The Brazilian Ethnic Adventist Churches prove that the gospel can cross over cultural barriers and can be successfully preached within the context.
Professor and writer David Conrad Sabbag, descendant of Syrian-Lebanese Arabs, did not imagine that in seeking to improve his knowledge of the Arab language at the Sao Paulo Adventist Arab Community, he would have his life completely changed. Conrad has graduated in Administration and Economy, and has authored six English-Portuguese dictionaries, among them the famous Conrad Mini-Dictionary, with over six million copies sold. It happened that at that time the community had no teacher, and Conrad, who wanted to be a student, ended up teaching there. Little by little, the professor became interested in the Adventist message and accepted invitation to attend the Sabbath meetings. “The worships spoke to my heart, and the friendship with members of the community was a determining factor for my decision,” he says. One year of Bible studies compared to the Koran, with Pastor João Chaguri, leader of the community, and brother Marcelo Nassif, Personal Ministries Director, brought Conrad to a decision for baptism, which took place on March 25, 2006.
This is one of the many examples of people who were attracted to Jesus Christ through the so called Ethnic Adventist Churches. Most of them are concentrated in the city of São Paulo, but there are communities in other Brazilian cities as well, like Belem, Blumenau, Curitiba, Recife, and Rio de Janeiro.
The Open Arab Community (as it’s called the church where Professor Conrad came to know the Adventist message), located at the Vila Mariana district of Sao Paulo City, started seven years ago, and its founder was Pastor Assad Bechara with the support of the Paulistana Conference of SDA. When it first started, at the Conference headquarters, it had only 10 members. Today it has 102 members.
The main activity of the community, according to its director, Jean Karim Boukarim, is to make known the Arab culture, and to promote respect for the Muslems. On Fridays, there is a specific worship meeting for the Islam followers, and on Sabbaths, worship and Sabbath School according to Adventist patterns, but closely following the Islamic rituals. “Our purpose is to approach Muslem and Christian Arabs, in order to present Christ to them,” explains Jean Boukarim. At the house that shelters the community there is in fact an adapted restroom for the ablutions (ritual of purification with water that precedes prayers), and a prayer chamber, both open to the community.
According to Pastor Chaguri, in the studies they first try to point out the similarities between the Bible and the Koran, such as the judgment, the return of Jesus, the principle day-ear in prophecy, the importance of a healthful diet, and the abstinence of alcoholic beverages, among others. “We try to build bridges,” he explains. “When Muslems find out that there are Christians who do not drink alcohol, do not smoke, and do not eat pork, they are surprised.”
Adventist Jews
Another group that explores belief similarities with the Adventists is the Jewish-Adventist Community, better known as Bet B’nei Tsion, which is also located at Vila Mariana, about a block from the Arab Community. This group began its activities in 1997, at the São Paulo Adventist Hospital, until, with the support of the Paulistana Conference of SDA, a house was bought to shelter the community. Presently it has about 56 members.
Pastor Edson Nunes Junior, leader of the Bet B’nei Tsion of São Paulo, explains that the Jews need only a few steps further to become Adventists, adding to their Jewish faith the belief in Jesus the Messiah. “We show to the Jews that the New Testament is a sequence of the Old Testament, not a rupture,” says Pastor Edson Nunes Junior, who is of Jewish descent, on his mother’s side of the family.
At the Bet B’nei Tsion communities (there are four more in Brazil: in Campinas, Curitiba, Recife, and Rio de Janeiro), the worship services are based on the Jewish liturgy, which contributes to the approach with the Jews. Songs are sung in Hebrew, there is the reading of the Torah (the Pentateuch parchment roll), in Hebrew also, and then the preacher makes the connection with the New Testament. Throughout a one-year period, the entire roll containing the five books is read and commented on.
The Jewish feasts (like the Pessach) are also celebrated, but taking advantage of the occasion to straiten the friendship connections, and to show them the Messianic meaning of such celebrations. The main worship meetings are the Kabalat Shabat, which is held to receive the Sabbath; the Sharrarit, which is held on Sabbath morning; and the Havdala, after sundown, to dismiss the Sabbath.
According to Mario Feller, one of the leaders at the Bet B’nei Tsion in Recife, Pernambuco, the goal of the Jewish-Adventist Communities includes the awareness about the Holy Bible principles, particularly the Sabbath doctrine, of non-Jews in any denomination, Christian or non-Christian. And Pastor Rogel Maio Nogueira Tavares, whose in charge of the Jewish-Adventist Community in Curitiba, Parana, emphasizes that “the ethnic congregations break off the cultural barriers so that our philosophy may penetrate. We should not aim to introduce a culture among people, but an ideal, a belief.”
In the book Evangelism, pages 578 and 579, Ellen White writes specifically about the work with the Jews.
Work with the Asians
It can be said that the Adventist University Center (UNASP/Brazil College), São Paulo campus, has been the cradle of Adventism among the Japanese people in Brazil. But the story gains a new direction in 1931, with the arrival of the immigrant Tossaku Kanada, 19 years old. In 1932, Kanada decided to enroll at UNASP (back then, CAB), where he was baptized, becoming the second in the Nipponese-Brazilian Community to accept the Adventist message (the first one was Saburo Kitajima, in 1925). In 1935, Kanada graduated in Theology, becoming the first Japanese Adventist pastor in Brazil.
In February 1965, after a trip to Japan to improve his skills in Japanese evangelism, Pastor Kanada organized the Japanese Company at the Youth Room in the Central Paulistana Adventist Church, with 16 members. It was the first Adventist Japanese Company organized in Brazil. With the arrival of Pastors Yuji Eida and Kiwao Mori, the group grew rapidly, reaching 42 members, still in the 60s.
Today the Central Japanese SDA Church in Capao Redondo, São Paulo, has 80 members. It belongs to the South Paulista Conference (APS) and is directed by Pastor Emerson Iamamoto Madalena. It was the first organized Japanese Adventist Church in Brazil, but it is not the only one. There are two others: the Nipponese Adventist Center, in Belem, State of Para, established in 1979, and the Nippo-Brazilian Church, at the Mirandopolis district of São Paulo City, organized in 1981.
According to Guenji Imayuki, elder of the Japanese Church in Capao Redondo, “the Asians, being more reserved, generally take a considerably longer time to accept the Adventism.” In a research among the members themselves, it was found that 80 per cent of them came to know the Adventist message through family and friendship connections. Direct approach with pamphlets or Bible conferences normally have little success among Asians. So, the church promotes social events like the Undokai and the Motitsuki, in order to break off the barrier of prejudice.
The Nipponese-Brazilian Adventist Churches try to maintain the Japanese tradition, holding peculiarities like the Sabbath School class in Japanese, sermons translated simultaneously, vocal groups singing in Japanese, monthly Japanese language classes, and the traditional “potluck lunch” each Sabbath, featuring typical food. The Adventist Japanese people give out Signs of the Times magazines and other missionary publications in the Japanese language.
Pastor Kiwao Mori, who has worked in the ministry for 38 years, and has helped establish the Nipponese-Brazilian SDA Churches in Parana and São Paulo, says the Japanese are usually related to Buddhism and Shintoism, but not familiarized with the God of the Bible, so the “best way to bring them to Jesus is really becoming friends. Promoting a healthful diet, life style and education also helps a lot.”
Another group which requires a specific approach much like the one used with the Japanese, is the Korean. Forty years ago, two Adventist Korean families immigrated to São Paulo and transformed a regular house into a church, in the Ipiranga district. More families arrived, and so the first Adventist Korean-Brazilian Community began.
Pastor Byeong Suk Kim calculates there are 40 thousand Koreans in São Paulo, which gives an idea of the missionary challenge the Adventist community faces. “Our evangelistic focus is in the area of health, a topic that helps to break off the natural barrier existing among Koreans, and other small groups. To gather in the homes makes it easier and helps the natural need of socialization that immigrants have,” explains Pastor Kim.
Los hermanos
The activities of the Adventist Hispanic Community (which has two groups in São Paulo) began more recently. However, the group is a growth phenomenon. The larger of the two communities meets at a rented floor of a small building about 150 feet from the Armenia Metro Station, at the Ponte Pequena district.
The leader of the group, Porfirio Pinto, a Bolivian micro-entrepreneur who lives in Brazil for over 23 years, informs that in two years the number of members went from 35 to 104. The secret, Porfirio Pinto explains, is that “we work intensely with small groups. We have adopted this method a year ago, when we had only three small groups. Today we have 15 small groups, and the number of converts is growing, and growing.” The informality of the meeting, and the easy access to those who live close by the house where the meetings take place, are advantages mentioned by their leader.
In the Ponte Pequena Hispanic Community, most of the members are from Bolivia. At the Santo Amaro district though, most of the 70 baptized members are from Peru, but there are some from Paraguay, and Chile also. And there are some Brazilians who attend the community meetings because they like the Hispanic language and culture.
What really draws the attention in both of these communities is the unity of their members. Every Sabbath they hold “potluck” or community lunch. “We spend the entire Sabbath day in Church, as a family,” says brother Porfirio. The leader of the Santo Amaro group, Jorge Vidal Carrasco Garnita, tells that in his community, besides having lunch together, they celebrate the birthdays of the week. “People who visit us like very much this good fellowship. As we receive them, we show that we care, and they just love it.”
For Pastor Alberto Duarte de Oliveira, who is responsible for the Santo Amaro group, the Hispanic community has a great evangelistic potential, especially among those who arrive daily in the country seeking to fulfill a dream. “As they arrive in Brazil, they find it very hard to relate to others, but the Church helps them by opening these communities where they feel bienvenidos, as part of the family.” Pastor Teodoro Ninahuaman Correa, who is from Peru, and is in charge of the Ponte Pequena group, agrees: “There is a great acceptance of the gospel in the Hispanic community because the Church is a refuge for the immigrants who are looking for socialization.”
With Jesus, alles gutt
Eduardo Gustavo Preuss is a dentist and the elder of the German Adventist Church in Blumenau, State of Santa Catarina. According to him, their Church, with worships held in the German language, began over a century ago, almost by the same time the first Adventist Church in Brazil was organized in Gaspar Alto. However, the German Church went through a slow down period, but resumed their activities at the Blumenau Central Church, where a small group insisted in having the religious services in the German language.
The specific evangelism work among Germans began with the arrival of Pastor Günther Gehann, from Germany, in 1990. Pastor Gehann started by presenting radio programs and writing in the local and national papers, aiming the German community.
Today, the Church has 48 members, the oldest one being brother Franz Krepsky, who turned 98 years old this year. The worships are still held in German, but at Sabbath School the Church separates in two groups, one class is in Portuguese and the other in German.
Carajás: an old friendship
Health services and respect for the cultural differences are the hallmark of the Adventist missionary performance among Carajá natives. The relationship of the Church with them is an old one–it has endured over 70 years. It started with Pastor Alvin Allen and his wife, Luella, in 1928, year when a Mission was established at the borders of the Araguaia River, in Piedade, State of Goias. There the Carajá natives received medical care and Bible studies. Other missionaries continued the work building health centers, classrooms, and a Temple.
The first native Pastor among the Carajá natives was João Werreriá, who in his youth left the Bananal Island in the Araguaia River, and went to São Paulo to finish his Elementary studies, High School, and graduated in Theology from UNASP (back then IAE, Brazil College). From there he returned to his people in order to communicate the knowledge of Jesus. Today, the grandson of Pastor Werreriá, Edmilson Habudiá Karajá, 16 years old, is attending IASP (São Paulo Adventist Academy), in Hortolândia, São Paulo, taking Data Processing Program at High School level. After finishing High School he plans to take Theology. His goal is to be an Adventist pastor, just like his grandpa.
Presently, through an educational convention established by UNASP, every year some graduating students go to the Bananal Island to hold teaching workshops, agricultural projects, and to offer health assistance. A caravan is coordinated by Pastor José Maria Barbosa, leader of University Student Pastoral Services (Pastoral Universitária).
Out of the 19 Indian settlements in the Island, five of them have an Adventist presence, under the coordination of Pastor Matson Santana. A total of 120 Carajá natives identify themselves as members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Pastor Santana’s goal is to strengthen the native leadership, and to provide subsidies that they may present the gospel in a manner that is within their context and appropriate to the local culture. One of the challenges he faces is to begin the translation of the Old Testament. Up to the present, only the New Testament is available in the Carajá language.
Lessons
In I Corinthians 9:20-22, Paul says: “to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews ... to the weak I became as weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.” Presenting the message within the context starts with humbleness. And that is the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
“As you work in a new field,” says Ellen White, “do not think it is your duty to immediately declare to the people, ‘We are Seventh-day Adventists; we believe the Sabbath is the day of rest; we believe the soul is mortal.’ This would build huge barriers between you and those whom you want to reach. Speak to them, whenever you have an opportunity, about the points of doctrine on which you agree. Insist on the need of practical religion. Make it evident to them that you are Christians, wishing them peace, and loving them. May they see that you are conscientious. Thus you will win their confidence; there will be time enough for the doctrines. May the heart be won, the soil prepared, and then the seed sowed, presenting in love the truth as it is in Jesus” (Gospel Workers, pp. 119, 120).
The ethnic Adventist Churches have been a blessing, and can teach many lessons to the world Church: the reverence of the Jews and Muslems for sacred things, the friendship and hospitality of the Hispanics, and the patience and steadiness at work of the Asians are good examples. But what’s most important, as the leaders of many of these communities point out, is that we as a Church must work to understand our brethren, and be enabled to live as a community (after all, Heaven awaits us), celebrating what we have in common and respecting the differences.
Michelson Borges is an associate editor of the Revista Adventista (Adventist Review, Brazilian Edition).
