Our work with the Brazil Inland Mission is in Vitória da Conquista, BAHIA. Vitória da Conquista is situated in the cooler mountain area of east-central Brazil. Coffee, cattle-raising, several small industrial factories and countless businesses make up this city of 300,000, and Conquista (as it is commonly called) is a strategic center for dozens of smaller towns in southeastern BAHIA.
Until we become adept in Portuguese, we will have regular language classes. David will be serving as a professor in the Thompson Theological Bible Seminary. He will also start new churches in East Central Brazil. Within this assignment, he will be training ministry students from the Seminary in church planting, evangelism, and pastoral ministry.Tina’s ministry will involve home schooling for the five children. She will also have the opportunity to teach at the seminary as well as be involved in children’s ministries in the local churches and in the public schools.
1) The Thompson Theological Bible Seminary was founded in Umuarama, PARANÁ, in 1968, by missionaries Robert and Alice Thompson, and functioned there under their leadership for 27 of their 43 years of missionary service. The Seminary was relocated to Vitória da Conquista in 2000. It currently has 50+ students, a good faculty and staff, extension schools and correspondence students. The large chapel is used for school functions and houses the congregation in the Morada III suburb.
2) Urbis | Bible Church, the first church planted by BIM missionaries David and Debbie Thompson, in 1984. Built by an American-Brazilian building team in January 1988, and organized in 1990, the church property now includes an all-purpose educational facility and parsonage on same large lot. Membership: about 40. Pastor:Manoel Anselmo, a graduate of the Thompson Theological Bible Seminary. Co-pastor, director of youth and visitation: Carlos Almeida.
3) Calvary Bible Church, located in the suburb of Petrópolis, the second church founded by BIM missionaries, David and Deborah Thompson, was begun in the suburb of Guarani, in 1993, and moved to the nearby Petrópolis suburb in 1998. Completed were the three-story educational building and fellowship hall in 1999, and a large sanctuary in 2001. Four trained evangelistic teams work in the church, hold meetings in two flourishing congregations and preaching points in various other locations. Enthusiastic children’s summer clubs draw from the community, an Awana Club flourishes, and a vibrant youth group encourages attendance and Christian service. Members: 86. Attendance: 100+. In January 2007, Missionary David Thompson turned the church over to Brazilian leadership, and a Brazilian pastor began his ministry. Pastor: Hartman Mangueira Souza.
4) A new evangelistic outreach was begun in March 2007 in the suburb of Vila América by missionaries David and Debbie Thompson, and continues with the help of the Calvary Bible Church and Evangelist Adriano. It is in a strategic, growing location, and across from a school. In mid-2008, the David Thompson’s will return from their Home Assignment in the U.S.A., and will continue to lead that ministry, help it to grow, and eventually to build a new church building there.
5) The Armindo Gomes Bible Camp is located a few miles from Vitória da Conquista, Bahia, in a strategic location for a camp ministry, but cannot function as a camp to date because the buildings are incomplete. A gospel team from Calvary Bible Church continues a good weekend ministry at the camp in that community of Choças.
