friends in the North.”
One of the highlights of the visit each time has been fellowship with a group who come down each year from Boa Vista, the state capital of Roraima, the most northerly state in Brazil – 12 hours by bus further up from Manaus, the other side of the Equator. The group hires a bus each year, with representatives from a good number of churches, but a large part from the Second Presbyterian. We have particularly enjoyed the company of Pastor Jonas and his wife Beth (pronounced Betchi), and they have never ceased to urge us to visit their church.
This year the pipe-dream became a reality. The 15th anniversary of the church provided the opportunity. The church planned four evenings of praise and Biblical exposition in the open air, with a training day on the Saturday for men (in the morning) and women (in the afternoon). And Sunday school on Sunday morning, Prayer breakfast on Tuesday at 6, and a “Chat” with the church young people on Tuesday night before flying out at 12:55 a.m. For the first time I accompanied all my teaching with PowerPoint presentations, and this seemed to be of help to the people. In the evening sessions I spoke on at least one of the miracles from each of the four “blocks” of miracles in the first part of Mark. Sunday Morning was aimed at the youth – Remember your Creator from Eccles 12. The Saturday morning teaching was on the basis for exposition – the nature of Biblical, apostolic, authority. Cora did a Bible overview with the women in the afternoon.
All went well, with the fellowship with Jonas and Beth deepening, and a strong sense that this will not be the last time we visit. We are convinced of the strategic importance of this church within the state, gathering as it does a very large proportion of the missionary force which reaches the indigenous people, as well as having good contacts with many pastors in the city. It was a joy to see the Biblical sanity of the church, with a lively congregational life centred on the Word, without being hide-bound or traditionalist.
Roraima is a real frontier state. The gold-mining boom of the 80s and 90s is over, but the sense of being at the very edge of the country is unceasing. Everything seems very new, planned, and yet with a sense of being thrown together. The presence of many indigenous people living in large and politically sensitive reservations around the city is markedly different from the South, where the Guarani are to all practical purposes invisible in terms of public life. The scenery which, to the north of Boa Vista reminds us far more of Southern Africa than anywhere else we have seen in Brazil is a surprise too. We knew it was drier, not rain forest, but we were not ready for vast Savannahs.
But some things are very much the same as other churches we have visited: great food, and a desire on the part of the locals to feed us with the best of the regional fare; warm people, hungry for the Word, and tremendously appreciative of the preaching; evidence of much theological confusion in the churches, and paganism outside (which are often the same thing) and because of that, a sense of great gratitude to God for the Bible-centred, Gospel-preaching true Christianity that we saw in Second Presbyterian. May God bless his dear people in the far North.
# posted by Andrew and Cora @ 11:50:00 pm 
