Matheus lives in the City of São Leopoldo in Southern Brazil. He has served as a pastor for 17 years and worked professionally as an attorney for much of that time. He has a degree in Theology and Law and post-graduate degrees in Christian Counseling and Church Planting and Revitalization. He is an experienced church planter and actively coaches church planters and pastors throughout Brazil. Matheus is married to Sabrine, who has a degree in theology and a doctorate in education. She is a university professor and directs the children’s department at Bethany Church. She also serves as a children’s curriculum specialist for Think Orange Brasil. Matheus and Sabrine have a two-year-old daughter named Hannah.

Rio Grande do Sul is the least evangelized state in Brazil, with some regions having less than 2% of evangelicals and some cities without the presence of any established evangelical church. I only realized how much of a need there actually was while planting a church in the City of Porto Alegre. I that point, I knew something needed to be done to change this reality. I began studying the unique cultural context of the region, and I developed a strategy to engage the people of the region with the gospel message. The people of this region are mostly of German and Italian descent and have a belief system guided by a mixture of mysticism and agnosticism. Another characteristic of the region that hinders the advancement of the gospel is the aversion to relationships that permeate the culture. This fact alone has served to keep pastors and missionaries away from this region. In fact, this region is known as the “pastor’s cemetery since it is such a hard place to do ministry. My vision is to see 160 churches planted in the 160 largest cities of the state by 2045. I believe we can do this by being sensitive to the culture in how we relate and communicate the gospel and through a church planting system that multiplies churches. My prayer is that we can reach the 497 counties of the State of Rio Grande do Sul with the gospel.