Timoteo, Nilma, Deanna, and Rick. Timoteo and Nilma are the pastors of the Vineyard Church in Brasil, Novo. “This is the best bread in town… this the best cheese in town… this is the best butter in town.” Timoteo and Nilma pulled out all the stops, and we ate a delicious breakfast together, eating the fat of the land.
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Timoteo and Nilma
Six hundred kilometers into our 1,000 km journey to Santarem, we stopped to have breakfast with Timoteo and Nilma, the pastors of the Vineyard church in Brasil Novo. It was Timoteo’s 60th birthday, and he caught a ride with us to Santarem to visit his 89-year-old mom, who still lives in a remote region. After we dropped him off in Santarem, he still had a three-hour boat ride to Lago Grande and a one-hour car ride to his mom’s home. Timoteo and Nilma were among the first Brazilian pastors to take us under their wing and help us get started in Brazil.
A Close Call
In April 1994, Luke Huber died in a two-seater ultralight plane accident. Timoteo was supposed to be on the plane with Luke, but a Canadian visitor took his place at the last minute. Timoteo got bumped. Luke was the founder of PAZ Mission and their church-planting movement, and he had a gift for attracting and releasing young leaders like Timoteo. When the plane crashed into the water and sank, Timoteo told us, Luke died on impact, but Lloyd had a knife, so he cut the harnesses, freed himself from the wreck, and surfaced. Timoteo said that had he gone with Luke, he did not have a knife, so that felt like a close call.
We First Meet Timoteo
Deanna and I had been in Brazil for nine months when Luke died. We continued with our plan to live for one year with the PAZ mission, then to move across town for a year to learn to function in the Brazilian culture as church planters. Paz, also known as the Vineyard churches in Brazil back in those days, had many small churches in Santarem. I walked the streets for weeks and finally found a house to rent in a bairro called Floresta, where Timoteo was the pastor. About 20 people went to the church at that time. They had ten benches that were small, 8-inch-wide board with no backrest.
Elba
When we moved from the mission headquarters to Floresta, Deanna needed a helper in the house. The other experienced missionaries told us not to hire non-Christians. Elba had recently moved to the city from a small town on the Amazon River so she could go to high school, and when she came to our door looking for work, Deanna was grateful. Three weeks later, Elba became a Christian at the small church where Timoteo was the pastor.
A Survey Trip
Later that same year, 1994, I invited Timoteo and Ross, another missionary and Deanna’s brother, to go on a survey trip to Altamira. It was 14 hours over adventurous roads. The powdery dust was about ten cm thick, and if we drove slowly, it would ripple out in waves away from the tires. It hung thick in the air for about two kilometers behind semi-trucks, making passing them challenging. Timoteo brought a sack of “farela de peixe” and farinha, so we ate that on our journey.
Fishermen make farela de peixe by catching fish and drying them on the cement waterfront. After the fish are cracker dry, they pound them into a kind of flour, bones and all, then scoop them into big plastic bags. You take a big pinch and some farinha and enjoy the flavor until it is moist enough to swallow. You get used to the smell. We picked up some hitchhikers, and they rode in the dusty, open back of our Toyota Bandeirante 4×4. Then we came to a forest fire. The smoke was thick, and the guys in the back yelled to hurry as it was hot. We saw the flames jumping across the road ahead as big trees burned. I could not stop because we were too far in, and there was thick dust and smoke behind us, so I stepped on the peddle and sped up. Thankfully, that all turned out ok.
God Shows Us Altamira is a Good Place to Start Planting Churches
When we arrived in Altamira, we dropped Timoteo off at a government farming agency to ask about the availability of a small acreage. At the same time, we went and fueled up the truck. When we returned, Timoteo came running out white as a sheet. The agency had sent him up a few blocks to another agency by a bank. Gunmen were robbing the bank, and he could hear the shots shooting outside the door. A man ran into the agency where Timoteo stood and got shot through the leg. He landed bleeding on the floor in the hallway as he tried to escape deeper into the government building. Since there were agency people to care for him, Timoteo slipped out to intercept us so we did not end up in the middle of the scene. Ross and I understood God was confirming our call to Altamira because they needed the gospel. Then we saw a blue Chev pickup driving around with soldiers and guns in the back, looking for the bandits. A couple of years later, we bought that blue pickup for the mission, and it served our mission for many years. Timoteo never stopped recounting and telling stories for the whole six-hour drive from Brasil Novo to Santarem.
Lunch in Santarem
When we got to Santarem, we dropped Timoteo off to continue his journey to see his mom. The next day, we had lunch with Elba, who was unexpectedly in town helping with an exposition at the shopping mall for the NGO she started. Elba is also the vice-president of the Association of Vineyard Churches in Brazil, and together with Steve and their two daughters, they are now church planting in Belem, our state capital.
Conclusion
It continues to amaze me how far God can take people when they keep saying yes and getting back up again.
Fatima (white shirt with a blue-collar) and Daide (far right, big smile) worked with Elba and many others to start a dentist ministry that helps the less privileged.
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