Bridge For The Nations
The Kairos course is now being run in more than 30 countries and is a wonderful tool to mobilise the church to cross cultural mission to reach the unreached peoples of the world.See www.kairoscourse.org and www.kairoscourse.org.uk
We passionately believe that God has placed a Missionary call on the nation of Brazil for the 21st century and are working alongside national churches to equip Brazilians for world mission. In April 2007 Brazil became the 19th country to receive Kairos.
CursoKairos April-Dec 2007 Many thanks for your prayers and PRAISE GOD FOR
- 46 graduates, 9 trained facilitators, 3 host cities with a total of 27 congregations participating. Tasters in 23 churches, touching 6 States in Brazil and the DF of Brasilia!
- CursoKairos in Rio de Janeiro- April 2008 – 10 more graduates and 4 more trained facilitators And the journey continues:-
- Mozambique 27th June - 13th July 2008
- Return to Brazil on 15th September until December 14th 2008 for further work in Goiania and Rio de Janeiro.
- But let’s go back to the beginning to tell the complete story –
“ 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 returned to our home city of Goiania, state of Goias, central Brazil for the Autumn Half term, 2006. The first Kairos Course Taster 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 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 Duncan helped facilitate a course which was particularly influential in the unfolding of the Brazil story. Two 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 9-13th 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 some of the translation – but we were learning! 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 then travelled to Braganza Paulista in Sao Paulo state, Sao Paulo city, Rio de Janeiro and Criciuma in Santa Catarina holding more Taster meetings. Returning to the UK in late April we began 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 with Marcel to build on the first course and to train 6 more Brazilian facilitators. In November 2007 we ran the 3rd coursein Uberlandia training another facilitator from the first Brazilian course and continuing with Daniel’s traing. We were very pleased to host a morning visit for a team from Chile – ( the Spanish translation is underway!!). A good contact with Portugal was given and we hope to visit Lisbon in early September 2008 to continue building the “Beyond” part of the project.
Our visit to Brasilia resulted in two further taster sessions.
The 4th CursoKairos was held in Apascentar Chruch in Jacarepagua, Rio de Janeiro as a 5 day intensive course in early December 2007. 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 Sunday meeting with testimonies and a request by the Pastor for a second course in 2008, launched a time of amazing praise and prayer for the nations. In April 2008 we held a second course and will return again in November to continue working with this church.
In summary we are greatly encouraged with how the story is unfolding. Undoubtedly most of our contacts were due to our 2 years Brazil, 2004-6. It is encouraging to see how God uses everything and nothing is ever wasted. We look forward to the rest of 2008.
Duncan and Jan Weir began their Brazilian journey of “being neither here nor there BUT both here and there” in the late 1990’s when they met their first groups of Brazilians relating to churches in the UK through Go to The Nations – a Brazilian vision to return to their Spiritual fathers in the UK and Portugal and work together in mission.
In 2002 Duncan and Jan made their first visit to Brazil and established the foundations of relationships which have continued to grow and develop. This visit was to welcome and pray for a Brazilian family who were coming to work with a group of local churches in Surrey, one of which was Pioneer People Farnham, the congregation led by Duncan for 13 years until 2003.
Soon after this Duncan and Jan received an invitation to travel back over the established “Bridge” to live and work for 2 years in Goiania, the capital of Goais state and about 3 hours drive from the Federal capital, Brasilia. They returned in the summer of 2006 having established important relational links with several church congregations in Goiania and also in other cities, especially Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and Criciuma in the south. Their work encompassed social work in schools, colleges, prison and shopping centres as well as ministry within church congregations and the teaching of English in several localities- especially enabling young people to travel outside Brazil on mission trips. Through relational links with "Go to the Nations" Duncan and Jan also made several mission trips to a church in Santa Cruz, Bolivia.
Since May 2006 they have been working as part time teachers but also have become increasingly involved with the Kairos Course, having trained as Facilitators with Linda Harding,( UK coordinator and Internal Director with responsibility for the development of Kairos in other countries). The Kairos course is an exciting dynamic “journey” which looks at mission in a new way and “connects people with God’s word”. It is a ministry of Living Springs International – based in the Philippines, works in association with World Outreach and is a member of the Perspectives Family.
In July/August 2006 Duncan and Jan helped on a dual language Kairos course in a Brazilian church in Bolton, Lancs, UK. This course piloted the new Portuguese translation in preparation for launching the course in Brazil as part of Project Brazil and Beyond. In October 2006 Duncan and Jan held the first CursoKairos Taster courses in Goiania to raise awareness of the course and to prepare for the first complete course.
In April 2007 they facilitated the first CursoKairos course in Goiania. Twenty students participated in the 5 day intensive course – among them several pastors, group leaders, mission team members and also a National Intercessor. Jan also visited Rio, Sao Paulo, Braganca Paulista and Criciuma and held 8 other CursoKairos presentations to prepare for future full courses.
In association with Linda Harding and Ron Viner, UK coordinator for Project Brazil and Beyond, Duncan and Jan are now planning to return as Brazil based coordinators of the project for a second season of about 2 years. Please refer to the June newsletter for more details of the project.
If you would like some information about the Kairos Course then look at the Kairos web-site www.kairoscourse.org.uk . If you are interested in Duncan and Jan's work, they can be contacted by email: Duncan, Jan. If you feel able to support them in prayer or financially they would be pleased to hear from you. Stewardship Services forms are available from Jan or can be downloaded as a pdf file (58Kb).
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