December 7, 2024
MARIETTA, Ga. — Lindolfo Dossantos, pastor of Eastside Brazilian Church, is one of the most personable, engaging individuals you could ever know. He was born in the city of Antonina in the state of Parana approximately 250 miles south of Sao Paulo, Brazil’s largest city.
As a young adult, Dossantos became the supervisor of 240 people in a large company that manufactured buses. At the same time, he also pastored a church that had an average attendance of 500 Brazilian believers.
However, Dossantos felt that God was calling him to come to the United States. He did not know English, but explained, “I felt like Abraham to whom the Lord said, ‘Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s home unto a land that I will show thee.’”
So, at 31 years of age the Brazilian pastor brought his wife, Luzia, and their two daughters to the United States. They settled in Lowell, Mass., in November 1998. In 1999, he started a Brazilian church 20 miles away in Nashua, N.H. In the providence of God, Dossantos met a gentleman who owned real estate. They became friends and it was not long until the Brazilian native was offered the job of managing one of his new friend’s apartment complexes - one with 180 units.
With the job opportunity and the new church start both centered in Nashua, the Dossantos family soon made the decision to move to the New Hampshire town where they would invest their lives until God gave further directions.
Dossantos immediately won the favor of not only the small Brazilian population, but of the government officials and civic leaders of Nashua. After the terror attacks that shook the nation on Sept.11, 2001, the city announced that they would have an interfaith prayer vigil to show the city’s loyalty and solidarity with the victims and rescue workers of the terrorist attacks in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania.
The vigil drew hundreds of people who held candles, sang “Amazing Grace” along with other hymns and patriotic songs, and offered many prayers by an interfaith group of pastors. Dossantos was one of the participants.
In the latter part of 2002, Lindolfo began to hear about the growing population of Brazilians in the Atlanta area and felt God’s divine nudge to think about moving south. Once the decision was made to head to Georgia, the mayor of Nashua, Bernard A. Streeter, who had selected Dossantos to pray for his inauguration, issued a Proclamation honoring the Brazilian pastor for “working diligently with the Latino community, helping numerous people in the community find employment through various work programs, providing marriage and family counselling, and serving as a representative of the United Foundation.”
The Marietta Daily Journal recently announced that the Little Brazil Foundation has been formed “to serve as a support group for the large Brazilian population in and around the Terrell Mill, Powers Ferry and Delk Road areas” of Marietta/Atlanta. Dossantos responded to God’s call to become a pastor to those people.
The native of Antonino, Brazil came to Marietta and started a Brazilian church in 2003 but had difficulty in finding a job to support his family. He first prayed for God to show up and meet his needs, and then began to pray for God to forgive him for failing to properly understand His leading.
Then he got a call from a pastor in Florida asking him to start a church for the Brazilians in Roswell. When Dossantos was called to Eastside Baptist Church to start a Brazilian church in April 2016, he responded in the affirmative and many of the people in Roswell followed him. Eastside Brazilian Church now averages about 130 in worship and the pastor commented, “We have had as many as 160 on a good Sunday.”
The worship services at Eastside Brazilian Church are beautifully orchestrated and Holy Spirit empowered ,featuring gifted singers and instrumentalists presenting inspiring music and challenging, passionate, biblically based messages by Pastor Dossantos.
Dossantos added, “We are a community, and our motto or theme is ‘Your Family in America.’”
The church is very busy. They have Sunday morning worship at 11:00 in Eastside’s Student Center auditorium. They eat together once a month. They have a special meeting for men and a special meeting for the ladies of the church each month. Each Thursday evening, they have a Bible study and currently the pastor is teaching lessons on the prominent characters in God’s Word. Most recently the study was on Jonah and “How to understand the storms in your life.”
The Brazilian church is very mission-minded and has decided to help a struggling congregation of people in Cuba and send them $4,500 every three months to help their impoverished members.
In August, the Brazilian church went to Camp Gideon at Lake Allatoona for what they called a “First Things First Retreat.” There were 19 people saved and baptized in the lake before the retreat ended.
Portuguese-speaking people from metro Atlanta will want to visit Eastside’s Brazilian Church on Dec. 15 for a Christmas celebration characterized by great music, a children’s feature and a message from the pastor.
Dossantos is a passionate Christian who takes his ministry seriously. He says he is greatly inspired and motivated by the Apostle Paul’s words in Acts 20: 22-24, “And now, behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there: Save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me. But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.”
