The Brazilian community of Southeastern Massachusetts is about to find a spiritual home in a former music studio in North Plymouth.
A small army of volunteers has been feverishly working to convert the recording warehouse behind the North Plymouth post office into a sanctuary for the First Brazilian Baptist Church of Plymouth.
Pastor Gessuy Freitas, who has been leading the congregation from the? Kingston Baptist Church, leads the construction effort as well, sectioning off rooms and offices around the central sanctuary in the brick-framed building.
Freitas has great hopes for the church as both a spiritual haven and community resource for the Brazilian population of Greater Plymouth.
Though his worship services typically draw about 80 people, there are an estimated 2,500 Brazilians living in and around Plymouth. The majority is thought to live in North Plymouth, within easy walking distance of the church.
Freitas moved to the United States from Brazil in 1986 and founded the First Brazilian Baptist Church of Greater Boston. He moved to Plymouth 11 years ago with his wife, Clarinda, and their son, Bruno, after getting calls for help from within the community.
Freitas said the local Brazilian population, then nearly twice as large, was in need of spiritual as well as community leadership. Despite a sizeable population, local Brazilians tended to stay to themselves, he said, unconnected with the community at large as a result of language barriers. In the last decade, many have returned to South America as a result.
In his role as pastor, Freitas has become a familiar face in District Court and at Jordan Hospital, where he regularly helps people understand their medical and legal issues.
Older residents otherwise depend on their children to help translate for them whenever they need to communicate with doctors or sign legal documents, he said.
Freitas and his wife hope the church, located at 5 Castle St., will help change all that for the better. He envisions a place where people can go and feel free to be with other people and to praise the Lord, yet also a place where they can also assimilate into the community.
North Plymouth native Rose Cain shared that vision and backed it up with a generous donation.
With Cain?s help, in September Freitas was able to buy the bank-owned warehouse he?d been eyeing for months. Once the former tenants moved out, Freitas and a group of volunteers set to work converting the old car dealership into a church.
Cain, a nurse practitioner who grew up not far away on Court Street, said she has been friends with Freitas and his wife for years and decided to help out once she understood the difference the church could make in the lives of the local Brazilian people.
?I really think the place has the potential to be the next step to revitalize North Plymouth,? Cain said. ?They?re on fire. They are so happy they?re finally going to have a focal point for their community.?
While Freitas has been an informal leader of the community for years, he has had to do much of his work from the rented space at the Kingston church, where services could only be held Sunday nights.
The Brazilian community has already turned out in force to help convert the building into a church.
The central sanctuary has been constructed and is surrounded by offices, but ductwork still hangs from the ceiling and finish work has not yet started.
With the help of his congregation, however, Freitas expects to have enough work done to hold a Christmas service in the new church.
The community at large has pitched in as well, donating building supplies and appliances for the kitchen. The church is still in need of commercial carpeting and furniture, if anyone would still like to help.
Freitas said he will continue to hold services Sunday nights and hopes they will draw people from throughout the community. While the service is spoken in Portuguese, simultaneous translations into English are available.
Freitas eventually hopes to offer language classes at the church, teaching older Brazilian residents to speak English while teaching the children how to speak Portuguese. Eventually, he wants to open the church after school to provide a place where children can go and have fun and feel safe while their parents are still at work.
Freitas said he expects great things because Brazilians are a faithful people and the church is the basis of daily life in their native land.
?We are not just opening the church to have another church,? Freitas said. ?We are here to stay.?
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