Brazil Update- A Big Weekend!

This past weekend was a historic one for two reasons. First of all, we held our first C3 Brazil/C3 South America Pastor’s Conference. We had 22 people from several different churches. Our good friend, Maria Reyes, joined us also from Santiago, Chile, where she is living and laying the groundwork for a church plant.

The theme of the conference was “Connect,” and that was a big part of what we were doing. We want to create a culture of family among our pastors and leaders so we allowed plenty of time for the delegates to get to know each other. We had several awesome sessions:

Where are We Going? Pastor Ronald from C3 Curitiba
Creating a Dream Team– Pastor David from C3 Curitiba
The Challenges of Ministering to Young Adults– Pastors Marquinos and Pri from C3 Curitiba
The Evangelistic Church– Pastor Fabio from C3 Santos

After a morning of teaching and fellowship, we all had lunch together in a local restaurant. In the evening, we had our second historic event. C3 Curitiba launched a second campus on the other side of the city. Pastors Erick and Vanessa Stocchero are heading up this new work along with a team of three other great young couples.

We had 65 people at our first C3 Ecoville service. Almost half of these people had come because a friend brought or had invited them. Erick and their team absolutely nailed it. No one would have ever guessed this was the first service at a new church. The worship was incredible. Erick had Pastor Fabio from C3 Santos, and Pastor Ronald and me get up and share briefly. Erick’s opening message was awesome. I am so proud of Pastor Erick, Vanessa, and their team.

One of the young couples that was with us for the weekend were Sidnei and Raquel. They are currently part of C3 Church Santos. They are scheduled to launch a new C3 Church just outside São Paulo in May. Annie and I are going up for that and I will keep you updated. Would you pray for these new works in Brazil? Whenever we start taking ground there is going to be opposition.