Newsletter Christmas 2007
 Duncan and Jan Weir
address: 21 Green Lane, Farnham, GU9 8PY
tel: 01252 713790 (home) 07989 211 445 (mobile)
 Easter Greetings to you all
It was wonderful to meet so many of you at our recent gathering to give an update on Brazil and the Kairos course and to launch the premier of our dvd- "The Brazil Story so far.........! " (many thanks to Richard who helped us make it.)
We really enjoyed chatting and catching up on some of your news - sadly the time was all too brief!
Thank you to all those who came and thanks too for all the apologies and greetings which we received from many others in support of the evening.
This year we will spend the Easter weekend with some of our family and then we are traveling to Brazil.
We would really value your prayers as we continue to network, train more Brazilian facilitators and run another Kairos course in Rio de Janeiro.
Tuesday 25th evening - leave Heathrow with Air France - arrrive Brazil on 26th
Wednesday 26th afternoon - arrive in Goiania
Thursday 27th - evening - reunion of CursoKairos graduates at Sal da Terra church
Friday 28th - evening - attend University graduation of friend
Sunday 30th with Sal da Terra and CMA congregations
Mon - Friday - various meeetings with contacts including setting up a bank account to help with kairos course admin - please pray we can do this quickly and without too much red tape!
+ visits to contacts in Uberlandia and Brasilia (precise dates tbc) (precise dates tbc)
Saturday 5th April- fly to Rio de Janeiro
Sunday 6th - with Apascentar church in Jacarepagua, Rio
Monday - admin and preparations
Tuesday 8th April- training facilitators in Rio
Wednesday 9- Sunday 13 - CursoKairos in Rio de Janeiro with Apascentar and PovoSanto congregations.
Sunday 13th - Duncan leaves for UK (due to school commitments)- arrives Heathrow afternoon of 14th
Monday 14th - Jan leaves - arrives afternoon of 15th . we are flying back with KLM which is a very long, tiring, and drawn out journey due to connections in Amsterdam - but cheaper than a direct flight!
Prayer Points
- good and productive networking opportunities and vision casting - including Brazil taking some responsibility in funding the project -
- no problems with opening the bank account
- some key people to do the facilitator training
- all aspects of running the course- again for some influential people to catch the vision
- Please pray for Jan on the final day of the course - - problems with dates means she will winding up the course without Duncan.
- travel safety - and health safety - especially protection from Dengue Fever!
- our Portuguese
- doors to open for the planning of the next stages of the project
Many thanks
We greatly value your prayer support and care.
Please find below a summary of the "The story so far ......"
Happy Easter to you all
Duncan and Jan Weir
Duncan and Jan
Duncan and Jan Weir, CursoKairos- a journey
Our journey started in February 2006 on a Kairos course in Burton-on-Trent. God clearly spoke to us about our future involvement with Kairos. On our return to the UK in May 2006, after just over 2 years working in Brazil we helped at the first bi-lingual(English and Portuguese) Kairos course in Bolton, August 2006. The course gave an opportunity to trial the almost completed, Portuguese translation. It was a very interesting cultural experience with Brazilians and British people together.
Completing our facilitator training we planned a return visit to our home city of Goiania, state of Goias, central Brazil for the Autumn Half term, 2006. The first Kairos course Taster was part of a Mission Conference at Maranatha Presbyterian Church. Tasters were also held at other churches in the city where we already had good friendships- Sal da Terra, Centro Mundial Adoracao (CMA) and Igreja de Cristo. This built a platform to plan for an actual course in April 2007. Our friend Roberto, a graduate of Kairos in the UK, undertook some of the administration between October and April- including the first print run of the newly translated publicity folder. During this time we changed the name to avoid confusion with a Brazilian mission agency based in Sao Paulo. Thus CursoKairos was born.
Back in the UK, during February and March 2007 – Jan helped facilitate a Kairos course at Bookham. Our Brazilian friends, Mauricio and Sibele took joined the course as part of their induction had to work in a partnership project between Florianopolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil and Harlow Essex. At the same time Duncan helped facilitate a course at Marlow/ Maidenhead. This course was particularly influential in the unfolding of the Brazil story. We invited some Brazilians friends we had previously met in Goiania - Levy, then living in High Wycombe and Marcel, living in Greenford to join the course. They were so impacted that they made themselves available to train as facilitators for Brazil a soon as possible.
In April 2007 we returned to Goiania – again fulfilling the prophetic word of us being neither here nor there but both here and there. Ron Viner joined us as a facilitator and Levy trained as the first Brazilian facilitator. THE 1st CursoKairos in BRAZIL took place at Igreja Presbyteriana Maranatha as a five day intensive from 9-13 th April 2007 in Goiania. We were also ably assisted by Roberto as a translator for Duncan and Ron. Some interesting cross cultural challenges arose over the translation of the material including such phrases as “top line/bottom line” and “world view”. We also still had to find an “easy” way to provide the translation for several of the dvds. The best way seemed to be for Levy or Roberto to read the script in an attempt to match the speed of the film – we had to hit “ pause” several times! This continues to be a challenge which Ron, Levy and Marcel have been working on with support from LSI. We are looking forward to the course when all the materials are fully translated.
It wasn’t easy preparing for the course from a distance. However, good friends provided accommodation and transport. We spent the week prior to the course in finalising arrangements, photocopying materials , arranging a video projector, organising the catering and most important actually enlisting particpants! Brazilians are very relational and respond much better to face to face contact than to emails. They are also very spontaneous and often make last minute plans. Thus most of the participants were contacted just a few days before the course and some those we had expected changed their plans at the last minute.
We were so excited when 21 participants enrolled. We had prayed so much that we firmly believed they were all sent by God. They included 6 pastors, two assistant pastors, a national intercessor, five missionaries including one from England and one from Scotland! plus a church planting trainee from Salvador. They represented 16 different church congregations; several denominations including Assembly of God, Baptist, Presbyterian, and new church; and six different cities in Brazil – Goiania, Morrinhos, Uberlandia, Pontalina, Manaus in the Amazon and Salvador. We had 20 graduates at the ceremony on the final afternoon. We were greatly encouraged by the 18 who stayed to discuss their future involvement and commitment
We then travelled to Braganza Paulista in Sao Paulo state, Sao Paulo city, Rio de Janeiro and Criciuma in Santa Catarina holding more Taster meetings. We returned to the UK in late April and started planning the next phase of CursoKairos with Ron and Linda. By now this was part of “Project Brazil and Beyond” as we all saw the potential for using the translation in other Portuguese speaking nations – especially Portugal, Mozambique and Angola. A major consideration is that of finance and we have put together a budget to aid in the fulfilment of the project. The raising of personal support also continues to be a challenge to Duncan and Jan and they are using their teaching qualifications and experience as tent makers BUT their primary focus remains Brazil and Beyond.
In August 2007 we returned to Goiania to build on the first course and train more Brazilian facilitators. We had managed to organise a volunteer caterer and this thankfully released our time for facilitator training. The course only had 6 participants and was a big disappointment after all the preparation but we did have a pastor and a missionary from Brasilia and five churches were represented. It highlighted the fact that a 5 day intensive format is virtually impossible for those who are in full time employment with few holidays to juggle. It also meant that it was very difficult to make the trip self financing and we returned with a debt of just over £500. However, on the positive side, the course did provide an excellent opportunity to intensively train 6 Brazilian facilitators including Marcel. Daniel stood out as a potential Head Facilitator. We also piloted our first Graduation ceremony. It gave an excellent opportunity to raise the profile of CursoKairos using testimonies from the graduates.
In November 2007 we ran the third course in Uberlandia training a new facilitator from the first Brazilian course and continuing with Daniel’s training towards a Head Facilitator. We had 5 participants – this appeared to be the result of poor administration in Brazil and highlighted the need to have trained facilitators en situ or at the very least a good administrator. The course ran over 2 whole Saturdays and 5 evenings to try and help those who were in employment. We were very pleased to host a morning visit for a team from Chile – ( the Spanish translation is underway!!). We arranged 5 tasters with influential churches in Uberlandia which has led us to a plan for a second course in April 2008. We also ran two short Tasters alongside graduations and again the personal testimonies were a very powerful tool, raising awareness of the course. A good contact with Portugalwas given and we hope to visit Lisbon in 2008 to continue building the “Beyond” part of the project.
Our visit to Brasilia resulted in two further tasters with the Church of Christ and Ministerio Communidade Crista de Brasilia. Courses are in their 2008 agenda.
The fourth CursoKairos was held in Apascentar Chruch in Jacarepagua, Rio de Janeiro as a 5 day intensive course in early December 2007. Daniel facilitated his second course and Iona, (from the UK) trained as a facilitator. We had 15 students with participants from four different churches- all Brazilians. Ages ranged from 16 to over 70 years with four pastors, the mission team from the church and also two workers from favellas. The graduation during a main Sunday evening meeting with testimonies and a request by the Pastor for a second course in April 2008 launched a time of amazing praise and prayer for the nations. The Youth pastors expressed an interest to train as facilitators for the next course. They are a gifted couple and could prove to be Head facilitators or even a National Coordinator in time.
In summary we are greatly encouraged with all that has happened in just eight months. Undoubtedly most of our contacts were due to our previous 2 years Brazil. It is encouraging to see how God uses everything and nothing is ever wasted. We are now planning to fulfil our commitments for further courses in Uberlandia and Rio de Janeiro in April 2008 and are looking at dates in August to work in Recife (with Paul and Jacky Lancaster) and Sao Luis (with Larry and Dana Stucky presently working with Kairos in Albania) both important cities in the Northeast.
CursoKairos in Brazil: April - December 2007 PRAISE GOD FOR :-
46 graduates, 9 trained facilitators, 3 host cities with a total of 27 congregations participating. Tasters in 23 churches (+ another taster run by Paul Lancaster in Recife). Touching 6 States in Brazil and the DF of Brasilia!
| 