“Head, shoulders, knees, and toes – knees and toes – knees and toes” – Remember the little jingle you used to sing as a child in Sunday school? Well, that song kept reverberating through my heart as we were hearing testimonies of instantaneous healings that had occurred in the services during our mission to Brazil. One of our team members was a medical doctor from Singapore who had begun to study the Bible in his quest to be healed from a life-threatening cancer a few years ago. As a result, he received a powerful revelation into the truths in the Word of God concerning healing and began to operate in a remarkable anointing for healing and deliverance. In each meeting where he ministered, an overwhelming majority of the congregation stood for prayer – and most of them eagerly came forward to take the microphone and share about their instantaneous results. Pain had left people’s bodies from their heads, shoulders, knees, and toes – and every other part of their bodies.
One woman testified that her joints were so inflamed that she couldn’t bend over to pick up items off the floor and had to use her feet to move things around her house. After the prayer, she demonstrated to the whole congregation that she could squat and do knee bends. Another woman told us that she had been sleeping on the floor rather than in her bed because of intense back pain. She then added that she had been able to sit through the long service pain-free on the hard, unpadded church pew.
One gentleman shared about how he had heard something pop in his back as he was being prayed for. A few days later, we had a chance to visit his home where he showed us a tree that he had cut down and pulled up by the roots and two piles of gravel and rocks that he had moved in order to build a driveway. The “punch line” to this story is that he had been unable to do any such physical work for two years because of severe back and shoulder pain. Several other people also shared that they had suffered from pain and/or limited movement due to sports or automobile accidents – many of them, years ago – but that they had been totally restored as they received prayer.
One really amazing story involved three ladies who had attended a service at another church, but as they were walking home felt impressed to stop by the church where we were having the healing service. The really miraculous thing about this story is that the healing service was a special meeting other than the regular itinerary at the church and the ladies were not aware that anything was happening at the church. Each of these three ladies had a serious ailment that had plagued her for years. Miraculously, each of the women was totally healed even though they showed up and asked for prayer just as we were ready to close the service.
One unexpected healing came after one of the team members shared his testimony of having been miraculously healed after an automobile accident over thirty-five years ago. He testified that the doctors had felt that he would never walk again but that he was back on his feet within a matter of weeks. During the trip, Delron noticed that he stumbled a couple of times and asked him if he was okay. Gene’s reply was that he still had a lingering issue with his equilibrium as a result of the accident almost four decades before. After prayer by a couple of the team members, Gene was able to walk a straight line, climb stairs, and maneuver uneven ground without a hesitation.
But there were many other kinds of healing on this mission as well. As we visited the rehab centers, we saw many lives healed from the brokenness of abandonment, rejection, abuse, and addiction. As we ministered at a marriage seminar, we saw couples and individuals healed emotionally and renewed in hope and courage for their marriages, finances, homes, and families. We also saw many lives transformed in the churches where we ministered as well as during the women’s conference – including one couple who told Delron that his message had saved their lives and ministry because they were so discouraged that they were at the point of giving up.
In one church, the sermon in the adult service was on deliverance from demonic activity. During the prayer time at the end of the service, at least eight individuals said that they felt something spiritual lift off them – an amazing result in that there were only about twenty-five people in class. But the story doesn’t end there. Without any previous coordination between the team members who were ministering in the adult service, the ones who were working with the children had prepared a lesson based on the story of Legion whom Jesus set free from demonic possession. Additionally, they taught the children a little song to present to their parents after the service, “Shake Off the Devil.”
One of our team members was moved by the way that the Brazilians sat for hours on the hard wooden pews during the services and offered to pay to have cushions made for one of the churches where we ministered. When we conveyed her offer to the pastor, he joyfully responded that he had been praying that very week about finances to have the pews upholstered. He said that God had replied to his prayer with two simple words, “Don’t worry.”
Our team was diverse (not only in where we came from: Colorado, Texas, Georgia, Indiana, California, Nigeria, and Singapore) but also in our backgrounds. Some were students from Charis Bible College where we teach, one was a board member of Teach All Nations, one was a graduate from World Harvest Bible College where Delron served as dean, others were friends that we have met through other aspects of our lives, but all were excited about sharing the love of God with the people of Brazil. Our hosts in Brazil, Sandra and Marcelo Duarte, were students of ours at Charis Bible College who moved to Brazil to start a Bible training center and open a mission base for receiving teams. We developed a deep spiritual bond with them during their time in college and committed to work with them after their graduation and move to South America. Shortly after they made the move to Brazil, Delron visited them to hold a pastors’ conference and to begin to establish a connection so that we could begin to bring teams to the mission base. With the successful response we received on this first mission, we are excited about the possibilities of bringing more and more teams.
Marcello was so impacted by Delron’s Finally, My Brethren class that he translated the book into his native Portuguese for his own personal benefit. When he received the call to move back to Brazil, he determined to get the book published and distributed in the country. Unfortunately, the disk with the translation was damaged in the move. Undaunted, Marcelo did the translation a second time after arriving in Brazil. This time, he encountered some unexpected difficulties that had not presented themselves when he was in the US. First of all, he discovered that the spoken Portuguese had gone through some transformation during the fifteen years he had been away, meaning that he had to relearn some of the basic grammar rules before he could do the work. Secondly, he discovered that the Portuguese Bible did not read the same as the English Bible he had been using for all those years. Since the book is titled after the English translation of Ephesians 6:10, he turned to his Portuguese Bible for the wording of the title. He was surprised to find that the most common translation in use in Brazil read only, “My brethren,” and the second most common translation said, “Finally.” He was left with in a dilemma of how to translate even the front cover – much less, the rest of the book. Unstopped by all the challenges, Marcello continued with the project until he was able to present the finished project at a special celebration held in the municipal court building during our visit. We presented a free autographed copy to each pastor present.
Financially, Brazil is considered to be one of the leading emerging markets in the world; therefore, financers from all over the world are eager to invest in their economy. Spiritually, Brazil is also one of the leading emerging nations. In fact, Brazil recently edged out South Korea for the number two slot in missions sending nations; the US is still number one. Therefore, we are eager to invest in the church there – seeing that we can expect global as well as local return on all that we give to the Christian leaders there.
