Ricardo and Márcia Dalcin
Ricardo and Márcia are planting a church in the neighborhood of Rio Branco in the city of Canoas. The church has been vital in helping the neighborhood after it was recently devastated by the historic floods. Their family has attended to more than 11,000 people since early May. Their church plant has distributed food baskets, drinkable water, blankets, tarps, and many other necessities. Their church has been a central place for people to find help and love in the name of Jesus.
Introduce yourselves:
Ricardo: Hi, my name is Ricardo Dalcin, I'm the pastor of the church Rio Branco Baptist Church, in the neighborhood of Rio Branco in Canoas. And this is my wife, Márcia.
Márcia: I'm Márcia Dalcin, Pastor Ricardo's wife. We have two children. The firstborn is named Ricardo, he's 20 years old, and the second daughter is named Mariana, she's 17.
Ricardo: And they both help us in our work. Mariana is our worship minister and Ricardo helps me in areas of ministry the church of the church. He helps me to attend to the public, he helps me with the maintenance of the sanctuary, in the cleaning, in all the areas, he helps in with everything whatever is necessary to do the good work of the God.
How did you come to Christ?
Ricardo: We were saved a few years ago through the testimony of a former employee of mine. He was a Christian and he introduced Jesus to me. Every day we talked and always talked about Jesus. Then my wife and I went to a church service. And there we gave our lives to the Lord Jesus. And our lives were completely transformed.
Márcia: And our children have been raised in the church and continue to be a blessing.
Ricardo: Amen.
Márcia: They follow the Lord's ways and are a blessing.
Ricardo: Amen.
How has the flooding impacted you?
Ricardo: When the waters came, the flood, they covered our house and the church, we lost everything we had. All our clothes, all our material possessions, our furniture, our money, we lost everything. We were left with just our clothes on our backs. We went to a shelter, God then instantly called me to help others to start sharing the message of Christ's love. There was a major transformation. Due to the challenging circumstances we have helped numerous individuals. We lost everything, everything, everything we had. All the furniture, all our belonging our clothes, our utensils. Our home was destroyed and the church was also devastated. But God didn't let us lack anything. And we have helped many people. And we don't miss these material things. What God has done now in our life is immensely impactful and deeply significant. We have evangelized many, many people and through pain and suffering people are more open to receiving Jesus, right, love.
Márcia: Yes, this loss has not impeded anything. Thank God we are able to continue his work and this brings immense joy and satisfaction to our family.
Ricardo: Amen.
Márcia: Everyone is serving together.
Ricardo: And even without a microphone. I now preach every night with just my voice, we don't have a microphone, we don't have a speaker or a table, everything, we've lost everything, the lamps, the chairs, we've lost everything. I've been preaching and people have received Jesus they've given their lives and it's been spectacular, tremendous what God has done. And if I had known it was necessary for me to give up everything I had I had a lot of furniture, I had nice things, pens, a watch collection. I was a prosperous businessman, but if I had known that if I were to give up all my possessions in order to be able to share the gospel of Jesus with so many people, I would have done it a long time ago, For sure.
Tell us about your call and current ministry:
Ricardo: Well, as I was saying, I was a businessman, I had a company, but I wasn't happy being a businessman, looking after money, finances, I wasn't happy. Every day I came home upset and spoke to my wife. I just wanted to preach the Word, I want to dedicate myself to studying the Bible, to care for people, to be able to open church open in the afternoons, praying with, blessing people. But instead I had to look after customers, I had to sell and buy goods, and that made me very sad. And every day I spoke to God, Lord, I just want to be a full-time pastor, I don't want to worry about money, I don't want to make money, I want to serve. I want to serve in the work of God. To serve and attend to the needy, look after people's lives.
And then the flood came. The flood came, destroyed the whole neighborhood, the whole city. All my clients were under water, they all closed down. They didn't pay me anymore, I had a loss of more than R$120,000 reais ($25,000 USD) and overnight I was unemployed. But overnight, crowds of people approached me asking for help. But I didn't have any resources, we didn't have any money.
And people started sending me an unimaginable amount of resources from all over Brazil, specifically to me, unimaginable resources. I wouldn't have been able to get that much if I'd had to buy it myself, or raise the money. Trucks and trucks of merchandise were arriving. And we helped a lot of people with that. The lines of people needing help have been so long. We help people every weekend. Lots of people. A lot of people. My wife and I and my children have helped more than 11,000 people. We kept a registry of everyone we helped. All of them received food baskets, water, food, dog food and blankets. All the things they needed, and all in a supernatural way. God sent large quantities of goods.