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DARK SHADOWS & BRIGHT PROMISES
Sugarloaf Mountain is one of many distinguishable features in the Guanabara Bay of Rio de Janeiro.
The ‘missionary vision and passion’ planted in Brazil by the ‘first Southwesterner’ continues to grow.
WORDS AND PHOTOS BY ADAM COVINGTON
BRAZIL — “I think this verse characterizes my grandparents’ journey to and ministry in Brazil,” AnneLu Bagby remarked. She held up an unused children’s coloring book page she had translated into Portuguese as she spoke to a group of more than 200 women gathered for tea. The church in which they assembled, First Baptist Church Goainia (Primera Igreja Batista em Goiania), was her childhood church home and one pastored by her father, T.C. Bagby. The text, accompanied by a hand-drawn wooden ship on the black and white page, taken from Psalm 139:910, read, “If I settle on the far side of the sea, even there Your hand will guide me.” AnneLu’s grandparents, William “Buck” and Anne Luther Bagby, departed from the United States on Jan. 13, 1881, bound by ship for Brazil, trusting that the Lord’s hand would guide them. The two eager Texans, commissioned by the Foreign Mission Board and supported by the giants of Texas Baptist life at the end of the 19th century, would be instrumental in starting Southern Baptist work in Brazil. The providential hand of God guided them and others with whom they partnered to fulfill a great calling with tremendous effort. More than 100 years after her grandparents first set foot in Brazil, AnneLu, now 86, was invited to participate in the 113th annual gathering of the Brazilian Baptist Convention as an honored guest.
A VISION FOR BRAZIL “It’s a saga,” said Fernando Brandão, executive director of the Brazilian National Mission Board (Missões Nacionais).
Southwestern News
SPRING 2020