Training Two Team in Two Cities
Last week I wrote to you about training our first regional team in Southern Brazil in the city of Pelotas. As soon as we finished in Pelotas we travelled to the city of Curitiba, to finish training our second regional team for the country.
In Pelotas, we finished training Timo and Matteus. If you missed their exciting stories you can find them here. In Curitiba we trained Pastor Willy and Pastor Kaka to teach and facilitate their own Catalyst Communities (picture above).
Colin and I led CC’s in Florianopolis and Porto Alegre (red circled in map). Our newly trained regional teams led CC’s in Curitiba and Pelotas (red arrow path). Next up, the regional team will be leading CC’s in Recife and possibly Bage (yellow arrow) without us. Brazil is as big as the US, but our footprint there is multiplying, as is our impact!
Pastor Willy: A Desire for Collaboration in Curitiba
Willy attended our two Catalyst Communities in Porto Alegre. He was intentional at putting into practice the things we taught. I wrote a little of his story here after CC2 earlier this year. He plugged into a network of pastors he met there, but his desire was to be a part of that type of collaboration in his own city of Curitiba. So he asked us if we could lead one there, and we said, “We’ll train you to lead one there, and then you can lead another for someone else.”
Pastor Kaka: A Story of Momentum
Pastor Kaka was invited to Catalyst Community 2 in Florianopolis (first picture below). He went home and immediately started putting into practice the tools that he learned there. As a result, they’ve grown by almost 50% in the last 5 months and baptized 6 people.
At one point in the planning process we considered rescheduling this Catalyst Community, but Kaka convinced us otherwise. He passionately explained:
“We need to do this now. We have so much momentum from the last Catalyst Community and I don’t want to loose that. Our city needs this now!”
Kaka
Timo: A Catalyst Community Champion for Brazil
Timo has now translated or led 7 Catalyst Communities in Brazil. He was passionate about Catalyst Community from his very first experience. He went up to Colin and asked “Teach me to do what you do through Catalyst Community.” He has been with us from the start and he will continue to champion Catalyst Communities across Brazil with the new team of facilitators and teachers we trained in the cities of Pelotas and Curitiba.
“I’m very excited with what we accomplished these days. We had a chance to see rooms gathered around the mission of Jesus. People were willing to understand what working collaboratively means and be willing to take the step into that new area and this new understanding.
What I expect from us is to see true friendship being birthed out of relationships that will last for a long time. We’ll see generations of leaders being raised by friends that decided to look past all hardships and difficulties but with one single goal which is which is to see the Kingdom expansion in all the southern cone of Brazil.”
Timo
The New Network in Curitiba!
Curitiba was ultimately about training another regional Catalyst Team to multiply our ministry, but it was so much more. Willy and Kaka brought together 6 teams representing 5 denominations. It wasn’t the largest event we’ve had, but the collaborative DNA was already there, and it as evident by the interconnected relationships in the room. We expect great things moving froward from this group!
$15,000 Donor Matching Opportunity!
As we head into the year end giving season I want to make you aware of a special opportunity we have to double the impact of your year end gift to Taking New Ground! A generous financial partner has offered to match up to $15,000 in special year end gifts! That means your year end gift to Taking New Ground, between now and December 31st, can have twice the impact!
We need your help to start 2023 strong! Let’s get the match!
