Archive for July, 2009

  • The Heart of Brasil

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    Brasil is at a turning point spiritually. Revival is about to break out here. The expectation of revival and the glimpses of it that are happening now are just that, glimpses of what will happen. God is about to show up in a way that will rock Brasil and the world for eternity.

    When true revival breaks out here, God will show up in the favelas and rock the charts that say 5,000 young people between 12 and 19 years of age are murdered each year. This revival will rock the charts and bring that number down, and cause the drug lords to stop using drugs, and traffickers to put down their guns, and cause street kids to return home, and parents to stop abusing their kids.

    My place in this crazy world is becoming more clear. I will go back to Curitiba early next year to work with LAR Hope, a project forming in a poor area of Curitiba. From Curitiba this work will expand to other cities and towns and will raise up kids and youth as leaders of this new revival. I can see the youth of the nation, the youth of the churches, the youth of the streets, called by God to change lives here in Brasil and all over the world.

    How powerful would it be for a kid from a Rio slum to put down his gun and drugs and serve God and go to Africa, to Sudan. He could tell the kids in Sudan who are fighting the war there that life is precious and they should put down their guns too. Only the Holy Spirit can bring this intense change that is needed for this to happen.

    There are places in the world that only Brasilians can go to witness because they will be able to identify with the people more than white Americans. What if a team from Brasil went to Mozambique? They could preach without a translator, or with only one translator in the tribal areas. They could go to Beira and completely identify with the people there- a city like Brasil, created and devastated by Portuguese rule.

    So I say “Yes” and “Amen” to this move of God here. We wait expectantly for this revival to break out of the churches in Brasil and break lose in the favelas (slums). It is coming and we are the ones who will be working in it. We, those here, working here, Brasilian church leaders, foreign missionaries, worship leaders, youth leaders and leaders in the church, will be on the front lines, moving Brasil from a nation of receiving missionaries into a nation of sending missionaries. What an awesome priviledge this will be! I’m excited for what God is going to do here!

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    Brasil está num ponto de mudança espiritualmente. Avivamento esta a ponto de estourar aqui. A esperança de avivamento e os vislumbres de avivamento que acontecem agora são exatamente isso, só vislumbres do que acontecerá. Deus vai aparecer de maneira a sacudir o Brasil e o mundo inteiro pela eternidade.

    Quando esse real avivamento estourar aqui, Deus aparecerá nas favelas e transformará as estatíticas que dizem que 5.000 jovens entre 12 e 19 anos são mortos com a violença nas ruas cada ano. E este avivamento fará com que os líderes do tráfico parem de usar e vender drogas, e abandonem suas armas.

    Meu lugar neste mundo louco esta mais claro agora. Eu acho que eu vou voltar a Curitiba pra trabalhar com o LAR Hope e de Curitiba, esse trabalho aumentará para outras cidades e levantará jovens como líderes deste novo avivamento. Posso ver os jovens da nação, das igrejas, das ruas, chamados por Deus para transformar vidas aqui no Brasil e tambem no mundo inteiro.

    Quão poderoso seria seum menino que mora na favela no Rio largasse as armas e drogas e viesse a servir a Deus na Africa. Ele poderia ir ao Sudão e dizer pra os meninos que estam em guerra lá que vida é preciosa e que eles devem também largar suas armas.

    Somente o Espirito Santo pode trazer este mudança intensa necessária para que estas coisas aconteçam. E há lugares no mundo que somente os brasileiros podem ir evangelizar, porque eles podem identificar-se com o povo mais do que os gringos.

    O que aconteceria se um equipe do Brasil fosse a Moçambique? Eles poderiam pregar sem um tradutor, ou eles precisariam de somente um tradutor nas tribos. Eles podem ir a Beira e completamente identificar-se com o povo la- Beira, como Brasil, é uma cidade que foi criada e destruída pelo os portugueses.

    Então, eu digo “Sim” e “Amem” a este movimento de Deus no Brasil. Nos esperamos com expectativa pelo avivamento sair para fora das igrejas e atingir as favelas. Ele está vindo e nós somos aqueles que vão trabalhar neste. A gente, os que trabalham aqui, as igrejas brasileiras, os pastores e lideres das igrejas, lideres de jovens e jovens nas igrejas, missionários extrangeiros, e os lideres de adoração, estarão na primeira fila, mudando o Brasil de uma nação que recebe missionários em uma nação que os envia. Que privilegio imenso isso será! Eu estou com grande expectativa para o que Deus fará aqui!”

  • From Curitiba

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    Hey Everyone!
    I’ve just arrived in Goias state of Brasil, near Brasilia… But since I’ve just arrived, I have no news from here, but plenty of news from Curitiba, where I spent the last week and a half.

    I was in Curitiba for a conference/outreach that involved about 120 Americans participated in, and then about 200 Brasilians attended the conference, and many helped out with the outreach as well. The conference consisted of many classes on how to teach and how to pray for people, as well as intercession. I enjoyed the seminars, but I think I enjoyed getting to know people from all over Brasil even better. I really felt like I needed to go to the conference to make connections of people I will be working with here in Brasil, and I did meet people who I am planning on coming back here and working with.

    The first few nights of the conference, Randy Clark, and American evangelist, spoke and then the people who were on the team from the US prayed for people, the tent and churches that the meetings were held in were packed!! We saw lots of people get saved and lots of people get healed from every type of illness, from a little boy who had a high fever, and we saw his fever go down in minutes, to blind people seeing, lame people walking, and deaf hearing. It was awesome! God did alot of things in people’s lives there.

    The second part of the conference, we broke up into groups of 12-15, which included Americans and Brasilians, and we went out into local churches and we did evangelism in the streets, and had meetings at night in the churches.

    On the street in the center of town, we came across a large group of teenagers, really ghetto kids, into hip hop and all. One of the Americans on the team is a youth pastor and he has a club for kids, so he just started talking to the kids, telling them about the club he has and how much Jesus loves the kids who go to his club, and how much Jesus loves the kids we were talking to. I was translating for him, and some of the kids were just listening, really attentive, really taking in every word he was saying. What an awesome opportunity to tell these kids about Jesus!!

    I had a really good time and made some really good friends, some of whom I will see in Rio when I go there, and one of whom I am staying with right now! I’m taking a few days off here, my body’s immune system is pretty low, and I’m feeling a bit sick today, so I just need to rest. We had a very busy schedule in Curitiba, but it was so worth it! God really showed up there, and we had an awesome time working with the Brasilian churches there.

    Prayer Requests:
    That the door stays open for me to go to Iris Ministries in Sao Paulo
    Good health
    Praise for safety traveling to Goias (15 hours in the car…)
    Praise for all the things God did in Curitiba

  • Nova Friburgo

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    Sending greetings from Brasil! I’m still in Nova Friburgo, but will be heading to Curitiba, a city further south, tomorrow for Randy Clark’s Youth Power Invasion conference. I’ll be attending the conference and then the second half of it is ministering in local churches, and I might be translating for that.

    As I come to the conclusion of my time in Nova Friburgo, I am reminded once again that the people here are not inherently evil, the kids who make trouble in the neighborhood are not bad kids. They are wonderful. Some of them are really good artists! We all have the chance to do good or to do bad. We all have that option.

    Because of God’s grace, we have chosen to do good, to love God, to love people. Others have not chosen so wisely, and so have wreaked havoc on their lives and the lives of the people around them. I think of the mother that came asking for help for her and her many kids last week. She had no food, blankets, no clothes for her little kids, no toilet paper or laundry soap. The church here helped her out as much as possible for a small not-too-rich church. I could only cry out to God when I saw one of her boys in the street the next day, dressed in really dirty clothes, just looking awful.

    Sometimes I wonder what God is doing when I see awful things happening all around, when I see poverty and desperation like there is here, and all around the world. Then I look at the kids from the church here- the ones who know Jesus. They are absolutely wonderful kids and are rising above their circumstances. Youth group this week was about what dreams they have for their lives. They want to finish high school, do a course (kind of like an associates’ degree), go to Africa with Iris, study in the US, have kids, be a missionary. Its absolutely wonderful. There is hope rising above it all, hope rising above this little hill here, we just need more of it.

    Iris needs alot of help here, more hands to do more work, as well as finances to help these kids actually get to Africa and other places. And finances to help the people like the mom who needed help. The need is overwhelming when you look at it. Few wealthier churches here want to help out the masses of people living in favelas here, probably because the need is so great.

    I am feeling a bit overwhelmed at the immensity of the needs everywhere I go in the world, Africa, Ecuador, New Haven, Brasil, even my little town of Ansonia has big needs. I want to help everywhere and everyone! But I can’t! So, I stop for the one today, and stop for a different one tomorrow. I’ll help one person today, and show love to another person tomorrow. I can’t do it all, but if we each stop and love the one person in need in front of us, we will truly make a bit of God’s Kingdom come down on earth. (I love Heidi’s teaching… I’ve learned alot from it and am putting it into practice daily still)

    So, gente, my encouragement to you today is to love the one person in front of you. And if any one of you feels led to help out these people in Nova Friburgo more, please let me know. I’d love to see these kids go to Africa.

    Prayer Requests:
    Safety during travel tomorrow
    Conference and ministering in the churches to go well
    Direction for me as to what to do after the conference
    Trina and Paul, the missionaries here as the deal with transitions in the ministry here
    That the work of Iris in Rio state will bring in much fruit in the coming months

    Thank you for all your prayers!! They are so needed!
    Deus le bencoa