by Peter Fitch

It all started with a phone call to someone else. I believe now that it was a divine connection. Beth Wood, Canadian Vineyard missionary to Brazil and Angola - and house-sitter for the person I was looking for - answered the phone. We had a chat and I remember being impressed. After some further interaction she visited our church, St. Croix Vineyard in St. Stephen, New Brunswick, and I invited her to teach one of my classes at St. Stephen’s University. She also gave a chapel message about bringing hope to the poor. By the time her visit was ended, I was convinced that I had run into a unique person with a tremendous amount of mission knowledge and experience. As she described her work over the past 7 or 8 years, I felt that my paradigm of missions was being stretched and expanded. Now, after working through the translation of her book about ways of caring for the poor (it has just been released in Portuguese in Brazil), and her subsequent visit to St. Stephen as she took part in a university program, I am sure of it. Beth is a rare person with a ground-breaking perspective and the gift-set to make the things she talks about come into being.

On her last visit, we had her teach a one-day workshop called Transforming Communities: God’s Heart for the Poor. The content was excellent, and so was the team-building exercise she had us do. She longs for transformation that is both natural and supernatural, and she considers it a breakthrough of the Kingdom of God when the poor receive their daily bread. It is a touch of the “not yet” heavenly banquet, just as healing is a touch of the life of the New Jerusalem. One of her convictions is that we can see how the Kingdom is advancing in an area by the quality of that society’s interaction with the poor. This may include, but is certainly not limited to, the giving of stuff. Mostly, she’s about discovering the root thoughts and behaviours that have resulted in bondage and oppression. Beliefs and values need to be challenged and changed in order to lead people into healthier living.

Beth also taught about the meaning of various Hebrew words for “poor”. There are the ani, who are broken because of oppression and injustice. They are to be treated differently than the ebyon who are destitute and needy and the dal who are perpetually weak and fragile. Someone who is ani doesn’t need a handout; he or she needs justice to be done. Life may not go forward again for an ani until someone acknowledges that all of the poverty and debilitating circumstances followed improper decisions by people who misused power. (In Canada this might relate to some of the Aboriginal issues.)

The team-building exercise involved groups being placed before piles of junk-like material. We were challenged to create something in 10 minutes without speaking to each other. The miracle is that each group was successful. Beth said this is the reason we can go with hope to the poorest communities in the world: every human is made in the image of God and has the capacity to create. We don’t go with all the answers; we go to free the imagination. As we help people step away from the lies of their culture and connect them with Truth, we make it easier for them to hear God calling them into creative solutions in their own context.

From talks with her, I know that she has done this in two different ways. First, she has gone to many communities in Brazil and watched, listened and prayed to try and understand the blockages to Kingdom advancement. Then, when she thinks she has insight into the nature of the core problems, she has set her heart to pray for God’s practical solutions. In one town this meant challenging Christians to lead the way in recycling garbage; in another, it meant steering a church to build a park for family activities. In both of these cases, the action that grew out of prophetic intercession and planning resulted in a healthier mindset in the people and ultimately produced a better quality of life in the community. Many positive things began to happen, including the planting of new churches.

Second, she has helped to raise a missions awareness and compassion among the Brazilian people for the plight of war-torn Angola. Partly because of the historic relationship (more than 3 million Angolan slaves were brought to Brazil), and partly because of the shared language (Portuguese), there is a strong connection between these countries. Each year for 4 years, Beth organized small teams of Brazilian Christian professionals and took them to Angola to bring training and discipleship. This was called “Projeto Equipar” (Project Equip), and once again the long-term goal was to seek to influence the local worldview. She herself stayed for 2 to 3 months at a time and taught about AIDS and public health and agriculture and art. She also taught women practical skills so that they could make things and earn both income and self-respect. This led to the establishment of a girls’ jewelry cooperative which, in turn, provided funds for urban youth ministry. Young Angolans have been trained to minister and some have gone to unreached people groups within their land.

Beth’s main work in Brazil, the place that she considers home, has been carried out under the prophetic arm of a large independent church. However, she has also worked among many other kinds of churches, including those from the Vineyard movement. She has helped churches in some areas realize the need to work together on social programs. The result has been increased synergy and the planting of even more churches. By challenging churches to think Christianly instead of culturally, she has helped many people understand God’s heart for the poor. She says, “You know, if the church does not disciple the culture, the culture will disciple the church.” One example of this is the Brazilian separation of rich and poor. Churches, too, will form this way unless the Gospel is understood.

This radical focus on the Father’s heart for the poor, along with her solid belief that “everyone gets to play” in ministry (quite a challenging view for many in South America), has helped to establish some key Vineyard values throughout various parts of the Brazilian church. She has encouraged Christians doing social projects to make sure that churches are planted in the communities that they are working with, and she has encouraged people already in churches to get more and more involved in social aspects of ministry. The result in some areas is that large numbers of people are coming to Christ, while at the same time their communities are being transformed into more peaceful and prosperous places. As she explains, “People are starting to rise up and take hold of their role as stewards of the creation.”
Beth is a great example of a “radical middle” approach to mission work. She has a Masters Degree in Social Work that helps to provide the platform for her prophetic intercessory work. I believe that she was carefully prepared by God for the work that she does. She will soon be returning to Brazil after an extended stay in Canada. She can’t wait.

My prayer is that when she leaves she will have a richer base of support in this country than she has in the past. She was originally sent out by Toronto Downtown Vineyard, but she really needs a level of networking that exceeds what one church can provide. She is looking for prayer partners from across the country. I see her as a hidden resource of great value, and I’m happy for this opportunity to present something of her thought and work to our Vineyard family in Canada.