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PRESENT MINISTRIES

FM ministry in Brazil began among the large population of immigrants from Japan. This work developed into the Nikkei Conference. The Brazilian FMC, a separate entity, has seen significant growth in recent years. Previously centered in the state of São Paulo, it has become a general conference with five annual conferences. A church-planting strategy is targeting the national capital, Brasilia. The general conference also oversees a mission district in Angola.

OUTREACH TO THE WORLD

The two Brazilian conferences have sent missionaries to Portugal, Italy, Japan, Hungary, a creative access country, East Timor (Indonesia), Equatorial Guinea, Venezuela, and the Suruwahá tribe in the Amazon Rainforest. Furthermore, the general conference oversees a mission district in Angola. The Nikkei Conference connects with Japanese-descendent churches in Paraguay, Peru and Argentina.

ORIGINS

In 1928 Daniel Nishizumi, a Free Methodist minister, traveled from Japan to Brazil at his own expense to do missionary work among the Japanese living there. He was followed by other Japanese laymen and ministers in an influx of Japanese immigration. The first FM church was organized in 1936. (Brazil, and particularly the Saõ Paulo metro area, is home to the largest Japanese community outside of Japan – 1.5 million.)

Ten years later the first board-appointed missionaries arrived, Misses Lucile Damon and Helen Voller. They, and those who followed, worked with both the Japanese and the Brazilians. A seminary was built in Mairipora and later relocated in 1965 in the city of São Paulo. Because of the differences in language and culture, the churches separated into two conferences in 1966: the Nikkei (or Japanese) and the Brazilian.