How the mission was born

Early 1980s

The call

In the early 1980s, Siegfried Zilz, a Brazilian pastor of German descent, was asked to translate from German for a pastor who had spent more than twenty years in prison in Russia for his faith in Jesus Christ. He had no idea it would change his life, and his family’s.

After meeting people who truly serve Jesus with all their strength, paying a high price, often with their own lives, he could not stay the same.

In September 1981, guided by the Open Doors mission, Siegfried went to Mozambique for the first time, carrying Bibles and relief to the brothers and sisters of the persecuted church, with no photographs, under a communist government. It was the first of many trips, risk and all: in 1982 he returned as team leader, and that same year he welcomed Brother Andrew, the founder of Open Doors, in Porto Alegre.

1984

Bridge of love

He traveled through Russia and Siberia, but part of his heart stayed in Cuba. In 1984, on his first trip there with a team of Brazilians, Siegfried began to build this union between the nations, or, as he liked to say, a BRIDGE OF LOVE.

Each of the more than 50 trips since then has renewed that union, offered with much love and commitment. With every trip, one more brother or sister joins the mission: they go out with their suitcases full and come home with their hearts overflowing, full of experiences, gratitude and the certainty that they will never be the same.

In Siegfried’s own words, in Cuba he got to know not just the front room of the church but above all “the kitchen, the pantry and the bathroom” of the Cuban church. He saw then that more was needed than bringing Bibles: they had to help with supplies of every kind. And so the A Fim de Proclamar Mission was born, with the help of many Brazilian brothers and sisters.

Africa

A cry from across the ocean

As time passed, the heart kept widening, and a cry came from across the ocean: Africa weeps because of the slavery that still lies on its heart. In Guinea-Bissau, in the village of Iemberém, another chapter of this “fantastic team,” as Siegfried fondly called it, begins, together with the Feistler family (Jorge, Vera and their children Tiago, Sara and Josué): building a small hospital and teaching people to read at the evangelical school.

In April 2007, a team of three was preparing to accompany a shipping container of hospital supplies to Guinea-Bissau. Medicines, vaccines, musical instruments, surgical instruments, auto parts, clothing and computers arrived at the Zilz family home in Porto Alegre, which was also the mission’s central office.

We also extended an arm of love to Guinea-Conakry, together with our brother and sister Tânia Bonfim (Brazilian) and her husband Mohamed Keita (African), who planted a church in Conakry.

2012

Colombia

In July 2012, a team of thirteen Brazilians saw for themselves what the Church in the Mountains of Colombia, in the north of the country, was living through: families of pastors, widows, orphans and people driven from their homes by the violence of the guerrillas and the paramilitaries. New teams returned in 2013.