Matched Up for Ministry

How two Brazilian young people found romance—and direction for their lives—while training for Bible translation.

They met in Brasilia’s bus station in January 2006, as both were arriving in Brazil’s bustling capital to attend a linguistic training course hosted by ALEM, Wycliffe's partner organization in Brazil. So it’s only fitting that newlyweds Alessandro and Joice Ubaldo departed from that same bus station last December, on their way to a ministry assignment together in the Amazon rainforest.

What’s more, the young Brazilian couple may well be God’s answer to a salvo of prayers offered up by Isaac and Shirley Souza over the past 10 years, asking the Lord to send another couple to help them in their work of Bible translation for the Karaum* people.

Alessandro, 34, and Joice, 25, aren’t sure it was “love at first sight” when they initially met at the bus depot. But for Alessandro at least, that first meeting with the striking brunette was a memorable one.

"The man from ALEM who picked me up at the station told me we had to wait for someone else,” he recalls with a grin, “and it was Joice. He showed me her picture, just a little picture...and I liked her already.”

The two became acquainted on the drive in to ALEM’s training centre and over the next few months, their friendship turned to romance.

“Here at ALEM, we were always talking to each other, every day,” says Alessandro.

Not Impressed
During the six-month training course and their participation in a subsequent jungle-survival course, the two students met Isaac and Shirley Souza (SO-za) and heard about their work among the Karaum. They also learned that the couple had been praying for help for more than a decade.

For his part, Alessandro had already visited the town nearest the Karaum village and he was not impressed.

"I vowed I would never go back there,” he says. Still, Alessandro’s interest in missions brought him to ALEM and he was open to God’s leading.

Joice felt God might be guiding her to become a teacher in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso. But as they both studied at ALEM, their calling to Brazil’s indigenous peoples became clear.

"As I grew to know more and more about the current situation and needs of indigenous people,” says Joice, "and looked back over the history of Brazil’s tribal groups...I felt it was part of my responsibility as a Brazilian to reach out to them.”

While Joice and Alessandro’s relationship deepened, they began praying about their future together and whether they should join the Souzas in the Amazon.

"We really felt it made sense to join an experienced team, because we didn’t have any experience and we wanted our ministry to be productive,” says Joice.

Bus Trip to a New Life
The two Brasileiros married in December 2006. Last December, the newlyweds embarked on a 44-hour bus trip to the eastern Amazon. Before they actually move to the Karaum village to begin learning the language, they plan to reside in the nearest town—the one Alessandro vowed he'd never visit again—and receive further training as teachers.

Some family members and friends have asked them how long they expect to live among the Indians. Joice’s answer is simple: “Until the job is done.”

*pseudonym