30/11/2020
The James Allen Family Second Generation Missionaries to Brazil, South America
My name is James Timothy Allen.
I was born in Atlanta GA, the fourth child of Missionaries Dr’s. Phillip and Charlotte Allen.
I trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ as my personal Savior at the age of seven, in a Sunday service at the Bible Baptist Tabernacle, now Bible Baptist Church, in Monroe GA. I was baptized at the same church.
I felt that God was calling me to preach at the young age of ten, but I did not surrender until later on.
It was during the first missions conference that my Dad had in the church he started in São Sebastião do Paraíso in the Southeastern state of Brazil named Minas Gerais, that I, without a doubt, knew that God called me to preach and to church planting missions in Brazil. I was 18 years old.
I met my wife Soraia at this same church, and we married July 16, 1988.
She trusted Christ as her Savior on February 25th 1987, on a Wednesday night under the preaching of my father, and was led by the Lord into missions in the same conference that I was called.
We came to the US in 1989 in order to attended Bible School at Gwinnett Hall Baptist College in Lawrenceville, GA, and we both graduated with an associate’s degree in Biblical education in 1993.
During the time we were going to Bible College we worked in the Bus ministry and children’s church at our Home Church, Victory Baptist in Loganville, GA.
On December 17, 1991 we were accepted as Second Generation Missionaries to Brazil by Macedonia World Baptist Missions Inc. Our deputation took eight months part time plus two years full time to complete.
I was ordained to the gospel ministry by my Home Church, on May 16, 1993. Pr. Steve Sparks was my Pastor at that time, and now Pr. Derik Lawrence is our Pastor. We were also commissioned by our Home Church as missionaries to Brazil in 1995, and we left for the field for the first time on August 3rd of that same year to serve our Lord in that needy land.
We have served as missionaries to Brazil for 29 years. To God be all glory! For the first eight years, we worked with my parents in the Southeastern state of Minas Gerais, in starting a Church and rescuing another one.
During this time I also taught in our Bible Institute, and my wife and I worked in the Camp ministries, ministered with the youth as well as worked with the AWANA programs for children.
For the past 17 years we have ministered in the Southern state of Santa Catarina, in the city of Joinville, which has a population of about 600,000 souls, divided into 43 neighborhoods ranging from 1,500 to 39,000 people.
There we started the “Igreja Batista Vitória” (Victory Baptist Church) on May 3, 2003, and God blessed the work with souls saved and a good group of approximately 40 well established members who understand living by biblical principles. God brought to this work a young man and his wife, Ricardo and Monica, and they have been faithful since the beginning. God called Ricardo to preach and so they started Bible College in 2004 and graduated in November 2008. We ordained Ricardo to the gospel ministry on May 07, 2011, and in December of 2013, God so graciously allowed us to turn over this work to Pastor Ricardo, and the ministry there continues strong in the Lord.
In January of 2014, we had the privilege of assisting my Brother, MWBM Missionary Scott Allen, and his family start a new church plant in another neighborhood of Joinville named Adhemar Garcia. (Currently located in the Nova Brasilia neighborhood). He named it "Igreja Batista Rocha Sólida" (Solid Rock Baptist Church) and the Lord is blessing this ministry. We continued working with them until December of 2014, at which time the Lord led us to focus on a Bible study group that we had started in September of 2014, meeting in a home in the nearby city of Piçarras, and to assist in two area churches while their missionary/Pastors returned to the USA for a time. We arrived back in the USA for furlough on May 29, 2015, returning to Brazil in the last week of April 2016.
On June 18, 2016 we started a third church plant in the Joinville neighborhood of Adhemar Garcia where we worked until December 2019 when we joined forces with the first church we started located in the Boehmarwald neighborhood.
Our ministry goals include reaching lost souls with the Gospel of Christ, teaching them as His disciples, train leaders in obedience to 2 Timothy 2:2, and establishing indigenous churches as the Lord allows.
As the Apostle Paul requested in Romans 15:30, “Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me;”
I too request that you please “strive together with me in your prayers…”
