Alan Cavalcante
Location: Florestópolis, PR – Brazil
Alan’s Story
The desire to serve God has burned in my heart as long as I can remember. I came to faith in Jesus very young. My sister would take me to the independent Presbyterian Church in our town and that is where I came to know Jesus. I was baptized in 2010 and serve in my home church both as a worship and youth leader to this day.
I began to study Theology, at the Filadelfia University of Londrina, because I felt the Lord was leading me into full-time ministry. I thought this would be as a Pastor, but I wasn’t sure. As I studied, I continued to pray that God would reveal to me the direction He would have me take. I had volunteered with Open Arms for several years, but it hadn’t occurred to me that this could be my calling. Shortly before graduation, my pastor and another Open Arms missionary approached me because they felt that I could take leadership of the mission in our city. I knew immediately that this was the answer to my prayer. It is God who calls, God who equips, and God who opens the doors. I simply walked through the door.
Alan’s current ministry
Alan leads the second oldest Open Arms neighborhood mission in Brazil, the Jardim Floresta neighborhood of Florestopolis. It is a mission he participated in as a child, and that he volunteered in as a teen. When Alan assumed leadership of Open Arms in Florestopolis, the ministry was struggling, having lost most of its volunteers and many of the children. Alan went right to work doing what he was trained to do; visiting house by house, inviting new volunteers, providing training, reestablishing strong bible teaching and preaching, strengthening his partnership with the local church, and investing in his teen helpers. Today Florestopolis is again a gem in Open Arms family, and he is continually looking for ways to advance the Kingdom further in that city.
“My dream is to see the children in every at-risk neighborhood in our city have access to an Open Arms outreach, so that they can know the Hope that is in Jesus.”