Northeast Brazil

Like the spread of education and the allocation of wealth, the reach of the evangelical gospel is very unequal in Brazil. The states in the Center West, Southeast and South are highly evangelized with about 18% being evangelical believers. The area of the North is less evangelized and there are many missions targeting this area. The Northeast Region is the least reached with fewer than 7% being evangelical. Even between the coastal region of the Northeast and the interior region, there is inequality. The coastal region contains most of the big cities, industry, money, missionaries and churches. There are only a handful of mission organizations that are concentrating on the interior region of Ceará which is less than 2% evangelized. Avant is the only mission targeting this area of western Ceará.

Avant ministries has been working in the interior region of Ceará around the town of Nova Russas for over 60 years. While the other ministries of Avant in the capital city of Fortaleza have reached maturity and have been handed over to national leadership, the work in Nova Russas is only now reaching its full of potential for growth into other towns. They have started a radio station which reaches 2.5 million listeners and hundreds, perhaps thousands, are getting saved. Now it is the privilege of the congregation and the Avant missionaries to disciple and train these new believers to reach the people in their own towns. The task ahead of us is training the future leaders of churches in these small towns, then helping them start new churches. We will then support the churches as they grow and continue to mentor their leaders.