When the Southeast Brazil Union Conference (EBUC) developed and launched its church-planting initiative Em Cada Cidade Uma Igreja (A Church in Every City) in late 2023, regional Seventh-day Adventist leaders said they didn’t want just to tell others what to do. They wanted to get involved themselves.
The plan, which is focused on reaching towns and small cities with no Adventist presence across the state of Minas Gerais, calls on regional church fields to “adopt” between three and six nearby towns or small cities with no Adventist presence, covering the costs of a mission pioneer in each place—usually a Bible worker and their immediate family—for at least three years. Other regional organizations—a large school, an Adventist hospital, and the local ADRA (Adventist Development and Relief Agency) branch office—also decided to adopt one unreached town or city and send missionaries there.
The abandoned lot and church building where an Adventist group used to meet before people moved or stopped attending [Photo: Marcos Paseggi, Adventist Review] A group of church leaders and mission pioneers visit the place Adventists in Mar de Espanha used to meet before the group disbanded. [Photo: Marcos Paseggi, Adventist Review] Flor de Maria Mendes Morais moved with her family to live and work in Mar de Espanha as a Bible worker. [Photo: Marcos Paseggi, Adventist Review] Flor de Maria Mendes Morais (left) chats with Southeast Brazil Union Conference president Hiram Kalbermatter during a recent visit by church leaders to the new congregation in Mar de Espanha. [Photo: Marcos Paseggi, Adventist Review]
Reaching the Unreached Near You
Southeast Brazil Union Conference (EBUC) president Hiram Kalbermatter explained that after arriving in an unreached town, a Bible worker usually begins by visiting those who are already interested in studying the Bible because of previous contacts with the ubiquitous TV Novo Tempo (the Adventist TV network in Brazil). “Even in many places with no official Adventist presence, we know that there are people who have contacted Novo Tempo to request Bible studies,” Kalbermatter said. “So when a newly sponsored Bible worker moves to the town selected, [the worker begins] by visiting those who watch Adventist TV,” he said.
After the first baptisms take place in an area, Bible workers lead the formation of a core group that starts meeting every Sabbath, usually in a rented facility.
Kalbermatter and his team, however, did more than organize the territory’s church-planting project. Leaders appointed a pastor to serve as coordinator of the initiative, and the regional church headquarters also selected a town to support by sending volunteers from its staff and financial assistance from its own budget. “After discussing options, our administration selected Mar de Espanha in southern Minas Gerais,” Kalbermatter shared.
Mar de Espanha, a town with a population of 12,700, had had a fledgling Adventist congregation in the past, but with inadequate facilities and other challenges, some members had moved or left, and the small group had disbanded. “It often happens,” Kalbermatter conceded. “When you don’t own a church building, it’s more difficult for people to stay or to invite others. Most people eventually leave.”
But voting to sponsor a Bible worker and her family to settle in Mar de Espanha and supporting them in other ways—funds, volunteer hours, prayers—was only some of the challenges, regional church leaders acknowledged. “The town includes believers from several major, well-established Christian religions,” Kalbermatter explained. “When our Bible worker began to visit those who had requested Bible studies, some local religious leaders began to openly discourage their members from following through.”
Kalbermatter explained that those attacks affected them so much that leaders discussed whether they should move the Bible worker to another town. “The work here is very challenging but also extremely rewarding,” acknowledged Bible worker Flor de Maria Mendes Morais, who moved with her family to live and work in Mar de Espanha. “We need God’s help and the assistance of the Holy Spirit as we keep opening the Bible to residents.”
Regional church leaders and many pastors and their families pose for a group photo before leaving for Mar de Espanha to distribute mission books in March 2024. [Photo: South American Division News] In March 2025, personnel from the Southeast Brazil Union Conference distributed books on mental health and spirituality throughout Mar de Espanha. [Photo: South American Division News] A group of staff and other volunteers from the Southeast Brazil Union Conference meet at the Mar de Espanha central square before one of the recent book-distribution efforts in that town. [Photo: South American Division News]
Help From Headquarters
Regional church leaders and EBUC headquarters personnel have been actively supporting the mission in Mar de Espanha. In March 2024, together with many pastors and their families, they traveled from the regional headquarters near Petropolis in Rio de Janeiro to Mar de Espanha and distributed 5,000 missionary books to residents. A year later a similar group traveled again to distribute a book on mental health and spirituality.
These efforts have strengthened the resolve to grow the church in the area, regional church leaders emphasized. “In 2024 the first four people were baptized in Mar de Espanha, and a group began to meet every week,” they shared. “Now there are dozens studying the Bible, and we hope that by the end of the year the group will be larger.”
Morais agreed, explaining that every week a group of at least 20 adults and children meet for Sabbath School and worship in a rented facility. The place is small and too close to a busy street. Children meet in a back room where cleaning products are kept. But despite the current challenges, the group keeps moving forward. “We are focusing on discipleship,” Morais said. “And people are not only accepting the message but becoming active in the new congregation.”
New Member Involvement
William was one of the “firstfruits” of the mission work in Mar de Espanha, Morais reported. “William is always looking for ways to assist the congregation in various capacities,” she shared. William agreed. “I am learning to do new things here in church. And there are more activities that I would like to do—singing, for instance,” he said, laughing. “But I am still a little embarrassed.”
William’s wife, Cintia, also a church member, said they have high hopes for the future. “Who knows? Perhaps we could become a missionary couple in this church,” she shared. “And certainly, whatever we do, it will be for God’s honor and glory.”
Current rented facilities are inadequate for the fledgling Adventist congregation in Mar de Espanha. [Photo: Marcos Paseggi, Adventist Review] [3] The small rented facility is on a busy and noisy street, which makes church activities extremely challenging. [Photo: Marcos Paseggi, Adventist Review] Children meet in a back room where cleaning supplies are kept. [Photo: Marcos Paseggi, Adventist Review] Adventist Church and Maranatha Volunteers International leaders visited the Mar de Espanha, Minas Gerais, group on June 4. [Photo: Marcos Paseggi, Adventist Review]
Beyond Bible Reading
Morais also emphasized the importance of fellowship for the growing group. “When we meet, it’s also a time of listening to each other, of sharing how our week has been,” she said. It is the same method Morais is using to connect with residents. “It’s not just about meeting them to read from the Bible,” she said. “It’s important that we listen to them so they can share their problems, and that we spend time praying with them. Sometimes what they need is someone who just listens to them.”
She also told the experience of Laura, a teen girl who studied the Bible and decided to get baptized. Her transformation and example led her mom, Gabriela, to the Bible and the church. “I saw how Flor [Morais] cared about Laura and me,” Gabriela shared. “She was interested in my life, in my problems, and . . . I decided that I also wanted to become part of that church.” At the time of her statement, Gabriela was getting ready for baptism. “I also want to share the gospel with others, to work on behalf of others. I want to be part of this mission,” she said.
Some of the pioneer workers who are sharing the gospel message in Mar de Espanha, Minas Gerais [Photo: Marcos Paseggi, Adventist Review] Maranatha Volunteers International president Don Noble (left) looks at the place where Adventist members in Mar de Espanha used to meet. [Photo: Marcos Paseggi, Adventist Review] Maranatha Volunteers International vice president Kenneth Weiss looks at a picture roll that was left behind after the group in Mar de Espanha disbanded. [Photo: Marcos Paseggi, Adventist Review] Abandoned dusty Bibles inside the building where Adventists in Mar de Espanha used to meet [Photo: Marcos Paseggi, Adventist Review]
A More Permanent Presence
Leaders behind A Church in Every City have also committed to investing substantial funds to purchase plots of land and build churches for the new congregations. “It is a key part of the initiative,” Kalbermatter emphasized.
As he searched for ways to increase the pace of church-building developments, Kalbermatter contacted Maranatha Volunteers International, a donor-based supporting ministry of the Adventist Church that builds churches and schools and drills water wells around the world. Maranatha has ample logistical expertise with church construction, having served for more than 55 years in almost 90 countries. “The Maranatha model of building mostly small and economical sanctuaries is just what we need in Minas Gerais,” Kalbermatter said. “If they help us to start building, we can eventually provide a customized facade for each new temple and give each building its finishing touches.”
Attracted by every stakeholder buy-in of the program, Maranatha leaders recently visited the region to discuss possibilities of involvement and collaboration. During their June 3 to 5 discussions they visited the Mar de Espanha group and its leaders and assessed challenges and opportunities in the area. They suggested ways of moving the initiative forward.
Morais and others are looking forward to the day they can have a place of their own. “In the meantime we keep working and dreaming,” she said. “It’s all about mission. And we want more people in Mar de Espanha to study the Bible and embrace God’s truth.”