A Car for a Catholic Lay Community in Brazil

Thanks once again to our generous benefactors, we were able to contribute $23,300 to help a lay community in Brazil buy a vehicle to help carry out charitable and pastoral activities. 

The Catholic lay community “Mar a Dentro” (“Out to Sea/Out into the Deep”) has been active for 15 years now in the city of Belem in northern Brazil. They have established a spiritual center here and organized prayer meetings and Eucharistic adoration, as well as preparing young people for Confirmation and young couples for marriage. The community also offers various educational opportunities and psychological counseling; it also works to care for those in need, especially children.

Here in the Amazon region, these young lay missionaries, men and women, and their volunteer helpers, don‘t confine themselves only to the big city. Faithful to the words that Jesus spoke to Peter: “Put out into the deep” (Lk. 5:4) – words from which the community takes its name – they also minister to the people living in the rainforest on the riverbanks and on the islands in the rivers. Many of these villages are accessible only by water and that is why, some years ago, thanks to our kind benefactors, we were able to help them with a boat for their pastoral work.

Their community also needed a car to transport materials and to engage in its many charitable projects and pastoral programs, both in the city itself and in the other towns and villages that are accessible by road. 

The roads are poor, and the journeys are often long, but now there is great delight at finally having a suitable vehicle. These lay missionaries send their heartfelt thanks – both for themselves and on behalf of those they serve. 

Aid to the Church in Need commits to invest your funds where they will have the greatest impact for the Church that we serve. Funds donated to Aid to the Church in Need’s projects will be used towards the greatest need in our programs to help keep the Faith alive.

Code: 212-01-29