Chattering loudly, a group of university students steps into the Hangout.
They drop their backpacks and join the young adults lounging on couches and chairs arranged into an informal living room near the entrance. In the back, four people battle each other in a board game.
From her stance at the counter, missionary Erin Wawro draws the new arrivals into conversation and begins preparing their orders of coffee, cookies, and sandwiches.
At the Hangout, pour-over coffee is free. So is godly counsel.
Young adults often arrive searching for guidance on problems in their lives. Tonight, one was let go from his job and isn’t sure how to update his résumé. Another was betrayed by her boyfriend and wonders how to reverse a pattern of bad relationships.
“Some people come just to get a snack before class, but then the conversations grow and grow,” Erin says. “A large majority come because they want to feel at home.”
Erin opened the Hangout in 2015 to reach young adults in São Leopoldo, southern Brazil. Located across from the local university, the coffee and snack shop bears the tagline “a place to relax and connect”—and the group conversations, community atmosphere, and unconditional love shown by Erin and ABWE teammates continually draw people through its doors.
Without this personal connection, most of their clientele would reject biblical truth outright. This region of Brazil bears the distinction of being the most under-reached, and the younger, postmodern generations have rejected not only Brazil’s Catholic heritage but all formal systems of belief.
“They’re not against spirituality; they’d like to have things to live for,” Erin explains. “But they are very jaded by the Catholic Church, and they’ve seen so many prosperity gospel churches using people for monetary gain. So they have a very negative view of God.”
Breaking through these barriers can take years. To illustrate the challenges, Erin points to a bucket of seeds: imagine that each person needs 100 seeds of gospel truth before trusting Christ. Previous generations, like the “Billy Graham generation” in the US, were born with 50 seeds in their buckets: their families went to church on Sunday, they learned biblical principles in school, and the media portrayed some semblance of Christian values. Younger generations, however, are not only growing up without any seeds in their buckets, but their buckets have holes that prevent them from retaining the seeds they do encounter.
“God is using our ministry to close that hole and get 10, 15, or 20 seeds in their buckets,” Erin shares. “We just have to be committed and motivated to keep working, knowing that God is using this as part of their faith stories.”
The Bible in Real Life
Sometimes, those gospel seeds flourish into visible fruit.
“You’re the first Christian I’ve ever respected,” one man recently told Erin. Another texted Erin after he moved away: “Hey, I want to talk about God now.” He purchased a Bible and messages Erin about what he is learning as he reads it.
Carlos, a computer technology teacher at a local high school, first visited the Hangout at the invitation of one of his former students. A marriage crisis had left him longing for hope, and he passed many evenings at the Hangout talking with Erin and ABWE teammates Randy and Sarah Southwell.
“They were showing God’s love to me, speaking about Jesus, and it sparked an interest in me to learn more,” Carlos recounts. “I started to see in real life that the Bible was the truth, that salvation only comes through Jesus.”
“They were showing God’s love to me, speaking about Jesus, and it sparked an interest in me to learn more. I started to see in real life that the Bible was the truth, that salvation only comes through Jesus.”
Carlos
The gospel began to click together in his mind as he began an evangelistic Bible study with Randy and attended the Logos church plant associated with the Hangout. Eventually, Carlos placed his faith in Christ. He was baptized in the swimming pool at an ABWE ministry property while members of the church plant gathered around and rejoiced. Today, Carlos leads worship at Logos—and his witness has led one of his extended family members to Christ. He continues to share the gospel with his stepfather.
Carlos joins Erin and the ABWE team in praying that God will use gospel seeds planted in the Hangout for a spiritual harvest in southern Brazil.
“It all started because there were people that God sent here to Brazil,” he says. “I’m very thankful because if it wasn’t for missionaries like them that God used every day, I think I wouldn’t be here today.”
