“It’s like they’ve all taken on a whole new identity!!” The words danced in my ears. PAZ church planter Jorge had phoned from across the river, his voice bubbling with the good news.

Cell group in Mulata. Above: PAZ church planter Jorge (right) with helper Naldo.

Though his evangelistic cell group in Mulata had for months been meeting regularly, and the members would sing the praise songs and listen attentively to the Gospel, none had made a decision to give their lives to Jesus. It stunned us, on our visit last week to his cell, that all nine of them prayed the sinner’s prayer after hearing yet another telling of the Gospel, this time from two Gringo ladies—Seacoast team member Amie and me, using the Evangecube to illustrate. I had been suspicious because ALL of them raised their hands and prayed. Were they just trying to please the Gringo missionary?? Did they understand the commitment to Jesus as Lord of their lives? Were they really ready to give up their old lives and renounce their sin? Would they truly be born again? I hated the thought of them being “inoculated” against the Gospel, thinking they’d met Jesus when they hadn’t.

But God does amazing things, doesn’t He? This seed is particularly exciting, as it’s the first cell group of believers in Mulata, a community of about 2,000 people. May the Lord help them each to grow and become strong, and plant many other seeds among their neighbors and family.

Raising a truss for the PAZ church.

They are in good hands with Jorge, who makes the 2-hour trek from his home in Monte Alegre to lead the cell group every week. He is truly a gentle and loving soul, totally committed to serving the flock with which God’s entrusted him.

Jorge is also helping restore the PAZ church in the community of Estrada D, about an hour and a half by washboard dirt road from Mulata. That’s where the Seacoast team’s main construction and evangelism efforts were focused last week. Estrada D ( or, “Highway D,” so-named because the dirt road that encircles it forms the shape of a D), must resemble the Garden of Eden, with dense jungle and fields of baby palms nestled in the sunlight among rolling hills. Its 200 or so inhabitants have felt abandoned—by fallen church leadership and politicians alike. The visit from Seacoast’s team was hugely blessed in Estrada D as well. Believers were encouraged, walls of mistrust were broken down between the community and the PAZ church, and the Gospel was clearly preached, with ten people making commitments to Jesus in door-to-door evangelism.

Roseane and José, new believers in Estrada D.

Seacoast Church, from Charleston, SC, has sent six teams here to PAZ, but several members said this trip was their best ever. Why? It’s clearly because they bathed the whole trip in prayer before they came, and prayer was a central focus throughout. The half-finished building became a temple of the Lord when the team joined with workers from the community and beyond, in concerted prayer, dedicating bricks and cement and sand to our transformational God. What a mighty God we serve! The hills rang out as you could see this place being a lighthouse for all around.

We thank God for His great mercy in using us to His service. Thank you for partnering with us, and for your faithful prayers on behalf of the precious people of the Amazon!

Leave a comment

I had the privilege, just a few weeks ago, of attending a Sunday evening church service in Cuiabá, one of PAZ’s newest bases. When Pastor Sabá invited people to come forward to give their lives to Jesus, among those moving from their seats was a young couple, holding hands. We later learned that their marriage was in shambles and that they had been invited to church by members who lived near them.

Many have participated in the great work God has set before us.

By noon on Monday, a cell group leader had already met with them, paired them with strong disciplers, and encouraged them in their new walk. The joy of the Lord was already evident in their faces and their lives. Two days made a difference for that young couple.

It’s faith in action – God in action – and it’s happening all over the Amazon Basin. It’s happening in tiny jungle villages and large cities like Cuiabá. And it happens because God is moving in Brazil and because you support the mission, these church leaders, and their work.

Along with testimonies like this we have had so many things to be thankful for during this year:

• Faithful contributors and dedicated prayer warriors.
• Growing churches and new church plants (more than 60 just from the base in Santarém this year), in big cities and river villages, and thousands coming to the Lord!
• New, thriving bases in Sinop and Cuiabá, preparing leaders to reach out way beyond those cities.
• Life-saving water filters and health services taken to remote areas all throughout the Basin.
• Much-need relief provided in devastated Japan, thanks to the PAZ Brazilian team and your support.
• Individual lives, families, and communities changed forever by the Gospel, brought to them by PAZ missionaries and Brazilian leaders.

We’re now moving ahead into all that we’re called to do in 2012 — build churches, provide reliable transportation for local leaders, develop powerful educational materials for those just coming to faith. And the list goes on.

Your prayers and generosity have been so important during 2011. We’re counting on you as we go forward.

Donate

Leave a comment

Dear Friends –
We wanted to take just a moment to thank you for your prayers and update you on our rapidly approaching relief team trip to Japan. While Japan is not often in the news these days, the devastation continues to effect lives of precious people, and even though many relief organizations have left the country, there is still so much to be done. Tim and Christine and the church in Japan continue to give help and encouragement, and our team is so eager to lend our hearts and hands to this important work for two months. We’ll be clearing rubble and rebuilding homes and in the process, sharing the love of Christ.

We have purchased our tickets and just received the visas for the Brazilian members of our team. We were concerned about these visas and are so thankful that it’s all worked out. It was quite a process, but one of the Brazilians went to Belem and personally handed the paperwork for the team members in to the authorities there. He waited a little over a week, going after all the documents that they kept asking for, but praise the Lord, the visas were finally released!

All of the Brazilian Christians in all our churches are so enthusiastic about this trip. To be reaching out to help the Japanese, and to assist Tim and Christine, is a blessing to the church, here, too. We’ve put together a short presentation to remind the churches to pray for the team and the people we will minister to while we are gone. We’ve attached that, hoping that you, too, will be praying with us all throughout the trip.

We’ve been blessed by wonderful financial contributions to make this trip a reality, but are still short of our goal. We have some expenses that we still need to cover and we very much want to have funds available so that we can respond to needs that we may find once in Japan. Would you please pray with us that the gap will be filled quickly? With a departure date of August 29, we are trusting God to meet these needs through our friends and supporters. If the Lord should lead you to give, we’ll put your contribution to such good use. There’s so much to do! We appreciate you so much.

Donate to Japan Relief Trip

If you are able to support this important trip, please click the donate button. God bless you – and please do pray for each team member traveling to Japan and for us (Becky, as team leader in Japan, and Jeff, remaining in Brazil to lead the work here). Thank you!

Leave a comment (1)

Over 30 years ago, Luke and Christine Huber moved their family to Santarém, in the heart of the Amazon Basin, to begin planting churches and making disciples. Santarém soon became the home base of Project AmaZon and expanded to plant more and more churches around Santarém.

Pastor Geraldo talks about the team.

On July 3, 2011, Project AmaZon celebrated another historic milestone. Pastor Sabá and his wife Joanna with their team of 71 people were consecrated and officially sent off to start PAZ’s 15th base in the city of Cuiabá, capital of the Amazon-Basin state of Mato Grosso. Pastor Abe Huber delivered a timeless message that included many stories of his parents Melvin and Katherine Huber, missionaries to Brazil over 50 years ago. All of what is happening in and through PAZ and its churches today is because of their faithfulness to God and His calling.

The Cuiabá team is comprised of fruit-bearing members of the PAZ church in Santarém. The church is taking care of all the expenses of the church-plant. Even so, many of these members are moving by faith alone: without any promised jobs or income in the near future — just like Melvin and Katherine when they moved to Brazil. The last three bases that PAZ planted — Sinop, Fortaleza and Boa Vista — were team plants like this one and have been amazingly fruitful in the short time since their planting.

The Final Frontier

Now that the base in Cuiabá is being started, there is only one capital city left to reach of the Brazilian states that make up the Amazon Basin: the city of São Luís (Saint Louis, anyone?) in the state of Maranhão (not Missouri). Each base is responsible for church-planting in their respective capitals and states — reaching the whole Amazon Basin for Christ! But PAZ is already looking further down the road: All of Brazil. Her neighboring countries. Africa. A world-wide movement of church-planting in the MDA vision of cell groups and one-on-one disciple-making.

The Cuiabá Team being commissioned.

Leave a comment

Our missionaries Tim and Christine Huber have lived and served in Japan for years. They have planted several churches in Japan and have recently shared with us what life has been like in Japan since the earthquake. This article comes straight from their blog.

Tim and Christine Huber

We were all shaken up by the biggest earthquake we have ever felt here in Japan. Things were falling out of the cupboard and shelves and smashing on the floor. We didn’t know if the whole building was going to collapse or not. Since then we have felt many aftershocks, and other earthquakes. Not long after the first quake, we learned that there was a huge tsunami in Sendai, only about 5 hours’ drive from where we live in Tokyo. The pictures were sickening. You can see some of them here — I’m sure you have seen plenty yourself. I copied them from the internet. We ourselves are well, in spite of all the continuing aftershocks, lack of food in the stores, gasoline being rationed and very hard to find, and the radiation scare from the nuclear power plants only 150 miles away.

HOWEVER, that is nothing compared to what others are experiencing. Our mission and churches are now collecting relief supplies and donations to be taken to the stricken areas. Tim and assistant pastor Yasu, are planning to take the first relief trip by van on Monday, the 21st. We hope to be taking many trips, because one trip is like a “drop in the bucket.” We hope to be working together with other churches here in Japan, to not only take supplies for physical needs, but emotional help for the many who are completely traumatized.

Today marks one week that their lives were completely turned up-side-down, in one short moment. We need you to help us reach out to them with the love of Jesus — that people who have never heard of His love and power might experience it right now. Let’s join together to show these precious people that they are not forgotten. God loves them and answers prayer.

Donate to PAZ Earthquake Relief

To stay up to date with updates from Japan, visit PAZ’s facebook page.

Leave a comment (2)