In the greater Belém area, there are tens of thousands of river people called “Ribeirinhos” (Hee-bay-REE-nyos). With the normal slow boat, there are 246 inhabited islands within a 2 hour trip from the city port. Many are small islands with only a few families, but others are very large, with dozens of communities spread over the islands. Within the same 2 hours, a car trip opens up multitudes more within the network of rivers in the area. Our task is to share the Gospel of Christ and plant new churches with these people. We have chosen, for our first task, to not “run over” those who are on our path to the Ribeirinhos. Therefore, as we are working on the process of identifying current work being done by churches on the islands in order to find the less evangelized, we are planting the seeds of faith with those we run into on a daily basis. Please pray for the Ribeirinhos of Belém, not just to hear the Gospel, but that they would be motivated to share their faith in ways that would affect the whole world.
For those of you who have been praying for us, thank you. For anyone who would like to support our ministry through prayer, we are honored that you would spend a moment of your personal time with God to mention us and the work that He is completing around us.

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December 25, 2008 at 1:20 am
Tim Kufeldt
I am interested in connecting with you. I googled Belem Mission and found you there. I take a work camp to Brazil every other year. We normally take a few days in Belem. This next summer we will be there in August.
We regularly support and do a short work camp at the Helping Hand school there near the campus of the Mission School. Are you familiar with it? (It is near the old Wycliff compound). Pastor Alexandre is the pastor at our Church of God congregation and Helping Hand School.
Tim Kufeldt, Cincinnati, OH
January 25, 2009 at 7:51 am
joelandcharlotte
Tim,
Thank you for your message. My apologies for the delay in responding. I am glad to hear that you are coming to our area this year. I would be honored to meet you.
To answer you question, we are familiar with the Mission School, if it is Amazon Valley Academy of which you are referring. Two of our children attend AVA right now. I am not familiar with helping Hand School though. Are they located near there also? It would be nice to get to know something about them as well.
May God bless you and the work to which He has called you. Keep sharing the news of His salvation!
If you wish, you may contact us at joelcharlotte@yahoo.com or on facebook (Joel’s) at the same e-mail address. We have decided to increase our posts on this site, so that those who prefer blogs can be involved with us through prayer and continuing relationships.
Abraços,