Dear Friend,
We continue to be excited to see how the Lord is working in different countries. In this report we look at the country of Brazil. In our ministry this is the second largest country to which we send supplies of Literature. The population is 185 Million people. This year we plan to send 5 Container loads of literature to Brazil as we try to fufill the many requests which are being received in the depot. We could not do this work without the support of our many friends at home whose financial and prayerful support is so necessary. We know that the Christians in Brazil and in other countries are so grateful for the supplies of Gospel Literature that they receive. So often they ask that we express their thanks and appreciation to our very generous supporters.

The following is a report concerning the visit of Samuel Adams to Brazil from the 12th to the 22nd of October.
Upon arrival in Brazil my first day was spent at our literature depot. It is known as Interlink Mission Agency. Having visited the depot in 2005, just after it was formed and had commenced the distribution of our literature in Brazil, it was immediately obvious that the work of the depot has really developed and matured as an organisation. Victor Cardoo continues to lead the team with Sueli Crawford who works in the office dealing with letters from all across Brazil, requests for literature from their internet website and also many orders which they receive through phone calls.

Samuel makes up all of the orders and organises the dispatch of parcels of literature – both large and small. Due to the size of Brazil and many legal complexities, they have to use a series of different transport organisations depending on where the literature is going to and the size of the order. Samuel is ably assisted by Thiago a young Art College student who works as a volunteer. As he only attends College in the evening he likes to come and help during the daytime.

They also have other volunteers who come and help in various aspects of the work. Aramis is also part of the Interlink team, although he is involved in the graphic design of tracts and other literature – not only in the work in Brazil, but also for all of our literature. As there is limited space in the depot he works from his own home.
They are delighted that we have been able to ship so far this year 4 container loads of literature. They told me that, up to date, they have already sent out 61 tonnes of literature which consisted of over 2,000 orders since the beginning of the year. In a few weeks’ time the 4th container load of literature will arrive in the depot.
During lunch I had the opportunity of meeting with the board of Interlink Mission Agency. These are friends who have stood by Victor, and the team, and have been a real help and encouragement to him. I took the opportunity to thank them for all of their help in the ministry of literature distribution in Brazil. While they, in turn, passed on their thanks to all the supporters of Revival Movement Association on behalf of many Christian workers from all across Brazil who have received supplies of literature. They are also very excited to see how God has been using the ministry and we pray together that many precious souls will be won to the Lord Jesus Christ as a result of the tract distribution.

In the afternoon we had a 3½ hour drive to another city where a Missionary Conference was being held. People had travelled from all across Brazil to attend this Conference and we were told that over 1,600 people had enrolled to attend, while others from local churches in the area would also attend the Conference. Many different Mission Agencies had display stands letting people know about their ministries.
Interlink had a large display stand with Victor, Aramis and Samuel all helping. They had sent in advance a lorry load of literature to the Conference. The first meeting of the Conference was held on Monday evening and I was very pleasantly surprised to see the amount of interest that there was for the literature, even on the first evening. Many people came and requested sets of children’s Bible lessons and also requested quantities of tracts. For some this was just a few hundred tracts, while others took full boxes of tracts and Gospels of John.

Each person who requested a set of Bible lessons was asked to put their name and address on a sheet of paper to be added to the mailing list later, so that they can be informed as to when new tracts are available. Many were enquiring for more details about the work and others told us that they would be filling in an order form and sending it to the Interlink office after they returned home.
It became very clear to me that there is a tremendous enthusiasm for missionary work within the Church in Brazil. The people attending this Conference were so enthusiastic – not only at our display stand – but also as they went round many of the other Mission Agencies.
One of the leaders of another Mission requested us to meet with him. At that meeting he outlined a major project that his own Mission is organising to reach boys and girls and young people all across Brazil with the Word of God. He explained to us that their vision is to encourage local churches to go into the schools and hold Bible study clubs for the young people. As these clubs would be operated from local churches this would then give the young people, who would attend a Bible study, a local church contact as well.
It is not always easy to gain access to the schools in Brazil in order to teach the Word of God, so they came up with an idea on which the project is based. He explained to us that many schools have specific problems with their young people and the idea would be to visit the Headmaster of a school and to ask what specific problems the young people in his school are facing. The Mission has identified 12 different problems and they would offer to come and speak to all of the pupils in the school on this specific problem – such as violence or bullying etc.

Their teaching to the pupils would all be based from the Bible and, at the same time, they would present the Gospel message. During the presentation to all of the pupils at the school they would then announce that there would be further Bible studies for the young people to attend. This Mission leader then requested us to supply him with Gospel tracts to give to every pupil in a school when they do these presentations.
I enquired as to what size of project he is thinking of. He explained to me that they would probably ask 2,000 to 3,000 churches to be involved and that they would expect, at least, 1,000 of these churches to take up the challenge to go into the schools. He estimated that they would need to have about 3 million Gospel tracts for distribution during the first year of the programme. We asked him to give Victor more details concerning the project and we agreed to see if we could help in this project of reaching many young people with the Gospel message.
By the end of the Conference over 1,000 sets of children’s Bible lessons had been distributed and, altogether, 2.2 tonnes of literature had been taken for evangelical work. No literature was returned to the depot at all! Victor and I left the Conference after a day and a half to fly to Manaus for a missionary Conference with Mr Fred Orr.

 

We received a tremendous welcome in Manaus with a whole group of people meeting us at 2 a.m. in the airport in Manaus! It was tremendous to be able to renew fellowship with many of these friends – including Fred Orr and his family. Manaus is a city on the river Amazon with a population of 1.7 Million people (the same size as N. Ireland).

Victor had been experiencing problems with the transport companies who had been delivering literature to Manaus State. The problem arose as the literature was being sent free of charge and therefore there was no commercial invoice. We talked to Fred Orr concerning this problem and he immediately advised us to meet with someone who knew the person in charge of this legal side of the work in Manaus. Much to our amazement, an appointment was made for Victor that afternoon and he was assured that, as the literature was sent free of charge, he would be exempt from having the requirement for commercial invoices. This was a tremendous encouragement to Victor and the team.
On our first evening we attended the Hebron Bible Seminary which Fred Orr commenced a number of years ago. The students who attend this Seminary meet 4 evenings in the week for different lectures. Many of these students already hold full-time jobs and they come directly from their jobs to the Seminary in the evening and are really dedicated in their study of God’s Word. During the missionary weekend in the Hebron church I got to know some of these young people and began to see how God has been working in their lives. It is thrilling to see young people who have given up top quality jobs as they now have a vision and passion to reach out to other people in Brazil with the Word of God.

We had a tremendous weekend of meetings with a church packed each evening and, sometimes, there was an overflow upstairs where the whole service was relayed onto a big screen. The services each evening lasted for about 2½ hours. It was so encouraging to see people who are eager to learn and to know more about missionary work. It was very obvious that Fred Orr has not only built up a tremendous church, but he has also taught and inspired these people to have a burden and vision for missionary work. This was especially obvious before, and after, the services as the people flocked to see the missionary stands and to see pictures of all the different aspects of the ministry.

It was not unusual for us to have a whole crowd around our stand trying to see the pictures and asking all sorts of questions. On one particular evening, Victor went to the door to shake hands and left me at the stand. I had many people asking questions in Portuguese which I could not understand and then, all of a sudden, I suddenly found a little girl asking a question in perfect English. When I answered her, the other people all noticed and they began to ask her their questions in Portuguese and she, in turn, acted as my interpreter. Later that evening I discovered that her father was one of the Seminary students.

One day we met with Pastor Messias who is the leader of Every Home for Christ in Brazil. He was also visiting Manaus during the missionary weekend, as the mission had just obtained a new boat so that they could do evangelism on the river Amazon. They plan to have a dentist and a doctor who will travel with some evangelists up and down the Amazon and stop with the people who live alongside the river – both to help them socially, and to share the Gospel message. We also met with the local evangelists who will be working from this boat. They also shared with us their great appreciation for all of the supplies of Gospel literature which we have sent to them during the past few years.

Each Friday evening the Seminary students go down to the river where many of the passenger boats meet. The students divide into groups of two and move through the crowds of people sharing Gospel tracts, Gospels of John and taking time to explain the Gospel message. For those who would be travelling on the boats they are grateful to have something to read during the long journeys which can last for days. Through this means the Gospel message can be spread up and down the whole river Amazon.

On Sunday morning Fred had arranged for me to speak in another large church in Manaus. This church holds 3 different services each Sunday morning in order to accommodate all of the people who attend.

As we left Manaus Fred Orr asked us to send his prayerful regards to the staff and all his friends at home – thanking them for all of their support and encouragement.
As I travelled home I was really encouraged to see that in Brazil there is a real burden amongst many of the Christians for missionary work throughout our world. Even though many struggle financially there are those who are going as missionaries to other countries while others have a vision to reach out with the Gospel to their own people.