Prayer/Dream Meeting

This Friday Tati and I met with some families in the BMIN Program. We wanted to share with them some of our dreams for future mission work in South Florida or Portugal. Mr. Marvin Crowson (Director of Domestic Missions at Harding University) was there with us too. We all fellowshiped, ate pizza, talked about our survey trip to Deerfield Beach / Boca Raton this past November, and prayed about possible team formation. We love these families and would love to team up with them! ❤?

BMIN Families Dreaming About Doing Missions Together

A Nice Zoom Meeting with Mr. Holway

We just had a very nice video conversation with Mr. Holway from the Sunset Church of Christ in Miami, FL. He is one of the ministers at the church there and has had a lot of experience as a missionary, both in an out of the country (over 12 years in Buenos Aires, Argentina).

Mr. Holway reasured us of our plans for South Florida and he confirmed many of our findings during our survey trip in November:

1) yes, there is a LARGE Brazilian community in the Deerfield/Boca area and it is not being reached by anybody.

2) he strongly believes that our plans and ideas for ministries would be very well received.

3) God has been making it clearer and clearer for us that South Florida may indeed be the place where He wants us to go and work as missionaries! Please, keep praying for us!

Over all, Mr. Holway seemed very happy and hopeful for us. We closed with a beautiful prayer said by him.

Thank you for your time and willingness to help us, Mr. Holway! God bless you! ??

Video Chat with Mr. Jim Holway (Sunset CoC)

Thanksgiving in South Florida

This week, while we were surveying South Florida, we stayed in my cousin’s (Márcio) house. He and his family moved to Deerfield Beach 14 years ago and we had not seen them very often ever since. In fact, this was my first time meeting their daughter Julia.

Today we had a Brazilian Thanksgiving meal with family and friends!

Thanksgiving week with Maikon’s cousin

Survey Trip to South Florida: Day 4

This is our fourth day surveying South Florida.

In the morning we had breakfast at Mauricio Yegros’ house and we got to meet his sweet wife, Kayla, and their beautiful kids, Nelson and Emily. Brothers Carlos Preciado and Luis Olavo were present as well. We had the chance to talk more about their experiences as missionaries here in the area and their insights were extremely valuable to us. Mauricio also showed us his church building (Coral Springs CoC).

In the afternoon we did some more exploring in the region and went to another Brazilian neighborhood, Sunshine Ranches.

In the evening we attended Bible class at West Broward CoC.

1st two pictures: breakfast at the Yegros
3rd picture: Bible class at the West Broward CoC

Survey Trip to South Florida: Day 3

Today was another busy day!

In the morning we had coffee with Mauricio Yegros (a Paraguayan missionary at the Coral Springs CoC here in Florida) and Chris Fry (Director of Latin Mission Teams at Great Cities Missions). They were both very excited and encouraging of our plans for South Florida. Mauricio had been here in the area for 5 years and he gave us good hints and suggestions. Something awesome about the work that Mauricio has been doing in Coral Springs is that they have been using Let’s Start Talking as a way to reach out to the Hispanics. He told us that this method works really well with the immigrants in the area.

In the evening we had a delicious dinner at a Brazilian restaurant in Boca Raton. Carlos Preciado invited Mr. and Mrs. Guzman, as well as Mr. Olivo (Outreach Minister at the High Pointe CoC in McKinney, TX) to join us. Carlos had spoken to them about us and they were excited to meet us. Carlos and Erika Guzman lived in Brazil for many years and we know several church people in common. They now live here in South Florida and were also very encouraging of us moving here.

So far the response we’ve been having from everybody has been really positive. We also like the area very much. Well, let’s keep praying… ?

1st photo: coffee with Mauricio Yegros and Chris Fry
2nd photo: dinner with Carlos Preciado, Carlos and Erika Guzman, and Luis Olivo

Survey Trip to South Florida: Day 2

Brazilian communities in Deerfield Beach, FL

Today (Monday, Nov 19) we drove around Deerfield Beach. There are at least two large Brazilian communities here and we wanted to check them out. We also talked to some residents and went to local Brazilian stores and supermarkets. People were all very friendly and seemed to be quite happy living here.

Survey Trip to South Florida: Day 1

We wanted to use our Thanksgiving break to take a survey trip here in South Florida. There’s a huge Brazilian community that lives in the Miami/Boca Raton area and we hope to be able to work with them after I graduate from Harding University.

We arrived in South Florida yesterday (Saturday, Nov 17). And today (Sunday) we attended church in the morning and had a meeting in the afternoon.

We attended church with our brothers and sisters at the Broadview Church of Christ in North Lauderdale. They have a nice bilingual congregation (Hispanics and Anglos). We had Bible study with our Latino brethren and then the whole church got together for a combined bilingual worship service. It was a very nice experience. After service, they invited us to stay and eat lunch with them.

In the afternoon we met with brothers Michael Osmann and Morris Legg, elders of the Hialeah Church of Christ in Hialeah. We had a good conversation and got to tell them more about us and our mission plans for the region. They were very excited and positive about what we had to say.

1st two photos: Broadview CoC
Last photo: meeting with Hialeah CoC elders

Hello!

We are Maikon & Tati Borba. Right now we are Bible and Missions students at Harding University in Searcy, AR.

We are both native Brazilians and will soon be working as missionaries in South Florida (Boca Raton and Deerfield Beach area). We were former ESL teachers in Brazil and, after our graduation (May 2020), we want to start a bilingual ministry. We will love to combine our then new-acquired knowledge in Bible and Missions with our expertise in English teaching to help Brazilians and/or other immigrants by helping them learn English through the Bible. We are looking at either partnering with a local CoC or forming a team to plant a new church. If you’re interested in learning more about our plans, please get in touch! ?