Aramis C. de Barros works with Interlink in Brazil. He is also the man responsible for designing the literature for Revival Movement Association.
Aramis kindly, and swiftly agreed to answer a few questions about himself and the mission he's involved with.
Thank you Aramis.
Could you share an overview of your testimony of Christ?
I was raised in a good family. Despite considering themselves Catholics, my parents were never quite envolved with religion. I went to Catholic high-school and started reading the NT at the age of 16.
Couple of years later, in 1984, a close friend became Christian and gave his testemony to me. This was the way God used to call me. The Lord touched my heart, saved me and start to change my life from within.
I became a member of a very small congregation. Six years later, I moved to an Independent Baptist Church where I still go up to this day.
After some time, I became conscious that I should use my talent not to make much money in this world, but to work for the glory of God and serve Him in His work.
I graduated in Social Communications back in 1988 and kept praying that some day a door would be opened for me in the work of God. That happened first in 1998, when I was invited
to teach Church History in a local Bible seminary; and later in 2001, when I became part of Scripture Gift Mission team, working as a Graphic artist.
You live in Brazil. For us in N.Ireland could you describe your country?
Brazil is an enormous country with almost 8.5 million sq km of area. It can be considered a continental country with so many different cultures among its population. In the South and Southeast region (where I live) you find more European-like people. These are the richest and more economical active parts of the nation. Back in the Northeast, you find Afro-Brazilians mostly (specially in Bahia state). Up in the North, by the Amazon region, there's a predominance of indian descendant people. These two regions are the poorest and less educated in the country. We have also the Central-west region, our fastest-growing frontier today because of the agricultural business. This region is becoming very rich due to those large plantations of soy and imense productions of red meat. Brazil has today the largest population of cattle in the world (not considering India).
The good thing about Brazilian people is the fact that we are the result of a long process of race mixture (European, African, Indian and Asian). If you look at me you'd say that I have basically an European look. But, I do have African and Indian blood in my veins. This mixture of races somehow makes people here very friendly and open to each other. Another important point for Brazil is the fact that, despite the enormous size of the country, we all speak the same language here, from North to South: Portuguese. This fact makes the communication easier for us. That means, as a Brazilian citizen you can travel thousands of kilometers speaking Portuguese and still be understood. That's a very good thing when the matter of preaching the Gospel is concerned.
You work with Interlink, a branch of Revival Movement Association. Could you tell us about the work and mission of Interlink?
Interlink was founded back in 2004 as a response to God's calling to Victor Cardoo. He had been working at SGM since its begining in Brazil. We became close friends before the time I worked with him there at SGM. When he started Interlink, he invited me to help him as a part of the board and to create Interlink's logo, which I succesfully did. Back in 2006, I felt God speaking to my heart that my time at SGM had ended. I was pretty much excited about the work God was doing through Interlink in Brazil. I manifested to Victor my clean intention to work with him at Interlink and also my desire to help Revival Movement with the talents God has given me. We kept praying about that for about 4 months.This dream became true in April 2008, when brother Samuel Adams graciously called me and told me that I was accepted to be part of RMA-Interlink team. I felt (and still feel) so much blessed by that.
Thanks to God's blessings thru you brothers of RMA, today Interlink is one of the largest missions in Brazil as far the distribuition of Bible tracts is concerned. We have been distribuiting over 10 tons of literature every month!
I work from my home office. I send artworks both to Interlink and RMA, in N. Ireland. Among the many things I do here I highlight these ones: translations from Portuguese to English, from English to Portuguese, from Spanish to Portuguese; evangelistc texts for tracts, booklets and ads; artworks for booklets, leaflets, banners, posters, ads, book covers, illustrations, powerpoint presentations, logotypes, order forms, websites etc.
Today, working for RMA and Interlink I feel that the Lord has responded my prayers of many years ago, when I asked Him to dedicate my life to His work and Word.
Blessed be His name!
You are the guy who designs the tracts, covers, leaflets etc for Revival Movement. Could you walk us through your creative steps, and what inspires and directs you in this?
First of all, I asked God to inspire and direct me in my creations. When I have to create a Bible portion, I usually identify the target-population for the message. It's much easier to communicate a message when you define your target-population. The message can be much more objective and focused. Then, I consider some of the characteristics of this population. For instance, if this target-population is youth and urban people, I will have to work with some special kind of graphics, to make the tract more attractive to them.
When I have to create kids tracts, then the work is much harder. That's because I have to draw all cartoons, give a good digital treatment to their trace and colour them. After that, I have to compose all pages, inserting the cartoons, balloons and Bible verses. For instance, a 6-column 4x1 children leaflet usually takes me one to 2 months of hard work!
With the word of God going out in such huge quantities, not just to Brazil, but all around the world. How important would you say it is to have attractive designs and formats and why?
I'd say that there are many ways to communicate God's precious Word. As far as printed materials are concerned, the use of specific colours, designs, formats and illustrations is a good way to improve our message and make our publications more and more attractive to the post-modern man. However, it's very important that we carefully consider the cultural traces of the people to whom we send our publications.
Finally, how can we be praying for you?
First of all, I praise God for all you who have faithfully dedicated your lives to the work of God and His Word. May God's blessing be always upon you.
I would like you to pray for the salvation of my 93 y.o. father, Claudino and 80 y.o. mother Nelita.
Also, I would like you to pray for my work, that God will give me the necessary creativity and inspiration to make publications that can be used as powerful tools in the hands of people who love to share the Gospel!
Again, I'd like to thank Aramis for answering these questions. I hope that every one else enjoys reading this as much as i have.
