Naomi Keefe

Naomi's mission work

Naomi is working with the Presbyterian Church of Brazil. Since the start of 2012, Naomi has been working alongside the Peixinhos congregation of the Presbyterian Church of Brazil (IPB) and more recently with the IPB congregation of Beberibe.

Naomi is involved in empowering the local church to start to question what it is that God has called them to do amongst their communities in sharing the Good News of Jesus. Encouraging, training and facilitating them in this process of beginning to think for themselves and prayerfully work out what God has called them to do together, is not only challenging, but is also a long-term process. She is also involved in the production of contextualised, evangelistic and discipleship material particularly for illiterate and functionally illiterate families.

Naomi comments, “Paul in 1 Corinthians 12:27 addresses the local believers and describes them as follows, ‘Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.’ The work I am involved with in Brazil is very much based on the theology behind this verse. God has called and equipped the local believers with the specific task of bringing glory and honour to his name in both the building up of the local believers and in reaching out to the lost with the good news of Jesus. Hence it is the local believers who are the body, and it is God who has appointed each one with differing gifts. I offer training and specific teaching material designed for working alongside poor communities. I am not the one doing the outreach, setting up the programme or running the project, as I am not a body-part of the local church. I am not a member of the local body, but rather have been sent out to help the local body work better, particularly in relation to reaching out to the poor communities with the Good News of Jesus in a biblical, culturally and contextually appropriate form.”

Naomi’s work can be best summed up as church-based and Bible-based community development and evangelistic outreach with the local body parts being involved in various outreaches including; reading room activities, Coffee with God Bible studies, Good News Club activities, football evangelism, film days, family visits, street evangelism presentations, nursing home visits/evangelism, etc.

All the various strategies and activities have the purpose of equipping and encouraging the local congregations to be the witnesses in their communities that God in Acts 1:8 has commanded them to be.  As Naomi comments “my prayer is that together we will continue to see children, young people and adults around us each day as Jesus Himself sees them “harassed and helpless without a shepherd”; “lost souls” for whom Jesus came “to seek and to save” and that we will have the same obedience to the “Heavenly Vision” as the apostle Paul.”

From 2005 to 2011, Naomi worked alongside the IPB congregation of Casa Caiada and local churches within the neighbourhood of Aguazinha, seeking to help these poor and marginalised people by sharing the gospel with them.

Before going to Brazil, Naomi was a Biology teacher at Hunterhouse College in Belfast. She spent two years (2000-02) as a volunteer in mission in the Valley of the Lord Orphanage in Recife, Brazil. She also has a Masters’ degree in Theology from Queens University Belfast (UTC) with specific emphasis on how best to work with children at risk in Brazil. Naomi´s home congregation is Sloan Street Presbyterian Church, Lisburn.

Latest Report September 2026

I wonder can you put these 5 words in the right order: 
Believe, call, sent, hear, preach. 

During the past couple of months, I have enjoyed sharing with many of you of how the volunteers in both Beberibe and Peixinhos communities have been learning and putting into practice what the Bible says about the importance of sharing the good news of Jesus. 

During my deputation time here in Ireland I left the volunteers of Beberibe with a challenge. This challenge involved them prayerfully asking God to give them the name of someone they know who does not yet know Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. They were then to ask God to give them the opportunity to have a conversation with this person with the view of presenting them with either a Bible or a short story book of Mary Jones and her Bible. It was great to see everyone in the group including the children take up the challenge and I look forward to hearing about their experiences when I head back to Brazil and of how God has opened up opportunities for sharing the good news of Jesus with others in this way. 

Believing that “Everyone who Calls on the name of the Lord will be saved”. In Recife and Olinda we are praying that the Holy Spirit will use each of us as we are sent to preach, that others will hear and believe and will call on the name of the Lord. 

Romans 10:14-15 “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” 

Whether it is through street evangelism events, Reading Room activities in the poor community, Books in the Park, Good News Club activities, Football Evangelism, visits to the Catholic Old Peoples’ Home, family events, ‘Coffee with God’ Bible Studies, all these methods of bringing good news are very different.

Our desire is that in bringing good news, preaching in these ways, many will hear and believe and will call on the name of the Lord and be saved as the Holy Spirit works upon them. It is encouraging that as the Christians in both Beberibe and Peixinhos are sent out into their communities many of you here in Ireland are praying with us that God will bring many adults and children to himself as they call upon him. 

In the story of the Samaritan woman who Jesus met at the well her 7 words of good news (John 4:39) were used by God to bring ‘Many’ to know that “Jesus is the Saviour of the world.”

How ‘many’ do you think ‘many’ is? Is it as one young girl said to me on one of my depution meetings when I asked this question - “11.”? Is it 100, 200, 300 or as on the day of Pentecost 3000? In both Beberibe and Peixinhos communities we are praying that as we preach “Many” will come to know Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. 

Thank you for your prayers and support as we go into the communities of Beberibe and Peixinhos with this desire that “Many” will “Call on the name of the Lord and be saved.”

Prayer Points

• Give thanks for the encouragement of meeting up with many of you during my time in Ireland.
• Continue to pray that the Holy Spirit will cause many to call on the name of the Lord and be saved.