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Home  Good News Serving as missionaries to Brazil
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Serving as missionaries to Brazil |
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Written by Daniel Davidson
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Thursday, 18 October 2007 |
Greenwich family second of three generations to serve abroad in the mission field
Following in the footsteps of her parents, Bill and Jerri Ichter, Alana Greenwich and husband Ron have been happily serving as missionaries in Florianopolis, Brazil, for almost 24 years.
Alana was raised in Brazil but attended her senior year of high school at Minden High School where she graduated. Ron, on the other hand, was raised in a broken home in Arkansas. He grew up in the Arkansas Baptist Children's Home, which later sent him to college at Ouachita Baptist University, where he met his future wife, Alana.
 "Going through the things he had as a child he developed a passion for helping families," Alana said.
Serving as missionaries was in the back of both of their minds, but was not acted on until a visit to Brazil.
"We went to visit Alana's parents in Brazil and that is when we started looking into being missionaries," Ron said. "When I got there I realized that there are all kinds of professions serving as missionaries. Not just doctors and pastors. I felt very persuaded at that moment."
When he told Alana of his idea she was not hesitant at all to saying that she had the same idea.
"After talking to Alana she said she had been praying about just that," said Ron.
The support of family and friends was almost overwhelming for the couple.
"We had the support of everyone we talked to," Alana said. "Once we made our decisions things started moving very quickly.”
Arriving in Florianopolis, a city with a population of about 850,000, the couple started work at a community center, which is comparable to a vocational school. The center also provided daycare and pre-school.
The need for them in other places took them away from that neighborhood, but the two definitely left a better neighborhood than they had arrived in. That neighborhood today is no longer a low-income neighborhood.
They then continued working with social needs and starting communities in conjunction with Brazilian Christians building two drug rehabilitation centers, two orphanages and two community centers. They also helped start a pizza restaurant, which doubles as a school.
"We want to give them some type of job training," said Alana. "The neat thing about the pizza restaurant is that the profits from there go to one of the orphanages."
The two could not do what they are doing without the support of churches and fellow Christians.
"What makes us so valuable to them is that we are backed by Southern Baptist," Ron said. "We receive help from churches all over the United States and even as far away as Canada. Some have came as many as 20 times. First Baptist Church Minden has been four or five times and has helped to build two community centers. They are scheduled to go back in March."
Ron and Alana are now working in a "slum" area of town with a population of about 8,000 people, or 1,250 families. This area was developed by people that simply moved in and took over land that is not really theirs. They have built homes out of whatever scrap materials they could find. There is no running water and no sewage system.
"These people are below poverty level. They have no job skills," Ron said. "They pick up recyclable and take to sell at recycle centers for a living."
In the same area there are other programs that are starting up through a community center.
"Basically we work for a social service ministry with the purpose of spreading the gospel and building churches," Ron said.
Other works in that area include the drilling of water wells. They are being drilled by a group called "Pure Water, Pure Love," sponsored by WMV from all Baptist churches in the United States.
"They have no public water service," Ron said. "They depend on natural springs. Now they will have a constant source of water."
When returning South America from a trip North at the end of this month the couple will continue working in the same "slum" area and start in several other communities as well.
Ron and Alana have four children, three sons and one daughter, which were raised in Brazil and are now spread out around the world.
Their oldest son, Jason, has lived and served as a missionary in Italy for three years. His family does a lot of work with "Athletes for Christ," which mostly covers professional sports.
Their second oldest son, Jeremy, is a teacher at a mission school in Nairobi, Kenya.
Their daughter, Jana, is a social worker for Gladney Center for adoption in Ft. Worth, Texas.
And last but not least, their youngest son, Joel, is attending Fuller Theological Seminary obtaining a masters degree in transcultural studies in Pasadena, Calif.
"They have been helping in the mission field since they were young. They would be glad to serve as missionaries anywhere in the world."
 Alana and Ron Greenwich |
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