In a rural setting in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, Matt Bonzo, feeling like a foreigner, presented an essay in a conference at the Abraham Kuyper Study Center.

Bonzo, associate professor of philosophy at Cornerstone, spent 10 days in Brazil in October 2006, attending the conference and interacting with the people.

According to Bonzo, the Kuyper Center is interested in developing Christian worldview thinking in a Brazilian context. His essay was about globalization and justice; he hopes it will eventually be published in Portuguese.

Bonzo says that the Kuyper Center’s goal is to establish a Christian university in Brazil, but other steps must be taken first. “Within the next year they are going to be starting a L’Abri [Fellowship],” he says. “It would be the first one in South America.”

There are eight L’Abri Fellowships worldwide. Their purpose is to provide a place for people seeking answers about life and God. The first was established in Switzerland by theologian and philosopher Francis Schaeffer in 1955.

Michael Stevens, associate professor of English, has discussed the Kuyper Center’s goals with Bonzo and shares his impressions.

“I think evangelicalism has sprung up and begun to flourish in Latin America without a lot of philosophical roots,” he says. “One of the lessons that evangelicalism could learn is, ‘What are your intellectual moorings?’ We know how wide it is, but how deep? They are asking those kind of questions at that center.”

He also adds that a connection to this center could change the way Cornerstone looks at cross cultural missions. “Beyond service projects,” Stevens says, “what would it mean to go [to Brazil] as a ‘philosophical missions trip,’ maybe help them with [establishing] their L’Abri?”

That is Stevens’ thought, but Bonzo did not indicate that such plans are being made. “I do look forward to going back and staying in contact with this group,” Bonzo says. “There are probably 10 core members and they have reached out to 100 graduate students or so with a vision of what they want to do.”

While in Brazil, Bonzo also visited the country’s second largest city, Rio de Janeira. “Clearly the language is different [from ours] but the culture was different too,” he says. “I have been to Europe several times, but I truly felt like a foreigner [in Brazil].”

On his way from the airport to the conference, he also says he experienced the fright of praying for his life in the backseat of a taxi. “The driving habits of Brazilians are to go as fast as possible,” Bonzo chuckles, “right until you get to the car bumper in front of you and slam on your brakes.”

Despite his mild case of culture shock, Bonzo plans to return to Brazil as God allows.