Operation Mobilisation works in more than 110 countries, motivating and equipping people to share God’s love with others.
St John’s has been supporting Mike, Nélia since 2010 when they left the UK with our 2 children Louissa and Joshua (then aged 12 and 9) left to start a new life in Brazil with Operation Mobilisation. Their initial roles were IT Administrator and English Teacher, but God soon challenged them with opportunities to serve in other ways – such as leadership in the Latin America area and in the Missions Training School.
In 2017 they returned to the UK. Mike continued with a role he had started whilst in Brazil – as an associate leader for Latin America in the role of Chief-of-Operations. Nelia paused her OM ministry to work at a Christian English language
school in Brighton, later she also helped out teaching on-line for an OM “Missions
Language Academy”.
In July 2023 Mike and Nelia returned to Brazil Nelia is overseeing the Missionary Training Centre programs at the base, including REACH in Brazil, the English Short Course English4Missions, OM Start, Missions Course for Churches, and other in-person and on-line courses and initiatives.
Mike looks after all things technical in the office, such as computer hardware & software, printers, network, and applications. He is also the Chief of Operations for OM Latin America, responsible for things like Finance, Personnel, IT, processes & standards, and logistics.
Mike and Nelia spent the 2nd part of 2024 working remotely from their home in Hove, but both finished the year with separate short trips – Nelia to Germany for a REACH forum (the official OM training program), and Mike for a Finance Forum in Brazil.
Here we go 2025!
A New Term
We depart to São Paulo from Heathrow on 28th January for a repeat of last year’s pattern, staying in São José dos Campos until mid-July. That’s not to say that everything will be just the same as last year, though: new people have joined and will be joining the team in Brazil; we’ll have a new group of participants joining the REACH program at the beginning of February, and this year we’ll be running two “English 4 Missions” (E4M) classes – one for beginners and one at intermediate level. Mike’s work varies each year (which keeps it interesting!) and will include a trip to the International Leaders Meeting in March, and overseeing the transition to a new Finance software package for our fields in Latin America. There are always many unknowns, but one of the things we’re certain of, is that we will be very busy! Things are already quite hectic as we have a lot to sort out before we travel – and we will arrive at the OM base just a few days before the new REACH and E4M students.
If you want to learn more about their work you can view their page on the OM Website.
https://www.uk.om.org/Appeal/leals
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