Holston to raise $100,000
for Brazil this spring

On May 6 or an alternate date, Holston's 912 churches will take a special offering to support the work of Bishop Paulo Lockmann, the Rio Conference, and the United Methodist Church of Brazil.

The offering is an annual spring occurence for Holston Conference, always combined with a hands-on mission project that this year will support missions in Liberia and Zimbabwe.

Brazil was chosen as the 2007 mission focus as part of the Mission Team's goal to "cover the globe," according to Bill Daugherty, Holston missions coordinator. Previous $100,000-plus offerings have benefited missions in Estonia, Latvia, Kenya, Liberia, Zimbabwe, and India - as well as Alaska and Holston's own missions such as Project Crossroads in Abingdon District and Bethlehem Project in Chattanooga District. In 2008, the missions focus will be Sudan.

This year, Holston's gifts will support a United Methodist conference that has experienced 200 percent growth in the last 15 years and aims to reach many more.

"We have a dream - God put this dream in our heart - to get one million people to Christ through the ministry of the Methodist Church in the next eight years," said Bishop Paulo Lockmann of the Rio Conference.
According to the Rev. Randy Frye, the offering will support two ministries that have been critical in the Rio Conference's growth: Evangemed and the School of Missions.

"Utilizing a mobile van equipped with state-of-the-art medical and dental equipment, Evangemed has brought healing, hope, and salvation in the name of Christ to the poorest of the poor in Rio and the northeast area of Brazil," Frye says in an informational videotape and DVD prepared for Holston churches.

The Evangemed trailer spends 30 days at Methodist churches, providing free health and dental services. Each evening, worship services are held and people are invited to "experience wholeness in the name of Jesus," Frye said.

At the School of Missions, a two-year program allows pastors to study one weekend each month with instruction in missions, evangelism, worship, prayer ministries, and leadership. Courses are offered each January and July for laypersons to spend 10 days in study and 10 days working in missions, Frye said.

"Many Brazilian young people receive the calling from God ... but they can't afford to come here and prepare to be a missionary", said the Rev. Carlos Tavares, former School of Missions director. "I believe this offering will be very, very important for our scholarship fund."

Church leaders should bring their offerings to Annual Conference, held June 10-13 in Lake Junaluska, N.C.

Videos and DVDs of the Mission Team's trip to Brazil will be available to churches beginning March 15, Daugherty said. An explanatory brochure about the offering for Brazil and the hands-on mission project for Liberia and Zimbabwe is available at http://missions.holston.org. An insert for Sunday bulletins will be provided online in April.

See future editions of The Call for more on this year's hands-on mission project and a follow-up on the 2006 offering for Alaska.

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