The Most Remote Place I’ve Ever Gone With The Gospel

I just got back last night from an 8-day trip to the Amazon. We went 20 hours down the river and had two dentists and two doctors on our team.

The people live in board houses on poles and sleep in hammocks. Many of the children had teeth rotting. Most of the people who came had never had a consultation with a doctor in their lives. Now the houses have electricity from solar panels outside due to a Bolsonaro government project that installed them two years ago, but before that, they burned oil. Just having electric lights is a huge improvement. Oil lamps are hazardous, causing fires and emitting toxic smoke. We brought food staples and medicine, and I loaded all my luggage with about 150 New Testaments to distribute. Some people read, but many are also illiterate. They said 10,000 villages in the region don’t have a gospel presence. Next time if possible, we’ll plan to bring audio Bibles too!

I can’t keep track of the miracles, but they started in the airport in our home city, Goiânia. Two old ladies received healing in their knees, and one in her shoulder. She’d broken her arm six years ago and it still hurt. The pain left and she moved in a way that hadn’t been possible before.

We boarded a ship in Belem and were on it for 17 hours. Everybody hangs their hammocks on the ship. I went around the ship talking to people in their hammocks and praying for everyone I could, giving New Testaments to people who said they didn’t have one. I didn’t keep track of how many people were healed. After the ship, we took a smaller boat for another 3 hours.

The Brazilian couple who established the missions have a technical cooperation agreement with the municipality, so the missions base has a school and a public health base. The teachers’ salaries are paid for by the goverment. I shed many tears in prayer for the move of the Holy Spirit in the region of Marajó. We prayed over the school and several of the girls began weeping and wailing with God’s love for the children. We need more people who will let Jesus cry through them!

We had two days of evangelism, going from house to house by boat, and there were several miracles as we visited people. In one house, the mother said they hadn’t had anything at home to eat for days! We gave Bibles to families that didn’t have one. We also had our team’s day at the missions base. The event was publicized and people came from all around to get medical care, dental care, a big meal, and food staples to take home. I went from place to place praying for the people in line for medical care, helping at the children’s event, and praying for people standing around outside or having coffee on the boat.

Everything that happened is too much to recount, but I can share a few highlights. At one point, the line at the medical clinic was really long and I came back to pray for the people there again. Jose said that the line got short again when I was there praying for people because they were getting healed by the Lord instead and leaving the line! One lady had pain in her body and hepatitis. The pain left and her abdomen got really hot. I believe that if she is tested again, she will test negative for hepatitis.

Attacking Satan’s Work By Ministering Healing

I prayed for a lady outside who had a large tumor on her neck with lots of pain. The pain soon left but there was still a mass there. I wanted to pray more but she didn’t want to anymore and seemed not to care that the pain was gone, although it had been significant. We prayed and the pain left, so why not keep praying until the tumor is gone? Later I saw her consult with the doctor. She just wanted medicine in spite of what the Lord had done for her. She told the doctor it didn’t hurt but gave no honor or glory to the Lord.

Many children and also adults showed signs of sexual abuse…they would look away in shame and some would not speak. The woman who received healing of pain from the tumor in her neck rents out her young daughters for a week or two as slaves…those who rent them put them to work and use them for sex. At least one person on our team was having a hard time loving that mom when they realized the situation! She commented “God is just” when she saw the tumor! However, God has often transformed the lives of some of the most wicked people so that his redemption and river of life flowed through them to others. Even the apostle Paul was once a terrorist! God is so rich in mercy that his mercy and goodness challenge us. He took the pain from this wicked woman’s neck even though she was selling her daughters, and even though he knew that she would respond with a hard, ungrateful heart. His mercy keeps pursuing people!

Those of you who’ve read my book “Jesus Has Come in the Flesh” will understand that ministering healing is attacking the spiritual structure behind violence and sexual abuse. When we go ministering healing in a place like Marajó Island, it’s about so much more than people’s bodies being healed. The goal is for people to encounter Jesus through the miracle, for Jesus’ name to be honored and known so people put their trust in him, and for the Holy Spirit to undo the spiritual structure that is behind the violence and systemic sexual abuse. Every miracle is a strike against Satan’s work. Healing ministry is spiritual warfare. By ministering healing to a woman who is selling her children, we strike the spirit influencing her to sell her children.

Many people in the region, even those who go to a church, go to a spiritual healer when they are sick. We demonstrate God’s power to turn people from the power of Satan to God. The man in the video clip above was paralyzed from a tumor and was suffering from strong chronic pain in his kidney. I prayed for him the day before at his house and the pain left. We prayed again here for the movement to be restored in his legs.

Acts 26:17-18 (NIV)  I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.

Praying for People on the Boat and Everywhere

Five men were in one of the largest boats on the dock, and they invited me to have coffee. People were also crossing over that boat because they docked their boats on the other side. The boat’s owner had very blurry vision and a pain in his side. We prayed and I invited the others to put their hands near him and feel God’s power. He felt heat touching his eyes and side, the pain left, and he started seeing clearly.

When the other men felt God’s power and saw what happened, everybody wanted prayer. All the men who asked for prayer received miracles, and others put their hands near and felt God’s power as heat on their bodies as they were being healed. Several received healing for vision problems that day, including one man who told us he was going blind.

Thanks to Elon Musk and Starlink, the ship and the mission base had internet! I thought I would be disconnected going to a place only accessible with a 20-hour boat ride, but I was wrong! One night I got a message from a lady in Rio Grande do Sul, which is the extreme south of the country and much more developed. She shared how she received prayer by phone last year and God touched several conditions. Her vision improved, she rarely has headaches now, the severe pain in her uterus is completely gone, and the doctor said she can become a mother now! A friend of hers was diagnosed with a tumor in the uterus, so she passed on my contact. I prayed for her friend far away from that remote region, and we are expecting more reports of Jesus’ mighty works!

We went to two church meetings on Sunday. One was an open area by the river bank, and the other was an Assemblies of God with a small building. Everybody goes everywhere by boat. There are no roads in the area. I prayed for several people during the service, including an old man and his wife. They told me nothing, but I came up to him and commanded his back to be healed in Jesus’ name. Later he responded to an invitation to receive Christ. After the meeting, they said his back had been healed and his wife felt relief from pain she had due to a big tumor on the back of her neck. I prayed again, and the rest of the pain from the tumor left. I also commanded her stomach to be healed without her telling me about the condition, and she confirmed she had the condition I prayed for. We are also believing for the tumor to shrivel up and fall off. We stand firm on God’s word, no matter what we see, and sometimes we only find out what happened long after.

On the way back in the airplane, I felt heat flow through my right knee when the stewardesses passed with the food. I asked the Lord which lady was the one with the knee pain and had an impression about who she was. She said both her knees were hurting. I told her “God’s glory is on you right now and Jesus is healing your knees.”

I will continue with another post sharing our experience with religion in Marajó and with the leaders and missionaries of the base we partnered with.