Episode 95

Tim Barrett is a missionary to the vibrant and beautiful country of Brazil, home to 214 million souls. Serving in the state of São Paulo, he encounters people of different backgrounds, beliefs, and experiences on a daily basis. In this episode of the Removing Barriers podcast, we ask him about these encounters, what it is like serving in São Paulo, what the needs are, and what supporting churches can do to facilitate the spread of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ in that place. Missionary Tim has a somewhat unique perspective on the practicalities of missions, being a second-generation missionary to the same Brazilian state. Join us as we hear about these perspectives and more next, on the Removing Barriers podcast.

Sometimes when you’re saved young, you hear other people give me their salvation testimony, and, oh, I was drunk in the streets, I killed so many people and all that. And you say, what testimony do I have? And one day a pastor told me, yours is the best testimony to have, someone that from an early age was saved and gave their lives to the Lord.

Thank you for tuning into the Removing Barriers podcast. I’m Jay. And I’m MCG. And we’re attempting to remove barriers so we can all have a clear view of the cross.

This is episode 95 of the Removing Barriers podcast, and this is the 8th in the series of on the Mission Field. And in this episode, we’ll be going on the mission field with missionary Tim Barrett to Brazil.

Tim, it’s a pleasure to have you, and welcome to the Removing Barriers podcast. Thank you so much. It’s my pleasure. Thank you for having me. Thank you for placing us in your busy schedule. Hey, glad to do it. Thank you you for the invitation. Yeah. This has been a while, but I’m glad we finally get to do it. Amen. Thank you. Yeah.

Tell us about yourself, your family, your calling, whatever you feel comfortable sharing to the public. Sure. Well, I’m a second generation missionary to Brazil amen. So I’m actually more Brazilian than American in a lot of ways. I came to Brazil when I was two years old. Oh, wow. And our family, we go on furlough. In the beginning, we’ve been normal, fertile. It’s like four years, and then a year in the States, and then the next time, it was, like five years and a year in the States. The next time it was 14 years. Oh, wow. And a year in the States, and then after that, it was, like, a long time. So I lived most of my life in Brazil. Yes. I’m fine with it. I have the American culture with my parents and everything and family in the States and time we’ve been there. But I’m very much Brazilian. Great.

And your own family, are they Brazilian or American, living in Brazil, or do they have the same story as you do? Well, my dad and mom, of course, are married because they came to Brazil with my sister and I, my older sister and I. And then I married a Brazilian. Okay. My wife’s Brazilian. Wonderful. My sister married a Brazilian pastor. He works in the ministry with us around here. And then I went and married his sister. Oh, wow. Brother and sister. Mary brother and sister. Right. So your kids are double cousins? Yeah, the kids actually grew up real close together. They studied together. They were all kind of home schooled around here, so they’re very close. Like brothers and sisters, actually. Awesome.

How long have you been on the mission field? Well, we came in 1976 back then. How many years would that be? 36-46-46. Math was not my strong suit, but it sounds like 46. Wow, great. Wow. Yeah. So, of course, I’m a second generation missionary. We joined the Mission BMI in 2001. We came back to resume in 2002. Now my son, he’s in the States right now and reputation to come back as a third generation missionary. Oh, that’s great. And we love Brazil. Definitely made the Lord use it. Might lead down there. Thank you.

How long has the Lord known you? How long have you been saved? Well, since I was very young. I had the privilege of being raised in a Christian family, which we know that that doesn’t save anyone, but I had the privilege of hearing the gospel early on. The Bible talks about Timothy, how his grandmother and his mother, from the time he was a child, he learned the Scriptures so he could be wise on the salvation. And so talking about barriers, that’s one thing where as you grow up in a Christian home, that’s one thing. You always want to make sure your children understand the gospel very well, because sometimes they can be in a Christian home and think everything is okay and realize that they’re not saved. My parents from an early age were always making sure that we were understanding the gospel and would repeat it to us. I was actually quite young, probably about 06:00. It’s 10:00 when I was six years old. But that’s another thing about when you grow up and you’re very young, sometimes you wonder about your decision. You have questions about it. Sure. When I was about eight years old, that’s when I really got it settled and was short of my salvation. When I was about eight years old.

Yes. My son, well, he just turned seven, but at six, maybe a month or two ago now, he made a decision for Christ. Amen. But we just praying that he truly understands. He asked a lot of questions about our salvation, and I decided that the next time he asked me, I’m going to show him true Scripture, how someone can be saved. And he prayed for salvation and that was a blessing, but we just prayed. My sister was saved when she was four, and she remembers it. Wow. Yeah. And she was convicted and went to my mom, I believe it was, and she was crying and said she just wanted to make sure she was going to heaven and she wasn’t sure. And she remembers that like four years old. So children, especially when they grow up in an environment where they’re hearing the gospel, they come to understanding, I believe at much earlier ages, I believe I was saved actually before I was eight, but I had some questions and everything. So that was one thing where my parents, my dad at the time, just went through it again with me and made sure I was understanding it.

Being saved is one thing, but then you also said that you are a second generation missionary. When was it clear in your mind that God wanted you to continue the work in Brazil where your parents established your family? Already? In my teenage years, early teen years, I felt the Lord calling me to preach. Of course, thankfully, my parents always involved us in the ministry. That’s one thing that it’s very important. Even as missionaries sometimes we had a missionary friend that he complained a little bit because his parents would kind of like, not involve him and want to involve other people and not involve his own children in it so they wouldn’t feel part of it sometimes. And thankfully, our parents really had us being part of the visionary work from the time we were very small. And we always serve the Lord in the ministry in different ways, different capacities. And when I was in my early teens, about 13 years old, that’s when I really felt the Lord at a camp. The Lord calling me to preach. And then people in my heart to stay in Brazil, come back to Brazil, or stay in Brazil and continue preaching here, which is the country I love. I know the language, I know the people. And the Lord gave us a very important ministry here. So that’s where I thought the Lord had us come back to.

Tell us where in the world is Brazil. If we should spin the globe and point a finger and someone who maybe never heard of Brazil or don’t exactly know where Brazil is, how would they find it? Well, go down south, real south, right. My family is like this. My family is from the north, actually from the Pennsylvania area. But then I was born in Knoxville, Tennessee. I’m the southern guy of the family we’re way down south, keep on going south. And it’s in South America. And Brazil is, as you probably know, the largest country in South America in land mass and in population. It’s almost the same size as all of the rest of South America put together in population size. So if you would have, let’s say if you put all the countries together, brazil’s almost about the same amount of people, 217,000,000 people here in Brazil. Wow. So it’s a large country.

You don’t have to be specific if you don’t want to. But where in Brazil are you serving? We’re in the Southeast. Okay. Which is Brazil’s, a huge country. And some people think of Brazil as the Amazon. That’s the first thing that comes to my mind. Yeah, but that’s way up north, it would be, I think, in kilometers here, more than 3000 km now. We have to put that into miles. But it would be days and days of travel to get to when we go to the States, when we fly to the States for like, all night. Flying, flying, flying, flying, flying. And I think we’re almost there. We’re still over Brazil. Oh, wow. Just such a large country. Right. And then at the very end, we get a little bit of the ocean and we’re in the state. So we’re in the southeast, which is, I don’t know if you’ve heard of there’s a city in the state of Sao Paulo. It’s Sao Paulo. Sometimes Americans. Sao Palo. The pronunciation is a nasal, so it’s sam S-A-O with a trolley thing over the A. So it’s Sam Paolo. Sao Paulo. Yes. Sao Paulo is the largest city, of course, in Brazil, and it’s the capital of our state of Sao Paulo. And so the southeast of Brazil. We’re like the most populous, the most industrialized and the most developed part of the country, the southeast of Brazil. Okay.

You mentioned the population in Brazil being as great as perhaps all of the other countries in South America combined. Just about. So what’s the population like in the southeastern portion, the industrialized portion of Brazil? The people that you’re trying to reach? Yes. Which is also the most popular place in the country, too. Okay, now you got me. I’m going to have to say, if I can search that here sao Paulo.

Yeah. The state of Sao Paulo has about 47 million in the state of Sao Paulo, so it’s the most populous area of Brazil.

What about the religious breakdown? Are they more Catholic in their beliefs or maybe Hindu Muslims? What’s the religious breakdown of Brazil? More than half of Brazil claim they’re a Catholic, so that’s the majority of the population would say they’re Catholic. And then, of course, the Catholic religion is very eclectic. They take all kinds of other, even spiritism under the umbrella of Catholicism, but half claim that they’re Catholic. And then they say that the Protestant religions are growing in this country. Sometimes we’ll go to the states and they’ll say, wow, I heard there’s a revive when Brazil and Christian churches are growing, let’s say evangelicalism. But unfortunately, there’s a lot of false religions in this supposedly turning more evangelical. You have a lot of these neo Pentecostal churches preaching the Prosperity Gospel. They have huge churches here, you know, preaching because a lot of people are very poor and very difficult situations. So it attracts people, this kind of message. And so, unfortunately, it’s not the good churches like true born again Christians. Still a very small percentage of this country, unfortunately, to our shame. Yeah, but they say that, like Protestant religions, quote, unquote, they claim about 30%. They call themselves Protestant religion. But like I said, that involves a lot of strange groups and everything. Okay. And there’s a lot of spiritualism, too, in this country, spiritism and a mixture of African religions with spiritism and Brazilian kind of spiritism, which also the customs and the culture of this country too. That’s one of the things I was going to ask, because I know that when you take Catholicism and then you mix it with some of the native peoples and the religions that were there during the time of conquest, many centuries ago, you end up with that type of spirit is sort of thing. It’s the same thing that happens in Haiti, where you have people who had their own religions, their folkloreish religions in Africa, and then under conquest, they convert, as it were, to Catholicism or whatever conquering nation took over, and they just kind of blend the two and then come up with their own spiritist type religion. So you end up with a lot of superstition, a lot of spirit type. Well, in our case, it’s voodoo. I imagine in Brazil, there’s something similar, although they probably wouldn’t call it that. You probably already knew this, having grown up in the country, you got there when you were two, and having grown up in the country, the Lord calling you to reach these people in your early teenage years.

So when the Lord burdened you for those souls and you’ve lived with the people, you’ve been around them, you know them. Was that something that weighed on your mind, where you already thinking, okay, this is how I’m going to have to approach these people. This is how I’m going to do it. This is how we need to evangelize, or this is how we need to establish our churches? Is it any different yes. Compared to what you would do, say, in the States? Yes. Well, you’re right. It’s like you said, because a lot of these African religions, brazil is like a huge mixture of cultures and ethnic groups. I mean, it’s a big melting pot, and religions, too. And a lot of these African religions, when they came to Brazil, they actually even to be incorporated into the Catholic Church, they just got their own gods and different items that they were worshiping there in Africa. They just adapted them and gave them names that corresponded to the Catholic is exactly like that. And that’s just something we grew up with. We grew up hearing drums near the home. We had a spirit of center not too far from our home, and we’d hear sometimes beating these drums late into the night. And my parents, I remember as kids, our parents actually moving us to another room because we kept hearing these drums the whole night, so they moved us to another room. And as far as Catholicism, it’s very natural for us to witness the Catholic. That’s who we mostly witness to. So sometimes we’re in the States. I was visiting with a pastor in the States once, and he was telling me, now, this family, they’re Catholics. Let me tell you how you deal with them. I said, well, that’s our specialty. Most people, even in Brazil, if there aren’t Catholics, most people say they’re Catholic. They were baptized in the Catholic Church. Sure.

Is that something that folks should keep in mind if they want to serve in Sao Paulo or in Brazil in general? Okay. And just understand, especially the Catholic religion, although we have everything here, we have cults, we have Jehovah’s Witnesses, we have Mormons, we have the spirit of religions, we have people in our church, we have a family who were Mormon. It’s a mixed bag. Yes, it’s a mixed bag. And we have they were coming to your church. Come to our church? Yes, they’re saved Mormons and faithful, they were Mormons. Oh, wow. Yes. And we also have spiritist that used to be spiritist. We have an atheist, just so you see. We have this missionary couple, they’re familiar in our church. They were called recently to the mission field. Actually, they’re going to help us start churches in Brazil. And he was an atheist and she was a spiritist. So we deal with atheism here. But Catholicism without a doubt, as we witness and go door to door, that’s what mostly fine, like the large percentage of Catholics. And we also contend with the evangelical churches we go visiting. And even churches in the past were preaching the gospel. It is shocking to see how many, for example, assembly of God in the past here Brazil. I know that people from the assembly of God who were saved, they understood the gospel. And even though we won’t agree with their practices and a lot of their doctrine, but we could tell that they had trusted the Lord, their Savior, and you could tell that you were brother in Christ, even though they were a little bit mixed up in some of their daughter and everything. But now as we go door to door talking to people, we ask them if they have a religion or church and everything. A lot of times they’re like a samba of God. And we ask if they know for sure they’re saved, that they have eternal life and they say, no, you can’t really know that we’re trying. It’s shocking. Even evangelical churches that were preaching the gospel in the past, it’s scary to see what they’re not preaching today. We contend with all that kind of stuff. But without a doubt, you have to measure in Catholicism in Brazil for sure.

Let me ask you this, just to clarify. You said that there were Mormons or they’re still Mormons. No, they were Mormons. Okay, they’re saved. Now, okay, just want to clarify that because they’re like, no, they were Mormons and heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Now they’re saved.

What are some other things folks should keep in mind if they feel called to the mission? You have mentioned we of course know how to witness the Catholics, but what about the food? And are there any aspects of the culture that will probably clash with American culture that someone needs to keep in mind? First you have to speak Portuguese. We don’t speak Spanish in Brazil. Almost the same amount of people speak Portuguese and Spanish in South America because of just the size of the country. But a lot of people think we speak Spanish in Brazil, but it’s Portuguese. So of course, the first thing is the language. And it’s not the same as Spanish people. That’s the same thing. But you have several Latin based languages like French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, but they’re not the same language, right? We can communicate, try to understand each other, but it’s a big barrier there. So first you have to speak Portuguese. As far as the culture in Brazil, we’ll be talking about that. But Brazilians, it’s very hard for someone here in Brazil to hear the Gospel the first time they’re saved, unfortunately, even what they know about the Christian religion, let’s say Christianity is enough to almost inoculate them. When you think about people that they’ve heard of jesus died on the cross. Sometimes you have people that have heard that, but they have no idea what that means. And they mix that with work, salvation. So that’s one thing you have to keep in mind is you might have to explain it several times and carefully and pray for them and explain it again until finally they understand the Gospel and it sinks in and the light shines through. Because a lot of times you think they understand and Brazilians, they like to please you in general, they’re not confrontational. So a lot of times you’ll go and you’ll talk to someone and you invite them to church and they’re so excited, oh, sure. What time is the service? Can I bring my whole family? Yes, please. I’ll wait for you. And they’ll never come. They’re just saying what makes you happy at the moment. Okay. And if you lead someone, let’s say, to just say a prayer or whatever, just, oh, I want someone. That doesn’t mean that they really understood the Gospel and they might have just been trying to please you or just adding something on to their religion, but that’s one thing to keep in mind to make sure they truly understood the Gospel.

Would you say that your culture is probably more Brazilian or more American? And a lot of folks that grew up in a different country, and it goes both ways. I’m from the Caribbean, so my kids are not going to necessarily have a true American culture field because I’m probably not going to raise them in a fully blown American culture because my culture is not American. So do you find that your culture is more Brazilian because you’re raised there are more American, or you’re kind of a mismatch of both cultures? As missionary kids, we’re very chameleons. We can kind of fit into any culture. But I would say I’m more Brazilian than American. Okay. I usually have more of a culture shock when I’m in the States when I come back to Brazil. But your parents transmit a lot of the culture to you too. So I’m not 100% Brazilian? Of course. My parents in Brazil here 44 years. My mom’s still here, my dad’s with the Lord. And they, of course, understood the culture more and more, but not as much as we kids who grew up in Brazil. We know exactly how Brazilians think and sometimes the nuances of the culture, of the way they say things or think things. So I would say I’m more Brazilian than American. One thing about Brazil you also keep in mind is if someone would say they’re going to Brazil, like we said before, you’re not necessarily coming to the jungles. My dad and mom, when they came here, okay, they were thinking about Brazil. My mom is a nurse, so my dad would say, Well, I better prepare for jungle work. And my dad was taking pilot lessons and everything. But then someone talked to him there at the mission. They said, well, you’re going. I don’t think you’re going to have to learn how to fly. It’s a different kind of jungle here. It’s a cement jungle. We’re very populated area, high rise buildings and just a big city here our city where we live in. It’s called Junjai. Junjai. It’s a city of 500,000 people. And then the next city beyond ours has about 4 million people. And then on the other side of us is Sao Paulo, the city of Sao Paulo, which the greater Sao Paulo area has almost 22 million people. We’re just right in the middle of all this year.

Would you say the culture is more of an Acts Chapter Two, where they have some form of gardeners, some form of creation and stuff like that? Or what do you say is more like Acts Chapter 17, where, hey, these people basically don’t have any concept of God? That’s a good question. That’s interesting, because as you know, the same thing is happening in the States now, right? It’s becoming more of an Acts Chapter 17 culture. Brazil too. I mean, Brazil follows a lot of the trends in the United States. So it has become a very secular country. Even people who say they’re Catholics, that doesn’t mean that they had much teachings or anything. And even if you think about the Catholic Church, it’s very much of a Babylonian religion. I mean, it is all the idols and everything. So even then you talk to Catholics, they have no idea of a true gospel of Jesus Christ. So even then, it’s almost like you’re starting from scratch. You’ll say? What did Jesus do? If they say he died on the cross, sometimes they’ll say he died on the cross. But a lot of people I spoke to a boy this last Saturday, we were on visitation, a young man, he was 19 years old. And I asked him, what did Jesus do? Because I was talking about us being sinners. I said, what did Jesus do? He said, really? I have no idea. I don’t know anything about Jesus. Wow. 19 years old. Oh, wow. That was a shocker. That is shocking. Wow. So more and more our culture is becoming more of an act 17 culture. You’d still have people that have a notion of God and have some kind of morality and all that kind of stuff, but it’s becoming much more secularized materialistic here in Brazil too. So it’s a mixture for sure. I don’t know what I would say. If it’s more predominant, I would say it’s closer to act 17 in Acts Chapter Two, because people just have no idea, even some kind of background in churches and stuff, they just have no idea why Jesus died for them or that they’re sinners, even though it’s all work based salvation or nothing. Like I said, we have lots of atheists, we have lots of people that are leftists, that are very atheism and that kind of stuff secularism. I was thinking of that the other day, how Christians from this point forward are going to have our work cut out for us in the sense that the generations of tomorrow will have grown up in homes where homosexuality atheism and all of these things were pretty much the norm. Deviant lifestyles are the norm, and we’ll have absolutely no frame of reference when it comes to who they are, who God is, what sin is. Why do they need a savior.

The Church definitely has its work cut out for it in that particular sense. And when MCG says that we’re going to have to adjust how we witness to them by starting at the beginning and not assuming that they have a basic framework or basic spiritual reference or framework to work from, that’s certainly true. Do you think that there are certain things that if you had them, if those needs were fulfilled, that it would make your work in Sao Paulo and Brazil in general easier? Are there needs that if they were met, that it would make your job easier there? Just comment on what you said. Oh, yes, it’s exactly that way in Brazil. The same trends you have in the States. We’re following the same things. My brother right now, he’s on reputation too, and he’s twelve years younger than I am, but he was teaching in a high school here in Brazil, which was a secular public school, the top school in our city here of Junjai, where all the more affluent people in the city would go. He was teaching English, and the teachers there are all just completely anti God atheists. And as more Brazilians are becoming more affluent and going to college and everything, they’re just being bombarded by, like I said, atheism, secularism, the same kinds of things you have in the States. They’re coming out of colleges anti God, and so we’re continuing exactly with that. One of the problems we have about Brazil you mentioned about what we sometimes feel the lack of when we work here in Brazil is material in Portuguese, and that’s something that we actually are working on because there’s a lot of things because brazil is one country, even though it’s such a populous country, there are so many Spanish speaking countries around. So a lot of materials sometimes there’s good materials, good books you can use or other kinds of materials you could use, but they don’t have in Portuguese. So a lot of times we have to translate things ourselves. A lot of work, and from scratch. It’s very hard to come by material here. We just don’t have that many churches would be interested in. It like, all kinds of churches, and there’s not a lot of organizations and ministries. They don’t produce a lot of things in Portuguese, maybe because they don’t think there’s as much of a market. Because in Spanish, you can go to Mexico or other countries in South America that speaks Spanish, but Brazil is the only lone country here that speaks Portuguese. That’s one thing sometimes we lack, is material in Portuguese, and we have to prepare from scratch ourselves. Wow.

Is Brazil the only country that speaks Portuguese, or is there more countries around the world that does? Well, Portugal. That’s where Brazil got the Portuguese language. The Portuguese came and exploited Brazil initially. And there are some countries in Africa that speak Portuguese. Okay. Like, there are several countries in Africa that speak Portuguese. Brazil will be the most populous country that does. Yes. Brazil would be the most populous country okay. That speaks Portuguese. Cool. Yeah.

So I’m just going to pick it back on something Jay said, because I could be wrong on this, but I don’t feel like the church is adequately preparing, as she said, for the next generation of souls that we don’t have to reach. I wonder what you think about that, because she mentioned the LGBTQIA plus the movement that’s happening in Brazil, too. Right. And in Europe as well. Yes. Do you feel like the church is adequately preparing to reach these folks? Because think about it, you might see marriage as of course, the Bible says marriage between a man and a woman, but if same sex couple get married and one of them gets saved, the church has to deal with that. The church has to deal with people growing up with two, three parents, maybe all of the same sex. And I wonder if you feel like the church is being adequately preparing for what’s ahead, because unless there’s a revival in this culture, it’s going down that path. You’re right. Yeah. That is something because I don’t remember us having to deal with that directly yet as far as someone getting saved in this environment, which they’re very close to the Gospel, too. Right. It’s still a very small minority still, but they’re like a very vocal minority, of course. But that is true. That’s something we worry about in the sense where we see more and more persecution against what the Bible says about these subjects. For example, I actually was teaching on it in Sunday school. We transmitted our. Services. But I wanted to get into some detail with our church and Sunday school, and I said, don’t transmit this right now. Put it like unlisted, just for people that have our link, because we’re still a little bit afraid to transmit that out because we’re sure that they’re going to come after us soon. Right?

Do you have freedom of speech in Brazil like we have? Not really. Okay. The United States is the only one that supposedly has freedom of speech in its Constitution and everything. Brazil, we have very little freedom of speech. Practically. Usually people leave you alone, but if you say things publicly on the Internet or if someone decides to come after you we don’t have like, the Bill of Rights and stuff like that here. So no, it’s not. The United States was the only country, basically, that was supposed to have freedom of speech already in the Constitution like that. But Brazil doesn’t. Right. And it’s still a country that allows you to preach. Thankfully, when my parents came to Brazil, it’s interesting how the Lord does things, because Brazil was actually a military dictatorship when we came, but they were conservative. And because the military took over the country. Because the Communists were going to take over the country at the time the people came out in the streets at that time, it was actually in the Constitution. If a certain amount of the country came out and asked for the military to help them, they would. It was in the Constitution. Oh, wow. So people came out banging on pans families and everything, asking they didn’t want Communism to take over, which was taken over a lot of South America at the time, which is taking over now again, too. Brazil is the only country that’s not communist right this moment. Alumni just got a Communist president. So the military took over for how many years was that? 20 years. But they were actually conservative in the sense where they allowed missionaries to come in. They even welcomed missionaries for a long time. Brazilians were a little bit suspicious that missionaries were with the FBI or something because they were actually encouraged to come with the military, and they actually saved Brazil from you know what? It’s never good a dictatorship, but in the sense for the Gospel is a good thing because they allowed missionary to come in and the Gospel to be preached. Then Brazil went very left. It’s still very left. All the institutions are very left, very socialist, communist. Our Supreme Court is taken over by crazed dictators. Our president, believe it or not, right now in Brazil is conservative. But it’s a battle, and this year our elections. So if the Lord brings that to your mind, that you would pray for that because they hate him. I mean, the left hates them. Sure. So he tries to fight for our freedom.

We have families in our church here that home school, their children for example. But here in Brazil, they’ll take your children away from you. You can’t do that. Your children belong to the state. But our president actually is trying to defend them, trying to fight for them. He’s against, basically Congress and against the Supreme Court. And the Supreme Court just does whatever they want. They’re like running the country. So we have that battle. Head okay, going back to the question, of course, first of all, we have to make sure we save the next generation, right? That’s one thing that saddens us even as we visit churches and everything, to see that we’re losing our next generation. And so that’s very scary when we don’t see our children or our grandchildren serve the Lord. I thank the Lord for my family, my dad and mom, and they raised five of us children. I have three sisters and a brother, and we’re all saved and we’re all served the Lord, all involved in the ministry, then all the grandchildren, all of them are saved and served the Lord. So that’s wonderful blessing our family has and our church people, too. That was one thing we had as one of our main objectives, is to make sure that they were trained, that they were prepared to enter the world. In Brazil. We don’t have Christian colleges. We have Bible institutes, we have a Bible institute. But as far as Christian colleges for training and everything, we’ve had dozens of our young people, a lot of our young people, I’d have to count how many that went to college. Secular colleges in Brazil got through four or five years of college, giving a good testimony, living separated for the Lord, being a witness, and they made it. And they actually won people to the Lord in college. So it can be done, but you have to prepare them. They have to be ready. You hear about these young people that go to college and lose their faith while there was something defective in their faith there, because it can be done. And we’ve seen it. Actually, I don’t think we had any of our young people that went to college that lost their faith or anything like that. So we have to train our next generations, our children. Yeah, definitely. Is there anything the church in the US. Is doing that makes your task in Brazil a little bit more difficult? That’s a lot of credit, but nothing that comes to mind. Just stay strong because we depend on the churches in the States for our support, for prayers, to hold the rope. And of course, very sad when you hear churches that are just either closing or just dwindling. So that’s one thing. Just make sure that the churches there stay strong and keep on keeping on, because we depend on you here. Yes, definitely. Yes.

All right, you’re listening to the Removing Barrett’s podcast. We’re sitting down with Missionary Tim Barrett to Brazil. We’ll be right back.

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All right, Missionary Tim, let’s go into a little bit of fun section. Find out some of your favorites. What is your favorite scripture verse? My life verse is Romans twelve one. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your body a living sacrifice wholly acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service amounts, but I cope by shonda.

What is your favorite biblical historical account? We say it like that because some people call it what’s your favorite Bible Story? And the word story has a connotation like it’s a myth or it’s not true or it’s just children’s time. But we believe that every single word in the scriptures are true and that historical events actually happened. And so we call it a biblical historical account. Which one is your favorite? I think I would say the story of Joseph. When I start reading my Bible, if I’m reading it through during the year, every time I start that story, I want to read it till the end. It’s a beautiful story, but he comes up to his brothers and says, I am Joseph. It just reminds you of everything is going to be all right at the end. That a lot of things that the devil means for evil, God has for good. It’s the Romans 8:28 of the Old Testament and it’s just a beautiful story. When he presents themselves to his brothers, you just think about Jesus coming one day and saying he’s the Lord and everyone recognizing that. So it kind of like wraps up the whole story. Right? I love that story of Joseph. Yeah, that’s one of my favorites as well. I remember as a teenager I listened to a series of messages. I wish I still have a copy of those actually. And the title of the series was living a Functional Life in a Dysfunctional World. And he went through the life of Joseph, and those were very instrumental in my teenage life. Definitely sounds like an interesting series. Yes. If you ever find it, send it to me. Yes, I will.

What is the most convicting scripture passage to you? Well, I was actually preaching a series on the minor prophets these days. And then in Malachi when God said to the people of Israel, he said, wherein have we despised thy name? He said, Ye offered polluted bread upon my altar. And then he says in verse eight, ye offer blind for the sacrifice, is it not evil? And if you offer the lame and sick, is it not evil? Offer it now unto thy governor. Will he be pleased with me? I heard a message once from a pastor in the States, and he was saying he gave the title of the message, the worst Sin a Christian can commit. He did that to call our attention and at night he was going to preach that message. Your worst sin a Christian can commit. And it was to not give your best to the Lord. He deserves all our service. Like my favorite verse, a reasonable service, a living sacrifice. And when we don’t give our best to the Lord, so I constantly think about that what dishonor to the Lord? It is what we don’t give our all, but we don’t give the best to Him. Just like the people of Israel giving lame sacrifice that we can do the same thing, actually give him second place in our lives or not dedicate like we should, not putting him first in everything in our life. That’s one thing that I think of a lot. Whatever thy hand finds it to do it with all thy might unto the Lord. I’m convicted right now.

What is the most comforting Scripture passage of Scripture verse to you? Without a doubt, most comforting is my grace is sufficient for the second Corinthians. Right. Chapter twelve. And God’s grace truly is sufficient. I don’t know if you knew about all our story, but last year in 2020 to 21, we all got that thing that’s going around, that virus has been around. And dad got very sick and he was 55 days in the hospital. Oh, wow. And he passed away in January of last year. Oh, sorry to hear. Yes. So I would definitely say that was the biggest trial. We’ve had battles and all kinds of things happen to us, but through the years, being robbed by gunpoint or different sadnesses in our lives, but without a doubt, I would say that was the most difficult trial of my life. But once again, God’s grace, it’s just amazing how carried you through. We had people watching us and looking in and trying to see how we were going to get through that. And because he was a very strong figure for our whole ministry here. The Barretts in Brazil now are over. Like 24 Barretts in Brazil. My are the patriarchs, our ministries here, everybody sees dad, and mom is like parent, grandparent figure. Even our church people are different churches here. And so people were observing us and a lot of resentments came to me after people in our church and other churches that were actually watching in. And they said that they actually learn how to go through this kind of trial and how to grieve by observing us. And I always say God’s grace is sufficient. He can help you through anything. And so without a doubt, that’s the most comforting verse for me, that he give us more grace. There’s Him that says, he gave us more grace than is true. And it’s amazing how he can help you get through anything you have to in life. And of course, you trust that it’s his will. He has a purpose and everything. We realize that this is not our home. We’re all just pilgrims and strangers going through here. We’re preparing for eternity. So you have to always keep that as your focus, and then we can get through anything with the Lord’s help and grace.

Yes, this is a path of the favorite, but how is it like to be living such a life that so much folks are looking to you to be, quite honestly, Christ representative or Christ representation to so many people? For me, it might be my family, my boys, but I don’t know how much people are looking at me to say, hey, he’s the figure of the Christian life to me. But you and your family are in that spotlight, and if you slip, you probably put in a lot of people down with you. What is it like to be in that spotlight? Well, first of all, we don’t want to slip. Sometimes missionary kids or pastors kids, they get a little bit bitter about it, let’s say. Why do people look to me? Why do I have to be an example? But our parents just tried to teach us, listen, we’re all supposed to be examples, not just pastors kids. Everyone’s supposed to be an example of believers. And without a doubt, as leaders in the ministry, people do look to you and everything, but we just sort of took it as part of the Christian life. And it doesn’t matter that your pastor’s son or not, you’re just a nice Christian family serving the Lord of the church. You also need to be an example. People look at your lives. Everyone’s lives influenced and touch other people’s lives. Right? So I never really saw that as something negative. I just saw it as something that we were caught on to do. No, one day we can select Paul. Follow me as I follow Christ. Amen. Yes, true. But people do look at you, which they should, like you said. Like Paul said. So I want to make sure we don’t trip and we look to the Lord, and we’re an example and everything.

All right, what is your favorite hymn of the fate? That was a tough one. There’s so many, but my dad’s favorite, I think it’s probably one of my favorites, too, is Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus just to take Him by His Word. I love the melody and just the message too. And to take Him at his words is one of my favorites, for sure. We’re in an interesting project right now. I talked about translation our hymn books. Here we have a lot of these hymns of the faith but I suspect that when the first missionaries came to Brazil in the early 1900s maybe, and around there they started translating songs. But Brazil is very unreached. A lot of the hymns of the faith in Portuguese, which is the language that I actually know that he was even better in a lot of them were translated they had different themes, different themes of the Christian life. But they were all translated with a salvation theme, which is good. You need salvation songs. But it was almost like all evangelistic. But for example, that one I come to the garden. How to go? I come to the garden or I go to the garden alone. I come to the garden alone. I come to the garden alone. It’s talking about fellowship, right, with the Lord. And he walks with me and he talks with me in Portuguese and he saved me and he gave his life for me, which is good. But you don’t want all the songs to be just salvation songs because you want to teach other doctrine, other truths. So my sister translates a lot of songs. She’s a good translator and she translates a lot of Contata. Every year our main church here in Junji sings Christmas Kintata and she translates the whole kintata, all the songs, all the music, everything. And then now she and another missionary, they kind of decided to work on this together. They’re retranslating some of the songs faithful to the original message. Once she got recently, she translated the song Safe in the Arms of Jesus and Portuguese. The title of the song in Portuguese is Saved by Jesus. That’s good. But the Safe in the Arms of Jesus had sort of a different theme about insurance and all that. So she’s translating some hymns of the faith with the original message, which is a long project, but interesting.

Who would you say is your favorite giant of the faith from the Scriptures? As a missionary, I should probably say the Apostle Paul. He’s always an inspiration. But I think I’ll say Timothy because he, I guess, identified with him. My name is Timothy. Right. He was saved at an early age, which is actually a very good testimony to have. Sometimes when you’re saved young, you hear other people give me their salvation testimony and oh, I was drunk in the streets, I killed so many people and all that. And you say, what testimony do I have? And one day a pastor told me, no, yours is the best testimony to have. Someone that from an early age was saved and gave their lives to the Lord. So I identified with Timothy and also he took over important ministries that his father and the faith had started. And sometimes he was afraid, sometimes he was timid about it and he had to be encouraged to not be fearful. I kind of identified with that. I have a huge legacy that was entrusted to me. The ministries here so I can identify with that. If he was sometimes a little shy and timid in the beginning, history or tradition says that he was there, I think when he was 90, some in Ephesus, he died at martyr, faithfully preaching. So he’s a good example. Yeah, it’s amazing you said that, because my pastor that I grew up on, back in the Caribbean, he would say something very similar to that as well. He used to say that a lot of times. You say folks want to test the money. They want to be able to talk about the fault of the world that the law saved them from. But he said that if you get saved at a young age and you grew up in a Christian home and you stay with the fate, that is more powerful testimony than the other person, because your tendency is to go towards the world. But if the Lord kept you from all that, that is more powerful testimony, then that’s how we want our children to grow up. Right? And if you look at Jesus as our example, he just grew in favor with God and men. I’m sure that that’s God’s plan and that’s what God would prefer in our lives and families and our children’s lives. I think it was Jeremiah that’s learned, not the way I’ve done Godly. Yes. Amen. All right.

What would you say are some of the biggest barriers to the people of Brazil from receiving the gospel? We touched on that a little bit in the beginning, but it’s just to make sure that you’re really presenting the gospel clearly. When you study culture, for example, you study semantics, you have to make sure you’re speaking the same language. Here’s an example with Catholics. This man, we were waiting too, he told us, no, we received Christ. I received Christ as my savior. What he meant was they received Christ in the Mass every Sunday morning. Sometimes if you don’t understand the culture, even the religions you’re dealing with, you could be thinking that, wow, I’m speaking to all these Christians and all these saved people and oh, so many people got saved. But did they really understand the gospel? Did they understand their condition before God as sinners? Did they understand that it’s not by works of righteousness which we have done? They truly understand that. That’s one thing. You have to be very careful the way you present the gospel here and how people are understanding it, because they’re filtering it through their confusion. And of course, like we said, we deal with everything. Everything you deal with in the States, we deal with the same thing. So don’t think I’m going to go to another country like Brazil or something. I don’t have to contend with atheism and all these anti God philosophies and everything. We have the same things here, too, and the false religions and the cults, but especially with Catholicism. And like I said, sometimes we want to see results right away. We ask our people several times in our church who was saved the first time they heard the gospel? No one. They have to hear it and they have to hear it, and they have to hear it. So that’s one thing. You have to plant the seed and you have to go back and water it. Give the gospel again, it’s the labor, it’s a work. It’s amazing how I don’t think anyone raised their hands, say they got saved the first time they heard the gospel. So that’s something to keep in mind, to be patient and keep on so and keep on witnessing and explaining and explaining.

That’s one of the things I was going to ask you, Brother Tim. I was going to ask you how those barriers could be removed in people’s lives. And it sounds like you’re saying, just keep at it, keep sharing the gospel with them, make sure they understand it and keep persevering in the work. The scriptures say, be not weary. Right. Don’t get tired of doing the right thing. So just to bring this entire interview to, let’s say, a point and share the gospel with our audience and share the Gospel as though you were sharing it with someone in Sao Paulo that you’re talking to, how can those barriers be removed? Sure. Well, first of all, we have to know, admit, confess that we’re all sinners and all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. So that’s one thing. A lot of times today, people, their conscience has become Calcutta, the Portuguese trying to come out here, tears. And a lot of times you have to then bring out the law and show them that people know the Ten Commandments. We’ve broken all of them. We’ve broken all the commandments in thought and deeds and actions and everything. And he’s going to judge, he’s going to judge our thoughts. Even. We live in a virtual world today, and people think they can get away with virtual things. Jesus said, a man thinks in his heart, God sees and he’s going to judge all that, even the thoughts. If you look at a woman in less stuff after her, you commit adultery in your heart and all that. That’s one thing we all have to admit. Sometimes I’ll say to someone here, most people, they think they’re good enough, they’ll get there. And I said, you think you’re a good person? And you could very quickly tell them if they at least have respect for Jesus, you can show them that. He said, no, there’s none. He said, there’s only one good that is God. Right. So they have to admit that either they’re right or Jesus is right. They’re not both right. So we’re all sinners and we all need to come before God in repentance, realizing that we’re lost, that we need a savior. And that’s one thing we have to emphasize. Here in Brazil, there was an ex Catholic priest who was saved, and he always say this. I asked him, what did the Lord Jesus do for sinners? He came to save sinners, right? He didn’t come to save just people, righteous people. He came to save sinners. So the question is, what did Jesus do for sinners? And that’s a question I asked a young man last Saturday. Unfortunately, he didn’t know. I really, truly don’t know. But a lot of people do know, even around here. They’ll say, Well, he died on the cross. I said, Why did he die on the cross? For our sins. So what does that mean? What does that mean? He died for our sins? That means that was the only way, the only way that adjust and holy God could save us. The Bible says, yes, he’s a God of love, but he can’t save us just because he loves us, because he’s also a just and a holy God that judges sin. And he said that the soul that sin shall die. So he’s a good judge. He can’t just swipe your sins under the rug and I will forget about it. Sin has to be judged. So that’s where he showed his love. The Bible says God commended his love toward us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

But then, especially in Brazil, and people that heard the Gospel, but not warped in the Gospel, I say, what were the last words Jesus said on the cross before he died? Unfortunately, most people don’t know what he said, but he said, It is finished. It is finished. So there’s nothing else that we can do to save ourselves. We’re condemned. Even if we help someone cross the street or I give money to the poor, whatever, it doesn’t matter if you’re a condemned criminal, you can help as many people as you want across the street. You’re still condemned criminal. You’re still going to go to jail in this case, you’re going to go to hell. Because that’s the wages of sin the Bible says is death, eternal separation from God and hell. That’s our wages. That’s what we deserve for our sin, which is against the holy, eternal God. So he died for us. What does that mean when he said, It is finished? That means he paid everything. The Lord Jesus Christ. He took our place on the cross. The first Adam sinned, and then because of that, we all followed suit. We’re all sinners, but Christ is the second Adam, the second man. God became flesh, came here, he lived a perfect life that we could never live. And so he could represent us, represent the human race on the cross. The Bible says he took our sins upon Himself on the cross, and then he paid the fine that we deserve. And that’s what he said. It is finished. It’s actually a term, like Portuguese, like an accountant term, meaning that he paid it in full. There’s nothing else to pay. And that’s one thing we try to emphasize here in Brazil, people that are falling religion, we say, listen, you have to trust Christ. This priest that was saved, he was an ex priest. He said you have to accept the Lord as your only and sufficient savior, not Jesus in something else. Jesus in my good works and Jesus in my church or Jesus in my good whatever. No, it’s only Jesus. The Bahamas said, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Amen. And so you have to trust the Lord Jesus as your only, like we say here time and time again, as your only and sufficient savior. I think in English will say one and only, your only and sufficient savior. It’s Christ and nothing else. Amen.

Missionary Tim, thank you so much for joining us on the Removing Barriers podcast. Thank you so much for having me. I enjoyed it. Thank you very much.

Thank you for listening. To get a hold of us, to support this podcast or to learn more about removing barriers, go to removingbarriers.net. This has been the removing barriers. Podcast. We attempted to remove barriers so that we all can have a clear view of the cross.