The church leaders in Gurupá wanted to show us the fruit of their Discovery Group evangelism. Discovery Group evangelism differs from traditional evangelism in that participants are invited to actively participate in the learning. Participants invite their friends, share highlights and difficulties of their week, and learn to read and apply Bible stories to their daily lives. Over time Discovery Groups sometimes join together to form congregations. The group in the photos below is in a marginalized neighborhood called Areião (ARR ray oww) now meets weekly as a new congregation, but they have no building yet. Many people in the photo are from the larger Central church who came for the special celebration.
This is the courageous young single lady leading the church plant in Areiao.
River Groups
Some youth travel by boat to a remote creek to facilitate Discovery Groups at several locations. Most remote people here love getting visits from city people, which makes it relatively easy to start Discovery Groups. It is also a challenge to learn how to keep sustainably growing; to encourage the receivers to become givers and propagators.
Later, they all went swimming in the Amazon. Bella is fluent in Portuguese, so we didn’t need to go with them. On the other hand, sending your daughter to a remote location is emotionally more difficult than going there yourself. I imagine all missionary parents can relate.
Please note: I reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive or off-topic.