Jorge and Hermelinda are missionaries who serve with the Baptist Churches in the Dereham region of the United Kingdom. They are assisting churches of the Baptist Union of Great Britain reach out to the communities of Portuguese-speaking migrant workers in the region. They are serving as jointly appointed missionaries of International Ministries and JAMI, the cross-cultural mission agency of the National Baptist Convention (CBN) in Brazil.

Their work involves visiting migrant workers, assessing needs and working with the churches to develop strategies to welcome and provide services for the migrants so that they may grow in the understanding of God’s love, truth and justice. Jorge and Hermelinda serve through the Amigos Project in the UK, which seeks to serve the Portuguese-speaking community through services and Bible studies in Portuguese, compassionate listening, food distribution to needy families and teaching English as a second language (ESL).

 

Jorge says: It has been three yeas since we first arrived in the UK. At the time all we knew was that we were to work with Portuguese migrant speakers living in the Eastern and Central regions of England. We remember three years ago seating in the living-room of our flat in Brazil, during the time we stayed there getting prepared for our new adventure, trying to image how the ministry here would look like. It was a time of uncertainties and trepidation. Only we could do was trust that God was in the lead, and in fact He was!

 

He is the one who gave us grace, wisdom and strength to:

*Be reaching out with God’s Word Portuguese speakers already in nine localities,

*To have already three congregations established in these localities,

*To see people coming to faith and being baptized,

*To promote integration between the Portuguese community and the locals,

*To run English classes for those want to learn the language, 

*To set up four migrant support centers where people can access different kind of services,

*To share friendship and encouragement with those who find themselves useless,

*To be able to help and influence local authorities to deliver a better quality of services for those most vulnerable.

 

At the moment we are full of gratitude for all that He has done. What has been happening in the last three years could only be the work of the God that in partnership with the church is doing great things over all the earth.