Floyd B. & Marie Sovereign  1946 - 1963

The Sovereign Family (L-R Paul, Marie, David, Floyd, Elizabeth)

       Floyd B. Sovereign and his wife Marie were appointed missionaries to Brazil in December 1946 by the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions which, at that time, was based in New York City. They took off on July 4,1947 with 6-month-old Elizabeth in a DC4 bound for Belem at the mouth of the Amazon with Richard Irwin, Rita Preddice, and four senior missionaries: Franklin and Jean Graham and Dr. Walter Wood and his wife. The next day they flew to Fortaleza and finally landed in Salvador, Bahia, where they remained for two weeks attending a meeting of North, West and Central Brazil Missions.

       After nine months in language school under the direction of Milton and Carrie Dougherty, the Sovereigns moved with the whole school to Campinas, Sao Paulo. After three months, they were assigned to work in Blumenau, Santa Catarina, where they found a small Presbyterian congregation already established by Theodore Hinn and Harry Midkiff.

  The congregation met in a shabby rented hall, but as soon as possible, they moved to a more centrally located and presentable rented hall.  They were assisted by a talented Baptist couple, a Methodist business man and several former Lutherans.  An active youth group formed the nucleus of a growing congregation. In 1950, Marie and Floyd moved to Rio do Sul, several hours away by wood-burning steam locomotive train or over a rutted road by car. They took over the field vacated by Maggie and Latham Wright, who went to direct the Instituto Cristao, a school in Castro, Parana.

       While in Rio do Sul, the Sovereign's son Paul was born. A jeep was assigned to Floyd to enable him to travel to Blumenau, Fruteira, Mosquito Grande, Serril, Lajes, Inferninho, Bom Retiro and other places where small groups of believers were struggling without a pastor. Following a year's furlough in New York, Marie and Floyd returned to Blumenau where the family welcomed a third child, David.  Land was purchased and money raised to begin building a church. A gift from the John Wesley Bible Class of Memorial Methodist Church in White Plains, New York provided the foundation stones (a Presbyterian church with a Methodist foundation!)

       From the moment construction began, funds kept coming in from U.S. supporters as well as commercial houses and individuals in Blumenau. The new sanctuary was dedicated on Sunday, May 20, 1956.  Hundreds of visitors came to celebrate, including friends from other places in Brazil. By then the Mission had purchased a nearby home to serve as a manse. In January 1958, Pedro Duarte, a graduate of Campinas Seminary, came to occupy the manse and become pastor of the Blumenau church while the Sovereigns moved to Campinas to teach at the Seminary.

       Due to Floyd's chronic bronchitis, Marie and Floyd resigned from the Central Brazil Mission and returned to the U.S. in July 1958.  However, the Campinas Seminary invited them back to teach in 1960, with Floyd to fill the vacancy left by Richard Shaull and Marie to teach English. The favorable climate in Campinas, and the fact that Floyd would no longer be involved in strenuous itineration, caused them to accept the invitation. They spent two and a half years in Campinas teaching classes and helping to reorganize the library.  Floyd was elected Dean of the Seminary. However, due to increasing political instability and unrest, both at the Seminary and in the country as a whole, the Sovereigns resigned from the Mission and returned to the U.S. in January 1963.