A meeting of the regional team of the Nazarene Compassionate Ministries (NCM) and Child Sponsorship, with representatives from all over South America, was held in Rio de Janeiro from 13-15 July.

Élio Tomaz, superintendent of the Grande Rio District, was the host. He offered an excellent welcome, along with Pastors Rodrigo and Denilson, respectively, who are responsible for NMI and NCM of the district.

In addition to the regional coordinators Astrid Camacaro of NCM and Nayara Silva of Child Sponsorship, the meeting was attended by NCM Global Coordinator Nell Becker Sweeden, who spoke about compassion as an integral ministry that begins within each person — like a lifestyle.

Lauren Snodgrass, international program coordinator for NCM, spoke about the process and how to plan a project to be submitted for funding support. 

Pastor Lorena Noé launched the challenge of understanding the rate of people with disabilities in each country and looking for ways to reach them with the gospel of compassion.

National NCM coordinator in Brazil, Lidia Lima, says that the country has 17.1 million people with disabilities, and there are 142,307 Nazarenes in Brazil.

“I would give a ratio of 120 disabled people for each Nazarene to worry about helping [share] Christ,” Lima said. “What a great challenge! We recognize that the Mirada de Amor school serves 15 people with disabilities, but there is much more to do.”

--Church of the Nazarene South America