Before beginning their work at the children’s home, Patrick and Bárbara had felt called to a ministry that served the poor. Much of this pulled on their past experience when visiting Bárbara’s family in Porto Alegre, Brazil. When they had accepted the position with the children’s home, their plan had been to pursue ministering to the poor after retirement. However, after a couple years as house parents the Lord began kindling the desire in both their hearts that the time had come to begin this new ministry.
Having never been on any kind of missions trip before, but confident in the vision the Lord had given, they sent letters to churches in the area of Brazil where Bárbara had grown up. They explained their hopes for working with the poor and asked if they could visit and experience the work that was already being done.
Only two churches replied.
So the Hubbard’s, with a toddler and newborn in tow, flew to Brazil in May of 2004 to begin learning from the local churches what was being done to serve the poor. One of those churches to respond to the initial query was First Baptist Porto Alegre which did a feeding ministry for the poor, but also had connections with a couple local pastors who were specifically serving the poor in the community. For more than a month Patrick and Bárbara served the poor with this ministry, learning more about the cultural dynamics of poverty in Brazil. It was during this time they realized that only a tiny percentage of people being helped through the feeding ministry were also attending the church. In fact, of the almost 400 people being served only two had ever attempted to attend the church for a Sunday service.
It seemed the gap between the mostly middle class church and the poorest of the poor was too great a divide. It was one thing to come receive food, but another to sit in fellowship with people so divided by socioeconomic status in society. It would be like having a homeless person attend an average middle class church in the United States. While we would hope they would feel welcome, but how likely would it be for them to find fellowship and feel comfortable to return week after week? Patrick and Bárbara began to realize that not only did these people suffer from a physical lack of resources, but they lacked a spiritual community essential to all believers.
While they were serving and working through this, one of the pastors which First Baptist Porto Alegre was intending to introduce to the Hubbard’s was being faced with a difficult decision. After much prayer asking God for provision, Pastor Magioli was facing the heavy task of having to tell the fifty families his church plant in Vila Nova had been helping that there wasn’t enough money to continue the aid outreach ministry. As an indigenous church planter he was overseen by a national missions board, but that covered only his salary with no extras for building rental or outreach funding. He and his wife had been stretching their already limited budget to threadbare to get the church plant off the ground.
The evening of the service came where he was going to have to make the announcement. As the Lord would have it, this was also the evening Pat and Bárbara had come to visit and meet Pastor Magioli at a small chapel tucked into a poor neighborhood. After the service they introduced themselves, telling him the pastor of First Baptist Porto Alegre had sent them. After much talk, the new Living Bread Ministries committed to supporting the outreach efforts for one year. Pastor Magioli rejoices in this provision for the Lord, and the aid to the people was never interrupted.
The ministry of Living Bread had begun, and God was in all the details.
This post is the last in a segment of posts by Aleah Marsden telling the story of Living Bread Ministries.
For more, click: Part One | Part Two | Part Three | Part Four