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268 SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION
points. His church at Belterra has almost finished paying for the building
which Ford Rubber Plantation Company erected for them. Two Training School
girls spent their two months' vacation on the field, helping the two pastors and
one missionary couple to visit the 1,300,000 people of the lower Amazon Valley.
MARANHAO
"The way" in Maranhao has been opened up by various messengers of peace.
In the capital and through the eentral part of the state, six churches with their
numerous preaching points are organized in a state Baptist Convention, due
to their proximity to that center.
Penetrating the deep forest regions and along certain streams, the Evangelical
Union composed of English and Canadian Baptists have isolated groups
making their definite contribution to the spreading of the Word. Back in the
jungle lands, in and near Indian Territory, our Baptist Home Mission Board
has Brazilian missionaries working in churches, primary schools, and orphanages
which co-operate with the Tocantins Convention. A Bible School in
Carolina, organized by Dr. Helcias Camara and wife—a brilliant, consecrated
young couple who left one of the better churches in the'capital of Rio de
Janeiro to serve in this hinterland—is training young workers for special
service. At the beginning of the year, two girls and a boy from the capital
of Sao Luiz made the long trip through the -state to study in that school.
THE NORTHEAST
The three states of Ceara, Rio Grande do Norte, and Paraiba are organized
in one convention. The state of Ceara has never had a resident Southern
Baptist missionary, so our one little church is weak and needy. They have a
good lot and have accumulated a small fund for building. But a new day is
dawning for the thirty-five members of the church, for in 1946 two missionary
couples will take up residence there, and great things should be accomplished
for the Master in this prosperous state.
Mr. and Mrs. J. A. Tumblin live in Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, and while
Mr. Tumblin visits the preaching points of our own church of 136 members.
Mrs, Tumblin directs the primary school of fifty pupils. The pastor of the
church is a seminary graduate and one of the most promising of our young
preachers, and the three teachers are all Training School graduates. A state
evangelist visits towns and villages where the gospel is not known.
In the state of Paraiba there are eight churches and five pastors, all seminary
graduates. Sr. Zacarias Barros, former pastor in the state capital, this year
moved up into the high plains where flourishing cities and villages are destitute
of workers. Supported by the State Mission Board, he is traveling evangelist,
colporteur, and missionary to that section. Mr. and Mrs. S. S. Stover have
been on the field for only a short time, but they have helped in the organization
of a new church.
The state Baptist school at Joao Pessoa had 180 matriculated. The large
garden and the numerous fruit trees planted and cultivated by Pastor Firmino
Silva, director of the institution, help to finance its boarding department.
PERNAMBUCO
In this state, over 110 churches with an approximate membership of 10,111,
baptized over 500 during 1945. One of the loveliest church buildings in Recife
was occupied by a small group which split off from co-operation nearly twenty
years ago. Meanwhile, nearby an active, co-operative church of 250 members
was worshiping in a small unequipped building. Through the grace of the Lord
the two groups were united, and now one strong church with a beautiful temple
witnesses to the truth in the section of the city called Torre.
In the interior, the church of Garanhuns built one of the most beautiful
edifices in the North at an approximate cost of $7,500. Under Missionary
Johnson's leadership, the church in Caruaru/host to the State Convention in
November, bought half a block of land and also a building valued at the same
amount.
RADIO
The Pathway to Peace in the Baptist center of North Brazil has received
new impetus with the thirty-minute radio program called "Voice of Baptists"
each Saturday afternoon. This service is broadcast over Pernambuco's powerful