In March, Darrow Miller and Jeff Wright traveled to Curitiba, Brazil, where Darrow spoke at a conference hosted by CADI. CADI, Portuguese for “Center for Assistance and Wholistic Development,” is a project founded by Maurício Cunha that aims to bring communities closer to living out God’s intentions for them. It began twenty-four years ago when Maurício became a student of Darrow’s. He shared with us his story:
The week I was ministered to by [Darrow] changed my life, because for the first time I heard things like “Christian worldview” and “Christianity as a wholistic system for life and thinking”. I understood the biblical foundation for wholistic ministry, and I got to know God’s heart for the ailing and vulnerable people in our world. Then I decided to apply this vision in my home country. When I came back to Brazil 24 years ago we started a small project of oriented recreation for about 20 children in a community which was extremely poor and violent, presenting one of the worst social development indicators in my region, southern Brazil. I called this project CADI …
The result has been exponential growth and development in Brazil. Last year alone, CADI reached 18,000 people through social intervention programs and another 10,000 people through seminars and trainings aiming to nurture leadership rooted in the Christian perspective and biblical worldview.
So we have a lot to thank [the DNA] for. Because of this vision on Christian worldview that Darrow Miller and the DNA gave us, we can effectively impact dozens of communities here in Brazil and contribute to the transformation of our country. And now we hope to train many leaders and to bring our work to other countries, into different contexts and nations.
You can watch Mauricio’s full video testimony here.
Darrow and Jeff also connected with Nelson Monteiro of Instituto UM27, as well as Miguel Ruggiero Amaral and George Oliveira, long-time advocates of DNA training and message content. Nelson is the DNA’s local network contact in Brazil and a member of our Global Advisory Team. Miguel led the development of the Portuguese version of coramdeo.com, putting hundreds of hours into this project. George has worked closely with Nelson and Miguel in the development of a Portuguese-language network.
During the second half of their trip, Darrow and Jeff visited the YWAM base in Curitiba. There, they met Juliana Helpa. Juliana works with Volunteer Action, an organization that trains teachers of children in socially vulnerable situations and produce learning material for these children based on Christian worldview principles for education. Their ministry reaches 1,000 teachers and 10,000 children annually.
Juliana spoke about the impact that DNA teaching has had on her team:
We have been discipled by the courses, the websites, the information on the blogs, and the books that have been produced by DNA … this theme of Christian worldview is … something effectively practical that brings transformation to the life and mind of the educator. Through this transformation in the lives of the teachers, we see transformation in the schools, in the educational spaces where they work, in the lives of the children, in the testimonies of the families of the children… The truth of the word of God … is helping us combat the lies that are often taught in these cultures. … We want to thank you for the work of the DNA. We are planting this knowledge amongst the nations.
These are just a few testimonies of many, all reflections of God’s heart and design for the people and communities of Brazil. We are grateful for champions like Mauricio, Nelson, Miguel, George, Juliana, and thousands of others across the globe, who are devoted to bringing transformational truth into their spheres of influence.
Disciple Nations Alliance exists to connect like-minded individuals and communities around the world. Write to us at info@disciplenations.org, and let us know how we can help connect you!
Visit our Facebook page for more pictures from Brazil.
