Ezekiel 37:5 Thus saith the Lord GOD unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live
Greetings in Christ, Brazil Update November 2017,
I arrived at 1:30 am, middle of the Amazon Jungle, in our ministry boat, pitch black, tree stumps sticking up out of the creek, crocodile eyes all around me, and I knew, if not for the Lord sending, how would they ever hear?
Rom 10:15 And how shall they preach, except they be sent?
That’s how it is here, when we visit the Indians during dry season. We always arrive at the entrance to the reservation in the middle of the night. The problems are many, as listed above, plus mosquitos, piranha, and another 20 miles to go, navigating this little crocodile infested creek.
With certainty, it is much easier to arrive during the rainy season, but ministry cannot stop just because the rain does.
I (Brad) just returned from a 3-week trip. Things are going great there! The people are continually growing and are now evangelizing other villages.
Follow this link to read more and see photos and videos from the trip: https://millerstobrazil.com/ministries/apurina-tribe/
We had daily Bible classes in our jungle house from 8-11 each morning, Mon-Fri, and nightly Church services, teaching Genesis and/or teaching from one of the morning lessons. We have a group of 7 that faithfully come to morning classes and we averaged 40 in the nightly services. We also had a movie night where we showed “The Passion of Christ” dubbed in Portuguese. It was too long for one night, so we watch half on one Saturday and the other half a week later.
We are also starting church services in a new village.
The chief in this new village is on fire for the Lord. He was especially excited about how he has seen God working in their lives since our last visit in July, when he and his sons accepted Christ as their Savior and the Word of God as their life manual.
It is a real blessing to see the fruit of not only our labors in the last year (as we were visiting them every two months) but also the labors of Judy and Cathy, the two missionaries who labored here before us.
This chief and the people in his village had left our village several years ago because we were “Christians”, but now, he has returned, in Spirit, being reconciled to God through Christ Jesus our Lord.
Valdicis, one of our disciples, made a commitment to return to this new village. He will continue to go there on Tuesdays to ensure that the work does not stop while Melissa and I are in the city in between trips.
We have also been invited to another village, about 2 hrs. away, to bring the Word. I was asked by a young Christian man who was visiting our village. His name is Isaias. He says that he has a small group of men who meet with him in his hut and study the word in Portuguese. I asked him if there was any other missionaries or Pastors visiting them, and he said, “No.” On our next visit we will head down there and see what God wants to do.
That next trip will be in December and we will stay through the new year, Lord willing, celebrating Christmas with the people.
Please pray for the people there. Oscar and Analucia, Domiginho and Sandra, Makao and Cosma, Pedro and Eliete, Guerlermi and Elsimara, Evandro and Vanilda.
CITY MINISTRY:
Melissa is organizing a big medical outreach here in Manaus for the last Saturday of January. She is working with our local church and plans to hold the outreach at a sister church in a poor area of town. We will involve evangelists, doctors, dentists, a pharmacy, and others.
Please pray for this outreach. We hope to see 200 people show up, mostly mothers and children.
JARDIM TROPICAL:
Sometimes, we have set-backs in ministry. We don’t like to talk about these, but I feel it is important.
The work in Jardim Tropical went in an unfortunate direction in early August. While we were in the village for most of July and then in Fortaleza (a coastal City), the second week of August, the leadership in the church of Jardim Tropical decided to change the form of ministry they had and they named the Church, Pentecostal Church of the Living Lamb. They started focusing on healing ministry and prosperity teaching. It is amazing how much can change in just a few weeks.
Immediately the church split in half and they lost 45 people. In the last two months, the leadership have crumbled, most having left. Those who were leaving were coming to me complaining.
If you remember, upon returning from the U.S. in May 2016, we started working closely with Artur and Merinete as he was preaching the Word to a faithful 7, two nights a week. The congregation quickly grew to 20, we started leadership/discipleship classes in our house for the leadership they would need, and by December, we started raising money to build a Church for them, so they would not have to stand in the mud. We opened the church the first of July 2017 with 120 people in attendance, and it continued to have 70-100 each week.
Returning to now, they are in shambles.
I talked with Artur, the man we have been supporting and working with for the last 2 years, and we decided it was better if Melissa and I did not come around for a while. We did not want to divide the people into those who follow Brad and those who follow Artur. We are still working with Leandro and Roberta though, whom we have weekly contact with here at our mission base.
We hope to have reconciliation there soon, and for Artur to either return to sound biblical doctrine or turn the work over to us. We appreciate your prayers in this matter.
Please pray for the people there, specifically for Artur and Merinete, Leandro and Roberta, Sergio, and Samuel. We hope to start working there again in the future.
Ezekiel 37:7-8, 10 I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone. And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them. So, I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived
God bless you and keep you!
In Christ,
Brad and Melissa and family