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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Download our latest letter featuring the story of Pastor Reinaldo and the church built on a flooded plain on the Amazon River or donate to the Revolving Construction Fund which funds these projects.

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In our most recent mailing we tell the story of the community of Piracãoera de Cima, where a church was recently built in the midst of the worst flooding in the Basin our generation has seen. It’s amazing to see how much God uses a physical building to build his eternal kingdom, as evidenced in the story of Piracãoera de Cima and its overseeing pastor, Reinaldo. Click to open this letter and take a quick trip with us down the Amazon River to see first hand how God is working through your prayers, donations, missions trips and support.

Help us build several more church buildings this year! Eleven teams are on their way down to physically contribute to our building projects. You can contribute to this most excellent work and donate to the Revolving Construction Fund.

Do you live in Canada or the United States and would like to receive these mailings? Please contact us and let us know, providing us with your address.

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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?

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The new PAZ 2014 website goes where no PAZ website has gone before!

Soon, the 4th generation PAZ site PAZ 2014 will go online.  It’s an all new interactive experience, filled with the most recent stories, pictures, and testimonies from the Amazon. You’ll even be able to take it with you in the form of the new PAZ Pack – a package for download including a new photo book The PAZ Picture exPerience, a detailed overview of PAZ called PAZ Facts & Figures, and more little goodies.

The new PAZ 2014 website is part of an even greater effort to keep you up to date with all the God is doing here and how you can help. We (Project AmaZon) have also started our own facebook group, where you can stay even more up-to-date with PAZ’s day-to-day happenings. Many of our missionaries already use facebook to stay connected with friends and family all over the world, so PAZ will harness facebook to empower church planting! Join by clicking here.

And that’s just the beginning, as there are a number of other surprises in store that you’ll just have to wait to see. We look forward to using all the available resources we have to empower the Kingdom work of reaching the estimated 35,000 Basin villages without any evangelical church.

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