Heiderich News Brief - June, 2008
Heiderich News Brief - June, 2008
Family Institute of Latin America Website
Salvador, Bahia
Salvador is the third largest city in Brazil, after Rio and São Paulo. It is 550 years old and was the first capital of the country. The ICOS (church of Christ Salvador) is one of 6 Churches of Christ in this great city. This congregation is being evangelized by 4 American missionary couples. They have 35 members and an attendance of 70 after 3 years of work. We spent 5 days with this mission team at the end of April. This was our second teambuilding workshop with this talented team. Last year they were in the midst of loosing one of their team members and things were very stressful and uncertain. This year we found a team that is working well together and focusing on evangelizing their part of the huge city of Salvador. We admire their desire to keep growing as a team and not to let anything hinder their effectiveness.
Thanks
We are so thankful that Jerry and Gail have been able to work with our team and family over the last two years. It is such a blessing to have a couple come in with so much experience in church planting. We know that when we share the challenges that we face as a new church plant here in Salvador that we are speaking to people who can truly empathize with our situation. Their experience gives them much wisdom that has allowed them to confront, head on, the problems and conflicts that our team faces. But the greatest thing is that they do this with so much love, care, and concern. At the end of our last workshop we commented to each other how comfortable we felt sharing our deepest fears and challenges, as this is not something that we would have to or want to do in any other profession. But after 2 short weeks of conversation over the 2 years, Jerry and Gail have gained our confidence. It is so freeing to be able to share with someone some of the deepest aspects of our lives, knowing that they will treat us with the love and care that we would expect from deeply concerned mentors or overseers. This is so important because as missionaries we do not have these kinds of relationships here on the field, as our mentors live so far away and don’t have the same perspective that Jerry and Gail can have when they come and work with all of the families of this church plant. Thanks again Jerry and Gail for your lifegiving, spirit-renewing, ministry.
In Him, Travis and Alicia
To me, the ministry that Jerald and Gail offered our mission team was a depth of understanding into our lives and our families that cannot be measured. They helped us to understand ourselves, our marriage, and our teammates in new ways while encouraging us to trust each other. They have seen it all and done it all, and they somehow manage to stay impartial while each family shares their defeats and victories over the life of their ministry. We believe that every family in mission work would benefit from an intensive workshop with the Heiderichs and hope that they continue to offer their considerable expertise to struggling families and mission teams who want to improve their relationships but do not know how. We have more fun and less conflict because of them. Thanks guys!
Em Cristo, the Quireys
We have been so blessed by our time with the Heiderichs. They have worked with us personally as well as our whole team. The first time they came to work with us was at a crucial point for our team. Through their guidance and counsel our team was able to be more open with one another and build a deeper level of trust than we had ever experienced. We know that God sent them to our team at just the right time and we continue to benefit from the tools they have given us. Through their second visit with our team we were able work more on how to be a healthy team and work together in productive ways. The Heiderichs worked to challenge us individually and as a team to grow for the betterment of the work here. Personally they challenged us to not have blind spots in our life that leave room for Satan and to stay focused. We are grateful for what the Heiderichs have done for our team and us and by extension the church family here in Salvador.
Randy and Jennifer Porter
Jerry and Gail helped our team work through some things that have come up in the first few years of our ministry here in Salvador. It was good to have them help us do that. We now have some great suggestions on changes we need to make to become stronger in our walks with Jesus and in our work together as a mission team and young church leaders.
Matt and Mary Virginia Mabery
Other News
We will be arriving in the US on June 24th. We will be traveling to report to our supporting congregations, fundraising and visiting with family until August 24th. Give us a call!! 214-669-8296. Your encouragement makes our work a joy and your prayers keep our spirits lifted. God is doing great things in the country of Brazil!!
Remember
All contributions for this ministry should now be sent to the Prestoncrest Church of Christ in Dallas, Texas: 12700 Preston Road, Suite 210, Dallas, Texas, 75230. We want to thank Continent of Great Cities for handling this for us for so many years and thank our sponsoring congregation, Prestoncrest, for being willing to take on the task. Please write to us if you have any questions about this change.
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On April 11-12 we hosted a retreat for the servant leaders of the Curitiba congregation. Decision-making was the theme. Jerry and Gilberto led the men’s sessions and Gail led the women. The men discussed how to make the best decisions and how to lead the congregation to growth and maturity. The women talked about how to encourage the men and how to avoid conflict. The purpose of these retreats is to prepare competent men to serve as elders in the near future.
During the week of April 14-18, Jerry taught a course on Spiritual Growth for Leaders at the preacher training school in Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul. He teaches this class and one on Lay Counseling to each group of students that pass through the school. The elders at this church and the teachers at the school have been very supportive of our work and often ask us to help out with graduates of the school as they work with congregations throughout the country.
We traveled to Campinas, São Paulo, on April 30 and spent 6 days at our final retreat with the Brasília team before they move to the capital in January of 2009. This was a training and integration retreat with the leaders of the Brasília congregation and the project support team all present. We did individual counseling with each of the 3 couples, group counseling with all of them and integration exercises with the team and the leaders. Others on the support team dealt with financial concerns, moving issues and how to conduct effective meetings.
Jerry had a once in a lifetime experience! He traveled to Europe and met up with Kristofer after classes were finished. They spent three days in London, 4 days in Greece and 2 days in Oxford before going their separate ways, Jerry back to Brazil and Kris to Dallas. They went to Delphi, Corinth, and Athens and took a boat tour of 3 islands. The highlight for Jerry was getting to preach for the Athens Church of Christ where Dino Roussos is the evangelist (he is also supported by Prestoncrest). Jerry’s sermon was translated into Greek, Russian and Belgium. Kris and Jerry were moved to be able to stand where the apostle Paul preached on Mars Hill and where he stood trial in Corinth.
Easter weekend is huge in the Brazilian church. The men have their biggest yearly event, ENOC (National Encounter of Christian Workers), at the camp in São Paulo. The young single women gather at a retreat center nearby (ENOCÍTA), and the married women meet in Campinas at ENOCA. This year Jerry was a keynote speaker for the 450 men at ENOC and Gail spoke to 60 young single women at ENOCÍTA.
At these events we always spend considerable time counseling with Christians from all over the country and setting up workshops and seminars for the rest of the year. The week following these national encounters is an intensive study for church workers in Campinas. This year we were two of the featured speakers. Jerry spoke to the whole group on Family and then we split into men and women where Gail directed the women’s group and Jerry the men’s. These retreats give us the opportunity to spend quality time with preachers and elders and deacons from all parts of the country.
We spent the first week in April in the city of Uberlandia (3/4 Million) in the state of Minas Gerais. Golf Course Road in Midland, TX is supporting a full-time Brazilian coouple in this city and has been looking for another couple to help them out. We interviewed a potential couple and evaluated how the two couples would work together, including psychological testing and group dynamics. It was a very productive week and we believe both couples benefited from our time together. We were pleased to be able to worship with the loving and growing congregation of about 60 members. Jerry gave the Bible lesson and the sermon.
The big event at the end of the year here was the graduation of 5 more students from the Bible Institute of Southern Brazil. Cícero and his wife Nilza are currently working as evangelists here in the congregation. Joaquim has been a house group leader for years and plans to continue with that work. Luis will be working with the church in Campinas, São Paulo and Rodrigo will continue his studies. The Curitiba Church ended the year with 260 adult members and 90 children. We are thankful for the 20 baptisms and 10 transfers that God sent to us in 2007. Jerry is meeting with 4 of the men who have graduated from the Institute to mentor them in their work with the church plant in Sitio Cercado and encourage their continued spiritual growth, teamwork and maturity.
The final workshop of 2007 with the Brasília team was held in São Paulo. Jerry lead the 4-day event consisting of coaching and training the 5 couples. We were joined by Alaor and Miriam Leite and Valentim and Leila Zanatta (who we are hoping to train to help us in our ministry). Bryan Gibbs spent one day with us and then went on to Brasília to meet with the leaders and church members there. Major decisions were made at this retreat. The first decision is that the team will now be going to Brasília in July of 2008. Fundraising is taking longer than was at first expected, making a January arrival impossible. The second decision is that the team is now in its final form of three couples. Two families have decided not to participate in the project for various reasons. The three families who now make up the final team are excited about getting to work in Brasília and the congregation there is better prepared to receive them. The couples will spend this first semester of 2008 preparing themselves for full-time ministry and working together as a team.
We held our last Servant’s Retreat for the year 2007 on Oct. 19-20 with the couples who are serving the Curitiba church as leaders. The retreat was dedicated to thanksgiving and gratitude for the blessings God has granted this church in the past year. The participants wrote thank you letters to their spouses and shared with each other admiration for the work each had done this year. Jerry is teaching Interpersonal Relationships at the Bible Institute and continues to mentor the men from the last class who are working full time as evangelists.
November 9-11 we were on the road again to work with the leadership of the church in Florianópolis. We have visited this church many times over the past 4 years to help them grow and establish a strong leadership. They have suffered two splits in the past several years, but God is working powerfully to keep them strong and give them hope. We enjoy working with this church because of their positive outlook and caring spirit in spite of their difficulties.
In August the first graduating class of the Biblical Institute of Southern Brazil (IBSB) received its honors. The Institute, which operates in the Curitiba church building and is run by the evangelists here, granted diplomas to 4 couples who studied for two years. Three of these couples are now working full-time as evangelists for the new church plant here in Curitiba in the Sitio Cercado neighborhood. Jerry meets with these three one morning a week for mentoring and prayer.
Jerry taught an intensive class on Spiritual Growth for Leaders to the second class of students at the institute in September. Today he began a bimester class on Interpersonal Relationships with the same group.
We spent the last two weeks in September in the city of Campo Grande. 30 couples, including several first time visitors participated in a marriage seminar on the weekend. Jerry preached at two congregations on Sunday and taught a weeklong intensive course on Counseling to the students of the SERCRIS preacher training school. 
We also spent some important ministry time with the two elders and the preacher of the church there.