The teacher leans over Edinaldo’s desk, glancing over the boy’s shoulder as he fills in the blanks on his worksheet.
The air is thick and stagnant inside the cement schoolhouse, and Edinaldo is the only child left to complete his coursework before the summer break.
Playful shrieks break the silence as children play games in the grass outside the building. Even though Edinaldo is staying after school today, his education will most likely conclude with the same grade level as the rest of the children growing up in the quilombo (village) — grade four.
Unlike his students, Ivanilson Assis Costa had the rare opportunity to continue his education beyond the fourth grade.
When Costa traveled 30 kilometers from his village to complete grades five through eight, he didn’t plan on returning to Quilombola villages, or quilombos, to teach. In fact, when Costa became a Christian 12 years ago, he felt God calling him to the missions field.
But rather than traveling to a foreign country to share Christ, Costa soon realized God was calling him back to the quilombos of Brazil to share the gospel with his own people.
“I never imagined God would use me right here where I was,” Costa said.
Keith and Deborah Jefferson from Houston’s First Baptist Church serve as International Mission Board (IMB) strategy coordinators for the Quilombolas, but distance, bad roads and heavy rains prevent them from living among the Quilombolas full time.
Pastor Edson Oleivero of First Baptist Missionary Church, Cachoaira, Bahia, is determined to break through the barriers of isolation by working with the Jeffersons to send volunteers into the villages surrounding Cachoaira.
Local believer Geralda Santos Sousa spends four days of the week living among the Quilombolas of Cazinhas.
“There is no better way to reach the Quilombolas than to be with the people — to live with the people, to suffer with the people, to go through the difficulties that they go through and identify with them the same way that Christ identified with man,” Sousa said.
After an hour-long ride through bumpy dirt roads and mountainous terrain, Sousa steps out of the cramped backseat of a pickup truck to greet the people of Cazinhas with a smile.
Dusk overtakes the village, but a stream of light pours from the open windows of the church where Sousa regularly meets with Quilombolas for worship.
She knows the roads back through the mountains will be difficult to travel tonight but she isn’t worried.
“The growth of the kingdom of God doesn’t have a price,” she said.
To learn more about how you can be involved in reaching South America for Christ, go to samregion.org. Visit going.imb.org for general volunteer opportunities.
Gifts to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering provide vital support to the IMB’s more than 5,300 workers worldwide, including the Jeffersons. For more information, imb.org/offering. (IMB)
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