2020 ANNUAL MISSIONARY REPORT
Brazil River of Life Ministries (BROLM)
MISSION FIELD AND PEOPLE GROUP:
Portuguese-Speaking World (Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde,
East Timor, Guinea Bissau, Mozambique, São Tome and Principe, Portugal, and
USA)
MINISTRY MISSION STATEMENT:
Mission: Reach the Portuguese-Speaking world for Jesus Christ
so they can reach the rest of the world.
Vision: Reach the lost through Evangelism, Mentor and Equip
through Discipleship, Plant New Churches, Provide Assistance and Justice where
needed.
TYPES OF MINISTRY:
Evangelism, Equipping/Discipling, Missionary
Preparation, Counseling, Church Planting, Missionary Assistance, Benevolence,
Translation Services, and Short Term Missions.
INTHE PAST YEAR, NON-CHRISTIAN INDIVIDUALS THAT HAVE BECOME CHRISTIAN INDIVIDUALS AS A RESULT OF THE WORK WITH WHICH GOD HAS ENTRUSTED BROLM: Over 300
WHAT WAS YOUR ORIGINAL TIME COMMITMENT TO THIS MINISTRY? WHAT IS YOUR CURRENT TIME COMMITMENT TO THIS MINISTRY?
Our original commitment to this ministry is for life
and it continues to be for life.
Monica and I have been serving in the
Portuguese-Speaking World together for 33 years. BROLM been serving this same
people group since 2001.
HOW IS GOD CURRENTLY WORKING THROUGH YOUR MINISTRY AND WHAT WERE YOUR PROFESSIONAL HIGHLIGHTS OF THE PAST YEAR?
GOD’S WORK THROUGH THE MINISTRY OF THE PAST YEAR:
1. BROLM is accomplishing its goals through
evangelism, discipleship (personal discipleship and “Hands On” Bible College)
and new church plants, promoting social work and justice where needed.
2. BROLM promotes an average of 3 evangelistic
outreaches per month throughout the churches that BROLM has planted in the
Southeast, Midwest, North and Northeast Brazil, however, with the Covid19 we
were not able to do the same types of evangelism that we have done in the past.
Thus, we have been evangelizing people in need through aid. We have served over
1500 bags of fruits and vegetables, over 400 food baskets, several bags of
diapers, quarts of milk and cooking oil and much more. Many have come back to
the Lord and many have been baptized during the pandemic. We have reached
people that we would never reach without the pandemic.
2. BROLM offers monthly discipleship materials to all
the BROLM churches and to many other Christian Churches throughout the
Portuguese-Speaking World.
3. The “Hands On” Bible College is being offered at 4
BROLM congregations in the Southeast, 1 in the Midwest, 1 in the north, and 1
in the Northeast. BROLM coordinates the “Hands On” Bible College in Mozambique
and Portugal. Because of the pandemic, most classes are all online. This has
been a great blessing for now we have students from many places taking classes.
4. All the BROLM Churches are growing and at the same
time, BROLM is preparing new teams to plant future new churches.
5. Jeff and Monica have invested their time in
strengthening the leadership at the local churches. Thus they have promoted
several leadership training events, they visited all the churches and are
encouraged to see each of them growing.
6. BROLM has been giving assistance to the work in
Mozambique since 2003 where they just celebrated 24 years of ministry on Sept
24, 2020. The churches in Mozambique continue growing; at the present there are
203 churches planted with over 5000 members. The grade school has over 1000
students. The Hope Home has the boys and girls homes with about 100 children.
7. Jeff leads the local leaders at 5 congregations in
São Paulo. They all work as a big team together. As a whole they are working to
reach all areas of Sao Paulo with the Gospel and planning to plant 15 new
churches together. In the local level helping each other to reach their
neighborhoods. More church leaders are being trained though “Hands On” Bible
College.
8. BROLM promotes a National Leadership Summit every
year, however, this year we had to cancel since our speakers from the churches
in the USA could not come because of the pandemic.
9. BROLM was blessed to be able to trade off the land
we had purchased to a better land with some buildings on the propriety. The new
location is better located, and has a house with 5 big bedrooms, 3 bathrooms,
an extra small house, a swimming pool, two restrooms close to the swimming
pool, a fenced-in sports field, a covered barbecue place. We used all the money
we had raised to build to complete the sale, however, we got a lot more
buildings than we could build with the money we had raised. We need to build a
meeting and eating hall, that will cost $48.000. Because of the pandemic we are
not using the new place yet!
10. For BROLM the pandemic has been a great blessing.
We have started several new ministries, we are doing many ministries better,
many have come back to the Lord, and many lives have confessed, repented and
been baptized in Jesus Christ.
GIVE ANY MAJOR CHANGES IN GOALS OR OUTREACH FROM 2019.
The major changes we had
in our goals from 2019 it has been that we had to cancel our mission trip to
Portugal and Mozambique and we had to adapt in many ways to continue to do the
work during the COVID-19.
However, we have not
worked so hard and so intensely as we are working since the pandemic was
announced.
We continue with our
outreaches, since most of them are done on the streets we were able to continue
to do them, however, with the precautions necessary.
All of our Hands-on
Bible College classes were transferred to Zoom classes and we have not stopped
teaching, including the classes we were going to teach in Portugal—we taught
them though Zoom. We were able to keep the HOBC going also in Mozambique were
through our orientation our Missionaries Kleber and Juracema and three
nationals has kept classes as normal.
The BROLM churches in
Brasil were closed for the first 3 weeks of the pandemic and we reopened since
and continue with most of the ministries—taking all the precautions necessary
and we have not had any cases of COVID-19 in our churches. We had members of
the church that had COVID-19, however, they got infected at their homes or
work, not at church, for at church we keep the distance, the use of masks and
all other precautions. We are blessed that all that has had COVID are well and
none died.
SUMMARIZE THE PAST YEAR IN LIGHT OF COVID-19 AND YOUR RESPONSE TO THE CHALLENGES YOU FACED.
Our first goal was to
encourage everyone and help them keep trusting the Lord, thus we started a Live
Daily Devotional where we could interact online with people on Facebook and
Instagram.
Many hours have been
invested in counseling people, especially couples.
However, our biggest
challenge has been so many people unemployed and going in despair without any food.
Thus, we’ve been able to raise funds to
help over 2000 families during the pandemic.
We have given fruits and
vegetables, basic food requests, diapers, milk, oleo, help people purchase
medication. We’ve been serving breakfast for the homeless on Sunday morning and
dinner on Friday night.
Our biggest concern now
is that the we are seeing more and more moms with their children living on the
streets, and this breaks our hearts.
As a result of the
pandemic 10 million Brazilians do not have a meal every day. It is not because
Brasil does not produce enough food to feed the people, it is because the
famers are selling their crops to other countries, because they pay more for
their crops. Brasil feeds 2 billion people around the world daily. Thus, the price
of food in Brasil has gone up from 30% to 200% since the pandemic started and
people are suffering.
We have more people
coming back to church and people being baptized during the COVID-19 than we
have had in the last few years.
We have continued with all
the regular work and we are working more than every before. Pray for us!
DESCRIBE YOUR TYPICAL DAY AND PRIMARY MINISTRY ACTIVITIES:
In the mission field there are no typical days,
however here are some of the things we are sure to do every day:
Devotional (Prayer and Bible Reading).
Teaching and Sermon preparations.
Contact Church Leaders and Members.
Answer e-mails and other correspondences.
Family Time.
Here are some other activities:
Every Sunday – Preach one to three times at the BROLM
Churches.
Every Monday – Work at the office, sermon preparation,
Devotional Live and Teach Online.
Every Tuesday – Prepare for classes and teach at
“Hands On” Bible College.
Every Wednesday – Discipleship at Campo Limpo Paulista
Church.
Every Thursday – Discipleship at Pirituba Church.
Every Friday – Day Off.
Every Saturday – There are a different types of
outreach.
Once a month meet personally with the church pastors.
Every three months – Meet with all church leaders
(pastors, elders and ministries leaders)
WHAT MARKERS HAVE YOU USED OVER THE PAST YEAR TO MEASURE YOUR MINISTRY’S EFFECTIVENESS? HOW WELL HAS YOUR MINISTRY MET THESE MARKERS? PLEASE EXPLAIN.
1. God’s approval – Everything we do is first
presented to God in prayer, as we pray we ask God to show us where He is
working so we can put our hands with His. When God opens the doors providing
the volunteers to do the work and the resources we know that He is approving.
2. People to be reached, baptized and discipled - For
each congregation we set tangible goals and as we start to do our part through
evangelism we see the Holy Spirit do His work of saving souls in our midst and
the churches have grown. We try not to focus only on numbers, but on lives
transformed by God’s Grace; thus, we work in discipling.
3. “Hands On” Bible College – We have set a goal to
have a HOBC at each congregation and we have seen this goal happen before our
eyes, especially now that we have been offering classes online, we have
students from several locations. We started the “Hands On” Bible College in
Fortaleza, CE (Northeast Brazil).
4. Church Plant – We focus on planting new churches
that will grow to become strong congregations that are ready to plant other new
congregations. After moving back full time to Brazil in 2015 we have
concentrated on helping make these congregations stronger and God has given the
blessing to see them grow stronger with vision for the future every day. Our
goal being to plant 15 more churches in the next years in Sao Paulo.
GOALS AND VISION FOR THE NEXT YEAR:
1. Continue to help the local congregations and future
church plants evangelistic outreach.
2. Continue to produce monthly discipleship material
for the local congregations and other churches throughout the
Portuguese-Speaking World.
3. Continue to offer the “Hands On” Bible College at
the local congregations in Brazil, Mozambique, and Portugal. The goal to have
students from all BROLM Churches has become a reality with the online classes.
4. Promote leadership training by visiting the local
churches and encouraging them.
5. Promote the seventh national Leadership Summit.
6. Start 20 new Small Groups.
7. Isaac moved to Brasil in Oct 2020, thus we are
helping him raise funds so he can stay full-time working in Brasil taking care
of BROLM Discipleship Ministry.
8. Raise funds and start building the meeting/eating
hall at the retreat/camp. During the COVID-19 God give us the opportunity to
exchange the land that BROLM had purchased to a new place that has many
facilities. Thus, we have a place that we can start using. We will need to
build a meeting hall, transform the house and girl’s dorm, and build a boy’s
dorm. However, the swimming pool and sport activities and cooking areas are
ready to use.
9. Raise funds to add one more family working
full-time with us in Brasil by Dec 2021.
We believe the most
important aspect of our ministry it is to train new workers and empower them to
do the work. We have 70 volunteers that work with us on the daily basis that
without their help we could not do what we do, and we have another 130
volunteers that helps also on a weekly basis. These are people that work 40
hours a week or are retired, but are willing to serve the Lord side by side
with us.
Thus, our biggest
investment has been in training and empowering nationals to serve and we do
this in many ways.
The Hands On Bible
College is the biggest training tool we have, for they learn Bible and practice
in their daily ministries.
However, we have many
other forms of discipleship and training people on a daily basis by having them
work side by side with us.
This is so important
that when we travel nothing stops, all areas of the ministry continue operating
all the time with us there or not, we can coordinate the work from any place.
PERSONAL HIGHLIGHTS OF THE PAST YEAR:
Our personal highlight is the fact to be found by God
worthy to work in His Kingdom.
Even though Monica has so many health limitations, it
is great to see her commitment with the Kingdom and always looking forward to
what God has next.
God has given us health—especially spiritually and
mentally.
To see our sons, Roger and Isaac serving the Lord and
willingness to come to Brazil and add to God’s Kingdom!
WHAT ARE YOUR CURRENT FURLOUGH PLANS INCLUDING ANY PLANNED VISITS?
Monica and I plan to be back in the USA for 3 weeks in
Nov 2021 and we will be more than happy to visit then.
WHAT IS YOUR CURRENT FINANCIAL SITUATION? PLEASE ATTACH YOUR CURRENT BUDGET AND FINANCIAL STATEMENT ALONG WITH ANNUAL EXPENSES AND AMOUNTS BEING MET THROUGH OTHER SOURCES. PLEASE INCLUDE INFORMATION ON YOUR RETIREMENT PLANNING.
We are attaching BROLM´s 2019 Audit Financial Report.
The 2021 budget has not been approved by BROLM Board
for we have not had our annual Board Meeting, as soon as we have it approved,
we will provide the 2021 Budget.
We have an IRA retirement plan, started a pension plan
this year and we pay social security.
HAVE YOU EXPERIENCED ANY HEALTH CONCERNS ABOUT WHICH NEEDS TO BE MADE AWARE?
We are doing well, Mônica has her limitations,
otherwise we are healthy as a horse.
WHAT ARE YOUR CURRENT PRAYER NEEDS, FAMILY NEEDS, AND FINANCIAL NEEDS WITH WHICH COULD POTENTIALLY ASSIST? WHAT NEEDS WOULD YOU LIKE US TO CONSIDER AS WE DEVELOP OUR NEXT ANNUAL MISSIONS BUDGET?
Please, pray for us as a whole, for all areas of life,
we need all the prayers we can get.
Pray for our son Roger as he finishes his studies,
gets married and raises funds to come back to Brasil to work full-time with
BROLM by the end of 2021.
Pray for our son Isaac who is moving to Brasil Oct
2020 to work with BROLM. He intends to get married in May 2022 and bring his
bride to Brasil, she is at Johnson University.
Pray that God will give me (Jeff) wisdom to do His
will and lead the ministry among the Portuguese-Speaking World with good health
for His honor and glory.
Please, pray for each church and church leaders for
God to give them wisdom to do His will.
We are in many ways attacked by Satan. The battles are
many, but we know that Satan and his kingdom are defeated in Jesus name. We all
need to keep our focus as we have seen his big trick is to take us off course
attempting to change our focus. Thus we need your prays to “deliver us from the
evil one”.
To maintain the “Hands On” Bible College at other
local churches in Brazil, Portugal, Mozambique and online we need $12,000 per
year.
To build the meeting hall for the retreat we need to
raise $48,000.
To add a new full-time worker in Brasil we need to
raise $12.000.
We believe, all of our current supporters will
continue supporting BROLM in 2021. If that is the case, we will be able to
maintain the ongoing ministries without any extra funding; however, the funds
to our new workers, the “Hands On” Bible College and Retreat are urgent needs.
We also believe that God will continue to be gracious
and will permit us to build the retreat/camp—all for His honor and glory.
FORWARDING AGENT/SENDING AGENCY/CONTACT INFORMATION:
Chair: Mark Haga E-Mail: markhaga@charter.net
Secretary: LeAnne Blackmore (423) 946-1332 E-mail: bmore@comcast.net
Treasurer: Amy Crawford (423) 426-2471 E-mail: amycrawford70@comcast.net
Trustee: Wilbur Reid E-Mail: wilburreid3@gmail.com
Trustee: Jim Knowles (865)599-5602 E-mail: jimknowlestn@gmail.com
Trustee: Phil Roberts E-Mail: Philsburgh@gmail.com
Thanks for your prayer and support, they are vital for
us to continue to do what God has called us to do!
Jeff, Mônica and Isaac Fife
