Graystone Presbyterian Church

Michael and Irene Sivalee
Residencial Paineiras
Apartamento 1001
Rua das Paineiras Sul
Lote 05, Aguas Claras
Brasilia, D.F. 71929-180
Brazil

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Mission co-workers Michael and Irene Sivalee have served with the Independent Presbyterian Church of Brazil (IPIB) since 1982. During their current assignment, they teach at an extension of the Rev. Antonio Godoy Sobrinho Seminary of Londrina, Parana, that the IPIB has opened up in Brasilia, Brazil's capital city. The aim of the new branch is to help train pastors to serve in central and western Brazil.

Michael teaches pastoral care and counseling and biblical theology to second-and third-year students. He also serves as dean of students. Irene teaches Christian education, organizes the library, and staffs the seminary office. Both the Sivalees counsel students.

Prior to their assignment in Brasilia, the Sivalees served for many years as "church planters," starting and growing new churches in Pará (north Brazil) and Bahia (northeast Brazil). From 1994 to 2002 they taught at the Center for Missionary Training (CTM) in Cuiabá, Mato Grosso, in central-west Brazil. In 2002 and 2003 the Sivalees were missionaries-in-residence with the Office of International Evangelism in the Worldwide Ministries Division.

Irene is the daughter of Presbyterian missionaries Robert Lodwick and Irene Alderton. She was born in Rio Verde, Brazil. Her great-grandmother’s brother, Edgar Pinkerton, was a Presbyterian missionary in Brazil in the nineteenth century, and her aunt, Margaret Lodwick Pittman, served in Brazil for 25 years following the death of her husband, who was also a missionary.

Born in Thonburi, Thailand, Michael grew up in the Roman Catholic Church. He is a graduate of Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary and a minister member of Cincinnati Presbytery, where he served the Seaman and Cherry Fork Presbyterian churches. He has a doctor of ministry degree from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary in pastoral care and counseling.

Irene and Michael met at Warren Wilson College in Swannanoa, North Carolina, where both earned undergraduate degrees in elementary education.

Irene, who has taught school in North Carolina, Kentucky and Ohio, is a member of Mt. Olivet Presbyterian Church in Trenton, Ohio.

Birthdays:
Irene - June 7
Mike - November 18