Episode 109

We continue the series that explores actual day-to-day ministry work involved in removing barriers and reaching lost souls with the gospel in foreign (and not so foreign) lands. On this episode of the Removing Barriers podcast, we interview Kim Heimerl, a missionary to the people of Porto Alegre, Brazil, to discover her experiences on the mission field. What barriers has she encountered? What are the needs of the people of Porto Alegre? What are some ways in which she’s witnessed Christ remove barriers and save the souls He sent her to minister to? Join us as Missionary Kim, with her direct, warm, and humorous style, describes these things and more!

I can say this with confidence. Now. The same God that creates the stars and created the earth and the mighty mountains and the gorgeous sunset and the furious, ferocious dinosaurs is the same God that designed the Silence. It was so strong that the spiritual became physical. It was next to impossible to convince me that he was really with me.

Thank you for tuning in to the Removing Barriers podcast. I’m Jay and i’m NCG, and we’re attempting to remove barriers so we can all have a clear view of the cross. This is episode 109 of the Removing Barriers podcast, and this is the ninth in the series of on the Mission Field. And in this episode, we’ll be going on the mission field with missionary Kim Heimerl to Brazil.

Kim, it’s a pleasure and welcome to the Removing Barriers podcast. Thank you. It’s good to be here. Great. Thank you for placing us in your busy schedule. We know that you are probably on furlough and probably going from churches to churches, so we appreciate you putting us in your schedule.

All right, so tell us about yourself, your family, your calling, whatever you feel comfortable sharing with folks. Okay. I was raised in a broken home. My parents divorced when I was six years old, and my dad was not saved, my mother was. And we stayed with our mother. But my sister and I saw our dad twice a week. He came and faithful, he got us twice a week until I, being the youngest, turned 18. And then it was up to me to go to him. But they raised us well. Mother kept us in church most of the time. She had some problems with going up and down. Sometimes she went and sometimes she didn’t. But I’ve always had a desire to be there. And so my sister and I, during those times that she had difficulty getting out to church, we would always make sure we would call someone at the church and get a ride. And then my sister drove so that when she was able to drive, then she took us. So I have always been in church. I’ve always loved it, and it’s really important to me. And I’m seeing this more and more as an adult and watching teens who did not have other teams in the church and in smaller churches where that’s the only team, that team does not do well. And so friends, I have realized, are extremely important for teenagers. They must have friends, they must have his friends. And that is what parents should make sure that they have some good friends to go to at church and in other places as well, in a good school, but make sure that it’s a good family. And so that’s really important. I had that, and that, I believe, is what kept me. In fact, I was telling a friend the other day, we were talking about this, a friend from my teen years we were talking about how those teen years formed us, and even now we can see the results of that. So extremely, extremely important.

So I was ten years old and I realized I needed to be saved. I always thought I was a good little girl and I didn’t have to worry about it, that I would go to heaven. Well, then one night, I was ten and I was at a revival meeting. I was not sitting next to Mother. We were sitting far apart. I’m not sure why, because it wasn’t in our own church. And the preacher spoke on being sure you’re saved, and he spoke on the deadline in our lives could be at any place, and we needed to be sure that we would go to heaven. And he explained salvation and that we need to repent and ask the Lord to come into our heart to save us. I thought, I’ve never done that. And then he spoke on hell, and that scared me. And so at the time, I knew I didn’t want to go to hell, so I accepted Christ as my Savior. The next day in my home church with my pastor, he used the scripture in Romans 10:10-19. I remember the prayer, I remember the Scripture, I remember the pastor, I remember the place, I remember everything about it. And I really praised the Lord for having that memory that he allowed me to remember even what I prayed. And that’s very, very special to me. And I can go back now. When I’m on furlough, I go back sometimes to that spot and I just have a good time with the Lord and thank Him for helping me remember it and thanking Him, obviously for salvation.

Then when I was about 14, I believe I surrendered to missions. I said, Father, I’ll go if you want me to. But I didn’t really say, I’m going to be a missionary, I’m going to go to this place if that’s what you want for me, that’s what I’ll do. I’m just willing. So I went to Bible school, and it wasn’t until later that I was in my home church and the pastor asked me to be a chaperone for the teens on a mission trip. And so I did that. And on the last evening, the missionary gave the devotion and he said, instead of saying, Lord, I’ll go if you want me to, I thought, wow, where have I heard that? He said, Father, I’m going until you say stop. And so that night, I laid down my head on the floor after all the girls were in bed, they were still chattering. And through the chatter, I just surrendered to Him and I said, I’m going to go. I’m going until you say stop, and trembled in my boots. At that point, I had boots on in bed. And because I thought, what in the world did I just do? And I returned home, I got all my prayer cards out, and I got the addresses of all the mission boards, and I sent a standard letter to all a form letter and told them my qualifications, what I wanted to do, and if you ever want mail, you just do that. You get the mail. And I decided on Baptist World Mission. It was a very easy, clear cut decision for me. And at that point, I didn’t know where I was going. And so when I in church, right in the middle of the sermon, I just said, Father, I need a burden for people. I don’t know where I’m going. I know I’m studying more Bible to go, but where am I going? And I need to make a decision. So he said, I’ve already given you a burden. And immediately. Carlos in Brazil is the name of a book from children around the world. It’s a series, and it is a very does not speak very concisely of salvation. I had to do a lot of bad living when I read the books to the children. I had to COVID up some bodies on the beach, and I just adlived a lot. I got the general idea of the story, and then I told the story and made sure I put salvation in there. So I would not recommend a book for anybody who cannot do that. Just don’t read the book to the children because it is not very concise on salvation, and you need to make sure that’s in there. But I did that, and I remembered Carlos in Brazil, because out of all the books, I think there are eight in the series at the time that I got them, carlos was the one that just ripped my heart apart. He was a homeless boy, and of course, it went into all of the details of what he had to do, what just broke my heart. And so I said, okay, Carlos in Brazil. Okay, Father. That was really fast and really easy. And so I said, you’re just sitting there saying, father, I need a burden for people. I’m giving you a burden. Oh, Brazil. Okay? That’s where I’m going. I needed a little more confirmation, but I said, What I will do is I will pray for all the little Carlos in Brazil, and while you make this very clear to me that this is where you want me to go. And through it all, he did, different missionaries came through. And I was able to talk to them in the midst of a whole crowd of people. And I was able to get to them no matter how difficult it was, the Lord allowed me to get to them. And I would talk to them and they would say, you’re exactly what we need, okay? And so I just kept hearing that. And so I just finally said, okay, it’s Brazil, because nothing else is coming up. And so I talked to the mission board and that’s when they said, write a letter to all the missionaries that we have in Brazil. And they gave me the list of the names and the addresses and I wrote and they said, whoever responds to you first, go and get to know the land. And so that’s what I did. I didn’t stay with that missionary, but he introduced me to another missionary couple and I just fell in love with them and we were just meant to be together.

And so a couple of years later, I was with them. I went down in 98, August of 98, and it’s in Porto Legity, Brazil. And I’ve been there ever since. And I went with that team and there were three couples at the time. One other couple had just come down, three couples at the time. And we had two churches at the time. Now, 24 years later, we have twelve churches. Seven of them are indigenous. We have a Bible institute. And I’m working in the Mother church. I’ve worked in other churches as well. I’ve worked in five at the same time for several years, and now I work in the Mother Church. And when I go back, the Lord has shown me that there is a need to offer to all of the churches. Again, spread myself out to go to the other churches to offer the different subjects that I teach on. I love creation and I love to teach it. I love creation to Christ. I love to teach that. And I can offer it to our churches. I can offer it to our missionaries that the churches support. There the Brazilian missionaries in the Amazons, the Brazilian missionaries in Argentina and Portugal and Mozambique. And I will offer the services to all of them to see if what they want to do. I can run a five day vacation Bible school. There’s so many different things that I could take with me to them. Choir, hand bell choir, vocal choir, song, leading voice lessons, this type of thing. And so I could do that in various places. And so I’m really excited to get back. There’s so much there I’d love to dig more into an unpack.

Let me go back a little bit and ask you again. Would you remind me how old you were when you got saved? Ten. Okay, so you were ten and between ten and age 14. Up until the Lord made it clear that he wanted you to become a missionary. Was there ever any time in those four years where you questioned your salvation or you had doubts or you had a lack of assurance? I know that you said you remember everything about the moment you got saved, but was there any time in those four years where you maybe wondered or had some doubt? No, I never doubted my salvation until I was in college. And I’m not going to mention the college, but the administration allowed these speakers in the chapel to hound that very subject, are you sure you’re saved? And then we heard it like every day or like four days a week. And this went on, I’m thinking, for a couple of months and it finally wore me down. And I was along with probably, I’m going to say about 95% of the student body went forward to be saved again. And when I went forward, I explained to them my doubt and why I was doubting and she didn’t know what to do with me. So she called this man over, another counselor, and he came over and she said she’s having problems understanding if she saved him. He said, did you ask the Lord to save you? Have you ever done that? Yes. Well then you’re saved. And off he went. Wow. Yes. But their answer to it was get saved again. That’s what most of the students did and that’s what they did. I do not believe that is correct. What I did is obviously he didn’t know. And so I was walking back to my dorm that night and I was just praying the whole way. I said, Lord, this is not Your will. For me to not know if I’m saved is a sin and I need to know. I need to make this right. And so I’m going back to my room and I’m going to sit down and open the Bible and I’m going to start reading and I am not getting up until I have an answer. 2 hours, two weeks, no matter what. I am not getting up now. I’m so glad he did not wait for two weeks. I don’t know how well I would have kept that word, but what he did show me, I thought, where would I even start to read about this? I thought Job went through problems. So I went to Job and the answer was really there. And so the Lord showed me. He says you’re saved. And he showed me this, and I said, okay. Then I thought, okay. So am I saved now or was I saved when I was a kid? And he showed me through the scripture that God honors the prayers of a child. And I prayed and I remembered what I prayed when I was sincere, I wasn’t doing it because my friends did it or any other childish excuses that happen sometimes. And so I said, okay. I’m saved. And I was saved then. I didn’t have to get baptized again or anything. Yeah, I’m saved. And so I knew that from that point on, I have never since doubted it. And to this day I’m not happy with that college for doing that. College is no longer so I don’t have to go back and tell them, make some changes here.

We recently had someone give their testimony and as an offhand comment, not as a main part of her testimony, she just mentioned that she didn’t hear the term ask Jesus into your heart until she came to the state. She was born in another country. And I agreed with her. I marveled at what she said. Because when it comes to salvation or when it comes to assurance. There seems to be a lot of teaching in the broader evangelical church that is entirely questionable for someone to come up to a young lady that’s having questions or doubts about whether or not she was saved. And just to say. Well. If you ask Jesus into your heart. Well. Then. Yeah. You’re saved. That kind of attitude is definitely questionable. But I praise God that he made it clear through the scriptures that he did indeed know you and that you were his. So praise God for that. So one other question that I wanted to ask you in the story that you shared with us so far is something that I think is absolutely phenomenal. When you were 14, when you realized that, lord, if you want me to go to the mission field, I will go. And then someone told you, don’t say that. Say, Well, I’m going to go, and if you don’t want me to go, then stop me. I thought, man, that’s phenomenal. I wonder how many more missionaries would actually be out in the world from the church doing God’s work if we approached it that way. Every single one of us, when we have when missionaries on furlough, for example, and they’re showing their videos or they’re talking to churches, every single one of us, if we have the new man within us, our hearts are stirred. We really just we’re like, yeah, yes, let’s go lift the name of the Lord on fire in these other countries. And so if even a fraction of the people who felt that fire in their chest reacted in the way that this gentleman said that you should, I e, I’m going to go, and if you don’t want me to go, then stop me. How many more missionaries would we have on the field? I think that’s wonderful. What a great way to look at that. So one of the things I wanted to ask you further is when you responded to the call to go to Brazil, it was clear that the Lord had given you a burden for the people of Brazil. You remembered the book Carlos in Brazil, and you responded by talking to missionary board. You said you had to pick a particular board and there was this process. Could you go into that process and explain what’s the process of becoming a missionary?

Okay, well, once I decided it was Baptist World that was in their hands, I see I choose you. And they chose me. And I had to go through a process of acceptance. And so every mission boards process is different for me with them. I had to go to an orientation. I had to go to actually, the men had a harder than I did because they knew I would always be under the ministry of a missionary man. And so it was a little easier for me. But I did have to do some studying and make sure I had the answer to the questions. The biggest thing is when I was at the meeting where they question the missionaries, they have a conference, I think it’s twice a year. And so I went to one of those. And there were several missionaries. I think there were a bunch. That time I realized now just how different that was, because normally now the average is maybe two or three couples. But that time I think we had like, I’m thinking 15 couples. Yeah, there were a bunch of us. So we went and we were kind of waiting our turn. We had different committees to meet with. The one that really scared me was the executive board. And they opened these double doors and all these black suits stand. I have to go around, sit at the end of this oval table, this giant table with all these men sitting there or standing there. And then I’m like, no, that was quite intimidating. I mean, I didn’t know any of them except one, and he was the president of the college, so he didn’t really know me that well. And so that was it. I didn’t know any of them. So I’m just sort of answering their questions and then it was fine. I just had to put my big girl boots on and go on in and do it. And so that was an intimidating part for me. But I don’t know if all the mission boards do that. But for me it was that. So once they accepted me, then I had to do all of the preliminary stuff, get things the visa to go to Brazil, that was a big one and just making sure I know when to go. And I had to write back and forth to the missionaries, what do I need to bring and when can I come? When is a good time for you? So I went for three months to get to know a lot of people with a survey trip. They only do like ten days or so, but I went for three months, and I’m glad I did because it gave me a chance to know the other couple with whom I spent the ministry, the ones that I stayed with. So it was a very good three months, very beneficial. I learned a lot. But then afterwards, then I came back and I went on deputation again to get to there first. What I had to do to raise funds is I went ahead and start the deputation, the list the mission board provided list the charges for me. And so I started close to home and I kept spreading out further and further, made the ratings wider and wider until I got the amount of support I needed first. It was like a free deputation. That’s not normally done, but it was to get one time offerings in order to save that money and go to Brazil. And then when I came back, those churches, I was reporting to them and letting them know what happened. And then I had that base and then I went back to them and that made Deputation actually a little bit shorter, I believe. And so they already knew me a little bit and I was going to do the work. The big question they had was, now are you going to see if you want to go to Brazil or are you going? Because that’s where you’re going to go. And I said, that’s where I’m going to go. I know that’s where I’m going. That’s where the Lord called me. And so that was a concern and I made sure that I knew where I was going before. And so when I came back, then I had that base and I was able to build on that and I got a little bit of support right away and then it built from that. Then I went.

Okay, let me ask. So we know the Bible teaches that a woman should not be a pastor. I think that’s clear in Scripture. Regardless of what liberal Christianity might tell you, that’s clear in Scripture. So as a missionary, do you get this question a lot? Because most missionaries are going to establish churches, plant churches. But as a woman, you can’t do that. So kind of dive into what you do as a female missionary on the mission field so the folks can get that clear. Okay, well, asking me if I was going to preach has never been an issue, except for at the very beginning when I was already there. The leader of our team, he called me one morning. He said, Are you and another missionary he named, are you going to go plant a church in the interior? I said what? I said, no, I’m going to go plant a church in the interior. I’m a woman. He said, okay, I was just checking because the director of the mission board just called me and asked me about this because the other missionary that I’m not naming said in her prayer letter that the two of you are going to do that. I said, no, I’m not sure where she got yes. So that was a little weird, but that was taken care of right away. And he was like, okay, I just wanted to make sure that was new to him too. He didn’t know, no, I’m not going to do that. But I’ve always stayed under a missionary or a pastor, a national pastor, and I’ve done both. I love my mission team. We are actually known internationally with other missionaries because we had eleven households of missionaries that’s families, couples, and singles. And we all got along fine. There are no problems. And a lot of that is because of our strong leadership. It would be Roger and Sharon Crowder. He’s a very strong leadership. He’s like, there will be no problems, and every one of us are going, no, absolutely not. And everything was just wonderful, and we loved it. And our team was actually a model for other teams to work through problems and to get things working out smoothly for them. So I’m very humbled and pleased, and I’m a little proud of that, that we were able to do that now, almost 24 years later, and twelve churches later, we have to spread out. We were meeting once a week, every Sunday evening, and then we would go out during the week to our other churches, or on Sunday morning, and during the week, the midweek service. But then the churches grew, you know, that’s what we need. And so they grew. And the missionaries, we just finally said, we’ve got to spend our time there. We cannot come to the Mother Church. And so we did that. That’s what they did. Now, I as a single missionary, what I do is I train Sunday school teachers. I have taught in the seminary. Usually it’s children’s ministries or music directing voice. I teach that. I teach Hen Chimes and the children’s Bells also. And I teach Evangelism. And so there’s a lot of different things that I can take across Brazil, and I do that. Like I said, at one time I was working in five churches, and that was like every other Sunday, I would work with a choir in this church. And then every other Sunday, Sunday evening, Sunday evening I would go work in the alternating Sundays, I would work in another choir. And then on Wednesday night, I would go to a different church, and I’d work in that choir on Saturday morning. So it was spread out. And then once a month, I went to the interior and worked with two different churches there. And so I was able to do all that, and it was a blast. I love doing it.

How ripe is a mission feel for female missionaries? Because this is not something we see too often. I’ve know a few of them, but it’s not too often you see a single female missionary. How ripe is the feel for single female missionary? It depends on what the missionary has to offer. Actually, when I went down, I don’t have training in music. That was a board to put that in my hands. I had no intentions doing music, but singing comes easy to me. I grew up singing, and as a lot of Americans do, it’s easy for most of us to sing and even to harmonize down in Brazil, most of them are monotone, they just don’t sing well. Now, there are some, obviously, that do sing well. We have colleges with beautiful choirs. They have the gaussian music, which would be the cowboy music, which is more folk, and they sing very well. And they even sing harmony. But in the churches and in just everyday life, people don’t know. I mean, I was at a hotel one time and I was getting ready to leave and I went down into the lobby and on TV was a soccer game ready to play. Well, they were opening up with the hymn, the national hymn and the national hymn. I thought, people, your country has a problem with people singing. They cannot hit a note. Why did you make this melody? So the melody is crazy hard and then something like… on and on. Well, you heard the instrument playing, but the people like, … oh Father, I feel so small.

Yeah, they really do not sing well. And it was a lady who asked me to come up to me and said, would you teach me to sing your mouth? I don’t know how to teach you a singing. And so I said, no, I can’t. I don’t know. I have no idea how to teach someone to sing. Well, then the Lord took my voice away and I had lengthy five times in one year and it takes a while to recover from that. And so I went to an ENT who sent me to a voice therapist, who sent me to a music teacher. And so then I went to the music teacher and she was teaching me some more techniques and then everything was okay because I was using the voice correctly. I had been imitating the Brazilians so much and they talked very much from the throat and not from the diaphragm. And it was ruining my throat. I don’t know how they do it. My throat couldn’t handle it. And so I was doing that. And then that same lady came up to me later and said, can, would you please teach me how to sing? I said, I don’t know. Well, all I can teach you is the stuff that just says, I’ll take it. Okay. So I did that and it just went it just boom. I mean, people kept coming to me and asking and they really want to know how to sing. And so it just really took off. So I’ve been in the music ministry ever since. So it doesn’t have to be a thing that you go to the mission field with. It can be something that you have no idea what you’re doing. Because I didn’t know those first couple of years. I was just like, what have I gotten into? But the Lori just really used it. I could go on and on about some of the ways. It’s just amazing how I knew it was of the Lord. But the ladies, what they can do as a single lady, first of all, come in with the talents that you have. Use those talents in whatever way. If you’re good at fixing cars, go down and fix missionaries cars. I mean, we need a good mechanic on our team that knows something about it. And obviously that’s not his mission, but we can go to him for advice, and that’s very helpful. And he can tell you who the good mechanic is and stuff. Very helpful. If a lady is a good seamstress, a lot of people need good seamstress. And you can make customs for the programs in the church and stuff. You can make curtains and you can teach others. There is a missionary who does that. She had a whole slew of women that she taught how to sew, how to quilt and use that as a ministry. So it’s whatever your talent is, just be willing to use it. God can use it anywhere.

All right, tell us more about their area in Brazil that you are. Tell us maybe the population, the people group. Give us a little more insight in that. Yes. I am down in Porto Allegory, which is the capital of the southernmost state in Brazil. If you look at a map, brazil has a little squared off tip at the bottom. That’s my state. And just below that tip is Uruguay. And beside it, the west border of our state is Argentina. And I am on the it’s not the coast because we have a peninsula between the ocean and Porto Legani, and we have a big lake there. But it is what did I say? I think it’s about as far south of the border of the equator as Florida is north of the equator. Oh, wow. Yeah. And so that’s where I am. Wow. The population is 4 million, and that’s with the outskirts of it as well, within the city limits, is about 1 million.

Okay. What are the people groups that live in that city? Are we talking mostly a homogenous group of people or diverse ethnicities, religions, and backgrounds? They’re very diverse. We have got a lot of Portuguese, we have Indians, and we have German and Italian. We have those settlements there. We don’t have as many Japanese or Chinese as Sao Paulo does, obviously. Sao Paulo has, like, half the population in the world. It’s a huge city. Yeah, we have a lot of groups. We have the very light skin, the very dark skin, and everything in between. So did very well in there with the brown hair and fair skin. Some people were worried about when I went down there because I wasn’t dark enough. But when I got there, I was like, a lot of people aren’t dark, so it’s okay.

What about the religious breakdown? Are we looking at more Catholics or do we see a lot of mixture? We interviewed a missionary recently, Tim Barrett, and he’s in Sao Paulo, but he gave us the breakdown of Sampalo. But give us a breakdown for your area. Well, I don’t have it for the area. I have this for Brazil. Brazil is 64% Catholic, 22% 5% spiritist, and it is rapidly growing, the spiritist movement. And that is in spite of what they say it is Satan worship. And they always thought, I have never really figured out how it can be a religion of peace and love and all these wonderful little things, but yet they are absolutely promoting Satanic worship. And for that reason, a lot of people that are Catholic are also spiritists. They’ll very much so into spiritual. Sure, they’ll just blend it all together. That happens in many countries where you have an incoming population, say a Catholic group, and they’ll come and they’ll evangelize, and they’ll convert people, and convert isn’t quotes, and the people receive it, but they also mix it with their folk religions or their spiritism and that sort of thing.

For sure. We talked already about when the Lord burdened you for souls in Brazil, but would you say that perhaps if there were things that people would know beforehand that it would make serving in Brazil a lot easier? Or maybe I should phrase a question this way. We talked earlier about female missionaries and whether or not there’s room for them. I’d like to ask a question broadly about anyone who might be thinking of serving in Brazil. What are some things that they should keep in mind if the Lord has indeed called them to serve in Brazil? In Brazil specifically? I really have a hard time answering that. Or it could just be in your state or in your city. Well, actually, I’m thinking more just generally to handle culture differences. I think this would actually pertain to any group, which would be, don’t go with a chip on your shoulder, learn from the nationals. Don’t go in thinking I know everything, and I’m here to teach you, because they’re standing there looking at you saying, we know everything. You don’t know anything about us. We’re here to teach you. And so there would be a conflict there, and they can see that right now. So go in humboy. Go in ready to learn. Go in ready to let them teach you. As far as Brazil specifically, well, goodness, that’s a very difficult one for me because I’ve been there 23 years, and I’ve really 24 years almost, and I guess I’ve just gotten so used to it that it’s normal to me, right? Yes. And people that come in and visitors, they come in there, oh, you do this, you do that. You just have to learn to adapt. You have to be flexible. Missionaries got to be flexible.

One thing I really appreciate you saying is I’ll put two things together that you’ve said that to me simplifies the notion of serving as a missionary. You mentioned how we should stop asking about are you calling me? And just say instead, I’m going to go, and if you don’t want me to go, stop me. But you also mentioned how we should bring all of your talents and your gifts and use them on the field. And you mentioned things like if you know how to fix a car if you know how to make clothes. These are things that we tend to think are menial, everyday things. And God can’t possibly use them on the mission field over thinking of missions. Perhaps people are thinking more spiritual lofty know how to teach the Bible. I shouldn’t say lofty because those are important, but I mean, like lofty in the sense of separated from everyday life, if that makes any sense. And to encourage people to just bring your talents and bring your gifts to the mission field and use them for the Lord there and see what he does with it. That’s really powerful. I think you can make a ministry out of it. In fact, there’s a missionary couple who they’re getting older and they are getting slower. And they didn’t like that. They were in a new ministry and they were trying to find ways to serve. And what they did is they went and joined a gym just for their own health and realized we can use this as a ministry. And they were witnessing to people every time they went in and they went in every day. And later she told me, she says, Kim, the benefits are just amazing. I got down on the floor and I thought, I’ve never got up. And she said, I got up like no problem at all. I feel so much better. And dad, she says, I just feel so much better. And they are witnessing to these people and they have found that there is a seniors volleyball team that they joined because of this connection. And so they have all those people and she sends off pictures on Facebook all the time of them sitting with these people at a game or a classical concert or something, a wedding, just in the middle of the people. Love the people. Love the people. Love the people. And you will have joy.

Yeah, I’m glad you said that because I’m from the Caribbean and I’m from an island where missionaries actually come to. And one of the complaints growing up, a lot of the locals we make is that the missionaries don’t seem to love the people, as you alluded to. I remember one missionary, I know him personally, and one of the complaints against him from other missionaries on the island was that he was too friendly with the locals. And folks were like, that’s the reason why you’re here. He will go to the local marketplace and sit down with the vendors and talk with them and stuff like that. And they didn’t like that because he was being too friendly. And I think he ended up and left the island and went to a country in Africa. But I’m glad you said that, because truly that’s like saying you’re too holy. What? You’ve got to love the people. That’s why you’re there. Yes. All right.

Would you say the culture of Brazil is more of an extracted too, where they have some knowledge of God knowledge of Jesus or what do you say is more like Act Chapter 17, where it’s to the unknown God? They really have to start the creation with them. What do you say is more act chapter two or more act chapter 1217? Sorry. Well, I think that’s kind of a broad question. It’s like saying what’s American favorite food? Is that pizza? I told you what’s pizza’s american favorite food. Right, but I can answer that better if I could give you the church, our church is definitely an Act Two. Now, I do know some that are Acts 17. The church that I’m in is just absolutely wonderful. Everybody gets along with everyone. There isn’t the back biting or anything like that that’s just had to go solving problems and arguments. As far as the culture overall, I’m going to just say obviously I would have to say 17 because you’ve got the different religions, the different denominations within our denomination. Again, I’m narrowing it down within our denomination. Well, we’re Baptist. So what do you think that’s out? Acts two or acts 17. You’ve got the Southern Baptist. You’ve got the Independent Baptist. You have the Bethel Baptist. You have the Philadelphia Baptist. That’s definitely act 17. And I think it ought to be against the law to be called Baptist if you’re not going to be fundamental Baptist. Because if you’re not fundamental Baptist, then you’re not Baptist. So there, I said it. Oh, wow. However, I guess that answers your question. In our church, in most of our churches that I’ve seen, that I’ve noticed, not in all of them to know them really well, to know the problems. If I go visit them, I’m not going to see any divisions. But I believe pretty much they are X Two. They are in one accord. Yeah. It seems like it’s more like the US. Where I believe personally that their culture in the US. Is actually shifting towards the Acts Chapter 17. And probably that’s true in Brazil and many areas in the world, they’re shifting away, further away from God rather than to Him. It’s been that way for a while. This shifting has been going on for at least 1960s, and it’s just getting worse. That was really getting his foot in the door, and it’s very sad. Very sad.

What are some of the things that you see the church in the US. Doing that make your mission more difficult? Maybe sort of a ripple effect and affecting you and your mission in Brazil? Oh, can I talk to you from the view of a missionary on for a loop? Sure. Okay. The two things that I see, one is very specific, and that is the answering machine at the churches. Yeah. When I called to schedule meetings, I would say about 98% answered with an answering machine. Wow. And I’m thinking, okay, so if I were a person with a problem and I wanted someone to talk to right now this wouldn’t fly. I would hang up. I would call someone else. I am not going to leave a message. So that’s a problem. And as a mission very disturbing that they say, we promise we will get back with you as soon as possible. And I might have gotten one phone call back a week. And so that is actually lying and that’s not a good thing. Now I know what they were thinking when they’re making this. They’re thinking about the people that want to know the times of the services and can they come in, can they bring their kids? Do they have nursery? I want all these questions answered. Yes, they’re going to get back to them as soon as possible. But what about the lawn service company that called and wants some business? What about all the missionaries that called them? I know there are a lot of us that call them. You’re not going to get back to us. So your voicemail either needs to be broader and just more carefully worded or I think it would be, if it is at all possible, assign days or somehow to where the phone is forwarded to someone who can answer live. Make a schedule of this person on this day, that person on that day, or whatever, but get a live person because if you’ve got people calling for help, you’re not going to help us with an answering machine. I’ll be honest, it was a frustration because it was just all the time. I mean, I could show you my call log and it was always LM left a message, left message. L-M-L-M-L-M just all the way down the page and that was it. And you look at the log. About three days later I called back, LM L-M-L-M-L-M. Finally, the third time LM in the end, I don’t call them after three times. They don’t return calls. Yet they all say they do. And I’ve even had live people say whether we will schedule with you or whether we won’t, we will call you back one way or the other. And they don’t. So they just need to stop promising that they will or stop saying they will, I think would just be the best thing because I know they can’t because there are so many of us that call them. I know that they have a lot of missionaries that call them and I know it’s a lot of traffic phone traffic and they can’t probably physically answer all those calls. So just don’t say you will. It’s just doing testimony, just being blameless.

Yeah. Wow, I never thought about that. You made a good point because just imagine someone called in need of salvation or something like that. I know. I had a friend that she answered the phone from a random call and it was someone who wanted to commit suicide and she was able to share the gossip with that person, and the person called her back practically every day for weeks, and she keep on encouraging the person. I don’t know if she ever met the person, actually, but, you know, I never thought about that with the churches. That’s definitely a good point.

What are some needs that if filled would make you a task of sharing the gospel in breathes a little bit easier, that they would stop lying again? I think they look at it more as a social grace to not offend the person they’re talking to. They’re very gracious people, they really are. That’s one of the things I admire about Brazilians, what they call the well educated, and I don’t mean just well mannered, well mannered people that have good manners. They are so kind and their words are so gentle. And I just look at them and I say, Father, I need to be more like that because I’m so confrontational and just direct it’s just like, boom, there it is, you take it. And I just really have to back off of that. I have to work on that. And it’s an never ending process. But that is one thing that I just really admire about. And I do learn from them that they are very kind. However, it does get in the way because they haven’t come to church, okay? And they’ve been to church, they’ve been saved, they’re professing Christians and they’ve been to church, and then all of a sudden, they don’t come back. So the pastor or well, the missionaries goes and visits, let’s just say the pastor. And they go in and, Hi, how are you doing? Oh, come in, it’s so good to see you, they’ll say. And they’ll invite the pastor in and his wife, and then they have a wonderful visit and offer them the food and the drinks and just have a wonderful time. Oh, yeah, well, I’ve been sick and I’ve been this excuse and that excuse. We are so ready to come back. We’ve just been dying to come back. And we already say, Junior, that we’re going to go back this Sunday. Yeah, yeah, we did see, we are just dying to get back how things go on there, et cetera, et cetera, and they never see him. And it was all a farce. It’s just to make the visitor feel good. That’s part of a social grace. That’s what you do. You make the person that’s sitting in your home feel good and to be happy and be pleased, tickle their ears, say anything that you think they want to hear, but they have no intention of fulfilling that. And the other thing is, no matter what you say, it doesn’t matter what you say. What matters is what they think you mean, because everybody says what everybody else wants to hear, what they think everyone wants to hear. And that is a social grace. And so you never know when I witness to someone and I talk to them, they ask the Lord to come into their heart. There’s an expression again where they ask the Lord to come into their life, and they give their life to the Lord. And I always say, Lord, you be the boss of me. That helps them understand what the Lord wants and what salvation is. You just follow the Lord and you do what he wants. And when you do that, I will tell them afterwards, okay, now you need to show some fruit. And so what I will do is actually, before they accept the Lord, I will say, now, I want you to be sure that you’re doing this for yourself and you’re doing this for the Lord has nothing to do with me, because I don’t want to have to come back to you in four weeks and tell you that you are showing no fruit in your life. Are you sure you’re saved? Did you really ask for to save you, or did you just do it to please me? That’s not what I’m here for. I will be much more displeased if you act like you’re doing this and you really don’t. Again, I’m confrontational. And so I tell them right up, that’s not what it’s about. Because if I had to come back and tell you that you’re not showing forth fruit, that is going to bother me, that’s going to hurt me. That is going to really hurt. And it’s really, really hard to do. I don’t want to have to do that. And sometimes it makes a difference and sometimes it doesn’t. They’re like, oh, yeah. Oh, no, actually. So, yeah, it’s really sad.

Even Christians, we had a teen camp, and the evangelist asked them I guess they wrote it down on paper. I wasn’t there. I heard about it later, asked them on paper, do you lie? And how many times do you lie? How often do you lie? 100% of students there said they lied at least twice a day. These are kids. Some of these kids came from solid Christian homes. That’s sad. Really sad. And I know I have a cousin who worked in a college said the same thing. Kim, I don’t like to be prejudiced, but Brazilians lie. The exchange students that come here, the big thing they noticed with them was that Brazilians lie. And so that’s really hard to deal with. We can never rejoice when someone is saved. We can only walk away saying, I hope they were sincere. Yeah. Been a long time since I rejoiced over a soul being saved until I have seen the fruit. And so, yeah, so very good and to one point. But when it comes to overkill, they’re just way too kind because it brings them into the point of lying.

All right, Ms. Kim, let’s go into a break and then we come back and get into some favorites. You’re listening to the Removing Barriers podcast. We’re sitting down with missionary kim to Brazil and we’re finding out all about her mission field. We’ll be right back.

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All right, Missionary Kim, let’s get back to it. Let’s learn some of your favorites. So tell me, what is your favorite scripture verse? One, Samuel. One, two, four. Only fear the Lord and serve Him in truth with all your heart. Or consider how great things he has done for you.

What is your favorite Bible history or biblical historical account? That would be Shadrach, Michael and Abednego. Yes. I love the dedication. I love their courage. Oh, my goodness. Their courage. One of the things when I teach kids this lesson, this Bible account, one of the things I do, and it’s really more effective the larger the class, the more effective it is, is that I .3 out. If you’re going to be shattered, me shaking and bending, oh, you come over here and stand and then let’s just say big statues coming through. OK. Not all the kids have to stand up. And all of this is standing all around there. Everybody else bowed down, get all the way down to the ground and they’re shadracking. Me shaking in bed and go standing there just saying hello. Kill me. I asked the kids, the three, I’ll say, well, how do you feel? They’re like, I feel weird. And just a little bit of a sense of what’s going on. Just imagine you’re standing there in full view and you know they’re going to throw you in the fiery furnace and it hits home with them. That illustration really hits home with them some. And so I just love the courage that they had. Have you done the kiddie version where you say, shed wreck me shack, and to bed we go when you’re sending the kids off to bed? No, of course that doesn’t work in Portuguese. Okay. Sadaki miyazaki doesn’t really work. Of course I like nebuchadnezzar to nabuku don’t zora. Yes, it’s quite fun. Yeah, I love the names.

What would you say is the most convicting scripture passage to you? Be ye holy, for I am holy. Yes. Say it. The Lord. Amen. That would definitely be the one. Because that’s a challenge. It is a challenge.

What would be the most comforting scripture verse, in your opinion, for you? Luke 22:31,32. And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, satan hath desire to have you, that he may sift you as weak, but I have prayed for Thee that thy faith fail not. And to know that Jesus is praying for me just I mean, I can go look for a prayer warrior, but I know before that prayer warrior can ever get on her knees or his knees that Jesus is already at the throne on my behalf, then he’s ever interceding with the Father for his children. Yeah, it’s amazing. I went through a very difficult time right after language school, and the Lord became silent. It was not just a feeling, trust me. He became silent to me. And I didn’t realize that that was a thing that he would do that, but he definitely did. And there was no reason that I could understand. I prayed and showed me the sin and showed me what you want me to learn and nothing, nothing. And I went two years like that. There were no prayer, no verse, no Bible. Bible just like, open it up to Japanese. It did not make any sense to me. No matter what verse I read. It was just like, I don’t get this. I mean, it was just everything was so strongly I felt separated from the Lord. Now there I’m going to say I felt separated, but it was so real and so very strong. I guess the best way to put that would be the same God, and I can say this with confidence now, the same God that creates the stars and created the Earth and the mighty mountains and the gorgeous sunset and the furious ferocious dinosaurs is the same God that designed his silence. It was so strong that the spiritual became physical. It was next to impossible to convince me that he was really with me. And I determined. No, I know. He’s with me. And for about 18 months, I guess I continued that or maybe 16 or 18 months, I don’t remember that. I just said, okay, Satan, I know that you are on the front line of this one. You’re not being missed, your demons, and so you’re here and I know he’s right there. And I said, I’m not getting into you. Your Maker is on my side and I’m going to win this thing, so have at it, but you’re going to lose. But then things happened and it got really difficult and I wore down.

A big factor was that I moved into a house where the dog next door, the neighbors dog was barking all night long, every night. And so four months I had no sleep. I just dozed throughout the night and that was it. So it was about an average of two and a half hours sleep a night, just dozing. So I never went into deep sleep. And so you don’t sleep for four months. Things are weird for sure. Yeah. And so there were a lot of things. I was very busy. I had some physical problems as well. That happened after I realized that he wasn’t active in my life. I was just walking down the steps to teach the kids in junior church because we just had a time of blessing. I thought, it’s been a while since I’ve given a blessing. I should give a blessing next time I need to do that. So I thought, what blessing would I give? I can’t think of one. Okay, let’s do a scripture verse. Lord hasn’t touched him with scripture verse. But what about nothing? There was nothing. And that’s when I went home and started praying. I said, Father, what’s going on? Then I realized he was silent. And so that through the two years it just kept on. And I’m not going to go into the whole story. I have it in a little booklet. I’m not use it as a commercial time, but I do have it in a little booklet. I don’t even on the e book it’s there. I have the booklet and paper form. I guess if anybody wants that, they can get in touch with you guys or something. But I have it in the booklet. And what happened is, after I got the victory over that, the pastor who counseled me said, no, just don’t stay there, go forward, move on. And I understood what he was saying. Women like to wallow in it, don’t we? We like to wallow in the problems and drama of it all. And so I said okay. So I hung up the phone, I zipped my zip code. I never spoke of it and I never allowed myself to think of it. Well, then 18 years later it came out. I was listening to a video on YouTube and it was a song and it just exploded. OK, I think I have some things going on here need to be addressed. And so through that process, the Lord gave me this verse. He showed me that he was with me. He was I’ll say that much, if anybody wants the book, I don’t know, you can look me up or you can go to MCG or Jay and they can’t get in touch with me. But I use that verse. It was such a comfort to me because he said, I did pray for you and I was with you and I would never let you fall into the abyss of unbelief. Because I thought if he turned his back on me, then he is not God during that time. And so I really, really struggled with that. I did not want to believe that. And I continued praying and I continued asking him. But it was very, very strong. It was so strong. And so that verse is so special to me that the Lord said, simon, Satan has the desire to have you. He may sift you each week. Well, I know what that’s like. But the Lord said, I have prayed for you that they fail. Now. And that is very precious.

Tell us the name of your book, if you don’t mind. Silent lost in the absence of God treasure found in suffering.

Is it on Amazon? It is. The ebook is the paper book is on AbeBooks. Okay. Can I give my email address? If you want to. KimberlyHeimerl@gmail.com and I can get the information to you if you want. That great.

All right. What would you say is your favorite hymn of the faith? I’d rather have Jesus. I’d rather have been anything. That’s a great time.

Who is your favorite giant of the faith from the Scriptures? That would be Job and Mary Magdalene. Interesting. Yes. Actually, when I was going through it the second time, trying to get all the answers, I realized there was a whole bunch of layers of hurt there. When I first went through it, I remember telling my pastor’s wife, I feel very Jewish. And it was a book that a church, I didn’t even know the church sent a book to all the Baptist world missionaries and it was sitting in my mother’s meal box. And at that time I was back for a surgery and I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t drive or anything. And I was really feeling 40. And I was trying to recuperate from four months of no sleep. And all I had to do was just eat, sleep, read. And so this book came, and it was the suffering of man, the sovereignty of God. 25 Sermons on the Book of Job by Charles Virgin. And in all of his complicated language, I was able to sift through it. And I promise you, once you get through, like after about the first chapter maybe, where you get that hang of his language because it is different and it becomes a little easier to read. But I had nothing else to do, so I waited through it and then it was the ball I needed. And so I loved Job. And when I was going through the second period of when everything exploded and I had eleven months worth of work to do on that. And I even remember one time I prayed, god, I know this is weird, but you just said, joe Dunn, I just need to talk to somebody that’s gone through this. And I know nobody else has gone through anything like this. And I was very serious. He knows my heart. So I love you. I love Job and Mary Magdalene. I had to do an assignment that was the ladies group, assigned a certain lady in the Bible to several of us ladies. And we were supposed to go in and study that person and give a testimony as if we were that person. Well, mine was Mary Magdalene, and I really came to appreciate her. She had so much to be thankful for with her salvation being saved from seven demons. Oh my goodness. I mean, that had to be poured. And so I really began to love her so much. And then the fact that the day that the Lord did speak to me again through the book by the sermons of Charles Spurgeon, I remember the moment that the Lord spoke to me through a verse. I remember gasping and saying, Father, and it was Him. And he spoke for the first time in two years. And I’m not going to go into all of that again. It’s in the book. And so I don’t want to give everything away in the Book in case someone wants it. But I remembered so much about Mary Magdalene and how she didn’t know if she thought Jesus was dead. Well, I was wondering if God if he cared and she thought Jesus was dead and to realize he was right there by her and she was master. And I thought, oh, my goodness. I think I know a little bit about how she felt. So we have a connection. She doesn’t know that yet, but after 1000 years or 10,000 years of being flat on my face, worshiping the Lord, and I get up and want to look for someone, I’m going to look for her and we’re going to sit down and talk because yeah, her and Joe and my grandfather. But he’s not in the Bible. I don’t know him. He died when my mom was five. But I’ve heard so many stories about him. I just want to meet him. Great.

All right. Well, Kim, let’s wrap it up and tell us what are some of the biggest barriers to the people of Brazil from receiving the Gospel, and how can those barriers be removed? Okay, the barrier to receiving the Gospel goodness, I think a big one, would be that they have so many different religions. They are a very religious people, even people that have never gone into a church, they’ll talk about God, be with you and stay with God. And they’re always giving you something about God. And it’s to the point where I don’t even like to say his name to them unless I’m really talking to them seriously about something. I don’t say things like, yes, thank the Lord, or anything like that to them because they throw his name around so much that it means nothing. But they feel like that is a way to go to heaven. That’s just another way that they can maybe get there. And when you witness to somebody, oh, yeah, I read my Bible every day. I read Psalm 20, 23, and I think it’s 91. And I read them every day because that’s just like a ritual to get to heaven. And so it’s to get them lost is a real challenge sometimes because they just don’t realize, but I’m being good. I’m doing everything right, and I love God and he’s the savior of the world. We’re all his children. And so you have to get through those barriers. That is very, very difficult. And like I say, they have so many different religions. They’ve gone to this one and that one and that one. So they have this little bit of baggage from everybody, from all the different churches, all the different doctrines, and it’s very difficult to get to. I actually use Back to Genesis with them a lot because you’ve got to go back to the beginning. Just have to go back to the beginning.

All right, Ms. Kim, thank you so much for joining us on the Removing Barriers podcast. Thank you for having me.

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