At the end of last April into the beginning of May, the southernmost state of Brazil, Rio Grande du Sol, experienced record rainfall that caused severe flooding. Through the amazing generosity of churches, groups, families, and individuals across Canada and the US, NAB missionaries Lyndell Campbell Réquia and Brandon & Marci Jones were able help those who lost their homes or were in need of water, food, and other necessities. We are happy to report that $112,576.57 was donated through the NAB’s relief fund.
Lyndell and the Joneses set up a three-step relief process. The first step focused on the immediate need for shelter. They helped local churches with supplies to shelter their neighbors who were displaced from the floods, including buying mattresses and blankets, food baskets, bottled water, hygiene kits, and other essential needs. The second step involved clean up. They provided churches with the necessary equipment to help clean up their neighborhoods, as well as continued access to food and bottled water in neighborhoods where there was still no access. The final step was restoration, where they helped pastors, church planters, and seminary students who had lost everything in the floods by providing them with items needed to begin rebuilding, such as furniture, appliances, and other essential home goods. They also assisted a local school restart by providing the students with backpacks and school supplies they needed.
To all who supported this effort financially through gifts or spiritually through prayer: Thank you! You’re giving has made a world of difference to many. Below is a first-person account of the flooding from last year, a testimony of one way your gifts were used to help those in need:
My name is Sandra, and this is my story of surviving the biggest climate catastrophe that has ever hit the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul.
I have worked at the seminary here for over twenty years and have been a part of the Baptist mission here for eleven years. My city, Eldorado do Sul, is on a peninsula that is surrounded by the Jacuí and Guaíba Rivers, sitting across from the state capital, Porto Alegre. The entire region is the gateway to the world’s largest freshwater lagoon, which has five rivers flowing into it.
With so much natural water, the region has experienced flooding in the past, but nothing like what happened to us last May when our entire city quickly became submerged underwater in one night. This included my own house, which left eleven people, including me, my mom, my daughter and son-in-law, and my brother and his family, all crammed together in the attic of my neighbor’s house as floodwaters overtook the ground floor and kept rising. . . .
Blue Ocean is a one-year introduction to what it means to join God on mission, to be formed into a follower with the character of Christ, and to learn to reach friends and neighbors with a robust Gospel in our culture. We meet three times a year in three different cities across the United States and Canada for multi-day retreats. Blue Ocean includes pastors, leaders, and regional ministers from across the NAB. Each cohort represents a cross-section of regions, church sizes, and ministry styles. The discussions are both encouraging and challenging.
Module 1
Location: Vancouver, British Columbia
Dates: October 21–24, 2025
Topic: Missional Theology – Joining in with the God of Mission
Module 2
Location: TBD
Dates: February 1–4, 2026
Topic: Missional Formation – Becoming Like Christ
Module 3
Location: TBD
Dates: April 26–30, 2026
Topic: A Missional People – Becoming a Sent People
There is no cost for Blue Ocean, though participants are responsible for covering their travel and accommodation costs. All other costs are covered by the NAB.
Sign Up for Blue Ocean 2025/26
The latest edition of MIT Monthly, the Missional Initiatives newsletter, arrived in email inboxes last week, and, as always, it is full of stories, resources, and practices to help and encourage you as you seek what God is up to in your neighborhood and join him on mission.
This most recent newsletter includes an reflection from Merv Budd on shifting from our agency to God’s agency; a story from Nathan Solak, a participant in the 2024/25 Year of Equipping cohort, about a simple butterfly garden; an article from Karen Wilk on learning to be with this summer; and more than a handful of resources to guide you along your missional/formational journey.
For a number of months, Zero Abuse Project has been undertaking an investigation into allegations of abuse at Hillcrest School in Jos, Nigeria. Along with Hillcrest School, the NAB is one of eight international mission agencies cooperating with this investigation. the Zero Abuse Project website.
We invite the entire North American Baptist Conference to continue to pray over this entire process, particularly for the survivors of any of the alleged abuse.