by Beth Wood

My adventure began in 1993 in Toronto when God began to make it clear that my work for His Kingdom in the inner-city there was closing out and that I would soon be making a life-changing move. During day, weeks, and months seeking His direction a vision for Brazil started to take shape. What started to fill my heart was the knowledge that I was to go to Brazil where God wanted to use me in poor communities in such a way that His Kingdom would come to those communities and the next generation of children would not end up on the streets of Brazil.

I spent 7 years in Brazil and saw God planting His Body locally in “favelas”, in the Amazon, in the sertão desert, in big cities and in small towns. These local churches are praying and working to bring the fullness of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God and seeing God transform their communities. My small part in all of it was to train and act as a consultant to workers and churches active in this vision. I would teach on things like the heart of God for the poor, the role of the poor in the Kingdom of God, a participative model of ministry and community development, understanding the community God has called you to, hearing the voice of God for direction in ministry, spiritual warfare for community workers and worldview issues. We saw effective ministries rise up in local churches through our training work and I had the privilege of acting as consultant to several of these throughout the country on an ongoing basis.

I believe that this transformational vision of the local church is the key to breaking through the poverty, spirit of slavery, worldview lies and abuse of authority which have kept so many from reaching the fullness of the intentions of God for their lives. In 2003 some of the material I and my colleague Mauricio Cunha had developed was published by the Brazilian publishing house Ultimato under the title “O Reino Entre Nos” ( The Kingdom Among Us) . The book continues to circulate in Brazil and impact churches, ministries and missionary training programs.

In 1995, when I had been in Brazil just a few months, God birthed another vision on top of the first and thus began my involvement with the African nation of Angola. That was an incredible journey as we saw God raise up Brazilians to return to Angola bringing with them the joy they have found in Christ Jesus. I say “return” because the majority of Brazilians have Angolan blood somewhere way back in their families through the millions of Angolans who came to the country as slaves. The sense of kinship between the two peoples is great and we see God bringing restoration and healing to both sides of the ocean through this special relationship. “Projeto Equipar” was the name of the work I coordinated for a number of years, bringing Christian Brazilian professionals to work through training and discipleship on a short-term basis in Angola. During that time, the country was still engaged in a civil war which resulted in general chaos. Thankfully the nation has moved on from that experience since then. We invested in a strategy of training and discipleship because we believed that Kingdom development in Angola and elsewhere is largely dependent on breaking down the lies which have held the people captive.

In 2002 I returned to Canada and I have been here ever since. After living and working in Niagara Falls in a maternity home for teenage mothers, I moved to Halifax in the fall of 2006. After many years with my home base and home church in Toronto with the Downtown Toronto Vineyard, I am now part of the Halifax Metro Vineyard. I am involved with teaching and resourcing Vineyard churches in the Atlantic region as they discern what God has prepared for them among the needy in their communities. I also coordinate the work of the Developing Community Among the Poor development group for Vineyard Churches Canada as we work to see all members of Vineyard churches in Canada meaningfully engaged with the poor and all Vineyard churches meaningfully engaged with global poverty issues.

I hope that Brazil and Africa will be part of my future. There is a tentative plan for a trip to Brazil at the invitation of Vineyard-Brasil in the spring of 2007 for teaching and mentoring in a number of ministries there.