Bruce and Lynn Berry: 2017

Macedonia World Baptist Missions, Inc. was organized in 1967 by Baptist Pastors in the Atlanta, Georgia area primarily for work in the country of Haiti. Since 1974, Macedonia has grown to a worldwide organization with missionaries working in 43 foreign countries and 23 states.

The purpose of Macedonia World Baptist Missions, Inc. is to assist local independent Baptist churches in the servicing of their missionary families as they are sent forth around the world to propagate the Gospel of Jesus Christ with the goal of establishing local New Testament Churches.

Macedonia World Baptist Missions, Inc. is pretribulationist, premillennial, and fundamental in doctrine and separatist in practice, opposing modernism, ecumenicalism, neoevangelicalism and the charismatic movement.

After our time of furlough in 2017, we returned to Brazil and began a ministry in the jungle village of Piloto, which is a small community located about thirty minutes north of Barcelos by speedboat. It has a population of about 250 people. Most of its inhabitants’ farm for a living and their major crop is small shrub called mandioca. They use the filler called farinha.

In 2014 the Lord opened the door for us to teach physical education and Bible Classes at the Piloto Elementary School. During this time, we developed a very good relationship with the teachers, the children and the parents. The Lord also gave us grace in the sight of the chief of the village, who invited us to continue our work there.

In April of 2018, we began a series of Bible Studies with the elementary, middle school and high school students at the public school in Piloto. In Three weeks seventy-five students finished the Bible Studies and received a Bible. We then began to have special Sunday School type services every Saturday morning. Jones is a young man that I have been training for the last three years. He has been my right-hand man in the initiation of this new work. When I returned home this past June, I left he work and all the equipment in his hands, and he has accepted the call to continue this work in Piloto.

Barcelos, Brazil 2009 to 2017

From 2009 til 2017 we were actively involved in helping to reestablish the First Baptist Church as a TRADICIONAL, INDEPENDENT, SELF-SUPPORTING, Baptist church. We are glad to say, by the grace of God, that, as of March 11^th, 2017, the mission has been accomplished. In 2009 we arrived to find that the First Baptist Church in Barcelos had dwindled down to only a handful of people and was on the verge of closing its doors. We joined hands with a small group of dedicated Christians, who were convinced that it was God’s will to reestablish the church’s influence in the community. Knowing that we would face many difficulties and have many obstacles to overcome, we decided to take the advice of the psalmist. “Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.” (Psalm 37:5) Our Lord did exceeding abundantly above all that we asked. For the last eight years we have seen God’s abundant blessings upon the ministries of the First Baptist Church in Barcelos. In March of 2017 the First Baptist Church in Barcelos called Pastor Josivaldo to be their fulltime pastor.

Our First Missionary Work 1990-2001

In 1990 our family traveled to the city of Manaus, which is located in the heart of the Amazon Jungle. After studying the Portuguese Language we began to search for the place where the Lord would have us to start a Baptist Church. The Lord led us to a community on the outskirts of town called Augusto Montenegro, which had 500 houses and not one church of any denomination. On the first day of visitation I met a lady named Mrs. Ilzimar who said that she had been praying for two years that the Lord would send someone to start a Baptist Church in her community. With complete confidence in the Lord, that He had led us to the right place, we began the Augusto Montenegro Baptist Church. After many years of labor the church was ready to be indigenous and self-supporting. In May of 2001 the church called Pastor Francisco Martins to be its first Brazilian Pastor.

My Call to Missions

In 1975, at the age of 20, I began working with the youth of the Calvary Baptist Church in Hampton, Georgia, under the leadership of Dr. Marlon Thomas. In 1982 the Lord led me to work as a coach and teacher at the Calvary Baptist School, and it was there that I first gained a burden for missions in Brazil. That first year at Calvary, during one of our school chapels, a missionary came and shared that there were many people along the Amazon who had yet to hear the gospel. God gave me a real burden and I began to pray that he would call a young person from our church to take the gospel to people in Brazil. In the summer of 1984 the Lord impressed on my heart that if I was going to pray for someone to go, then I would have to be willing to go myself. I then began to pray in the following way: “Lord, call someone from our church, and if it be thy will, send me.” Three months later the Lord called me to preach and take the gospel to those who had never heard along the Amazon.

Wednesday, September 20, 2017

Mission Accomplished in Barcelos - Ministry Video 2017 - Bruce and Lynn Berry - Duration of video10:10

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