By Alex Smith and Sue Sprenkle/IMB
SÃO PAULO, Brazil (IMB) – Chyler Hughes had never seen a Black missionary. At church, she learned to minister in her local community, but no one ever talked about international missions.
The concept entered her world when she left Kentucky and enrolled at Lincoln University, a historically Black university in Jefferson City, Missouri. She learned about international missions by attending Rooted, a collegiate ministry, and Soma Community Church. They partnered with an International Mission Board missionary team in Brazil and sent their first short-term team of students to work with them.
It was on this trip to São Paulo, Brazil, where Hughes met her first IMB missionaries, Eric and Ramona Reese, and saw firsthand how they share the good news of Jesus Christ in the favelas, low-income settlements.
Brian Kelley plays a game of pick up basketball in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The student from Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri took his first international trip with Soma Community Church to work with IMB missionaries in Brazil. IMB Photo
“It was really inspiring to see Eric and Miss Ramona in a place like Brazil,” Hughes said, speaking of the diversity of the community. She witnessed people with different ethnic backgrounds and of different color spreading the gospel and sharing their testimonies. “Seeing that representation shows you missions is for everybody.”
Jon Nelson, pastor of Soma Community Church, nodded his head. This is exactly what he prayed for his young team to learn on this missions experience for HBCU students. The pastor pointed out statistically about 8.4% of all missionaries in any denomination are African American or of African descent. He noticed this low engagement among his students who typically don’t think of leaving their own communities for missions. For most, this trip to São Paulo was their first international trip.
“Some fruit from this trip is just in the way they [will] see the world now. My students were able to see people that look like them,” Nelson said, referring not only to the Reeses but the diverse Brazilian population. “That takes the racial aspect out of missions and better allows them to think about what it looks like to serve God in another country. They see it’s about being obedient to God.”
Brian Kinney kept reminding himself that the whole experience was “bigger than me.” With tasting new foods and experiencing a new culture, he didn’t want to get wrapped up in the new and miss what God wanted him to see. He found he was able to spread God’s Word, no matter the language barrier, through smiles, play, hugs, feeding the homeless and of course, translators. The experience now has him thinking about full-time missions, something that wasn’t even on his radar before the trip.
The same happened with Hughes as she saw many challenges and hardships in the people’s lives she met. She held babies in the favela and played games with the smiling children. She talked with a man in a little town square where people with addiction hung out and learned his struggles. She listened to national believers tell their testimonies of coming to faith in Jesus.
Through all the new experiences, Hughes felt her eyes and heart opening. She went from thinking somebody else can do missions to “why not me?”
“There are so many people out here in São Paulo and all over the world that are struggling with things similar to how all of us are struggling. They just need Jesus in their lives,” Hughes said. “We need more people out there spreading the gospel.”
See complete photo gallery below:
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- Students from Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri push a broken down van out of the way. The students spent a week working IMB missionaries and local ministries. The thing that stood out for most was the similar struggles, like a broken down car, between them and the Brazilians. IMB Photo
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- Short-term student volunteers from Lincoln University, a historically Black university in Jefferson City, Missouri, take a photo in downtown Sâo Paulo, Brazil. For many of the students it was their first time thinking about ministry outside of their own neighborhoods. IMB Photo
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- With the help of a translator, Lillian Bower talks with a homeless man in a Sâo Paulo, Brazil park. The college student worked alongside Igreja Batista na Sé, a Brazilian Baptist church, as part of a short-term trip with her church and collegiate ministry from Jefferson City, Missouri. IMB Photo
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- Jon Nelson, pastor of Soma Community Church in Jefferson City, Missouri, grabs a hot meal. He and the group of college students he took to Brazil helped feed homeless people and others in need at the Cristolândia ministry center. IMB Photo
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- Eric Reese, IMB missionary to Brazil, speaks with Brazilian men sitting in the square about “hope in Jesus.” Reese is the first Black missionary many of the students from Lincoln University have ever met. Students said this representation showed them missions was really for everyone. IMB Photo
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- Brian Kelley plays a game of pick up basketball in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The student from Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri took his first international trip with Soma Community Church to work with IMB missionaries in Brazil. IMB Photo
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- Chyler Hughes, from Soma Community Church in Jefferson City, Missouri, helps feed children and homeless families in the favelas of Sao Paulo, Brazil. The recent graduate of historically black Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri had never heard about international missions until she entered college. Her trip to Brazil taught her “missions is for everybody.” (IMB Photo)
