Andy and Kati Walsh, Brazil
Working with local church partners in Florianópolis, helping people in challenging contexts to find hope in Jesus
Inequalities in Brazil are among the worst in the world.
Florianópolis, in the south, has many favelas (slums), which are controlled by drugs and gangs and house much of the city’s population. Brazil is also home to some of the world’s most dangerous prisons.
It is these subcultures and “hidden voices”, where the Church struggles to be, that we feel called by God to serve.
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We know this city well and that it is home to unreached and diverse marginalised communities. We are concentrating on engaging people at the edges, including people who get caught in the cycle of crime just to survive.
Our outreach focus is integrated with Vineyard Floripa, a church planted by fellow CMS mission partners. Through the church, we visit local prisons and share Jesus with male and female inmates. We have established a discipleship course in the male prison and are hoping to do the same in the female prison. Through this ministry, we are seeing God move powerfully in people’s lives.
Andy is a dual British/Argentine citizen fluent in Portuguese, and Kati is from Brazil, so Latin America has always been part of our lives and close to our hearts. Before we were married in Florianópolis in 2014, we had a profound sense from things we had each experienced that we were called to serve among socially excluded and disadvantaged sectors of Brazil.
Kati, who is trained as a lawyer, has many years’ experience mentoring young people – particularly teenage girls who are susceptible to abuse and exploitation. Andy has over 20 years’ experience leading mercy ministries through the church coupled with managing UK government-funded projects to help tackle homelessness and drug-related crime and initiatives to rehabilitate people caught up in the cycle of re-offending. In Leeds, Andy worked in a senior management position for a national housing association that provides housing solutions and specialist services for young people and adults who are socially excluded due to disabilities, mental health issues and homelessness.
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