We are the Pinto family called to plant churches in the vast harvest field of Brazil. Our home church is Woodcrest Baptist Church in Fridley, MN which is pastored by Pastor Mark Poorman. We will be planting churches through our local church, Igreja Batista Maranata, in Cuiabá, Brazil whose pastor is veteran BIMI missionary John Raehl. We serve with Baptist International Missions, Inc. (BIMI) located in Harrison, TN.
Since 2006 we have been tentmaking missionaries (that is, Chico had a secular job to provide for the family) working under missionaries John and Joyce Raehl at Baptista Maranta Church in Cuiabá, Brazil. We also have been working at Camp Maranatha helping missionary Peter Doolittle. Our family speaks Portuguese fluently and knows the culture and people as well.
Our 3 Kids, Matthew (born in 2005), Alexander (2007), and Isabella (2009) have been saved and baptized and help us in the ministry however they can.
Chico´s Testimony
Shari´s Testimony
I was born in Duluth, MN. My mom and dad, John and Joyce Raehl, were starting deputation with BIMI to go to the field of Brazil as missionaries when I was born. We arrived in Brazil on Feb. 4, 1975, and soon moved to Cuiabá, MT.
At the age of 5, I accepted the Lord as my personal Savior and was baptized here in Brazil when I was 11.
From 1991-1995, I attended Pillsbury Baptist Bible College in Owatonna, MN where I studied Church Ministries and Missions. In 1992, I felt the Lord calling me into full-time service for Him. After spending the summer of 1995 traveling with the Camp Team from PBBC, I returned to Brazil for what I thought would be a brief visit with my parents, but instead, I met my future husband, Francisco (Chico), and we were married on 1999.
In March of 2000, Chico and I moved to Minnesota so he could study Computer Science at the University of Minnesota, in Mankato. During a trip to visit family in Brazil in 2002, both Chico and I felt the Lord calling us to come back to work in the ministry in Brazil.
Our first son, Matthew, was born in Mankato a year before we returned to Brazil in 2006 to work as tentmakers missionaries. Chico started working there in the IT field and I became a stay-at-home mom. In 2007, our second son, Alexander, was born, and in 2009, our daughter, Isabella, came to complete our family. Since our arrival in Brazil, we have been serving the Lord at our local church and at Camp Maranatha. I have been especially involved in teaching and training kids and teenagers, conducting Bible studies for ladies and helping in the worship ministry.
