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Sunnyside Baptist Church Missionary Guest - Jeff Howe
And ask that the Lord will bless you and your ministry. Please share with us.
Thank you. Am I supposed to turn this on or is somebody operating it?
This is for recording only, so you're going to have to just yell at us.
Oh, okay. Well, good evening. I just want to make an observation. I don't remember seeing so many beards the last time I was here. So now I wish I hadn't have shaved before I came, but my wife appreciates that I did.
So many of you, many of you, you all know us, but I see a lot of faces that I don't recognize. So I'm sure there's many here and I hear that there's a new Baptist. So I just wanted to give a little nadiana how our children from oldest to youngest are Sheldon.
He's not here tonight. He just flew yesterday back to school. Missionary Moody Aviation in Spokane, Washington. And we have Janelle over there. Sheldon or Braden back over there. Maybe you should stand up.
They hate this. And Janissa. So my mom and dad were missionaries in Brazil among the Kulina people. So I grew up in Brazil and I got to know the Kulina people, their way of life. And I saw firsthand my parents, their ministry there among the Kulinas.
And when I was in high school at the mission boarding school during that time, I was wanting to see that work continue. My parents left that ministry and went on to to other ministries in Brazil before they retired.
But so the Lord laid this on my heart. And Adriana, who is also from Brazil, she's Brazilian. She was challenged to cross some students from the New Tribes Mission, Brazilian branch of New Tribes Mission, a Bible institute that they had there.
Some students put on a play at the church she was attending at the time. A missions play. And she was challenged to missions. We both followed up on that. I did the New Tribes Mission and she continued on to attend that Bible institute.
And then later, after I finished the missions course, I went down to Brazil as a single missionary. And as part of my training to improve my Portuguese, they suggested that I go to this Bible institute.
I would be in the dorm. I would take the classes. It would all be in Portuguese. And so in that way, I would improve in my Portuguese. That's what I did. And she was a student there. Met her, you know, the first day.
And eventually, we built a relationship. We were married and went on to finish the training in Brazil. Again, for me, second time. But all in Portuguese. And so we belong to Ethnos 360, which was formerly known as New Tribes Mission, is to reach people groups.
Ethnic groups, which because of the language barrier, have no access to the gospel in the countries in which they're located. So Ethnos 360's goal is to reach these through teaching and discipleship. To just see a mature, thriving church raised up among them.
And so, as you can imagine, this is a long-term mission endeavor. Short-term missions. The Lord raises up people for short-term missions that actually contribute to this longer-term mission. But Ethnos 360, just from scratch, and learning the culture of the people, before the missionary can even begin to teach the gospel, preach the gospel.
And then, following that, there's teaching and discipleship. And as well as in many cases, it involves actually making an alphabet, or literacy program, teaching the people how to read, and even in some cases, Bible translation.
So it's a long-term mission endeavor. And they changed their name. New Tribes Mission changed their name to Ethnos 360. That word Ethnos is from the Greek. So their main objective, as we can see in Matthew 28, 19, where, let me just turn there.
The Great Commission, Matthew 28, 19. It says, go therefore and make disciples of all nations. In Mark, I think it is, it says, preach the gospel to every creature. So the objective, preaching the gospel.
And then, also it includes making disciples of all the nations, all the ethnic, the people groups. And then in Revelation 5, 9, I love this verse because it's showing our future and glory. Revelation 5, 9 says, And they sang a new song, saying, Worthy are you to take the book and to break its seals, for you were slain and purchased for God with your blood, men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.
You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God, and they will reign upon the earth. So again, you know, every tribe, people, tongue and nation. So as for us, they say that there's nearly 3 ,000 people groups that are considered unreached.
And unreached in this case is there's less than 2 of the population are evangelical Christians. So missiologists have come up with this 2 and they are calling these people unreached because there's 2%, or actually less than 2 who are evangelical.
So there's just simply not enough believers to even within these groups to form functioning local churches that are self-propagating and spreading. So we minister among one of these 3 ,000 people groups, the Kulina people in western Amazon region of Brazil.
We spent several years in the village of Piau. That was where my parents worked, and it was just a lot of hard work building relationships with the people, learning their language and culture, their cultural beliefs.
For instance, we learned that with the Kulina, their creator, there was two brothers, Kira and Tamako. Tamako was the good guy. He knew everything. He was smart. But Kira was kind of the fool, I guess you could say.
Did everything wrong in their stories. They talk about it and they said that Tamako created the Kulinas because he knew what he was doing. Kira created everyone else. So there's some ethnocentric pride there.
Or we also learned that booze. Just so many things that they believe that if you mix certain foods together, something bad is going to happen. Or when their wife is pregnant, the man can't do certain things.
If they do, their baby, not them, but their baby will die of a sickness. And many other things like this we learned as we studied their culture. But I guess one of the highlights from our time in Piau was the opportunity we had to teach evangelistic Bible lessons to a young couple named Davi and Andrea.
Or David and Andrea, I guess you could say. And Andrea was a local Brazilian national. And Davi's father was Kulina, but his mother was a Brazilian national, local. So they understood Portuguese, so we were able to use Portuguese instead of the Kulina language, which we were learning.
And so we went through these evangelistic Bible lessons starting in Genesis and all the way to Christ's death, burial, and resurrection. When we got to the end, both of them, Adriana taught Andrea and I taught Davi a little later.
But both of them, when we got to the end, they professed faith in Christ in a little bit, Davi and Andrea. Just an interesting note. One day, not long after their profession of faith, Andrea came over and she was just all smiling.
And she started telling us that the day before, she said, we didn't have anything to eat. When they don't have anything to eat, that means they don't have meat, like fish or game. They might have the yuca, the manioc starch, or potato.
But if they don't have meat, then they consider that they haven't eaten yet. But they said, that day, we just didn't have anything to eat. And so Andrea prayed to God about it. A short time later, she was looking out the window and she saw in her yard there this animal called paca.
You can look it up. But it's actually considered a rodent. It gnaws on its food. But it's really appreciated for its tasty meat. And so it was just standing out there in the clearing in the yard. And it didn't move.
So Davi was able to go out and butcher it. And that is just not normal. You come close to it, it will run back into the jungle. But this one just stood there and he was able to butcher it. And that was their meal for the day.
But what was really encouraging is that she was just so happy about this. This answer to prayer. And she was giving the glory to God for that. How he provided for them in this kind of unique way. About six years ago, we moved to another village named Arawana near the town of Invita.
If I had a map, I could give you the perspective of all that. So we went back. Our co-workers had left earlier and moved to this town of Invita. So now, about six years ago, we moved to be with them.
And the idea was to be a team again. And we would continue our studies just to get to the proficiency in Kulina. And we're very close. We had hoped to be able to complete the final level of the Kulina language proficiency.
But some things came up. Various issues came up. We needed to homeschool our kids. As well as our co-workers ended up not being able to be in the village either. So for those reasons, various others, we weren't able to live in that village very much.
We would make trips in there. But we ended up spending most of our time in Invita. Where I was able to help Edjichi, who is a dear Kulina sister in Christ, help her in developing these chronological Bible lessons in the Kulina language.
So I was helping her begin to do that. That's not finished, but it's in the very beginning stages. Now, more recently we were on staff at our missions boarding school for missionary children. When I was a kid, that's where I went to school.
And so we were on staff there. Now, which we've been here over a year. It's been back in June. And our plans were to go back at the end of this month. So our kids could start school. But Adriana has applied for a visa in August of last year.
Or not a visa, well yeah, I guess a green card. And it hasn't come yet, so we're waiting for that. We can't travel until she gets at least that or permission to travel while she waits for that. Which we haven't got either one of those.
That's a prayer request also. Turn to Brazil. We're excited about returning to the work among the Kulinas. And especially about another move. Our mission leadership would like for us to make a move to another area.
Another river. Still with the same people, group. We won't have to learn language again. But to this other river system. And at first, we didn't know what to think about it at first. Because moving to different places is not easy.
Especially after you've built relationships with the people. And you've told them that eventually we're going to be teaching you God's word. And they're asking for it. And so now you're going. So that was kind of hard for us to think about that.
But during the last year, we thought and prayed about this. And we've come to see the Lord's direction in this. For one thing, there's now a team of missionaries. Who wish to begin this new work among the Kulinas.
On this Purus River. That's the name of the river. So our leadership believes that we can help them. Be of help to them. In moving and adapting to the people. To the culture. And so we're kind of excited about this opportunity now.
To be of help to these new missionaries. Also, a couple years ago when we were at the school. I had the opportunity to visit these Kulina villages. That our leadership had decided on as the options for the missionaries to move into.
And while we were there, we asked the chiefs of the village. If they would accept missionaries to live with them. And they were all very receptive. They said they definitely wanted missionaries. And they even said, we'll make a field for them.
A garden for them. They can use the lumber on our land there. In the jungle to make their houses. So very receptive. But then some men came to me. Afterward, privately. And I was kind of surprised. This one guy said, I'm a missionary.
Another guy said, I'm a pastor. And I said, oh, well, where do you hear about Jesus? They said, well, up river where Wicca Bible translators. In Peru, on the other side of the border. They've done the New Testament translation in Kulina.
And a missionary, a Kulina man, from there. Came down river and was telling them about Jesus. And so now they're calling themselves missionaries and pastors. And some of them have a church. Even a church building.
But this one guy said to me, and I recorded it. This was on my way back in town. I hadn't even seen him on the trip. But he heard that I was there. And somehow he beat us back down river. And was already there at this town.
And they came to me and they said. He said, oh, we want missionaries too. He was from a different village in that area. He said, yeah, we all agree. We want missionaries. And then he said, I'm a pastor.
But I don't know God's word very much at all. And he used the words in the language. He said, I'm like a little child. In my knowledge of God's word. My faith is small. And so that's kind of stuck in my mind this last couple years.
And at that time I couldn't really promise him. That I would be able to do that. But I said, you know, certainly there's going to be other missionaries. Because they're planning to start this work there.
And to live among you. But I can't guarantee, I can't promise that I will go back. Well, he said, well, at least we want somebody like you who can do that. So, okay. Yeah, the mission has plans to send missionaries in there.
But this kind of reminds me of the Macedonian call. Come over and help us. And so that's like stuck in my mind since then. So it's another thing that's been kind of showing us. You know, this is God's directing in our lives.
Another happening that has helped in confirming in our hearts. You know, to make this move away from Arowana village. Is that since we were gone. This young Kulina man from the Arowana village. He had the opportunity to go to a Bible school.
It's all in Portuguese. But it's a Bible school specifically for tribal people in Brazil. So he attended that. And then later he also got some teaching from a pastor in the town there. And now he's returned to the village.
And we hear that he is teaching the kids. You know, he's teaching the kids the gospel. And we hear that the whole village is more organized now. I mean, he's a young guy. So he probably feels he can't take the lead.
So maybe that's why he's not teaching the older people yet. But he's teaching the children, which is the future of that village. And so we praise God for that. Because now we know that there's going to be a gospel witness there.
Even though we'll be leaving. I believe God is working in the hearts of many Kulina. We've heard just in the last few years. It seems like there's just a growing interest for hearing and learning. That's what they call God's talk.
Just for example, we've heard good news from our former village of Piau. That Davi and Andrea are meeting with some young Kulina villagers on Sundays. And so our prayer is that they just might be encouraged.
Sometimes they feel alone. Because Davi and Andrea were the only ones in the village who had faith in Christ. So we just pray that they'll be encouraged. That there'll be effective Christian witnesses there in that village.
And we also heard about another Kulina man from a village upriver. From the town of Invida. And he told a local Brazilian pastor that he was a believer. And he had a church building in his village. But he asked a pastor to teach him God's word.
So the pastor said, well I can't. I can't go to your village. I live here. My family. And the guy said, this Kulina man said, well I have a house here in town. And so you can teach me here. And then I'll go back to my village and pass on what you're teaching me.
And then the pastor asked him, well how did you hear about the gospel? And he said, I heard it on the radio. So God's using various forms. God's people in different ministries. Apparently he understood enough Portuguese.
At least it's put an interest. I don't know the situation of his faith. But he professes. And he wants to know more of God's word. And we've heard of other instances in other Kulina villages. God's talk.
Or building church buildings. They've had contact with different Christian denominations. But they have little knowledge of the word. And so we hear of them just asking for someone to teach them God's word.
So our prayer is that God would raise up those who would be able to evangelize. Teach them in answer to this call. So that they can become. Just that there will be a mature, thriving church raised up among the Kulina.
So that the Kulina people can be part of the reached people groups of the world. And they're close. But there's still not a thriving, mature church. There's individuals. But we want to see the church raised up among them.
Thriving, mature. And reaching out and spreading to their people. Just one. Just the last few weeks. Is that the New Testament in the dialect of Brazil was finished. And during these days they're distributing them to the different villages.
Ethnos 360 now has a helicopter in Brazil. The aviation department. A Kulina man. Actually Adichie's brother. Who's also a believer. He's actually a pastor of a church. Brazilian church. And he's going to go in the helicopter and distribute these Bibles to remote Kulina villages.
Or the New Testament. So we thank you for your part in supporting. Thank you for Sunnyside Baptist Church. The individuals who through part in this endeavor. Thank you. And thank you also just the generosity.
Even just during these days while we're here. So if you have any questions.
Did you say the name of that village that you would be going to on that trip? What was the name of the village? Pudus? Pudus, yeah. Well they haven't decided yet. There's two villages. There's two villages.
One is Santo Amaro. And I don't think I'm going to remember the other one. But there's two villages. And these new missionaries have the single guys. They made a trip there just recently. And they haven't decided yet.
But they're leaning toward Santo Amaro. The village is like located. There's like five in this other village. They're right in the middle there. And it's also close to another work with the different tribal people.
And now there will become, you know, we'll help each other out. That's the idea that strategically our mission leadership, you know, thought that was a good place to open up another work to see the church, you know, spread.
And after seeing, you know, these guys that are calling themselves pastors and missionaries, so they had that idea. So, you know, if they're taught the word, come to an understanding, then they'll know, you know, what to spread and to teach others.
Any cults living there? Not so far, no. Maybe because they're kind of more isolated. But in the towns, there's already, yeah, there's Jehovah's Witness. I mean, I mentioned literacy. That's what my dad and his co-workers, they developed the alphabet for them, and they taught them to read.
And then after that, they started teaching each other. So that spread also. Just, you know, they taught each other how to read. And also individuals that I mentioned, Adichie, because her mother was a Brazilian national, was a local in the area, and she came to faith in Christ, you know, through the ministry of my dad and his co-workers.
So those individuals and that whole family actually was, because it's Adichie, Davi was the one that we taught the Bible lessons, and Bida, another brother, he's the one that's a pastor, and he's going to be distributing the Bibles to the villages.
Oh, yes, Eliana. And then there's others that are believers, but just individuals. It hasn't spread as far as, like, a functioning church.
Well, it sounds like the people are...
Yeah. And these villages, I think they do, they have an idea of what the gospel is. But in the beginning, like when my dad and his co-workers went in, they were welcoming, but a lot of it, I mean, humans are humans.
They're the missionaries maybe for other reasons other than hearing the gospel, because, you know, they know they can benefit from things, even materially.
There's been no violence again?
No. The Quilinas, they're violent against each other, but not so much with the outsiders, although there are some cases with the Brazilian locals.
When you teach these men and women, do you have materials that you'll be able to give them so when they go out they will have materials, or is there a way?
Do they have visual aids or something in those stories? There may be, I think in Peru, where Wicca Bible Translators, I think they do have materials that maybe could be adapted, just like the New Testament was adapted into the Quilina Brazil's dialect.
But no, not... It's not available, right? Not available, and we just started working on translating, like, the chronological lessons that missionaries can use, or even the people themselves could use to evangelize.
But that's... There's 40 lessons, I think, or more, and I think we have one lesson that was approved by our consultants, but there's, like, I think 10 that are underway. 10 lessons are to be checked. Yeah.
The whole New Testament. The New Testament and Genesis is finished. It's in print. It's just recently. Oh, and what was really neat is we saw these videos they sent to us of kind of the celebration of receiving the New Testament, and the people in Piau village, they had a celebration in Evita, and then they flew, they used a helicopter, they went over to Piau, and the people there, on their own accord, somebody, one of them, they wrote these signs, and they were saying, We're very thankful for the missionaries, for the Germans, for the Americans, for the Brazilians, and even for their own Quilina people that worked on this translation.
The missionaries, and they just, it was really neat to see, you know, that they wrote that out themselves, and they were thankful that they were receiving the New Testament. Yeah. Yeah, they have their own gardens, and they hunt and fish, and nowadays, more frequently, they receive, a lot of them receive government, like social program, and some of them have jobs, they're employed, they're either a health worker, or an Indian health agent, or a teacher, and so they can receive a salary for that too, and yeah, it's quite a bit different than when my dad and mom first went in.
So yeah, they have more, a lot of times, the township, because they're in the interior of Brazil, it's kind of like the municipality is sort of the governing, so the mayor is almost like a king, and everyone tries to gain the mayor's favor so they can receive stuff, and promise to vote for him in the next election, and all that, and so a lot of times, the area, the mayors will provide a generator for lights in the villages, not all the villages, but some have generators, run off of diesel oil, so they can have lights at night.
Yeah. Yeah, I helped on maintenance, and also had a couple classes, 7th and 8th grade, Bible, Adriana worked in the laundromat, and she was homeschooling Janissa, because Pura Quequara only starts at 5th on up, at that time Janissa was in 2nd grade, or something.
Yeah, way in the back. Yes, just the transition in general, we're, humanly speaking, I'm not excited about building again, building a house, and so just the move, and all that's involved, you know, how much to, because we had a house in that town there, so we need to know what to do with it, if we're going to sell it, or what, and also for Adriana's green card, that would be a major prayer request, and also we, we were just talking about this, for our kids, continued education, because if we stay another semester, that'll break up their school year, which is better than, you know, breaking in the middle, but in the middle of a semester, but if they could start at the mission school now, so we're thinking, we don't know exactly how that might work, but to send them down there, or I would accompany them to the mission school, and then we would wait for the green card back here in the states, so you can pray about that, too.
It's going to start August 4th, but maybe if they're a week late, or something, that wouldn't be too bad.
Which one of your siblings was actually born in Brazil?
Brad and Julie. Yeah, two. I just missed it by two months. And not only the green card, I guess I could mention, following the green card, Adriana would like to get American citizenship, so she doesn't have to deal with all the getting visas, I say that kind of as a joke, but we went through an experience, and it wasn't pleasant for her, and she thought she was going to be deported, but it wasn't that bad.
Let's take a moment to pray for the house, and thank you for sharing that. Let's pray for the house, and pray about these concerns, about the transition, about the housing, and then the new work, and let's pray for Adriana, the green card, citizenship, and God would show favor in an otherwise broken, messed-up bureaucracy.
Pray for God to give favor, and for that to work out, and just pray for you all's wisdom and decision-making, for your children's education. Let's all just spend some time right now, and pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ, okay?
Father, I thank you so much for Jeff and Adriana and their family. Lord, I pray a special blessing upon them. Lord, we thank you for the work that you are doing. We thank you, Jesus Christ, for the way you're building your church, and gathering in your own from the Kalena tribe and Kalena people.
Lord, we pray that you would just continue that work. Lord, I thank you for all the labor and the effort that has gone in. Lord, I know that Jeff, Adriana, and all the missionaries in the region must sometimes feel so weak and unable to make progress.
Lord, but we know it is not by might, it's not by power, but it's by your Spirit that you do your work, and so we give you the praise for that. Lord, now we ask in the inner seat for this new work, for the transition, for housing, and all that concern.
Lord, I pray that you give wisdom and provide for the transition, and that you would bless this move, this change of focus, and that you would bring great fruit from new fields. Lord, we ask that you would give favor for this green card and for citizenship.
Lord, that you would provide that in an excellent and speedy fashion. Lord, we pray for the decision-making for this family and to know what to do. Lord, I pray that you give them clarity to make the right decision and give them peace in that decision.
Lord, we pray for their children's education, Lord, that you would provide there. That you would help these young men and young women to do well in their school and to learn what you want them to learn, that they will grow in the fear and the admonition of you.
Lord, we thank you for this family. I pray that you would help us to be faithful to pray for them and to bring them before you, to intercede. Lord, I pray that you would meet their every need according to your abundance in Christ Jesus.
We pray these things in his name. Amen. I love you.
I just wanted to mention also, we'll have a little, I guess it's up here. If you would like to receive our prayer letter or updates, and there's some prayer cards here. We have a blog for those of you who are more techy.
It hasn't been updated in a while, but there's some articles on there from the past. And so just put your name and address, or your name and your email address, and we'll get you on the list. All right.
Thank you, brother.