Update -- April, 1997
Dear Friends:
We are now settling into life in the United States after ministering and living in Central and South America for almost 20 years.
Our fellow Verbo International directors and we felt the best way to promote our vision of worldwide evangelism and church planting was for me to become director Verbo Missions and move to a more central location than Rio de Janeiro. Although transition has not been easy, especially for our two youngest children, we give thanks to God that he put us in a loving active congregation in West Palm Beach. Florida- that includes some brethren who became Christians and now are part of the flock we helped pastor in Guatemala.
The need for someone to head up communications, public relations and fund raising has been weighing on the Verbo Team for over three years: and as a trained trilingual journalist-and minister. I was the prime candidate. However- Lynn and I didn't feel the liberty, to leave our church in Rio until toward the middle of last year. We wanted to be sure we were in the best place for God to use us. We also desired to see the change in our Rio church to an all-Brazilian leadership to be as spiritually, sound as possible. Finally, our daughter Aurora needed to finish her last year of high school in Rio.
God met us on all points. I feel he showed us that developing an effective communications web, including the Internet, books, cassettes, and teaching seminars in the major Western Hemisphere languages is a prime way, to get the Gospel out. It's also a way to disciple our church members to become what they have been called to be: a royal priesthood. Promoting and providing training for short term missions will be another facet of my job. As far as fund raising goes, I'm a beginner, but I believe that Verbo's existing work, combined with the extraordinary opportunities opening now to establish the kingdom of God in Latin America, speak for themselves in terms of attracting support.
Rio de Janeiro is just too expensive of a city for this type of ministry. On the other hand, living costs and development and production costs for the types of projects Verbo Missions will be doing are relatively inexpensive in the greater Miami area. There are also direct shipping and air connections to every major Latin American and Caribbean city, and we are near the geographical center of our overall ministry that now extends from Argentina to Canada.
This is important to me because though my main focus will be communications, missions and public relations. I continue to work on other levels- most importantly, as one of Verbo's international directors charmed with providing spiritual oversight and direction to our far-flung ministry. The job requires that I travel to participate in seminars and to provide counseling and discipline to leaders. I will also be working with Verbo's Eastern Region of the U.S. East Coast and Canada By a feat of gerrymandering. Brazil is now part of this region so that Lynn and I can continue a direct ministerial relationship with the brethren in Rio. My first regional job is to work with the elders of the West Palm church to help them form a solid working team. The three leaders are relatively new to their jobs and of different nationalities and evangelical backgrounds.
Lynn is starting to learn the intricacies of accounting. She's taking over bookkeeping duties in the areas pertaining to fund raising and the administration of the parts of our international ministry that are directed from Stateside locations. It's a part-time job, so she'll be free for other work, like the talk she gave recently to the women of Verbo West Palm Beach.
Our children are affected by the move to the States also. The two oldest, Nathanael and Angeline, had already graduated from high school and were working out of Brazil when we moved so they're already in the acculturation process. The two youngest, Aurora, 18, and James Tomás, 13, were born in Latin America and never studied at an English-speaking school. The social and educational upheavals of such a radical move are tremendous for teenagers. It was especially hard for Aurora to leave Brazil because of her friends and her culture (as they say in Latin America, "She's Brazilian down to her fingernails"). That she qualified for a full tuition scholarship to study sociology at a Brazilian university didn't make it any easier. She's adjusting to life in America living with her sister in Eureka, CA. and working for a company that provides in-home care for the elderly.
James Tomás misses Brazil- but he's made a swift entry into at least some aspects of U.S. living. Our West Palm Beach church is Hispanic and he's made friends with the members of a very active youth group. And if anything's typical of South Florida it's a large population of Latinos. The kids' lingua franca is English, so he's able to communicate on that level even though the others are native Spanish speakers and he's a native Portuguese speaker. He's in the eighth grade at a conservative Baptist school. I was amazed when he tested out higher than average in English for his grade level even though he learned English from informal courses that Lynn taught him, from reading books and from talking to us. Next on his Americanization list is becoming a computer whiz.
Down in Rio, the new Verbo presiding pastor is Norberto Maresca, who with his wife, Ana Maria, have been in our Brazil work since nearly the beginning. They were strong Christians when they joined us, and in the nine years since they've developed caring pastoral hearts, Norberto brings his organizational skills to bear on the ministry as a former manager for the Honeywell International and Codispel/Smart corporations. Ana is involved with the women's teaching and prayer groups. Working with him are Nivaldo and Joana Silva who joined us about five years ago shortly after completing their Bible school internships. Nivaldo has handled church administration for the last two years and has also steered the worship and young adults' groups. Joana is co-director of the Sunday school.
Though we are far apart geographically, we've already had a family from the Rio church stay with us for a week. Two other Brazilian families stopped in for a visit, and we expect more house guests. We'll keep up our relationship with Verbo Brazil through spiritual equipping interchanges and through the development of Portuguese-language Christian publications and cassettes.
That's the Jankowiak family/Verbo Brazil news to date. We thank you for your prayers and financial backing over the last 20 years. We've changed our country address, but if anything our ministry is now more challenging. Our missionary field of action is even bigger. Besides the work in Central and South America, there's a huge unreached Hispanic and Brazilian population in the U.S.--particularly here in South Florida where we're working through the local Verbo congregation.
We ask you to remain to be staunch supporters of our ministry so that "This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations. and then the end will come." If you were giving to "Brazil," we'd appreciate if you'd either mark your contributions for us directly or for the Verbo General Missions fund. Thank you so much for your love, prayers and support during all these years. Please continue with us. There's still so much Gospel work to be done, and we are committed--with you--to do our part. We'll be waiting to hear from you.
With the love of the Lord Jesus Christ,
James and Lynn Jankowiak
P.S. Verbo's Hispanic churches in the United States and Canada have been growing, and we're enjoying the privilege of sharing in the training of a new generation of leaders who not only have a vision for seeing Latino souls saved in North America but also a desire to return to South and Central America with the power of the Gospel. Most recently we attended a Verbo West Palm Beach youth camp and interacted with several teens who are on fire for Jesus and learning to take on the responsibilities of leadership.
James and Lynn Jankowiak were in Brazil for almost 10 years. If you would like to help Verbo continue this and other vital and growing works, which includes both spiritual ministry and material aid to the poor, please send your donations to: Verbo Brazil, P.O. Box 17807, West Palm Beach, Florida 33416-9828.
If you'd like to communicate with them, which surely would be much appreciated, you can e-mail James by clicking here; his e-mail address is: jamesjan@bellsouth.net
Their home phone number is (561) 615-9297. The office number and fax is (561) 688-0013. Also, please pass on their e-mail address to anyone you feel might be interested.
God bless you!
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