Congresso da Paz 2010 was a huge success. The Paz worship team ministered powerfully and launched their new CD. Missionary/Pastor Abe Huber delivered the Word of Life with anointing and conviction. The testimony of ex-soccer player João Leite had a huge impact. The three-night drama involving huge sets, dances, a sweeping story-line awed and inspired. But more than ever this year, God took center stage as there were a number of awesome healings including a deaf woman hearing and speaking again, a wheel-chair bound paralytic walking. Tumors completely disappeared and bad backs were completely restored (just to name a few of the healings that took place). But that doesn’t even mention the greatest miracle of all — salvation — of which 1,374 people gave their lives to the Lord! Hallelujah!

Each one of these new Christians will be visited personally by a cell-group in their area (if they don’t already have one). They will be invited to the cell group and well cared-for, receiving one-on-one discipleship and growing in the vision of the church — to win their family and friends for Christ and disciple them. Please pray for the church now, that we would not lose a single new convert during this critical time. Thank God for His awesome move of healing, salvation and grace that only seems to grow every day here in the Amazon! Now follow along each night through these pictures and be inspired and blessed by all that God is doing.

Congresso 2010: Sunday Night

Friday, July 4 | Santarém Brazil | Photos: Micah Gregory

One of the things we always pray for during Congresso time is that there would be good weather. That way people are encouraged to come. Also, our huge sets sit outside the whole week before the Congresso, so rain and storms can easily damage them. Sunday night, just a few minutes after the Congresso began, the skies opened up and started to pour down rain. In spite of the rain, praise and worship continued on with even more determination and focus! It was as if God’s grace poured down from above and everyone was soaked in the presence of God. After the rain stopped, it was much cooler and the whole support team had time to touch-up the set before it went out. And the stadium was still jam packed.

Click to see more photos from Saturday and Friday on the following pages.

Leave a comment (5)

View our latest 4-page letter featuring the story of Cídia and the new base plant in the strategic city of Sinop. Want to help with the one-time start-up costs of this new base in Sinop? Donate to PAZ’s Sinop Base Start fund.

DonateView Letter

Recently, PAZ has been busy investing in Sinop — a strategic city located several hundred kilometers south of Santarém along the muddy Cuiabá/Santarém Highway. We recently sent out a letter detailing the exciting and challenging venture of starting a new base there, our 12th in the Amazon Basin. These bases are the launching points for church-planting in the unreached areas around them (read more about how this works and see an interactive map of our bases). We’ve sent some of our best and most fruitful pastors to be missionaries in another critical area of Brazil that has yet to hear a clear presentation of the Gospel!

In this letter you will read the testimony of team member Cídia, who — in-spite of making a blood pact with the devil — had a powerful encounter with God that changed her life and the lives of people around her forever. You’ll also read about the work starting in Sinop and how the new base is already moving forward, seeing fruit from their efforts. We also present a great Kingdom-opportunity to you: to give to the one-time start-up costs of this base plant. Praise God, His Kingdom of Light continues to expand in the darkness!

Leave a comment

3-day National Fast, Feb 4, 5, 6

Today marks the first day of the 3-day national fast for PAZ and our churches. All church leadership and members are encouraged to join in and seek God intensely during this time, especially in the following areas:

• Direction and wisdom for PAZ leadership in how to strengthen our current churches and where to plant new churches.
• For the transportation needs of our workers and pastors (boats, canoes, trucks, bicycles, etc).
• The finances to cover the expenses of our workers and transportation costs.
• For more quality workers, supervisors and local leaders.
• More health trips that open the doors to church planting.
• For leaders to be faithful with their statistics.
• To strengthen our 500 churches and plant 500 more by 2014.
• For 120,000 disciples in Santarém by 2014.

We have some big kingdom goals! Would you join with us to see God’s favor poured out on us even more as we put together all the details of planting 500 more church by 2014?

Leave a comment

The Christmas Service at Igreja da Paz Central

Last night we here at PAZ headquarters in Santarém ushered in the New Year at the church on our knees, seeking the Lord’s blessing on 2010. During the service we looked back at all the successes of 2009. While we are still waiting for numbers to come in from across our bases, through just our church in Santarém, 3,989 people gave their lives to the Lord at the alter in the church!!! Hallelujah!! And this does not include people who gave their lives to the Lord at this years’ Congresso da Paz.

Each and every number represents a person whose life and eternal destiny was changed forever. Each and every number matters because it speaks a story of forgiveness and redemption that only Jesus can bring. And for each of these people, this is just the start of the journey, not the end! Now they will be strengthened in their cell groups and in a new Bible School EMP that just started this last year. They will be encouraged to grow and become leaders through one-on-one discipleship, of which the church finished out the year with 23,346 disciples (people involved in one-on-one discipleship)!

Health and Water Filter Ministry

This year was also a very busy year for the health and water filter ministries here at PAZ. Quoting from the blog of missionary Ken Orr, who along with his wife Isaura coordinate these ministries:

Our health ministry team (left to right): Ken, Isaura, Rebecca, Luana, Juliana, Silvia, Vanessa, Carla, Adriano

We visited 43 communities, where doctors gave medical attention to 2,210 people, nurses treated 1,460 people of things like worms, cuts, bruises, etc. and dentists improved the smile of 1,612 people. All of this is good, but what made the exercises worth our time and effort was the honor of being used by God to usher some 284 souls into His Kingdom.

Since we joined the Water Filter Project in June, we visted 27 comunities, that together have close to 1,000 filters. Of these, 315 filters needed some work to be done because of the terrible flood season we had this year. We trained 29 local church workers on how to maintain the filters working in top condition.

In July we temporally closed the filter factory so we could concentrate our efforts on the filters compromised by the flood. Consequently we were only able to make 625 new instalations in 2009. This brings the total number of filters installed during the 10 years of the project to 10,065.

I encourage you to visit his blog to see video they produced and look at pictures from their ministry this year.

God is blessing His work as we seek to be in the center of His Will to make disciples and plant churches. It is met by many, many challenges but it is also met by a God who is with us to do His work through us. Your partnership with us is bearing great fruit for God’s Kingdom and we look forward to seeing what God will do this next year!

Leave a comment

In the last year, the PAZ church in Santarém has undergone a revolutionary change: what was once several different PAZ churches in and around Santarém has been radically united as one church with several campuses, or nuclei. We call it the Fusion.

Pastor Geraldo

The details of this huge fusion fell on the shoulders of Pastor Geraldo Batista, Santarém Base Leader and Head Pastor of Igreja da Paz in Santarém. He and his team of pastors led the year-long process that involved combining the pastors, resources, members and structures of already existing PAZ neighborhood churches into one city-wide church. The result has been extraordinary, for both the already large Central church and the other churches involved in the fusion, adding even more momentum to a move of God that will capture all of Santarém for Christ. Igreja da Paz in Santarém now has 40 services each Sunday, over 4,000 cell groups and an estimated 32,000 attending the cell groups! Consider how the church has unified in the following areas:

• Preaching

The same word is preached each Sunday in all of the 40 services held throughout Santarém. The leadership training TADEL is the same at all the nuclei (campuses). Each week a pastor develops his sermon and then distributes it to other pastors who preach at the nuclei (campuses). The local churches greatly benefit, hearing the same excellent messages week after week, personalized by the individual preaching pastor.

• Pastoral Staff

The pastoral staff of the local churches have been brought on board the general staff and now receive the same great teaching on disciple-making. They are also being personally discipled by key pastors at Central who are able to pass along the same MDA vision that has been so fruitful at Central church. This has made for a powerful pastoral staff full of gifted teachers, preachers and disciple-makers.



Pastor Geraldo leading the packed 7 PM service at Central

• Space

For years, Central Church has been running at full capacity, hosting 7 2-hour services each Sunday at their downtown campus. The need for more space has been a hindrance to the phenomenal growth. Before the fusion started, Central began renting a local Community Center to host an additional 5 PM service. This was costly and became a strain on the pastoral staff and ministry teams. Now, after the fusion, there are many options for a person wanting to go to a service at 9 AM, 5 PM or 7 PM (peak service times). Central remains packed while local neighborhood churches have seen a boost in their attendance as well.

• Vision

The vision of our PAZ Churches is clearly stated in the slogan: “All the world discipled – Every disciple a committed leader.” And just as Project AmaZon has the short-term goal of a total of 1,000 churches by 2014, Igreja da Paz in Santarém has the short-term goal of 120,000 disciples by 2014!



Model of the new Cathedral of Love

• The Future

To accomplish this vision, we’re going to need much, much more space. Igreja da PAZ in Santarém has been planning the construction of the Cathedral of Love, an impressive building with seating for over 10,000 people! The challenge has been given to the local church to give sacrificially in faith to see this great work happen! We are working on all the necessary preparations to have a groundbreaking ceremony before the end of the year.

And this is only the beginning because our vision is to continue to send fruitful, disciple-making teams from Santarém and plant them all over the Amazon and in the capital cities of Brazil. We will use the same biblically-based, fruit producing approaches (such as MDA and Social Assistance Ministries) currently used in Santarém to win Brazil for Christ!

Leave a comment