The History of Free Will Baptists in Brazil

In October of 1957, missionaries to Cuba, Thomas and Mabel Willey, came to Brazil on a survey trip for the Free Will Baptist Foreign Missions Board to prepare the way for sending missionaries to this country. During this visit, they made several important contacts. One of these was with a Brazilian pastor, Waldemar Daminelli, who had recently started a mission church in his back yard in the city of Campinas, state of São Paulo.

Dave Franks, the first Free Will Baptist missionary to work in Brazil, arrived on January 2, 1958. Soon after an agreement was drawn up between FWBFM and Waldemar Daminelli for his group to join Free Will Baptists. This became the first FWB church in Brazil, organized in April 1958. The first Bible Institute began in this church in 1960. A medical clinic also functioned there from 1962-1964.

Besides Dave Franks, other Free Will Baptist missionaries began arriving in Brazil. In the next ten years, 9 other couples and 3 single ladies arrived to help. Works were opened in other cities of the state of São Paulo: Jaboticabal in 1961, Araras, Ribeirão Preto and Pirassununga in 1962. In 1964 property was bought on the outskirts of Jaboticabal to be used for camps, retreats, and for a permanent location for the Bible Institute.

In the mid-60s the work started spreading to other states. A church was started in Santana do Livramento, Rio Grande do Sul, in 1965, on the border with Uruguay. In 1970 it was Tubarão, Santa Catarina’s turn. This work was closed when flooding hit the town and it was nearly completely destroyed in 1974. In the 70s the work expanded to the state of Minas Gerais with churches planted in the cities of Conselheiro Lafaiete, Barbacena, Uberaba, and Uberlândia. In the next decade, a church was started in the capital of the state, Belo Horizonte. In the towns where churches were first planted in Brazil, new mission works were started in other neighborhoods.

Besides church-planting, FWB International Missions has been involved in several other ministries. Bible colleges, Bible Institutes, and their extensions have operated in several cities. Christian radio programs have been used as a means of evangelism and making the church known in different areas. Lar Nova Vida (New Life Home) in Araras, SP, is a children’s home started by one of our missionaries to care for at risk children placed there by the justice department’s Children’s Services.

Our churches have worked for the evangelization of their cities as well as taking the gospel to Brazilian Indian reservations and to foreign countries. Brazilian missionaries have been sent to work with other mission agencies among indigenous tribal groups here in Brazil. Other missionaries have been sent to countries such as Northern Irland, Côte d’Ivoire, Madagascar and China.

Free Will Baptists in Brazil currently have 24 churches and mission churches located in ten Brazilian cities. This does not count the work on the border with Uruguay.