Elcio received the call to serve as a missionary-pastor aged 20 in his native Brazil when he was working for an export company at São Paulo airport. He’d been brought up in an evangelical family but had never thought about learning another language or going to live in another culture. After completing his theological studies, Elcio did missionary training with YWAM and started working with Amazonian people groups before moving to south-east Brazil where he worked among the poor in the slums of Belo Horizonte. Elcio, Sueli, and their two young sons (both now adults) then spent 12 years in West Africa, where they learned French and started a centre to train young Guineans for mission. After another period in Brazil, the family flew to England to work with a Portuguese-speaking church before moving to France in 2013 where Elcio & Sueli served as the pastoral couple at the Perspectives church in Asnières-sur-Seine. In 2021, they took over as the new pastoral couple in Châteauroux, following Paul & Marjorie Dowling’s retirement. The church aims to share God’s Word and welcome with those who don’t yet know Him.