Brava Cape Verde, Island of the Brave.

     Brava, Island of the Brave. This quaint little island received its distinguished name from the hardtack sailors/Bravians, who once whaled in its waters. I think Brava has earned its name for another reason, the first evangelical missionary to Cape Verde, Jon Dios, was a Bravian and established the first congregation on the island of Brava. The church Jon established through his dedication to Christ call even in the face of fierce persecution, still stands in Brava’s capital, Nova Sintra. Jon’s bravery has brought hundreds of Cape Verdeans to the truth and cleared the path for future believers. The congregation Jon founded no longer meets in the building built in 1908 which was converted to a museum, now they meet in a newer building at the center of town.

      Brava is out of the way and seldom visited by the tourist that flood the more popular Islands in the summer months. It retains a homey feel mainly due to the small population (8000).  It has another title, “island of flowers.” It is indeed covered in many different varieties of flowers, but especially orange lantana, which means, many butterflies flitted about among the shrubs. There are two Nazarene Churches a few Adventist congregations on the island but there are some villages on the outskirt of the island that have no evangelical witness.

     Cachaco is one of these villages. Transport only goes to Cachaco twice a day, we just happened to catch the only yassi heading out there carrying a single high school student home for midday break. As we walked from courtyard to courtyard, we followed up on a lead that there were some Adventist in the area. “Adventist?” “No, no Catholic, only catholic here.” Finally one person said no but then changed her mind and pointed down a hill. This was a majestic walk down through fields of corn lined with lantana by the road sides. At the start of our walk we passed two very old women puttering about their porch they smiled and greeted “Bom Tarde” we smiled and waved back. At the end of the road we asked again, “Adventist?” “No, No there are only Catholic.”  We leisurely made are way back towards where the yassi was parked; he would not be going back to town for another hour. As we passed back by the old ladies they invited us to come up on their porch out of the sun… this is what I love about Cape Verde and West Africa, you don’t have to know them, you don’t have to have a purpose, you don’t even have to speak the same language, you can just come into their courtyard, sit and enjoy the shade with them. As we sat Rita commented on the heat of the day, and fumbled through a few sentence in Spanish maybe. The women laugh and their wrinkled tan faces beamed at us. Rita asked if they knew of any Adventist in the area and one of the ladies smiled broadly and motioned to herself and made some joke about her old catholic friend beside her not knowing the way. The two women laughed at her joke, you could plainly see decades of friendship were shared between them. We found her, the one old woman brave enough to embrace a religion other than her neighbors. That village was so full of beauty and peace, I pray the Adventist and Nazarene established on the island do not forget little Cachaco. I pray they continue to bring the truth to these furthest villages until they have their own congregation to stand as a witness to G0ds kingdom.