Name:
True Hawkins
Age: 63
Spouse:
Diana Hawkins
Age: 63
Mission Field: Brazil
Years of Service: 38
Home Church: Tabernacle Baptist Church
Arlington, Texas
Missions Agency: Independent Baptist Fellowship International
Fort Worth, Texas
Our Missionary for 29 years
Way-Mary Project This is the report on the second trip into the “Way-Mary” reserve made from June 4th-10th, 2018. The names and places have been changed or omitted due to the sensitive nature of this mission endeavor. There are thirty-nine villages in this reserve, with an estimated population of more than two thousand adults. Five men made up the evangelistic team, among them Dorinelle, one of our graduates. The men spent the days travelling on the river and were allowed to visit only three of the villages. During this time, they shared the gospel thru interpretation and gave out pieces of cloth to each family they evangelized; we purchased the cloth for them to make clothes, as these are in short supply, and this was the main reason they were able to make the visits. Our next “gifts” will be plastic buckets and other useful household items. They were hosted by Biano, a chief that is friendly and open to the gospel. They stayed in his “maloca” (a large round palm frond house where all the villagers sleep) and were under his protection and care until June 9th, when he told them to go, as their lives were in danger. Another chief named Bari, the son of Manacuaka, the famed Way-Mary “white man killer”, is very unfriendly, and threatened the team, saying they could not stay any longer, neither visit any more villages. He claims this tribe does not want the gospel and would kill them if they remained. The adjacent area and reserve is being evangelized by Manituá (Money-chew-waa), a Wai-Wai believer who came from Guyana forty years ago. He is now seventy years old and is trying to reach a few of the Way-Mary and he has seen some from the Atree tribemen believe the gospel. His health is failing, and he has been barred from evangelizing any further upriver. He was very glad the team made the visit and was overjoyed to know there were other believers interested in winning these people. Due to persecution, Varco, the missionary sent by the Wai-Wai had to move his family out of the area and go downriver and hack a new settlement out of the jungle and start his own village. He is in a strategic area, and he has a project; evangelize, baptize believers, and build a church. He saw what the Wai-Wai church at Mapuera has done, so he wants his village to be a Christian community likewise, from which he plans to reach all the villages in his area. Please pray for this project, and for Varco and his plans. Another visit is planned for December 2018, with a bigger team and more recourses. This is a very encouraging example of cross-tribal evangelism, and we are excited about the prospects. Thank you for all your prayers and support.