Bio

John and Juanita Garland served together in Brazil from 1978 to 2016. John came to know the Lord as his personal Savior while studying at Clemson University after receiving a gospel tract on the university sidewalk. A group from Bob Jones University was instrumental in discipling him, and after graduating he went to BJU to prepare for the mission field.

Juanita was raised on the mission fields of Peru and West Africa and met John while teaching in a Christian school in South Carolina. When they were married in June of 1975, their honeymoon was an eight-week mission trip to Canada with the Bob Jones University mission team, through which they received invaluable training and a confirmation of God's call to the foreign mission field.

In 48 years of church planting in the Federal District of Brazil, the Garlands saw the small body of believers grow into a missions-minded group that helps support six Brazilian missionaries. In 2007 the church sent out its first "home grown" missionary to Mozambique, Africa, as a full-time missionary. The Garlands turned the work over to a national pastor and made plans to move to another location upon returning from furlough begun in 2016. In April 2017, John was diagnosed with cancer and two weeks later was called home to Heaven on May 1.

Juanita has since moved from Brasilia to Rondonia, a state in the southern Amazon region, and the Lord has allowed her to become part of a team that includes her daughter, son-in-law, and two American couples. They are planting churches and reaching out to the many indigenous groups within a three or four hour distance from the city they live in.

Juanita is privileged to be able to be a part of the music ministry, teach the children’s Sunday School class, and work with the women of the church. She is especially thrilled with the opportunity to do one-on-one Bible studies in her home, and she is asking the Lord to use her in more lives.

Whenever they have activities that she is not physically able to participate in, she has discovered that providing food and sometimes even her home can also be a ministry! 

To view Juanita Garland's photo gallery, click the picture below.