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.

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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.

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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!

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At 7:30 p.m., Monday March 29, the Paz Church in Santarém celebrated a new move of God.

Last night was historic for the Paz church in Santarém. We celebrated the laying of the cornerstone for the new church which will hold more than 10,000 people. This has been a church project in the making for a long time, and it was very emotional to see construction finally begin.

The Paz Church in Santarém was planted nearly 30 years ago by PAZ missionaries Luke and Abe Huber. Now pastored and directed by Brazilians, the Paz Church in Santarém has 45 Sunday services at different around the city. With over 5,000 home churches (cell groups) led by leaders in the church, there are an estimated 40,000 plus in attendance. Many services are so full that people are turned away because there is no more room, and these are the people most needing to hear the message of hope in Jesus Christ. They’ve added as many different screens, locations and venues as possible, but now, to fulfill the their vision of 120,000 disciples, a larger building is desperately needed.

Many years of preparation and planning culminated last night when a great celebration was held on the very land where the building will be constructed. A stage was donated to use for the event and was set up at the back of the lot. A huge crowd turned out to praise and worship our Lord for all the amazing things He’s done in Santarém, what He’s doing and what He will do. Thousands upon thousands crowded onto the church’s lot and passionately worshipped the Lord.

Pastor/Missionary Abe Huber spoke about how far the church has come, from its super small beginning to where it is today.

Pastor Abe Huber shared a powerful message about how the Lord is preparing His true temple — each and every believer that makes up His Church — to be the Church that will win and disciple the nations. This building is important because each and every person represents a soul of eternal worth to God — a soul that has been made with the purpose of being a temple of the Holy Spirit.

After the sermon, the cornerstone was brought out to be consecrated. Paz pastors — who have invested their lives for the Kingdom of God — spoke and prayed. Tears were shed over how much grace God has poured out over the Amazon in just the past 30 years. It was a powerful, prophetic moment as the whole project was put before the Lord — the next step to winning and discipling the people of the Amazon Basin!

The atmosphere was electric as the pastors descended into the middle of the crowd to lay the cornerstone. God’s presence could be felt as in tears the cornerstone was laid and the Church sang “God of this City.” Great things have happened, and greater things are yet to come, as an entire city is not only coming to the Lord, but producing a new generation of leaders to take the Kingdom of God to all of the Amazon, Brazil and yes — the world.

Slideshow

Click the first picture to enter slideshow mode to see these great pictures full-size. Then use your arrow keys to advance the show.

A special thanks to Micah Gregory for these great pictures. To see even more great pictures from this event, visit PAZ’s facebook page.

With thousands of new leaders being won and trained, your partnership with us is even more vital than ever. Having started these churches, Project AmaZon now supports our churches and their church-planting efforts. It takes large churches like the church in Santarém to support a huge church-planting effort to the rural and unreached parts of Brazil all around them. We have planted several bases across the Amazon and our vision is to equip our churches to win and disciple new leaders who will do the same. With thousands of new leaders being raised up to reach the rest of the Amazon, are you ready to join with us to equip these men and women of God and send them to the lost?! As you can see, our churches and the leaders they produce are having a huge impact. There are many practical ways you can get involved and help the Gospel go to unreached.

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Pastor Reinaldo has built the church — the people and the buildings for them.

Reinaldo and Virginia didn’t need Jesus. They had success. But in 1989 an illness in Virginia’s family forced them to leave the big city of Manaus and move to the tiny village of Anã, on the Arapiuns River.

“It was a very difficult time for us,” recalls Reinaldo. “We were not accustomed to life outside the city. I didn’t know how to hunt or fish. At that time, we had three children. Then our youngest got meningitis.”

Their suffering and desperation drove them to a PAZ prayer meeting in Santarém, where they both gave their lives to Jesus. Excited over the new life they found in Him, Reinaldo and Virginia returned to Anã determined to share all that the Lord had done in their hearts!

But the people in Anã were extremely resistant to the Gospel. Other missionaries had at various times tried to start a church there, but the villagers had refused even to let them land their boats.

“It was a shock to the people there when we gave our lives to Jesus,” says Reinaldo. “Many times they threatened me with death. At our first service, they fired five shots at us — two at the boat, and three over our house. There was a strong demonic presence in the community. When girls turned 12 years old, they would be overcome with demons, jumping and dancing in an evil way. Even the name of the village — Anã — comes from the name Moanã, which is a pagan god, or demon.

“Now, looking back, I can see that the spiritual pressure we felt in those days really contributed to our growth,” he adds.

Despite the opposition, Reinaldo and Virginia pressed forward. Often they would pray for the needs of those who persecuted them.

Reinaldo decided to build a little church on the outskirts of the village, thinking it would be distant enough from the community’s center to avoid trouble. Even so, the entire town leadership came out to the site with shotguns to try to stop him.

But Reinaldo stood his ground. “I told them that they could tear out the posts that I’d set for the building, but that I’d just build another one in the center of the community. At that, they gave up.”

But how were Reinaldo and Virginia to reach the hearts of these people with the Gospel?

Through prayer, they discovered that God indeed had a plan.

Anã was in desperate need of a government health agent to care for their many sick. Because of Reinaldo’s advanced education, the community leaders asked him if he’d be willing to complete the necessary training. Soon, he qualified himself for the post and was attending all the families in Anã, developing friendships and engendering trust.

One by one, the people of Anã came to the Lord through Reinaldo and Virginia's witness.

“One by one the people began to come to Christ,” says Reinaldo. “After four families converted, they asked me to move the church’s gathering place closer to the village center. But each time we brought up the subject at the community meetings, there was a big argument. A year later, after a huge fight, they decided to allow us to move the church to a piece of land closer to the village.”

The church in Anã grew like wildfire. “On weekends, after working at the health post during the week, I would visit other communities, evangelizing. I started seven churches!”

After receiving Bible training, Reinaldo was ordained as a full-time PAZ pastor, and founded a regional training center in Anã. By the grace of God, he now has supervision over 87 PAZ churches on the Arapiuns, the Tapajós, and portions of the Amazon River, with a network of volunteer leaders working under him.

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Zenilson

Meet Zenilson. He, his wife and family live near Aritapeira on the Amazon River. His home was destroyed by the record flooding and his family was forced to live in the shed behind their house. His wife began to look to God for help. She started attending the local PAZ church and invited Zenilson, who was not a Christian and had no desire to go to church.

Pastor Reinaldo, the overseeing pastor of the churches in that area, visited their house and after seeing the immense damage, he asked PAZ to help. PAZ first visited in late June when the waters had already subsided a full meter (and yet the ground was still covered with water). You could see how high the water rose on the walls. You could see that even though the house was standing, it’s structure had been completely ripped apart by the strong current and left barely standing. Plans were made to come back when it was dry enough to begin rebuilding.

In the meantime, Zenilson’s wife continued to invite him to church, and he finally went. Pastor Reinaldo began to visit them at home, and one day asked Zenilson if he had made his decision to follow Christ yet. After seeing the love of Christ in action, he made his decision to follow Christ!

Months have passed since the worst recorded flood devastated the Amazon Basin and PAZ began a special flood relief initiative to help the victims of the flood. With the help that you gave, we have sent out a number of teams to minister to the worst hit areas around Santarém, and lives like that of Zenilson’s family have been transformed. Houses have been rebuilt. Construction supplies donated. Churches rebuilt. Medical teams sent. Water filter have been installed and maintained. The Gospel has not only preached, but has been lived out in a very powerful and practical way. Hundreds of people have made decisions to follow the Lord as a direct result of the flood relief! These people have been integrated into cell groups, given the opportunity for one-to-one discipleship and have what they need to grow deeply in Christ.

We recently went back to Aritapeira to maintain water filters, hold a medical clinic and fix the church. We also went to deliver new supplies and begin construction on Zenilson’s new house. We helped them square off their new house and get it started. The rest of the work is now up to them. The whole family was filled with joy and thankfulness, praising God and thanking you. Watch this short clip and be blessed: it’s a simple thank you from the heart of the Amazon to you.

Finally, have a look at some of the photo highlights of the last couple of months of river trips to hard hit areas. It really is amazing to see that all things work together for the good of those that love the Lord! Look at the harvest that is being reaped in the midst of difficult situations. Praise be to God! Click any one of these photos to see them larger. Then use your arrow keys to navigate the slideshow.

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