Becoming a Missionary Church …
OMS Mozambique missionary Aimee Howarth (center) visits
Brazil and OMS Brazil missionaries Mel and Fran Noah
in His Time
OMS Brazil missionary Micah
Routon (L) in Mozambique with two
fellow Brazilian church leaders and
two Mozambicans (center)
By Melvin R. Noah
Extended Missionary Service
OMS Mozambique missionary
Melvin Kelly (L), with Brazilian
pastor Jacó, showing plans
to minister together
One Mission Society
Paulo (L) and Jacó (R)
(Brazilian church leaders)
with Daniel and Juca (center,
Mozambican church leaders)
share at the CONIM convention.
An old Maranatha praise song entitled “In His Time,” along with
the phrase “planting seeds,” best describes the development
of missionary outreach by our OMS-related church in Brazil.
When OMS missionaries first began ministering in Brazil in 1950, their consuming
vision and passion was to reach Brazil with the Gospel and then train Brazilians to do
the same. Challenging Brazilians for mission outreach was not one of their original
goals. However, almost from the beginning, directly or indirectly through their lives,
seeds were planted for a future vision of cross-cultural missionary outreach.
A missionary teacher to an indigenous Brazilian tribe, a local Brazilian, and a Japanese
girl from Paraguay began planting seeds as part of the first student body of the Londrina
Bible Seminary (LBS) in 1953. Eventually, students came from various ethnic, racial,
and national backgrounds. When OMS organized a new church denomination in 1962,
after much prayer, the name “The Missionary Church” was unanimously chosen for
it. (Today, The Missionary Church is known as CONIM, the National Convention of
Missionary Churches.) In 1972, OMS missionaries and CONIM leaders participated
22