The Pinto Family has been serving with Baptist International Missions, Inc. (BIMI) since 2019 as church planters in Brazil.
Shari grew up in Brazil as a missionary kid, the daughter of church-planting missionaries John and Joyce Raehl. She trusted Christ as her Savior at a young age and has desired to serve the Lord ever since.
Chico is himself a fruit of missionary ministry in Brazil. As a boy he began attending church through the outreach of missionaries, and as a young man he surrendered his life to the Lord to serve Him.
After getting married, Chico and Shari moved to the United States for a time. However, the Lord placed a strong burden on their hearts to return to Brazil. In 2006 they followed that call and moved back as self-supported missionaries, helping with church planting and other ministries in the greater Cuiabá area in the state of Mato Grosso, Brazil.
During those years they faithfully served alongside Shari’s parents at Igreja Batista Maranata in Cuiabá, and also assisted in ministry at Camp Maranatha with missionaries Peter and Zirlene Doolittle.
Since 2022, the Pinto family is involved in planting Igreja Batista Boas Novas in the city of Várzea Grande. In addition to the church plant, they continue assisting with Camp Maranatha Ministries and are actively training believers to grow and serve in leadership within the local church.
Chico and Shari are blessed with three children—Matthew (2005), Alexander (2007), and Isabella (2009). Each of them has trusted Christ as Savior, followed the Lord in baptism, and participates in the ministry alongside their parents.
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.
