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Project Missionaries to Expand Mission Effort
CHICAGO, IL (July 21, 2005) - The mission field of the Evangelical Covenant
Church will expand in the next year as project missionaries begin new
work in places where the denomination has not had a presence.
Wainer and Magui Guimaraes will return to Wainer's home nation of
Brazil, while Leonid and Leanna Regheta are traveling to St. Petersburg,
Russia, to help coordinate mission activities and make connections with
other Christian churches. Work in each field will begin as financial
support is raised.
The Guimaraeses will work in several areas of Brazil, says Wainer (top
photo). In Rio de Janeiro they will bring together a group of 20 people
who have expressed an interest in starting a church. Some are "old
friends" who have brought in their friends. "They already are talking
and inviting people for when we get there," the family notes.
In Sao Paulo, a city of more than 10 million people, they will meet with
the founding pastor of a 100-member congregation that has learned of the
Covenant, which they believe may be part of the larger family God is
calling them to join, Wainer says.
The couple also will meet on a bimonthly basis with two doctors in
Curitiba, a city of 1.6 million residents, to determine how God may be
leading them. Ken Lottis, a member of the Mercer Island Covenant Church
in Mercer Island, Washington, served as a member of the Navigators in
Curitiba and will help in the process.
"The Covenant is not parachuting us into Brazil, but is sending us to
join and work with a group of people who have prayed to team up with a
group, organization or vision like God gave us," Wainer says. The couple
began conversations with the Department of World Mission in 1993, but
Project Brazil began in earnest three years ago, Wainer says.
"We believe that God is leading them to establish a holistic ministry of
evangelism, church planting and compassion ministries in this unique
Portuguese language country in South America," says Curt Peterson,
executive minister of Covenant World Mission.
Wainer has served Covenant churches in California for 20 years as well
as non-profit organizations. Prior to that, he was the director of
campus/student ministries for Campus Crusade for Christ in Porto,
Portugal. Other mission work included time in the Philippines and Spain.
Wainer earned several community development awards in California. In
2002, he was elected Citizen of the Year for Riverbank. In 2003, he
received the Public Servant Award for Stanislaus County. Magui is
originally from Portugal. She is an architect and worked with Wainer to
plant the Bridge Covenant Church in Riverbank.
Across the ocean, the Reghetas will help coordinate ministry in Russia
from St. Petersburg. "We've had Covenant churches doing ministry in
Russia, but they often didn't know what the other one was doing," says
Leonid (lower photo). "We want to help them work together."
Peterson says the lack of coordination has caused mission work to be
less effective than it could be, leading primarily to short-term
results. "The Covenant is seeking to strategically connect Covenanters
with Russian Christians to facilitate work together that can be
sustained by national leadership and support."
The couple plans to start a resource center that will offer training,
retreats and seminars to equip new leaders in the developing church. The
Reghetas also have begun initial contacts with members of the Russian
Orthodox Church, who at times have been hostile to the presence of
evangelicals. The contacts have proved promising, Leonid says.
During the threat of Communist persecution, both of Leonid's
grandfathers were pastors in the underground church of Ukraine, where he
was raised. He moved to the United States as a teenager. Leanna grew up
in the Ural mountain region of Russia. She and her sister dedicated
their lives to God in a local church planted by Leonid's uncle. A nurse,
Leanna feels the call to minister to orphans and needy children.
Leonid served with the Covenant in Magadan, Russia, where he hosted
those coming to teach at St. James College. He also was the financial
advisor for New Life Radio. He returned to the United States in 1999 to
study at North Park Theological Seminary. Leonid was chosen as one of
six seminary students in North America to be a recipient of the Sandy
Ford Graduate Fellowship. That led to him being mentored by Leighton
Ford and Lon Allison, director of the Billy Graham School of Evangelism
and former director or prayer and evangelism for the Covenant.
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