Mission Partner Update - The Costas

NEWSLETTER OF THE COSTA FAMILY | MAY 2025

Bruno, Camila, and Mariana.
Dear American family in Christ, greetings from Brazil! We praise God for the privilege of serving Him alongside you, as our partners, on reaching so many with the Good News!

Please, see below some of what God has been doing here!

SCHOOLS

God continues giving us the opportunity to preach the Gospel in the public schools! Elementary, middle, and high school students have been hearing the Message of the Cross, and their teachers as well.

After the meetings, it is common for students/teachers to come from the crowd to thank our team and share their experience about the message that they have just heard. It is always very encouraging to us, as we can see how the Word spoke to them strongly. We cannot imagine the context that each one of those students is facing. In one school where we preached, a teacher mentioned to me, Bruno, that many students in that region just go to school to have food (the public schools of Brazil give free food to the students). It broke our hearts.

In this same school, while one of our team members was preaching, one middle school student sat next me, and I started to talk to him. He opened his heart. He mentioned many challenges he had with his father. He was very hurt emotionally. Therefore, we talked about the great Heavenly Father! He received the Word very well! When the meeting finished, and the students were going back to the classroom, his teacher saw how we were having a very good conversation, and she let him stay (by her initiative) a little bit more (probably she knew the problems this boy was facing). At the end, we hugged each other, and I really believe that God spoke to him deeply in that day.

Years ago, while preaching to elementary school students, their teacher said to me that she was about their age when a missionary came to her school to share the Gospel. She said that she gave her life to Jesus on that day, and she has “never looked behind”! She shared it with me very touched, knowing that the same thing that happened to her could be happening with her students at that moment. We  can never measure the reach of the Gospel when it is proclaimed since “it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16)!

WP BRAZIL MISSION CONTROL PROJECT

The Mission Control Project is going on! As we have been sharing, it will represent a tremendous step to facilitate and improve our work. As the ministry is growing in Brazil and we are developing many projects, the place where the ministry is based today (our home) is becoming smaller. The Be Amazing growth has been another thing that makes the need of a mission base bigger. It will help a lot in the management of our ministry and in the development of our projects. See the brochure attached to this newsletter to find out more details about it.

Thank you very much for each one of you who has already contributed – may God bless you very much! Please, let us know if you have any questions concerning it! We trust the Lord for a miracle to do it. Please, pray with us for the provision of this project.

IBERO-AMERICAN MISSIONARY CONGRESS

The Ibero-American Missionary Congress happens every 10 years, and its fifth edition has just happened in Panama during the days of April 22-25, 2025. For the first time, Camila and I had the chance to participate, representing WP Brazil and Be amazing. It was a great time of encouragement, networking, and fellowship. We thank the Lord for that opportunity!

WITH SOME MISSIONARY FRIENDS!

COMIBAM (the organization that makes this Congress) is an alliance of national mission groups or networks from twenty-five countries in Ibero-America, which includes Latin American countries, Spain, Portugal, and also includes Hispanic communities in the USA and Canada. It functions as a space for sharing information and promoting collaboration among the missionary movements that are part of it, as well as between churches, mission organizations, and the missionaries themselves. In addition, it promotes and facilitates contact and practical opportunities for working in cooperation with missionary networks and organizations from other regions of the world.

BE AMAZING BRAZIL

Camila and the Be Amazing team began working on new projects! In February, they started their podcast in which they are going to make two new episodes per month. They will work with themes for women’s spiritual formation.

In March, they had their first national retreat with the Be Amazing regional leaders, where they had women from all over the country for three days for a Bible study. They had the privilege to have Traci Martin, one of the authors of the Be Amazing Book, at this retreat as well. In this event, they also celebrated a great surprise that we just earned: The Be Amazing book in Portuguese became Best-seller in Bible study for women – praise the Lord! It is amazing to see how many thousands of women have been blessed by this material.

A NEW PHASE FOR BE AMAZING BRAZIL

In the last five years, Camila has been praying for an opportunity to disciple youth girls, and God has answered this prayer! This new project of Be Amazing is called Be Free. In March, they started their first youth discipleship group! It was an unforgettable event! Their meetings take place twice monthly. While this project is going on, parallel to it, they are developing a discipleship book for this age range. The name Be Free comes from the perspective of showing young girls the true meaning of being free according to God’s Word. Please, be praying for this new project, for the working team, and for wisdom in all challenges they are going to have since we know it goes against what the world has been teaching strongly everywhere through schools, universities, and entertainment.

 
AMERICAN TEAM

We have an American team coming in June, from Fellowship Bible Church, led by Debi Tuner! It is going to be a trip for the whole family, The Legacy Trip! We are going to work in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. For years, it was the itinerary of the American teams in Brazil. We are so excited, expecting great days of ministry! Please, pray for a fruitful trip!
 
FAMILY PRAYER REQUESTS

 Since November, when Camila returned from Africa, she has been facing many health problems - strong blood pressure variations and fainting very frequently. The doctors said that she is in a process of inflammation in her body as the beginning of a burnout. She istaking some precautions, doing a lot of tests, and taking medications. Please, be praying for her!

Mariana is finishing high school. Please, pray for her so that she will understand what God wants her to do this next year after graduating. She has been praying a lot about it.