First Baptist Church of Waukon planning June mission trip to Amazon Jungle in Brazil


The group pictured above from First Baptist Church in Waukon will be making a mission trip to the Amazon Jungle in Brazil in June of this year. Left to right - Front row: Brenna Smith, Jacob Smith, Aislinn Goettel. Second row: Morgan Van Ruler, Sidney McQuade, Claire Beyer, Kari Roney. Back row: Michael Smith, Nathan Smith, Cristina Smith, Pastor Duane Smith, and Deb and Steve Kiley. Photo submitted with permission from Elisha Marti.

submitted by Cristina Smith

First Baptist Church in Waukon is planning a third mission trip to Brazil, South America June 2-18 of this year. Every four years, First Baptist Church, under the direction of Rev. Duane and Cristina Smith, plans an overseas missions trip open to the youth group and church family.

This upcoming trip is unique because the team of 13 people will be going to the Amazon Jungle of northern Brazil. The past mission trips, in 2009 and 2013, respectively, were to East-Central Brazil. The June 2017 mission trip will be a different and adventurous trip, taking the team to the Amazon Rainforest of northern Brazil.

The 2017 Brazil Team members include sixth grader Jacob Smith, freshman Aislinn Goettel, freshman Michael Smith, senior Claire Beyer, junior Nathan Smith, junior Morgan Van Ruler, freshman Brenna Smith, senior Sidney McQuade, and adults Kari Roney, Steve and Deb Kiley, and Pastor Duane and Cristina Smith. Alice Thompson, mother of Cristina Smith, will also accompany the team and overlap a weekend with the team before continuing her personal trip to East-Central Brazil to spend two weeks with her son, missionary David Thompson.

The mission team will fly into the city of Belém, which is the capital of the state of Pará. Belém, translated into English as “Bethlehem,” is home to 2,249,405 people, making it the 11th most populous city in Brazil, and it is the gateway to the Amazon River. The mission team will spend the majority of its time in a smaller city 30 miles out of Belém, named Benevides, at a Word of Life Institute. The hosts are Gary and Sandy Parker. Gary is the President of the Bible Institute and cousin to Pastor Duane Smith. The family connection has made the plans and itinerary for the trip come together smoothly.

The Word of Life (WOL) ministry is to reach the “river people” who live along the Amazon River with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. There are over 33,000 communities just in this part of the Amazon alone. WOL’s goal is to train young people at the four-year training institute and send them to these communities to plant churches, teach the Bible and help communities as they are allowed.

The WOL Institute presently reaches about 10,000 young people through camps, public school, Christian school and Bible Club ministries. The WOL graduates are presently planting churches in about 100 different communities through the boat ministry, which is headed up by Gary Parker’s brother, Rick Parker, in Manaus, Amazonas.

The mission team has been preparing since January of this year by meeting weekly for “Training Sessions” under the direction of Cristina Smith, who was born to missionary parents in southern Brazil, awarding her dual citizenship with the United States and Brazil, and making her fluent in the Portuguese language.

She has taught the mission team a 45-minute presentation of adult and children’s sacred songs sung in English and Portuguese, a pantomime named “Creation,” and two puppet presentations in Portuguese. Each team member will rotate sharing a salvation testimony with the aid of a translator. The team has also learned phrases and greetings for limited conversational Portuguese. This 45-minute presentation is adaptable to several audiences: colleges, public schools, open-air meetings, church meetings, small groups, etc., in which the Gospel Message of salvation through Jesus Christ is presented.

In Brazil, a religion hour is part of the school curriculum required for all students. Administrators, principals, teachers and schools across Brazil have invited pastors and priests of any denomination to teach religion classes, thus giving the Mission Team an opportunity to meet hundreds of students of all ages daily, often during general assemblies.

Brazilian administrators assert that every school in which qualified Bible teachers are invited to teach observe a marked, improved difference in their students’ behavior, respect, attention span, and better grade results. Bible teachers are welcomed with open arms because administrators value Biblical Truth and morals being taught to their students which develop better behaved students and a stronger student body.

“I find it very rewarding to expose people - especially teenagers - to a different culture and lifestyle. It is valuable to broaden one’s perspective and develop a more global mindset. Mission trips are often a life-changing experience and impact a young person’s life forever. The personal, spiritual development in the lives of each person going is always rewarding,” declared Cristina Smith.

The 2017 Brazil Mission Team sincerely appreciates the First Baptist Church family and Waukon community for their support of the upcoming mission trip that has come to fruition after one year of training, planning, raising funds and working together to make the mission trip a reality. The community is invited to a presentation following the mission trip Sunday, July 16 at the 10 a.m. Morning Worship at First Baptist Church in Waukon, at which the team will report on the mission trip.