LAKELAND — The voice of an 11-year-old girl named Eduardo greets you on the phone when you call the dental clinic. When you show up for your appointment, she hands you forms to fill out. Some day, she hopes to be a dentist herself.

Such hopes are becoming possible for the impoverished children of several Brazilian communities, thanks to the focused efforts of churches there to improve neighborhood life.

Last September a group of eight women, all Florida Conference clergy spouses, visited four Brazilian communities to observe firsthand the needs and dreams taking shape there. The team’s leader was Melba Whitaker, wife of Bishop Timothy Whitaker.

The trip was part of the United Methodist Bishops’ Spouses Association’s covenant relationship with the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) to serve as mission interpreters in their own conferences. The trip to Brazil was intended to build support for the denomination’s annual One Great Hour of Sharing offering, which funds UMCOR’s administration and ongoing ministries, as well as increase missional support from the clergy spouses’ home churches.

Whitaker’s team was part of the Comprehensive Rural Health Project (CRHP), which improves basic qualities of life for families and children. They visited Sao Paulo, Brazil; Vitoria de Conquista; Belo Horizonte; and Salvador, observing and delivering school and medical supplies.

Brazil’s six annual conferences challenged their churches to have a mission for children in their neighborhoods. “They told their churches it doesn’t mater how big or how small you are, how rich or poor,” Whitaker told the “Review.” “The least you can do is offer the children in your neighborhood shade and fresh water.”

Whitaker met Eduardo in a slum area of Vitoria de Conquista. She said the little girl, who takes care of five younger siblings while her single mother works, was quite excited when she learned the dental clinic was to be launched three years ago.

“She was ashamed of her teeth,” Whitaker said. “She went around to all of her friends’ houses and told them what great things were happening, that they could improve their teeth. She was responsible for bringing 100 children to that clinic.”

Eduardo kept begging clinic workers to let her help out. After a year of persistence, she was trained as a receptionist and clerk.

“She is the most poised, dignified young woman. We asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up. She said, ‘I want to be a dentist, so I can come back and help my people here.’ There is no doubt in my mind that this young girl is going to be a dentist. She has the motivation,” Whitaker said.

The clinic is one of many projects launched by the Brazilian churches. Others include after school programs offering art, recreation, musical instruments, singing and computer training.

“They [the churches] really train the local people to take over,” Whitaker said. “When a church starts a mission project, the church funds the training, and they let the people decide what they want to do, what’s needed in the community. They train them politically—if they have to work with the town government. They send them anywhere in South America where there’s training. It’s usually women and children, who are high school dropouts, really doing incredible, intense, complicated ministry.”

In addition to experiencing and participating in the Brazilian ministries, Whitaker said one of the most rewarding aspects of the trip was the group dynamic. None of the women knew each other beforehand, and in each city they visited they exchanged roommates in order for everyone to become close friends.

“That was a wonderful experience, to share that, to have gone to these places and seen poverty,” she said. “…It was a life-changing experience. I think it’s going to really make them mission leaders in their local churches. One of my aims was to empower our clergy spouses to have a real mission in life and not just be appendages to their spouses. Clergy get to go off on mission trips all the time, and clergy send their teenagers to summer mission trips all the time. This is something particular for clergy spouses.”

The trip cost each spouse between $2,000 and $2,500, which included flights within Brazil to the different locations. Each team member was responsible for raising her own funds.

Whitaker is planning a similar trip to Guatemala, and a summer trip designed especially for spouses who work as schoolteachers.

One goal of the trip was to equip the team to become mission interpreters for the conference, especially related to the annual One Great Hour of Sharing offering, which provides funds for UMCOR’s administrative costs.

Team members are available to work with Florida Conference churches and groups on mission interpretation. Churches are asked to contact each team member directly.