Nathan and Sara Zinck age 46 have two children, Samuel, and Elizabeth. They

live in Niterói, Brazil.

The city they live in has over 500,000 people with 1.5 million if adding surrounding regions.

Catholicism is claimed by 65% of Brazilians.

This family lives in a 14 floor high-rise condominium building; they are owners of one unit.

The children attend a private Catholic school with 150-170 children per grade. Classes are from

7AM until 12PM from February-December.

The Zincks are supported by Pleasant Valley Church of Christ in Little Rock, AR. Other

churches provide funding for a variety of work fund and church building fund. They are in the

last phase of their church building project. PVCC visits every other year, typically 2-3 individuals.

Nathan graduated from Lubbock Christian University and earned his masters from Abilene

Christian University.

Sara Mobley Zinck grew up in Searcy, AR, where her parents live and three of her grown

married siblings also live. Sara’s undergraduate degree is in microbiology and her masters is in

microbiology and higher education. She worked as an epidemiologist and taught biology at a

college in Little Rock, AR.

The Zincks travel to the US every other year for a 2 month furlough visiting churches and family.

Most day to day goods are available in Brazil, however, specific items are not available, such as

peanut butter, Dr. Pepper, cheddar cheese, pickles, and salsa.

The Zinck family participated in the South American Church of Christ Conference that happens

every other year. Last year, Lori Hagewood (former missionary in Brazil sponsored by Laurel

Church of Christ in Knoxville) provided content as a Christian Counselor at the conference

where Sara met her. Nathan met Hunter Hagewood (Lori’s husband, tech savvy) at another

conference but has not met Lori. The Hagewood’s live in the Nashville area following over 5

years in Brazil.

The Zincks began the Timothy Project, similar to AIM (Adventures In Missions) where Bible

training is followed by an apprenticeship in a mission site. Various US churches fund the

training of these men. The program in Brazil is called AME that is similar the the AIM

(Adventures In Missions) at Sunset in Lubbock, TX. They offer a year’s training and send young

people to serve at a church for one year afterwards. Once these students finish that program,

Nathan has received several of them to continue in the Timothy Project which is a one year

hands-on ministry program. This program focuses giving practical experience so they can learn

what is involved in being a full-time minister. Many have left this apprentice program and given

feedback saying how much the experience blessed their lives as they feel more confident

teaching, preaching, and leading worship. In Brazil many men want to be ministers but have

difficulty finding churches to hire them.

Nathan teaches Financial Peace courses that have resulted in one particular man later

attending church, being baptized, and growing to be a faithful Christian. This class began on

Zoom during Covid, but has been offered since. Typically a dozen attend the Financial Peace 10

week long classes offered annually.

Sewing classes have begun training people in a skill that can provide income as a tailor; these

classes are offered twice a year.

Assistance has been offered for resume building to help other Brazilians find work. There is a lot of

poverty with high unemployment.

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The work in Niterói began in March, 2009. The church currently has roughly 70 members, and it has been a joy to serve the people here. This year we have focused on getting more members involved in serving in different ministries.
We have the highest percentage of involvement that we have ever had, and that has been a blessing to our church.
Last year we focused on getting more men from the church involved in teaching Bible class, and this year we have focused on getting more men involved in preaching. We have had several men that have done these for the very first time. And all have done very well.
This year was a big year for the us because the church was able to appoint deacons for the very first time. We pray this will be a step towards appointing elders.
One of the ways we do outreach is through the School of the Bible. Through this ministry, we offer Biblical courses to the community.
People are very receptive to these types of classes.

In 2019, we started a year-long apprentice program called the Timothy Project. So far, we have had twenty year-long apprentices. Of those, nine are now in full-time ministry, and three are currently studying at a Bible college in Brazil.

The focus of the Timothy Project is to give the interns opportunities to experience and participate in various aspects of ministry. They receive opportunities to preach, teach, do evangelism, work with the youth, lead worship, help with the children's and benevolence ministries, visitation, administrative duties, etc. As they go through these experiences, we are constantly asking them to evaluate their experiences and identify areas of strength, but also identify areas of growth. This helps create in them a habit to continue to strive to grow. The apprentices also participate in a mentoring relationship that encourages them to grow personally and spiritually.

It has been a joy to watch each year as these young men have grown personally and spiritually, and have become equipped to serve the church. We have a group of three young men that will arrive at the beginning of next year and another one that will arrive mid-year. 

We are excited to see how God will use each of them this coming year. Please keep these young men in your prayers.

In early 2021, we had an intern who had been offered a job in the state of São Paulo (just south of us). Most churches here only have one minister. And that minister must preach, teach, do visitation, evangelism, take care of some administrative duties, be the janitor, and so on. He mentioned that it would be nice if there were more resources that could help ministers, since there are so many demands and not enough time to do everything well. When he said that, I thought: "If someone wanted to use one of the studies I have created would gladly share that resource." And I imagined that many missionaries and ministers in Brazil would feel the same way. It was then that the idea for the website was born.

In December 2021 we launched ProjetoTimoteo.org.br. The site has Bible studies, evangelistic studies, small group curriculum, children's ministry resources, Bible reading plans, devotionals, worship materials and this year we added an online Bible (we got permission to share a version of the Bible). So far there have been 65 collaborators and there are over 370 resources on the site. Over the last 30 days, the site has had 22,000 different users and over 450,000 hits.
We have a team of 5 individuals that help maintain the site (they do this on a volunteer basis).
We continue to dream of ways we can better serve those involved in ministry.