Solar Update - June 2022

Solar Mission to Brazil

On April 11, 2022, Tim Brumfield and Bernie Yedor left Lubbock with their suitcases packed with Portuguese-language solar players to distribute in several Brazilian cities. Their first stop was a nationwide conference of preachers and other church leaders at a retreat site outside of Sao Paulo, where they met with Randy Short, Sunset graduate and long-time missionary in Recife, Brazil. The team provided over 150 solar players to leaders at the conference who had not received one in previous solar player distibutions. The team also gave solar players to church leaders in Campinas, Curitiba, and Fortaleza. There are dozens of exciting stories of how God is using those who have received solar players to convert the lost and grow the church in Brazil and Mozambique (a Portuguese-speaking nation in Africa).

Ana Valeria Sande is the Executive Director of Lar Mana Children’s Home, a ministry of Churches of Christ in Paulista, Brazil. The team was able to provide solar players for her through a connection with Randy Short. Sister Sande is using the solar players to teach God’s word to her staff and the children under her care.

Jose Salas became a Christian three years ago. In the past year, he has helped plant two Portuguese-speaking congregations in Mozambique. So far there have been 60 baptisms in those congregations. Jose will be using his solar player to continue his ministry of evangelism, church planting, and teaching new Christians.

Solar Mission to Dominican Republic & Haiti

On May 20, 2022, Truitt Adair, Doug Reeves, and Luis Melendez loaded 200 Creole Solar Players and 50 Spanish Players into large suitcases and departed for Santiago, Dominican Republic. The team was met at the airport by Berlot, a Haitian preacher with a large van. After some needed repairs to the van, the next stop was Puerto Plata, where they met Joe Worndle, a Sunset graduate and long-time missionary to Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Because of political turmoil and danger in Haiti, they could not enter the country. They agreed to meet a large group of Haitian preachers at the border crossing to give them Solar Players in the Creole Language. The Haitian preachers were not allowed to enter the Dominican Republic as planned but were stopped at the border area just after leaving Haiti. The team met with the Director of the Dominican Republic Immigration Office and asked if they could use their airconditioned lobby to meet with the Haitian preachers. They were granted permission and spent a couple of hours in a solar player distribution seminar under the official flag and seal of the Dominican Republic. They were even able to provide a player in Spanish for the director, who said that his mother had been praying he would return to his religious roots. The team also had an opportunity to meet with Haitian congregations in Puerto Plata and Santiago to distribute solar players. They discovered that there are over 1.5 million Haitians living in the Dominican Republic. Haitians Christians are evangelistic and have planted over 70 congregations in the Puerto Plata area, several of which have over 100 members, with elders and a preacher training school, using the Sunset curriculum. SIBI is planning another trip to Haiti later this summer.