My wife, Gina, and I just returned from an amazing mission trip to Brazil, and I want to try to capture it fro you while things are still fresh in my mind. I know already that it will be difficult to put it all into words; it will be out of context and may even sound weird, but here’s a stab at it. As you read, you must remember that all things on this trip were SOAKED in prayer. Sometimes the team prayed for an hour or more before embarking on an activity….

There were 21 of us in the group that flew down to Rio de Janeiro from the United States. Most were in their 20’s and 30’s. This was a very “hungry for God” type of group. Each morning began with 30 minutes of praise and worship sung with guitar accompaniment in what I called “the Upper Room.” This was the room where we ate, worshiped, prayed, studied, laughed, and cried together.

The room is on the 3rd floor of the mission, with one open-air wall looking out over the valley below and across to the next hill (which was covered with poverty: one-room shacks, dogs and kids running excitedly, horses walking around, fires burning every few days, crowing of roosters, and fireworks going off randomly).

Worship each day was usually followed by a one-hour teaching of Romans by Rick Bonfim, followed by a one-hour or more teaching of Galatians or other books of the Bible by Betty Mckinney.

When time allowed, we prayed for an hour (all out loud, all at once, as a group in the upper room). Does this sound familiar from a certain chapter of Acts? Let me tell you something: there was much prayer which occurred during these times, many revelations through scripture, and other amazing movements of the Holy Spirit as He ministered to us in that place. This intense time of worship, study and prayer took us to lunchtime.

Afternoons varied greatly. Some were spent walking the poverty-ridden hills around the mission, handing out a truckload (literally a truckload) of clothes to the poor, handing out toothbrushes and toothpaste, or hugging, greeting, and simply being around the locals. Some of the areas we visited were gut-wrenchingly poor, and all were walking distance from the mission. We went through one area with a stream flowing through it which was gray with raw sewage. We saw plenty of one-room houses with families of five or more living in them, with bed sheets serving as dividing walls.

Our job was to bless them with provision and love. A few afternoons were spent forming a human assembly line, passing truckloads (literally truckloads) of concrete blocks and bricks to the top of a small mountain only accessible by dirt footpaths. The materials which we moved up the mountain are being used in the construction and protection of a radio tower, which is funded 100% by the mission (no government aid). The tower will be used by the mission’s FM radio station to send the gospel through a nearby valley which has 500,000 people. This is one of Rick’s current visions, and the Lord is blessing it.

That brings us to the evening time. We showered and got dressed up for church services each night. We all piled onto the mission bus (which, praise God, has an air conditioner and is very nice) and went to a different church every night. These churches were normally one or two hours’ drive away from the mission. Sizes of the church membership ranged from 75 to 1,200

At some point in each service, our group would sing several songs with guitars and drums. Some of the guys in our group played these instruments very well, so it all worked out great. We never really practiced, and we never knew which songs we would sing until we started. It didn’t matter how we sounded or even whether they could understand our English words, as everyone was just loud, clapping and dancing and yelling to God. Brazilians and Americans alike were praising our one awesome God!

Each night the Holy Spirit guided the service, and every night was different. Sometimes we sang in the beginning, sometimes in the middle, sometimes at the end. Rick Bonfim usually sang some of his recorded songs, had Pastor Garry Livermon preach while he translated into Portuguese, and then Rick would preach.

Rick does not go to a church with a prescribed message or an order of service in mind. He is constantly listening to the voice of God regarding the needs of that church, and then directing the Americans according to what he hears from the Lord for that night. When the Holy Spirit began to bring conviction, immediately Rick would give a call for salvation, and anywhere from 5 to 50 people would come forward for salvation.

Sometimes God would show Rick the need for deliverance and he would speak about being delivered from certain strongholds and then make a call for prayer. We would see as many as 100 or more come forward on some nights for this. It was never the same, or in the same order. Our entire group was the prayer team and we would lay hands on them and pray for them with all of our might. It was powerful stuff.

One night we were totally exhausted. The schedule gets to be grueling, and most of the services last three hours, not counting the travel time. After having hauled a few tons of bricks up the hill that afternoon, we were silently pleading, “Give us strength, God!” We had been singing for a long time, waiting to see a breakthrough in this church.

Finally during the last five minutes of the service, the local pastor was pressuring Rick to finish the service on time. The essential word from the Holy Spirit came through to Rick and he made a call for a specific area of need. The breakthrough came, and with the rush on the altar, the service lasted another half hour, to the joy of all, including the local pastor who had been ready to quit at 9:30 p.m.

So much happened each night that I can’t keep it all straight. We usually got home between 11:00 p.m. and midnight. Some nights we prayed as a group before leaving the mission for the church services; sometimes we prayed as a group, out loud and all at once, for an hour on the bus on the way to the church.

There were no patterns, no formulas - just exalt the Lord and wait for Him to show up and guide the service! Rick uses three code words which help to direct the groups in church services. When he said “Coca Cola,” we would all leave our seats, hurry to the altar, and be ready to pray for all of those coming forward. When he said “Dr. Pepper,” we would form ourselves into a tunnel, two people facing one another in a line.

The people wanting prayer would walk through this “human prayer tunnel” and we would lay hands on them and pray as they passed through. It was amazingly powerful. We would often see over 100 people come through the tunnel: children, adults, old, young, rich, poor, black, and white. You could feel the power of God when people started through and tears would stream down their faces. The code word “Pepsi” meant “Get on the bus; it’s finally time to go home!”

One night Rick was led to share from Luke 15, about the prodigal son. He found out later that it made a great impact on the father of the pastor of that church. The father was not a Christian but had come to his son’s church for some reason, perhaps just to see “the Americans.” At age 62, the father of the pastor was saved that night, and he and his son were joined together in loving Jesus. What a celebration for that church!!

I’m telling you, it got so loud in the churches after the ministry times that you could yell and not even hear yourself. There were many awesome things that happened in the services. Many people were saved and many were healed or set free from burdensome problems. Every night the worship got crazier and crazier for the Lord, and our team got bolder and bolder, and by the end it was just a dancing party in church before the Lord.

One morning in the “upper room” I was on my knees praying with my hands held out in front of me. Rick was praying for me, and a feeling like when your hands fall asleep came over my arms and hands. The feeling got stronger, and stronger. Both arms and hands began to feel like electrical current was on them, and they began vibrating like crazy.

As my fingers began to pull together, I could not hold them apart. I raised my hands above my head and the feeling immediately stopped. I lowered them again in front of me and the surge immediately started again. This happened several times. It lasted for about 10 minutes, and was an awesome feeling that I didn’t want to go away. [Note: Adam was receiving deep spiritual healing during this time].

I know, this all sounds somewhat odd, but everything we experienced was bathed in prayer, based upon solid biblical foundations, and done in the name of Jesus Christ and by His blood. It was all good. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were glorified in it all. God was showing up in unusual, powerful and special ways. This is just my story, my observations as a first-time participant in a Brazil mission trip; there are 21 other stories that are just as awesome and powerful.

Adam Green
Aurora, Colorado

EDITED BY BETTY MCKINNEY