Our History
It all began with God. It always does. And we give Him the glory for it.
We went to Brazil on a mission trip in 1979. If it had depended on Greg, we might never have come home. There burned in him a flame for Brazil that lasted until the day he died in 2017. I was not so ready. For two years, Greg prayed, and I resisted. At a World Mission Conference held in our church, Greg prayed that at least one person would surrender to missions. That person was me. We began preparing for the mission field that day.
In the meantime, Greg was praying about what he would do when he got to Brazil. All the time, every day, he would pray about how to reach people for Christ when God opened the way.
When we got to Brazil, we couldn’t speak the language, and that was a problem. So we put off
ministering for another year and concentrated on the language and customs of Brazil.
Finally, the time came when Greg would begin to draw people around him to conquer the Kingdom one soul at a time. He did it through evangelism clinics as he worked his way through the churches in Rio.
Marcelo Oliveira, Marilia, and others came into our lives and began working alongside Greg just as he had dreamed all those years ago. There were volunteers that came down from the United States for a week-long campaign of evangelism, always encouraging the church members to be bold witnesses for Christ, and always with the team in tow, learning from him as he went along. Greg saw something special in every member of his team. He invested all he was and had in everyone.
Sharon Deering Williford, Former IMB Missionary to Brazil
One of the lives Greg and Sharon Deering touched was mine. They have, among other dear friends, mentored and inspired me to be and to make disciples for Christ, to equip them to become bold disciple makers, to enable them to go and plant churches through partnerships with sponsoring "mother" churches or individuals, to help them to grow through short-term mission trips and eventual construction teams building a chapel to the churches that had grown to need one.
Since 1988, our Church Plant Adoption Program partnering with North American "Mother" churches has planted more than 200 "daughter" churches in the entire country of Brazil, most of whom have planted their "granddaughter" churches and are now planting their "great granddaughter" churches.
God is a great Father! And He is opening opportunities for us to minister in South America, Africa and Asia. Go on one of our mission trips to evangelize and equip new believers, to plant a church, to help it grow, and to join our construction teams.
Contact us for more information on how you can be on missions with us in this 21st century.
Email: marcelo@missions21.org, Thank you for learning our story now let us encourage you to share your story with Jesus with others.
Marcelo Oliveira, Missions21Executive Director
