In conjunction with one of our mission partners, Team Expansion, Shepherd is sponsoring leadership training for 30-50 leaders who will make disciples and plant churches throughout the city. If you would like to contribute towards this project you can by clicking on the Donate button.
São Paulo is the largest city in the southern hemisphere and the largest economy in Latin America or South America. It is a cosmopolitan melting pot whose residents hail from 196 different countries of origin.
Largest Immigrant Populations: Italian (5-7 Million), Portuguese (3 Million), African (1.7 Million), Arabic (1 Million), Japanese (665,000). Two of these groups represent some of the most Unreached People Groups in the world. By reaching them with the gospel in Brazil, we open up better access to these people groups in their home countries.
Unique Factors: Home to the largest Arab, Italian and Japanese diasporas and one of the largest urban Jewish populations in the world.
As much as 70% of Sao Paulo’s area is covered by sub-standard housing. Two and half million people live in tents, shacks, or converted homes or factories without basic services
There are multiple ways to get involved in supporting the work in this mega city
Pray for the City
We will have monthly guided prayer times for each of the 30 Cities at 30cities.com. You can go there now and choose the Pray Now button, then choose São Paulo from the drop down list or pray for the city of the day.
If you haven't already done so, you can click here to register to pray for São Paulo. Just choose São Paulo from the dropdown list.
Request a Prayer Calendar from our Global Outreach Department from Phil Kohn at pkohn@shepherdchurch.com.
Send Bibles
We are also providing Bibles in the Portuguese language at a cost of $5.30 per Bible.
If you would like to donate a Bible you can by clicking here.
Shepherd is taking a short term trip in October to São Paulo, in partnership with a program called Let’s Start Talking. This program will be used to have English conversations within São Paulo. This curriculum starts in the book of Luke to engage readers with one on one English tutoring. If you are interested in being a participant on this trip then you need to fill out our Short Term Trip Application and turn it in to Charlotte Kassis at ckassis@shepherdchurch.com.
Click here if you would like to donate to a trip participant.
In conjunction with one of our supported mission partners, Team Expansion, Shepherd is sponsoring a leadership training event for 30-50 workers who will make disciples and plant churches throughout the city. After the training, these church planters will be given a plan and a methodology to adopt and engage one of the 30 Unreached People Groups in Brazil.
What if Brazilians took the lead in bringing the gospel to them and the immigrants in Brazil? Maybe Zume in Portuguese will help teach DMM principles to Brazilians that could then be shared among the Arabic and Japanese immigrants in upcoming translations of Zume in Japanese and Arabic. And then spread back to their home countries.
Missionary Perspective: Missionaries working in São Paulo describe it as a vibrant multicultural city with many opportunities and challenges for kingdom building. The 500,000 street children present an opportunity to show the love of Jesus in practical ways. While the people are warm and friendly and willing to hear the gospel, many have been affected by Spiritism which is a mix of Catholicism and native ethnic religions and may have difficulty letting go of some old practices and ways of thinking.
PRAYER POINTS:
Ask the Lord of Hosts to break the power of fear, violence and darkness that grips the hearts of many in São Paulo.
Ask the Lord of the Harvest to send more workers into the field to take the hope, security and peace found only in the Gospel of Jesus Christ to all neighborhoods in São Paulo.
Ask God to strengthen believers in São Paulo and bring them to spiritual maturity and give them a passion to share the Good News of Jesus with everyone they know.
Ask God to bring revival to the churches on São Paulo and equip and empower them to be His hands and feet in the community.
Ask God to work through the churches in São Paulo to transform communities and neighborhoods so that all can know the peace, security and hope found only in Jesus.
Ask God to reveal Himself as the Prince of Peace among the violence and despair in São Paulo.