Rick's father, Daniel Bomfim, purchased the lower part of the property in 1975, when he came to the area of Santa Barbara as a Methodist evangelist. He and his wife, Dona Noemi, built a home there. In the 1980's, Rick was able to purchase the property and begin the Daniel Soares Bomfim Mission. The upper part of the property was subsequently purchased and developed in the late 1980's.
Over the years it has been developed into several sectors: the church building, the mission offices and feeding program facilities downstairs and the medical clinic (now closed) and American quarters are upstairs. In the American quarters are 11 rooms for sleeping, bathrooms, a kitchen, a dining room, and a garden. When groups come on short term mission trips to the Daniel Soares Bomfim Mission, they are comfortably housed and fed in the American quarters. A long series of steps connect the upper part with the lower part. In Brazil you are either going up or you are going down! That is part of the fun.
