Dear friends,
Brazil is home to 340 ethnic groups speaking 181 distinct languages. Of those, 147 tribes have no missionary present. And 121 are considered non-evangelized — no significant evangelical witness anywhere among them.
Those numbers are the reason the Arrowhead Project exists.
But the number that keeps us awake at night is a different one. Among the tribes that already have an evangelical church, 99 have no indigenous leaders to lead the village churches. Fifty-one of those tribes have no program of biblical instruction at all.
Think about what that means. A missionary comes, the gospel is preached, people believe — and then the missionary leaves, and there is no one trained to teach, to baptize, to shepherd. The work does not survive the worker.
This is why our strategy has never been simply to preach and move on. We build on what missiologist Melvin Hodge laid out in The Indigenous Church back in 1953: a church that is self-sustaining, self-propagating, and self-governing. We’ve added two principles to his three. A tribal church must be contextualized, applying the truth of the gospel to its own culture and reality. And it must come full circle — becoming a missionary people itself, carrying the gospel to the next tribe.
That last one is no longer theory. Indigenous pastors in Brazil are now evangelizing other tribes.
The door opened for us in 2008, when Pastor Lucenildo Lima made a personal contact with the son of a chief of the Munduruku tribe. One conversation. That single contact has since opened doors into a growing number of tribes. Pastor Romildo Sabino has built a strong team in Manaus and has led this ministry over the last several years. Our role is logistical and financial support, and mentoring and coaching the leaders being discipled.
Would you pray with us?
- For new converts, new leaders, new churches, and new indigenous missionaries
- For the resources to respond when tribal leaders invite us to come and preach
- For grace and access to the 121 unreached tribes of Brazil
Gifts designated for Arrowhead Ministries — WM Project #062-0002-68 can be mailed to Church of God World Missions, PO Box 8016, Cleveland, TN 37320-8016, or given online through the link on our website.
Grateful for you,
John and Kathy Hayes