Pastor Ralci came to know Christ in an unconventional way.
“I was hiding under the bed to surprise my wife,” he tells the story of what happened 25 years ago. At the time, his wife, Rosalia, was already a Christian.
“She knelt down without knowing I was under the bed and started to pray, asking God to change my life, my story, and I started to cry under the bed. That day, I gave my life to the Lord.”
A while later, Ralci and Rosalia were traveling along the Amazon River with another pastor, Alcemir, when they spotted a rundown church in Iranduba. Ralci asked Pastor Alcemir why it was closed, and he replied, “Because no one wants to go there.” Then he said, “But if you want to go, you can go!”
When Ralci and Rosalia got home, they looked at each other and knew this abandoned church was their calling.
“I grew up watching my father doing the Lord’s work, and he used to say, ‘If you have a calling, go! He will empower you,’” Rosalia said. “So we said yes.”
They arrived in the village and began cleaning up the dilapidated building. One day, a young boy noticed their efforts, stopped, and asked if there was going to be a church service.
“My husband looked at me with eyes full of tears and he said, ‘Yes! We’ll have a service,’” Rosalia remembered. “The boy came with his brothers and some cousins. There were around 25 children.”
Suddenly, a rundown church came alive.
“That filled us up with hope because we had the first sheep,” Ralci said.
It also shifted their perspective. The couple assumed they were going to be ministering to adults, but the Lord had other plans. More and more children started coming to the church, as they were often left alone to fend for themselves. Ralci and Rosalia got to know them and listened to their stories. They soon realized the dire home situations that most of the children were living in, rife with abuse and neglect.
“There is a need, an urgent one, of taking care of the kids and the teenagers, especially the girls because they are very vulnerable here. They’re becoming adults before their time, not because they want to, but because they’re forced to,” Ralci said.
“What broke my heart the most when I got here was seeing one of our children with cuts on her wrist,” Rosalia said. “I was trying to talk to her, to know what was happening to her. She was going through a difficult time with depression because she was being abused by her stepfather.”
The couple realized they were living within a culture where child abuse was accepted as a normal way of life. Even though laws against abuse were in place, they were not enforced.
“What makes it worse is that when you look for those who could really do something, their answer is: ‘This is part of the culture.’ But we know this isn’t part of the culture, this is a crime!” Ralci said.
Even worse, he and Rosalia were being threatened for trying to take action.
“If it weren’t for God, we’d already be in jail, maybe dead for exposing it,” he said.
With this crucial need and nowhere to turn for help, they didn’t know what to do. Then, Pastor Alcemir told them about the JMA Children’s Leaders Conference. Every year, around 75 children’s ministers gather at our John Pac Center for training, mentoring, and encouragement. The conference tackles tough subjects and offers individual counseling sessions to the pastors.
“During the lectures in the conference, they talked about abuse protection, and I remember on that day God gave me the armor I needed to fight alongside my children here,” Rosalia said. “At that conference, I understood that God was giving me the most precious ministry, the most precious flock from His church.”
Ralci also received confirmation from the Lord that He had called them specifically to the children in their village and that He would equip them for the challenge. At the conference, he heard Jesus’ words from John 21:15 as a directive for their ministry. In the passage, Jesus asks Peter repeatedly if he loves him. Peter says yes, and Jesus tells him: “Then, feed my lambs” (vs. 17).
“We took that to our lives, to our ministry, and it has worked very well because we started to take care of a new generation that will take over the ministry later,” Ralci said.
The couple also met other passionate church leaders and JMA staff who could support them. No longer isolated in their battle to protect children in their village, Ralci and Rosalia left the conference with fresh hope.
“We felt weak and alone, and then we saw that there were already a lot of people wanting to help the cause that we already had our hearts set on,” Ralci said.
Along with the children’s conference, Ralci and Rosalia started attending our annual Jungle Pastors Conference, where they receive additional training and support for their ministry. This partnership with JMA has helped to bring hope into their village.
Around 40 children are now participating in our vulnerable child sponsorship program and early childhood education program. They receive food baskets, school supplies, tutoring, assistance with medical needs, and Gospel-centered programming that includes child protection education.
“We teach the kids to protect themselves. We talk about the law, and that they can count on us; they can ask for help,” Rosalia said. “We try to teach them that the kingdom of God is not food or drink. It goes beyond. It brings peace, justice, and so much more. We’ve been teaching them that if Jesus is on their little boat, everything will be alright.”
JMA also created a new library for them, which led to the discovery of another acute need. “The children that were supposed to use and enjoy this library, we identified that they didn’t know how to read,” Ralci said. “So came our new program, teaching them.”
The list goes on of all the ways God is using these pastors to meet children’s needs and spread the love of Christ in Iranduba. Since that first day of cleaning up the church five years ago, dozens of children have accepted Jesus.
“We see completely changed kids…kids that were with us from 3 and 4 years old, who are now 7 and 8 years old with a totally different reality of life,” Rosalia said. “We’re only able to change these kids’ realities through the Gospel. It is because of this love of Jesus.”
One of the first little girls who attended their church is 16 years old now and calls Rosalia “mom,” reaching out to her on Mother’s Day and leaning on her for guidance. Ralci and Rosalia’s ministry has made such an impact on her life that she is coming to the next JMA Children’s Leaders Conference as a volunteer to start gaining tools to shepherd the younger generation.
The Gospel is not only transforming the lives of these girls and boys, but also the lives of their parents. It’s no longer just children attending the church, but whole families. The light of Christ is breaking through darkness, and amid their struggles, illuminating a better way of life.
“Even though you don’t have everything you want, many times not even food, when you have Jesus, there’s no sexual abuse. When the parents know Jesus, the kids are taught in a different way,” Rosalia said. “A girl told me she’s happy her family is going to church because now she knows what she’s been through is not going to happen with her siblings.”
“We started with one child,” Ralci said. “Now, our building can no longer hold the number of people.” And that first child, the boy who asked if there was going to be a service, he traveled a bumpy road away from the church over the past five years. Then, this spring, he returned. “When I asked if anyone wanted to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior, he rose his hand and said he wanted to reconcile, and came back to Christ.”
Ralci and Rosalia are well aware that they don’t have the power to heal every broken heart or meet every physical need of those they serve, but God is giving them the tools and the partners to usher in redemption in Iranduba, one person at a time.
“We are still today in this battle, but a battle with many victories,” Ralci said.
The couple’s trust is stronger than ever that the Lord will continue to provide everything they need, and they are passionate about getting others involved.
“Our desire is to multiply, to have multipliers like me and my wife, with a heart set on this cause to protect children from sexual abuse,” he said. “It doesn’t give us money, it doesn’t give us income, but it makes our love grow. This increases our desire to do the most good for God.”
Watch Ralci and Rosalia’s story, and learn more about our child sponsorship program in the Amazon.
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