It has been really on my heart the last few weeks to go on outreaches to plant churches in "the interior" (the villages, towns and cities further inland, in the countryside). The places that have been less reached with all forms of the gospel.
And a few weeks ago a minister from a small church in a little community, Serra do Felix, of about 3,000 people, found our team and asked us to come share with them about missions… or something. It was really vague, but yesterday 4 of us went to do a meeting with their church Saturday night and then today about 30 of them had breakfast with us at the church and another time of worship and ministry. I was so refreshed by the dirt roads, and random donkeys and cows and chickens roaming the streets, and being able to walk across town in 15 minutes. They were so hungry to experience more of God. I really felt that they have a kindred spirit with us as a group, and that some of them will go out as missionaries and that they have a heart to cultivate the presence of God and to pursue him diligently and to love well. It was my first time to go with our Iris Fortaleza team somewhere outside of the city.
God really met us, and met the people there. We came with great expectation, but God really surprised us and did more than we could have imagined! We were sooo excited to participate with him. God really brought out a new level of authority in teaching, and preaching and leading in Ned. And God introduced something of a new intimate and personal way of worshipping there. And he gave Bruno words of knowledge for healing, and all of us many prophetic prayers and words for the people there. And he healed a mans vision who had cataracts. And he gave Paulinha a prophetic encouragement for the church. And he let many people encounter his presence thru prayer and impartation. I got to practice a lot of Portuguese!(and Praise God its getting fun to successfully communicate some of it) Since I didn't have a translator during ministry at the end of our first meeting, I felt just to hug the first person, without asking what they came to receive healing for… And it was one of those hugs that became really long and I could tell God was doing something, she just melted in my arms and eventually she just fell back on the ground and laid there. And I thought to myself, oh, thats what God is doing. ok then. So I just kept praying over people gentle and slow and hugging/singing/ saying actual words occasionally. The people were in no hurry. They were encountering God personally. I asked several different people from the church to help minister to one another to come help lay hands or pray or hug another person. One mom who was struggling with depression, really got touched and a lot of soaking prayer from different people and she really had break thru. And a group of teenagers at the end of both meeting would just stand in a circle together worshipping/praying and laughing or crying or whatever, just wanting to keep experiencing more of God. It was really amazing to see so many people's countenances change after their encounters with God. He is so good, and so personal, and he loves so well.
In our time together this morning, after worship, we felt to pray for the kids and to have them minister to the adults. But by the time we finished praying for the kids, they were mostly all lying on the floor continuing to receive from Jesus. One boy, Santiago, 9 years old, he really went for it as we brought him to pray for people. It was amazing! And he and another teenager prayed for a woman's shoulder injury to be healed, and her pain left. Some of the other kids kept coming to get us to pray for their other friends that had wandered into the meeting. One boy, who was a trouble maker, they asked to Bruno pray for. And during the prayer, he fell back and afterwards Bruno asked what he had felt, and he said that he had a vision. He had been taken to heaven and Jesus was talking with him and asked him to sit down, and Jesus prayed for him in the vision. Whoa!
One of the young people asked me afterwards if we had an anointing at our church for people getting slain in the spirit and falling over, haha. I said, 'I don't know, I guess now sometimes we do, this has never happened to me so much before. God does something different all the time' :)
It was a beautiful beautiful time of loving and showing the love of God and seeing all the unique ways that God was touching people.
I felt that I wouldn't be surprised if some people from that church come with us on outreaches to plant churches in less reached parts of the interior. They seemed like partners and family in the Spirit. God really connected us on purpose :) I am praying we can go back soon and maybe some of them will get to come to some of our training weekends here.
More of you God!!! Thank you for showing up in love and power! And thank you for such a bold and hungry team to run with!
