Brandon Winkler felt a little uncomfortable, he said, when he was asked to lead worship on a Sunday morning in Brasilia, Brazil. He wasn’t uncomfortable in his guitar playing. He had played these songs before. The challenge for him was the setting.
He stood on stage in a chapel of a rehab facility. The room was simple with white walls, white tile floor and wooden pews set up in two sections. The technology was in good shape with a quality sound system and a projector that shined the word “Welcome” on the back wall of the stage, greeting people before the service started.
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Winkler was in Brazil’s capital city with a volunteer missions team from First Baptist Church O’Fallon, Missouri. They were spending a week serving indigenous families. On this Sunday, though, they took a bumpy dirt road to visit this facility supported by Brazilian Baptists.
Why was this worship setting unnerving for Winkler? First, he doesn’t know Portuguese. Second, he was to lead worship for more than 50 men in the rehab facility. As the associate pastor of student and family ministries at FBC O’Fallon, Winkler is more familiar with leading a worship time with teenagers.
Sofia, one of the translators for the missions team, made the situation easier, as she offered to sing on stage with Winkler. The 17-year-old is a member of a worship team at her church, so this was natural for her. One of the facility’s residents played the drums, and words to the songs were translated in Portuguese and projected on the wall.
What happened at the beginning of the service was unexpected by Winkler and the team. They opened with singing “The Goodness of God,” and not only did the residents know the song, but they also sang it with great passion. Their boisterous vocals filled the room.
Some names have been changed for security reasons.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Chris Doyle and originally published by the International Mission Board.
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