Who We Are
Planting Churches Among Portuguese-Speaking Peoples WorldwideOUR LEADERSHIP
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: Tim Shields
Tim has been HCM’s Executive Director since 2015. He grew up in central Brazil where his parents served as missionaries for close to 40 years. In his 20’s, Tim himself served as a missionary to Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Okinawa, South Korea, and Mexico. In this time, his ministry focus was Evangelism, Discipleship, Preaching, Teaching and Translation. Tim is trilingual with a command of English and Portuguese, and high proficiency in Spanish.
After serving four years in the Marine Corps, Tim earned four degrees of study: Bachelor of Science in Cross-Cultural Ministry, Master of Arts in New Testament, Master of Divinity in Christian Care and Counseling, and Board Certification as a VA Chaplain under NAVAC. Tim also served in the preaching ministry for eighteen years in four churches in Georgia, Tennessee, and Oregon.
Tim has been married to his lovely wife since 1985. Together, they have three grown children and three grandchildren.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
From left to right: Tom Moen, Hudson de Oliveira, Chub Nance, Jeff Heins, Anna Seley, Gail Long,
Tim Shields, Wayne Long, Peter Moen, Dwayne Dickson. Missing is our newest member, Martie Roe.
This group of great leaders is Hisportic Christian Mission’s Board of Directors. Among them are ministers, missionaries, church secretaries, veterinarians, and businessmen. All of them are members of partnering churches who share HCM’s vision. We are blessed to work with such a committed team.
OUR STORY
THE BEGINNINGS
After nine years of mission work in Brazil, Wayne and Gail Long returned to the United States in 1983 for a year’s furlough. During that year, Wayne was asked to be the Missions Interim Professor at Northwest Christian College (now Bushnell University). During research for his classes, Wayne found there were large population centers of Portuguese-speaking peoples in America’s northeastern New England states. With this discovery, God placed a love in his heart for this group, and he set out to find ways to reach them for Christ. After much prayer, he and Gail sought wisdom and confirmation of the Lord’s leading through friends and church leaders, and with their encouragement founded Hisportic Christian Mission.
THE VISION
From those beginnings, a vision was born: To take the Gospel of Christ to the thousands of Portuguese-speaking peoples in their own heart-language in New England. For this to happen, the mission would recruit Portuguese-speaking pastors to plant Portuguese-speaking churches and focus on the Portuguese, Cape Verdean, and Brazilian ethnic groups in the United States. The first step in fulfilling this vision was the Long’s move to Rhode Island in 1984. From that central location, they began their outreach in New Hampshire and New Jersey.
THE IMPACT
In these 30-plus years, HCM has been instrumental in planting over 50 churches in the United States. The mission has helped train dozens of pastors, prepare hundreds of qualified lay leaders, baptize thousands of new believers, restore countless homes and families, help the addicted to overcome substance abuse, rescued the depressed and suicidal who had lost hope, and much more. None of these people would have been reached if Hisportic Christian Mission had not answered the Lord’s call to bring them the Gospel.
LEADERSHIP TRANSITIONS
After 22 years of service, Wayne retired in 2006 and Carl Bookout was called to fill the Executive Director’s position. Carl had been on the mission’s board for 16 years and knew the ministry’s work well. He continued the vision and helped plant several more ethnic churches among the Portuguese, Cape Verdeans, and Brazilians. He and his wife Naomi even moved to Brazil for 6 months to learn the language and establish lasting relationships with the Brazilian Christian Churches. These connections helped HCM pursue its goals more effectively. Nine years later, Carl also retired, and Tim Shields was called to fill the slot in 2015.
GROWTH AND EXPANSION
Tim came on board at a critical time of growth and expansion. Hisportic Christian Mission had become a global mission in the year 2000 when it expanded its boarders into the former Portuguese colony of Guinea-Bissau, West Africa. The work in Guinea-Bissau was arduous and in 15 years it grew to 6 churches and 2 elementary schools. However, in 2015 the fruit of their labor began to show, and in a few short years they grew from 6 to over 20 churches and from 2 to 3 schools. In addition, they envisioned opening a bible institute (IDE: Institute of Development and Evangelism) to officially train their growing leadership. The growth in Guinea-Bissau is ongoing and the mission is giving continual attention to their building projects.
In 2017, Hisportic Christian Mission expanded its global boarders once again. In two consecutive years it conducted two ministry surveys of the small Southeast Asian country of Timor Leste, also a former Portuguese colony. Through these surveys, Hisportic Christian Mission formally adopted the country as a mission front and is actively recruiting new missionaries to the field.
In 2018, Hisportic Christian Mission was challenged to expand its global boarders once again with an outreach to Goa (an Indian state that was a former Portuguese colony). A veteran missionary family with 5 years experience in Goa sought a partnership with Hisportic Christian Mission. After months of preparation, they began this new ministry in January of 2020.
NEW VISION
With new growth and expansion comes NEW VISION: To take the Gospel of Christ to the millions of Portuguese-speaking peoples in their own heart-language Worldwide. For this to happen, the mission is prayerfully forming an international corps of missionaries from various nationalities (American, Brazilian, Papuan, and Indian) to reach those with greatest need and who have the least opportunity to hear God’s Good News.
THERE ARE 8 COUNTRIES AND 2 ENCLAVES THAT SHARE
THE PORTUGUESE HISTORY, CULTURE AND LANGUAGE.
TO DATE, HCM IS IN FOUR OF THESE TEN LOCATIONS.
