Dear friends,
Here’s a report on our visit to Nova Vida (‘New Life’) church plant in São Luís, Maranhão, last month and how you can be praying for them!

We were so glad to finally visit Cristiano and Jaline and their daughter Sarah in their new home town – they moved there from Rio in 2022. Unfortunately, a few days before we arrived in São Luís, Jaline was taken ill with dengue fever and ended up spending a week in hospital. Praise God she has been recovering well at home, but she has been suffering from quite severe pain in her joints due to Chikungunya (something similar to dengue which she also tested positive for).

Please pray for:

• complete healing for Jaline
• Cristiano’s health – he is also being treated for health issues.
• Sarah – she has been suffering from migraines.
• protection for the family and the church as they seek to advance God’s kingdom.

An apostolic calling in Brazil’s poorest state

Having heard Cristiano tell us about Maranhão State so often and with such passion, it was fantastic to actually be there and to see all that God is doing!

Years ago Cristiano and Jaline planted two churches in another part of Maranhão and, after several years back in Rio de Janeiro, they returned North, this time to the state capital, São Luís. Cristiano’s vision is for Nova Vida to be a hub from which other churches can be planted out in Maranhão and across the North-east of Brazil.

The North-east is the poorest region in Brazil and Maranhão is Brazil’s poorest state. A key part of what Nova Vida is doing is to reach out to those in need and bring good news to the poor through the Word and through their deeds (more on this below).

Please pray for:

• God’s favour as the gospel is preached and the values of a grace and Spirit-filled community are lived out in São Luís and future church plants. 
• John and Flor Evans as they bring support and oversight to this work and John’s upcoming visit in October.
• Cristiano’s trip to the Regions Beyond conference in Dubai in November, a great opportunity for him to build relationships with other leaders and churches around the world.

A growing church family

Even though we only spent a week in São Luís, we noticed such a strong sense of community in the church. This is partly because most of the members were part of one of Cristiano’s previous church plants in a small town called Apicum-Açu. Some of the worship band and youth leaders were toddlers in the church all those years before and it was lovely to see a genuine love and affection amongst this church family that has such deep, long-lasting relationships.

Others have joined from the local area: a couple of physiotherapists from Rio who have relocated with their family to São Luís, Ciane, a single mother who lives with her three children in a local ‘favela’, and several others. This mixture of old and new friends has become a thriving church community and in total there are now around 40 adults who are church members, including some who have recently been baptised!

Please pray for:

• Continued fruit in evangelism and discipleship.
• Leadership – the establishing of a team and different people taking on new responsibilities.
• Gustavo and Thayanne, who are moving from São Paulo to be part of Nova Vida, São Luís in November! This is so exciting as they were a key part of Rio Vivo church in Rio and will be a great asset for the mission in São Luís and beyond. Pray for them and their boys Emanuel and Estévão and also for financial provision as they take this big step of faith.

It was a privilege to see such a beautiful part of Brazil and especially to spend the week with such a wonderful church family!

Plans for Portelinha

Portelinha is a ‘favela’ not far from the church building. God has opened a door there for outreach in the midst of what is a very deprived community: one resident has lent a piece of land which is being worked on to run children’s activities and homework clubs (see fence being built in above photo).

One church member who lives next to this land wants to donate a piece of her own land to the church. There is huge potential to make a real difference in the lives of the people there. The plan is for there to be a community hub for things like a food pantry and training courses for getting young people into work, as well as church small group meetings.

On the Sunday we were there, I shared on John 13 – ‘a Community of Love’ – which Nova Vida church definitely is already!

Please pray… and consider giving!

Our friends in São Luís are so glad to be a part of the Regions Beyond family and are grateful for the friendships they are developing with churches from around the world. Please remember them in your prayers as they pioneer in a region with such huge potential for gospel advance!

Would you or your church consider standing with Nova Vida church plant financially?

Cristiano has done an amazing job of finding an ideal meeting place to rent and renovating it, but they are under pressure financially. God has been good so far and they have kept up with all their bills. However they need help – around £300 a month would allow them to close the gap between what they are managing to raise and their current monthly costs.

If you are interested in finding out more or would like to make a one-off or monthly gift, please contact John Evans – johnflorbrasil@gmail.com

Thank you so much for reading this and for all your prayers and support. We hope to hear from you or see you soon.
Much love,
Michael and Fernanda

Email: mscrawlins@hotmail.com
Tel / whatsapp: +44 7412 255 602