Richard Bradfield, pastor of Sulphur Springs Baptist Church, Trussville (St. Clair Association), and fellow church member Kent Montgomery were among the team members from Alabama, Georgia and Washington State involved in a missions trip in July to Recife, Brazil.
Other team members came from First Baptist, Auburn (Tuskegee Lee Association), First Baptist, Montgomery (Montgomery Association), First Baptist, Union Springs (Bullock Centennial Association), and Ider Baptist (Sand Mountain Association).
The group worked through Igreja Batista Barro, conducting English as a Second Language classes and Vacation Bible School, doing construction, preaching, participating in a prison ministry and distributing eyeglasses from the Lions Club.
Bradfield got to preach in July in a part of the church that was built during a February missions trip. Also on the July trip, he preached in a church he helped to construct in the summer of 2003, when he designed and assisted in building a baptistry.
Bradfield said that the work of the missions team drew the attention of the community to the Barro church.
“The VBS attendance increased every day,” he said. He noted that some professions of faith were made during the distribution of eyeglasses.
Now, Bradfield said he must learn Portuguese because he has been asked to help conduct a wedding next summer in Brazil.
Five members of Twelfth Street Baptist Church, Gadsden (Etowah Association), comprised half of a missions team that ministered in August in a remote area of Guatemala.
The group conducted dental and medical clinics, ministering to the Kek’chi people in a region that is about a two-day journey from Guatemala City.
In this primitive village, there was no electricity or water. And at the beginning of the trip, there was a certain reluctance among villagers to having services. But they are so desperate for medical attention that they were willing to have the missions team come to provide health care.
The dental team treated 96 people; the medical team examined more than 300.
The medical work in the village began to change attitudes, allowing the door of opportunity to open to share the gospel.
Kek’chi missionaries were able to hold a service, during which they showed the “Jesus” film.
The prayers of the missions team, International Mission Board missionaries and other believers were answered even before the trip ended.
The night before the team was to begin its journey back to Guatemala City, the village leaders told the missionaries they would give land to establish a church.
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