Gastão Family
I (Abimaleque) arrived with my family at Missão Nativos in 2017, through Paulo and his family. We met Pastor Marquinhos and we were adopted as members of the Mission.
We receive Strong Foundational and Leadership teaching, thus preparing us as missionaries and sending us out to the tribal communities, taking the gospel of Christ to the people.
We continue as missionaries of Nativos working with three communities. We have services and meetings designed to teach the word of the Lord Jesus and the studies of Strong Foundations. We have gone to these communities, taking a few days at a time in each community. While there, we visit the houses, taking time to pray with the brothers and sisters. We do this work with great pleasure and are very happy because the mission has supported these endeavors.
Rafael and Vânia have been missionaries of Nativos since 2015. They are indigenous of the Saterê Mawé tribe. Soon after beginning to participate in the activities developed by Nativos, they fell in love with the work of God. They then understood that God would have them dedicate themselves as an integral part of this missionary work. They live in a house on the Mission Base, with their children, Rafaela 9, and Isabela 6.
They have developed evangelistic work and discipleship among their people with great dedication and love. Their greatest motivation has been presenting Jesus and the message of salvation to the indigenous and riverside dwellers of Maues.
Grace and peace in Christ! We are Carlos and Natalia Bezerra.
We are pastors in Amazonas and vice-president of Missão Nativos.
I (Carlos) converted when I was 31 years old and early in my walk with Jesus heard His call. I decided to leave a good job and family, to leave my city and go to a missions school in Minas Gerais. In 2009 at this missions training school, I met my wife, Natalia. At the time I was a student and she was one of the collaborators, as she had already gone through the school a year earlier. We were married in 2010 and began working as missionaries at a rehab in Minas Gerais.
At the end of 2010, we were called to help a mission in Santa Caterina. We lived there until July 2011, when God called us to Amazonas. In 2011, we came to continue our missionary life, and preach the gospel to the indigenous people and all those in the city of Maués.
I would like to share a small testimony. I was at the bank in 2011 when a lady came in and began chatting with me. She was an elderly woman around 80 years old, and she had blue eyes. (Which is what I remember the most about her)
She began a conversation about the weather and I respectfully answered her back. Then, in the middle of our conversation, she asked me when I was going to leave that place. I had never seen her before, she told me, “you left one end of the country, and you are going to go back there. Though I had never seen her before, she told me, “you left one end of the country and you won’t be going back there.” Coming closer, she said, “where you are going, God has prepared a better life for you.” I was surprised. She got up quickly, shook my hand, and said it was a pleasure to meet me. She quickly left the bank. I was perplexed, not knowing what had happened, I realized that certainly, that woman was an angel, sent by God to show me the way to Amazonas.
A few months later, God began to confirm the word about us going to Maués. Therefore, we left everything once again, all our furniture, our house, our family and everything we had to go to Maués and dedicate ourselves to Amazonas.
At this time we only had our daughter Susana who was just 5 months old when we arrived in Amazonas. Here we have developed our life, our calling and our ministry. It was here that the Lord raised us up and called us into the pastoral ministry, where we were ordained as pastors of Nativos in 2015.
In 2016 we moved into the house we now live in, which is an enormous testimony of God’s goodness and grace, for we did not have a house and were renting, in 2017 God gave us our house.
This same year, God promised us a son, and Daniel was born, one more gift for our family. Today, our family is a little bigger, as Natalia’s mother has decided to join us as a missionary. She lives in a small house on our property.
God has kept us and cared for us, the entire time we have been in Amazonas. We are grateful for every word and everything that God has ministered to our hearts. We are especially grateful for the opportunity to preach the gospel and serve the Lord in His work in this blessed place, full of His presence. This is just a summary of our lives as missionaries. Of course, we have many stories and testimonies of things that have happened over the years.
May the Lord bless you by His grace.
Love,
Pastor Carlos and Natalia Bezerra
We are the Santana family: Jean, Luana, Manuela and Asafe, missionaries in Maués since 2018.
Our mission story began in 2015, on our first trip to drill a well in an indigenous community. I (Jean) went home to Minas, where I lived, with my heart marked by that which I had lived out while in Maués in 2015. From that moment we felt impelled by the Holy Spirit to prepare ourselves for the mission field.
In 2017, it was time to return, with my whole family. We had a time of working, serving and fellowship with the people that God used to confirm our calling. As we were seeking this confirmation, God spoke to us saying that, “we could only live missions His way.” So, trusting this word from God, we returned to Minas Gerais in October 2017. We got rid of all we owned and arrived in Maués in February of 2018.
Since then, we have been serving God and His church in this place with love and joy, learning daily how to live by faith, and especially how to live as God would have us live.
My wife and I contribute, each in our responsibilities at the mission for the development and growth of the kingdom of God in Maués.
Our expectation is in God and our hearts are available and willing to serve and continue to follow Jesus in the mission field until He returns.
Thank you!
Jean and Luana Santana
We are Hernando and Sônia Nogueira. We have been missionaries at Missão Nativos since 2014.
I am an agriculturalist. I have always worked in farming, caring for cattle and crops, until the day the Lord called me. He asked that we would give up everything to serve Him, and that is what we did, certain we had made the best choice!
We have a large family! We have 5 children and at the beginning of our journey we had many difficulties, but in every moment we stood firm believing that God, who had called us, would also take care of us. He always did! We can see his goodness and the grace of God every day of our lives!
We have been working with indigenous tribes in remote areas and with the local church in the city. We can say that our greatest pleasure is to be able to serve the Lord with our lives and work so that the gospel is preached in our city.
May the grace and love of the Father be upon all of you!
Missionaries,
Hernando, Sônia Nogueira and family
Fredson and Vivian Almeida
Those who trust in the LORD
are like Mount Zion,
Which cannot be moved, but abides forever. Psalm 125:1
Fredson and Vivian Almeida have walked with this mission for about 9 years, and in March 2015 they decided to live in the entirety of the will of God. They left their jobs and life in Manaus/AM to live a new reality in God's kingdom in Maués.
In November of 2016, Fredson was diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis, an inflammatory illness that directly affects his joints and skin, but this has not kept them from fulfilling the mission for which the Lord has called them.
Marli Miraglia
Marli Miraglia converted to the gospel in 1990, and in 1996 heard the voice of the Lord, crying out for the indigenous. From that moment, she began to feel a burning in her heart for missions. She continued in her Christian walk and continued dreaming and praying for the indigenous people, understanding that this was her calling and ministry.
In 2014, she received an invitation to participate in a vacation Bible school (VBS) that was taking place in Maués. She decided to go and upon arrival, she had the conviction that this was the place in her dreams. She went back to Sao Paulo just to say goodbye and get her suitcases ready, and in July 2015 moved to Maués. There she has grown in the grace and knowledge of God.
At this time, Marli is a full-time missionary, living on the Nativos/Missao and Vida da Igreja base, in the remote part of Maués.
Marcos and Paula Rosa
This is the Rosa family, who in 2004, chose to leave everything in Minas Gerais to fulfill the calling of God in Amazonas. Sent out by IAM, they left their hometown of Nova Lima in the direction of this great challenge.
Pr. Marcos Rosa was called by God even as a child into ministry. When he was 10 years old he had a dream about Maués, a city in the remote area of Amazonas, where they work today. As he grew so did the flame in his heart for the calling to missions. On October 4, 2004, they arrived in Amazonas, under the word of trust and faith in the Lord and an order by God to be dedicated to prayer. Even today, all that happens in Maués is the fruit of prayer.
Marcos and Paula Rosa are our parents, founders, and Senhor Pastors of Nativos/Missão and vida da Igreja. Their children, Gabriel, Melissa and now Narley, (their daughter of the heart) willingly accompany their parents with submission and honor.
We are all grateful to God for this family, who even in difficult times and through struggles has never given up and continues to believe.
Emanuel and Aline
This is the Leite family, Emanuel, Aline, Ester, Lis and (Josue, who is with Jesus).
The story of this family is both edifying and encouraging.
Aline, from early on had turned to Jesus and was a part of volunteer social and in missionary work. At the end of 2009, she finished missions seminars. In February 2012 she arrived in Maués to work with Nativos/Missões and Vida da Igreja, serving the Sataré. She worked especially in developing ministry through work with the children.
Emanuel, a businessman, serving the church in Pindamonhangaba (SP), through his serving came to Maués for the first time in August of 2012 to help with a well drill. When he arrived he began to hear the Lord call. His life and his heart were impacted for missions. Emanuel then returned to São Paulo to sell all he had and say goodbye to his friends and family.
I’m the beginning of 2013 he returned to Maués to dedicate himself to this life that had so greatly impacted him, and during this process, he met Aline. They decided not to continue this journey alone, for two are better than one.in January 2014 they were married. Miraculously, Aline became pregnant. She had received a diagnosis from the doctor saying she could never have children, but God always astounds us with His power! This pregnancy was a son, Josué. He was born in August of 2014 and it pleased the Lord to receive him to Himself. Our children will always belong to the Lord. The Lord gives, the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord.
In October 2015 Ester was born, as a star, a gift that God sent to strengthen and comfort their hearts. While doing so, He had already prepared a new member of the family, we did not plan anything, yet God had already planned this new life for our family. So, Lis Christal was born in June of 2018, loved as the most beautiful flower in the garden, for God cares for the lilies of the field, therefore they knew that God is sufficient in this new time.
Today the Leite family has been trained and tried in the deacon ministry and have carried out their calling especially in the remote regions, working with the indigenous natives of Maués.
Roger and Gil
This is the Menezes family; Roger, Giovana, Hannah, Melissa, Arthur and Helena.
They arrived for the first time in Maués in 2014 and stayed for 18 days, participating in a well drill. They then returned to their city, Foz do Iguaçu in Paraná and soon began to prepare themselves for the “Go”, of which they had dreamed.
Roger had gone through Missions Seminary in 2003 in Contagem, MG which changed everything in his life. A passion for the lost was burning in his heart and he felt God’s calling. Returning home, he began preaching in the streets, on the buses, in prisons, hospitals and churches.
In 2006, Roger married his childhood sweetheart, Giovana, who has a calling to the Arab nations. They had 2 daughters. They continued working in social work and serving the church in Foz and teaching SIPALKI-DO (Korean martial arts), where they were professional teachers and athletes. Then in February 2019, they were sent out by their local
church (Min. Quero Viver-Portal), arriving with suitcases in hand in the city of Maués. They were well received by the Nativos/Missões and Vida da Igreja team, and are now full-time missionaries.
This missionary couple is responsible for the care of the youth and teenagers, music ministry, and social work in the community serving soup on Thursdays. They also began a small gym in their house where they teach Sipalki-do to the children, youth and adults.