Brasilia

Brazil was a great joy.  On the first Sunday, we did a typical On the Move whip around the churches (eight of them) at their evening services and, out of the dozen or so churches taking part, about 170 people turned up at the training evening the very next day! They were a lovely and enthusiastic bunch. The Brazilians really do know a thing or two about evangelism. When the mission started, it was incredible to see how the team members got 'stuck in', quite fearlessly, into the table conversations. All had been well organised, and within minutes I was being given completed response cards in a constant stream. When David and I did messages from the microphone (two per lunchtime), we found that most people at the BBQ would put their hands up to say that they had prayed the prayer and they were willing, without any embarrassment, to come to the front to receive personal prayer, a quick follow-up talk, and to fill in response cards. At the end of two days (the third was lost due to a permission issue), we had 295 response cards, of which I would estimate that about 270 were for people who were giving their lives to Christ.  Quite a harvest! The best thing was that a group of leaders, headed by our local organiser Paulo, was ready to set up On the Move Brazil (or 'Vamos Brasil') as a result of the mission. We even have a major future mission on the books, having been invited by the overall leader of 32,000 churches in Brazil to do a Sao Paulo mission next April, to which we shall come in support of Paulo and his team. I do feel that there is a significant partnership brewing between Brazil and our country, a sense which increased when we were presented with a Brazilian flag, previously used five years ago in a national prophetic act, where intercessors took a flag to each of Brazil's borders and prayed there for their country. The pastor concerned had kept it since then, but then felt God calling him to give it to us. What an honour!

Brazilian meat is something else.  At restaurants, the waiters just keep coming with more meat of every type, until you just have to say NO MORE! The barbecue food was excellent too. But it was HOT. We saw a new use for Yes ('Sim') leaflets. They were regularly being used as a sort of hat to shield people from the sun. 

We praise God for this brave nation, which already has a missionary zeal for the world. Pastors there were amazed by what they saw with OTM and said they had never seen anything like it – so lovely and so effective.

M.G. April 05