Fernando Borges is a volunteer missionary with Amazon Lifesavers Ministry (ALM) in Brazil. ALM missionaries serve the needs of people living along the Amazon River. They introduce him to Jesus and form groups of believers where there is no Adventist presence.
Before becoming a missionary in the Amazon, Fernando Borges worked as a photojournalist in São Paulo. About the change in his life he tells us:
“I've been doing this for years and I love it! If someone had told me a few years ago that I would be in a place like this, I would have thought they were crazy. I used to think that being a missionary was only for those who have a lot of Bible knowledge or who are doctors and nurses, but I was wrong. We can all be missionaries, lighting a corner of the world for Jesus. Being a missionary through Adventist Volunteer Service changed my life. Could God be calling you to volunteer too?”
Fernando Borges attended the School of Missions, which trains missionaries to live and serve in communities along the Amazon River. He now promotes the Amazon Lifesavers Ministry.
“It is a great privilege to serve God in the Amazon! Sometimes I travel by canoe to another village to give Bible studies or visit a sick person and pray with them. When I'm paddling down the river, it feels so good to know that I'm exactly where God wants me to be.
When groups of students, friends and families come for a short-term mission trip, we take them on a boat that becomes their home for 10 days. “They love the experience of sleeping in a hammock, bathing in the river and sharing Jesus with those who don't know him.”
In the community of Nova Jerusalem (New Jerusalem), there is the Amazon Lifesavers Health Post. The missionary group to which Borges belongs planted a church in this community and almost everyone in the town has become Seventh-day Adventists.
To be a missionary you only need the will and love to share the gospel. Dare to change your life! Today Jesus tells you: “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Matthew 4:19)
Taken from: https://am.adventistmission.org/v5n1-28
Edited by: Yulianny Ramos Domínguez