Dear Praying Friends,
Training Brazilian missionaries is our passion and primary ministry in Rio. Our work summons us to invest our lives with students in classes, training activities and informal get-togethers. We love our students and the privilege God has given us to share in their lives!
Our Local Church
 Although we have not written about it in our seven years in Rio, we are also involved in a local church. We believe in the global body of Christ and in the local church. So as part of the body of Christ, we are members of Igreja Batista Memorial da Tijuca (Memorial Baptist Church of Tijuca), located just a few blocks from our apartment. We joined our church not long after arriving in Rio, to worship and serve the Lord together with Brazilian believers as well as to be nurtured as part of the body of Christ. We are active members. Mark occasionally preaches or teaches a young adult Sunday school class and is currently part of the Pastoral Search Committee of our church. We are part of a small group that meets weekly and has become like family to us.
Greater Rio has over 11 million people, 25 % of whom live in very needy communities like the ones shown in these pictures.
 On Saturday, July 4th, our church is cooperating in a Service and Outreach Day with Gethsemane Baptist Church, a sister church in one of these needy communities in our greater neighborhood. Free of charge to residents of the community, the day will include: haircuts, medical attention in measuring of blood pressure and doing glucose testing, legal advice, home visits with the distribution of personal hygiene kits and a children’s program. Our church will provide 20 “food baskets” that contain a month’s supply of non-perishables for Gethsemane Church to distribute to needy families. We, along with others from our church, will be talking with people who come to the event to encourage them in their journey towards a relationship with Jesus. Our goal is to assist Gethsemane Baptist to bring people in their community to know, love and follow Jesus.
Please pray with us for this holistic outreach. May our church BE Good News as well as help to TELL the Good News of JESUS to many in the Gethsemane Church community.
Thank you for praying with us in our joint goal of making disciples of Jesus in our neighborhoods and around the world!
Mark & Helen Downing
Training missionaries of the Brazilian Baptist Convention in Rio de Janeiro
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