Renildo and Anisa de Oliveira
YWAM Tyler — Fortaleza - State of Ceará, Brazil
We are a cross-cultural couple, Brazil and Zambia respectively, and have been serving in missions for 14 and 30 years respectively. We transitioned, 3 years ago, to Fortaleza, in the north-east of Brazil where we are now based. Renildo served three years in Brazil and 10 years in Africa (Mozambique, Angola & Zambia) respectively. Anisa served in South-Central Africa (Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Zambia, Angola & Malawi). Initially, we both worked with street kids and discipleship. Anisa also served in leadership development, pioneering, teaching and training while Renildo served in ministry for recovering drug addicts.
Our many years in cross-cultural mission work have revealed a great need amongst missionaries for care and support. A recent survey (ABWE) of 40,000 missionaries and 600 missions agencies found that 43 percent of missionaries do not fulfill their long-term commitment to their field. Additionally, a 2019 attrition research study report (Missio Nexus) based on data from 11 missionary organizations found that between 2016 and 2018, these organizations sent 1014 new missionaries to the field and saw 974 leave their organizations.
We found that almost all African missionaries in the region we served had:
• very little or no financial support• no visits, no calls from church or leaders• were expected to support their churches and extended family• could never really rest and recuperate because they had nowhere to go except stay with family
We also found that many Brazilian missionaries in the region received little or no care once on the field:
• no calls, no visits from church or leaders• decreased financial support the longer they stayed• could never really rest because once they went home they had to work hard to raise support to go back to the field
As African and Brazilian ourselves, we both identified with these missionaries.
Our member care ministry seeks to combat these statistics.
We are passionate about bringing awareness, developing, preserving, and restoring missionaries and other kingdom workers to promote effectiveness and resiliency on the field. Some of the ways we do this is through training - Anisa has facilitated member training seminars in South Africa, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia and Brazil, through hosting - Renildo is excellent at hosting and hospitality, through regular communication with missionaries on the field - Zoom, WhatsApp calls, through field visits, prayer, coaching and mentoring.
We are also in the process of developing a member care retreat centre to host missionaries for rest, retreat, renewal and restoration. Our first building is now 60% complete.
