4 Goals for the new Millennium

a) Thousands of new churches to be planted

b) Adoption of, and church planting among, the 139 Amerindian tribal groups still unreached

c) A focus on the hundreds of Brazilian towns and municipalities with less than 1% Evangelicals

d) Adoption of 173 unreached peoples in other lands

5 Spiritism is a dynamic force for evil in Brazil

6 The challenge of the less evangelized peoples

a) The squalid favelas

b) The northeast, which is poor and underdeveloped and also has Brazil's lowest percentage of Evangelicals

c) The Amazon basin, of global importance because of its oxygen-generating forests and huge biodiversity, is also spiritually needy

d) The cities

e) The Japanese

f) The 180,000 Chinese who live largely in São Paulo

7 The under-18s are over 50% of the population

a) Children in crisis

b) Young people who face many pressures – especially in university

c) Appropriate ministry for children and young people in the churches

8 The indigenous Amerindians, as elsewhere in the Americas, have had a long history of prejudice, oppression, massacres and exploitation

a) A change in attitude on the part of Brazilians

b) A reversal of restrictions on mission work among them

c) Christian agencies ministering to them

d) Bible translation

e) The unreached. About 40 small tribal groups totalling around 5,000 people have yet to be contacted with the gospel

f) The Yanomami with some 15,000 people straddle the Brazil-Venezuela border

g) The Guarani on the Paraguay border

Peoples

European 53.5%; Mixed race 34.4%; African 11%; Asian 1%; Amerindian 0.14%.

Literacy 83%. Official language Portuguese. All living languages 195. Languages with Scriptures 1Bi 40NT 31por 55w.i.p.

Economy

Vast economic potential in the developing hinterland of the north and west. Unemployment 6%. HDI 0.739; 79^th/174. Public debt 11% of GNP. Income/person $4,400 (15% of USA).

Politics

Independent from Portugal in 1822 as a kingdom, it became a federal republic in 1889.

Religion

Freedom of religion and separation of Church and state.

Churches in Brazil

Missionaries from Brazil

4,754 in 132 agencies to 100 countries

Missionaries to Brazil

3,100 in 205 agencies from 41 countries

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Geography

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Area 8,511,965 sq.km. One half of the land surface and population of South America.

Population (2000) 170,115,463 +1.32%AGR

Capital Brasilia 1,985,000.

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