Meet the missionary families

 

BORBA FAMILY

Maikon and Tati met in 2008 and married in 2010. Both were brought up in Catholic families, but have served in churches of Christ since their conversion. Maikon had always been involved in the church and, after getting married, Tati joined forces with him to serve in their local church in Novo Hamburgo, in the south of Brazil. They were both English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers, but in their spare time they volunteered at the church in a variety of activities. Maikon worked on the slides for the service, was a worship leader and taught some classes. Tati helped with the children's and women's ministries, cleaned the church building and made the bread for supper every Sunday. Together, they led couples' meetings, youth retreats and hosted Let's Start Talking summer campaigns. In 2015, they received an invitation to attend the Bible program at Harding University and moved to Searcy, AR, in 2016. During their time in Searcy, they were both very involved in the Cloverdale Church of Christ, volunteering in the youth group and children's ministries. While at university, the couple led two summer mission trips to Brazil and Europe. Joanna was born in Searcy in October 2019. After Maikon's graduation in 2020, they moved to South Florida to start reaching other Brazilians here in the area with the gospel. MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES TODAY: Maikon leads our congregation's evangelistic efforts through the English class ministry (Let's Start Talking). He is also responsible for the church's bilingual ministry, translating the service on Sundays. Tati coordinates the women's ministry, acts as one of the Sunday school teachers and also organizes the church's events and hospitality.

LIRA FAMILY

Junior and Patricia have known each other for 27 years and have been married for 19 years. They became Christians in the 1990s and began serving Christ Jesus and His kingdom together. They were members of the Nove de Julho Church of Christ in São Paulo. Growing up in a Christian environment with its positive influence on their lives guided them to serve the Most High God in His mission in Brazil. Before serving in full-time ministry, Junior worked as an executive for an American multinational corporation in Brazil as a Business Relationship Manager. He also taught at the Nove de Julho Bible School since 2002. He holds a bachelor's degree in psychology and is licensed as a clinical psychologist. He has experience in mental health and psychological emergency. The Liras worked as missionaries for 13 years. During this time in Brasilia, Junior worked as an evangelism ministry leader and acted as a small group coordinator, supervising, training and preparing leaders. He specialized in music and worship courses promoted by the Worship Leader Institute, where he used these skills as a worship leader.
Patricia has a degree in Business Administration as a bilingual executive assistant (English and Spanish) and a postgraduate degree in Public Administrative Management. She worked as executive secretary to the president of a large multinational environmental engineering consultancy. She worked in five different divisions of the company and was well established in her career. In her missionary work in Brasilia, her specialty was coordinating and teaching Sunday School for children, an area in which she worked for 8 years. They both worked with young people in high school and college at the beginning of the missionary work in Brasilia, in which Patricia acted as a counselor and mentor to the girls. Patricia loves music and was the leader of the women's worship group, teaching them to sing, while her husband was the conductor of the entire worship group. The Liras moved to Florida at the end of 2021 and their daughter Hannah was born here in July 2022. MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES TODAY: Junior serves as our congregation's preacher. He also leads the singing on Sundays and acts as a pastoral counselor. Patrícia teaches one of the Sunday school classes.