BWA: A passionate evangelist

Former BWA President Nilson Fanini has died


Washington, DC (BWA) --Nilson do Amaral Fanini, president of the Baptist World Alliance (BWA) from 1995-2000, died on Saturday, September 19, in Dallas, Texas, in the United States.He was 77 years old.

Fanini, of Brazil, who was hospitalized with pneumonia a few days after arriving in the United States to visit family on September 11, suffered a massive stroke on September 16, and slipped into a coma.

Prior to his election as the second BWA president from Latin America, Fanini was a BWA vice president, a member of the BWA General Council,the Evangelism and Education Executive Committee, and the Evangelism Workgroup,among other appointments.

Fanini was a 14-time president of the Brazilian Baptist Convention, founded the Baptist Theological Seminary of Niterói in Brazil in 1984, founded a nationwide project to print and distribute 25 million Bibles in Brazil, founded and hosted a nationally broadcast weekly evangelical television program, and founded Reencontro, a social service organization that included an orphanage, a day care center, 19 medical clinics, mobile ambulances for low income pregnant women, a bakery for needy children, and a two-year vocational college.

The Brazilian Baptist leader pastored three churches in 54 years of ministry, including First Baptist Church of Niterói, close to Rio de Janeiro in southeast Brazil, which grew from 740 to approximately 7,000 members from 1964 to 2005. He founded Memorial Baptist Church in Niterói in 2005, which had attained a membership of approximately 600 persons at the time of his death.

He received theological degrees from South Brazil Baptist Theological Seminary in Rio de Janeiro and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, and studied law at Fluminense Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.

"I have received the news of the sudden home call of Dr. Nilson Fanini with much sadness and express my sincere condolences and assurance of prayers to Mrs. Fanini and the family," said BWA President David Coffey. The BWA leader described Fanini as "a great friend and encourager to me in my own ministry," and declared that though Fanini "was a distinguished Brazilian Baptist pastor and evangelist who brought the wealth of his experience to the international ministry of [the] BWA," he was at heart "a local pastor."

General Secretary Neville Callam, in stating that the BWA mourns the passing of Fanini, said that the former BWA president was a committed pastor with a deep concern for people in need. He was also an outstanding evangelist. "A passionate evangelist, Fanini travelled widely to preach the Gospel, and one of his deepest concerns was for every Christian to acknowledge the obligation to share the faith so that people would come to know the salvation that Jesus offers," Callam said in his tribute.

Fanini leaves Helga, his wife of 53 years, sons Otto and Roberto, and daughter Margareth.

Memorial services will be held on Saturday, September 26, at the Iglesia Bautista Getsemani (Gethsemane Baptist Church), in Fort Worth, Texas, and at Memorial Baptist Church in Niterói, Brazil, the following weekend. Nota à imprensa da Aliança Batista Mundial comunicando o falecimento do Presidente entre 1995-2000.





Postado por Thereza Christina às Terça-feira, Setembro 22, 2009