Renascer

Road to Renascer

I never get tired of the incredible beauty of the Amazon! And taking a trip on dirt roads into the interior is a great way to experience it. A week ago our health team loaded up the VW van with medical supplies, food and personal belongings for a weekend ministry trip to 2 villages in the interior. This time of year, the roads can be dangerous, as they get washed out and rutted due to the rains. But we dedicated the trip into God’s hands and protection and started off with excitement and expectancy of what God had in store!

People gathering for the 1st service of the conference

Four hours later we arrived in the village of Renascer, which means “rebirth”. It’s a prophetic name, as truly this village is being reborn into new life in Christ! I was so impressed with the hunger and excitement the believers in this community have for God. The church was packed out for the missions conference that took place while we were there. Even the 7 a.m. devotion time was full. The sincerity and earnestness of these people was expressed in their worship and prayer intercession. Even the children participated in dramas, music and prayer. The presence of the Holy Spirit was very strong.

This trip was very special for me because I had a lot of time to pray with people for healing and share the love of Jesus and plan of salvation. Sometimes when our clinics are very busy and there is a long line of patients to be seen, I have to focus on meeting the priority need of the patient, but do not have time to just talk with them and find out about their life and concerns. A privilege of this trip was being able to gather our team together to pray over someone and also being able to eat all of our meals with the people of the community.

Bandaging up Charles

Boys will be boys...Charles was a spunky little guy that kept showing up at our clinic with cuts and wounds to be treated! I ended up doing wound care three times in 3 days for him. He was brave and held his own as I cleaned up infection and pus. He had a smile that lit up his whole face. During one of the church services I watched as the pastor called him up to pray for someone, and he unashamed went up in front of the church and prayed. No one is too young to be used by God!

Public transportation

The last day of the trip we headed deeper into the jungle to the small village of Bica. We drove and drove and drove! It felt like we were in the middle of nowhere and would never arrive. But all of a sudden houses began to appear. The Brazilian church workers have been visiting this community on a regular basis and started a small group. But there are still very few believers as it is a new work of the church. We held clinic in a house and attended patients solid from 9 a.m. -1:00 p.m. Two people made commitments to Christ during the clinic. I had the privilege of praying with a middle-aged man as He received Jesus as His Lord and Savior. We were very excited about the interest and response of the people of this village.
After the clinic, we said our good-byes, piled into the van and took a few moments to thank the Lord for what He did and ask for protection for the trip home. The Lord held off the rains and we arrived back in Santarém exhausted and dusty, but with hearts overflowing with joy and satisfaction! “And with Him is abundant redemption.” Psalm 130:7

More pics…

Our nutritionist Silvia giving a talk to moms on healthy foods

Precious!

All bandaged!

This rooster posed for me outside our clinic

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