The Transformation of Algodao de Jandaira (part 1)

Saturday, June 14 –

We arrived in Joao Pessoa, actually about 3:30 am. We were all totally blown away when we got out of baggage claim, and there were about 30 people there at the airport to greet us! Some with their children! They met us just outside the doors, and then they put the Brazilian and their State flags on the pavement and invited us to kneel on the flags as they prayed over us to welcome and bless us, and blew the shofar.

It was a moving and powerful time, and that was in the first few minutes!

We had some "sleep-in" time in the morning, and then headed for Algodao de Jandaira. I think it must have been about a 4 ½ hour drive. We arrived in town after dark. The road coming to the town is just a small dirt road that would give no indication that there was a town at the end of it. After we pulled onto this dirt road, we stopped at a tree. The pastor explained that this is the kind of tree that does not turn brown, even in the summer, so when everything else was brown when they first came here, there was this lone green tree. Sort of a take on Moses and the burning bush. So they would stop here at this tree and pray on the way into town and on the way out. They called it "The Tree of Life."

When we got into town, some of the towns people, and some of the people from First Baptist church joined us and we had a wonderful worship service together. There was special music by some of the young girls, and the woman who is the missionary there from the church. It was a great time, after the service, they fed us dinner. We found our rooms in the only hotel in town. It is run by a wonderful Christian lady. We got to bed about 11:00 pm.

Sunday, June 15 –

Today we did a tour of Algodao. We were introduced to one of the key young men in the town. They call him "Little John." He had been a hard core Catholic. He used to take statues of Mary around to peoples houses. Now he is called to be a pastor, but can’t afford seminary, so he travels by bus every day to study journalism. That’s all he can do as far as education right now.

This area used to be an Indian settlement. When the settlers moved in, they took the land. The Indians would raid the settlers. One time the police took a number of them to a large rock outcropping and massacred them. As the Indians died, they cursed the ground, so the people have been working at breaking the curse. They said that there were no indigenous peoples around now, they have all been intermarried, but they have done a lot of prophetic deeds. That massacre was 200 years ago.
They explained that when they did the consecration of the land, one of the women was healed of heart problems.

They said, at first the water came, and then it dried up. They did some prophetic acts, and the water came back permanently.

Every week they have five people who do an all night prayer walk. Once a month they bring a bus of people out and go to strategic points in the city.

Before, the Catholic Church was closed, and then when things began to happen in the town, they opened it again. There is a priest that comes from another place, but nobody comes. There is a Mariology group that comes in and tries to provoke them, and baptize people in Mary. At this point, many people have said that they have accepted Christ, but there are only about 20 really committed believers. However, the Catholics got so concerned that they imported an Italian priest to pray over places where the Baptist Church had prayed.

The Baptist missionary that lives here (Magdalene) is doing rural outreach. She bought a car, but the roads are so bad that it keeps breaking down.
A Hospital (health clinic) has recently been put in, but they are still looking for staff. They can do most regular procedures there.

They said things have really changed over the past four years. Before, they would have about one person who would pass the University test. Now there have been 5.

The place had been 23 years without any amounts of water. Then the great "Shower of blessing" in January of 2004 and everyone knew it was the Christians who brought the rain. When they came there was no vegetation, everything was very dry. They were concerned and wanted to go to the politicians, but God never allowed it. He wanted to show what He could do through weak vessels. And as the community was being transformed, the church was being transformed.

More of this amazing story next time...

The Story of Fischers Village

As we visited with James and Andrea, whey took us to visit the community garbage dump.

God had shown Andrea the city dump and the people that were living here. One day they went there to see for themselves. 

It was a beautiful day with a blue sky. But they saw children, teens and people living and eating from the dump. They saw children fighting with the vultures for garbage that was brought in from the dump

 trucks. They thought, “How can this be?” They asked God, how can we even start here? When they first came, people were skeptical – asking, why are you here? Are you a politician? Are you just here to take pictures? They explained that they were just there to give and to pray. They made a circle and were praying when a man came up to them. He was alone, had no family, lived in the dump, and was an alcoholic. He came up to them crying. 

When they asked him why he was crying, he told them that the night before when he was trying to sleep, he said, “God, if you really exist, send someone tomorrow to help us.”

They started going to the dump every Saturday bringing donations. It was hard to work in those conditions. James said when they first went there; the sky was black with vultures. They knew

 they needed to go where the people lived, but they were very bad conditions, fighting, etc. James kept thinking, “This is impossible.” He said, time after time, he thought it was impossible. He described himself as this 

rock that needed to be broken.

They processed boxes of vegetables and fruits in their garage, and the Lord told them, only give in love.

 They started finding out the history of the city, and discovering generational curses and began to break the division. They started 

a Bible school, teaching children. The parents would ask, “What have you been teaching my children, they are different” The family situation was that there were many families without fathers (there were about 100 families there at that time). They were not doing basic care and cleanliness. But when God began to work in them, they began to care about themselves, and they wanted to change and learn and take care of themselves and their families. 

They took the teens to McDonalds – people thought there would

 be behavioral problems, but they had no problems. They actually had more problems with the church kids. When they first went there, the women were only wearing t-shirts and panties – but as God touched them, they began to take care of themselves. After two years, even the weather was different, the ecology was different and even the smell changed.

They told of one girl, who was 14 years old. In one month, she would turn 15. It was her dream to have a party for her birthday, so Andrea gave her a “Princess Day.” She took her to the salon, gave her a cake and balloons. Before, she had acted like a man – the way she stood, walked and even her voice. Now all that has changed, even her voice is different.

The people were moved out of the dump and now live in a small nearby community.

One woman with three boys, each from a different man, was homeless. The community came together and built her a house.

They started classed to help the mothers find jobs. They established an after school program. They paid a teacher there to do the program. The director of the school called to ask what was

 happening with the kids – they were now learning and growing. They changed the name of the village from Butcher Village to Fischer Village.

This is an amazing story of the transformation of not only individual lives, but an entire community. People who were living in abject poverty, digging through the garbage dump, now lead productive lives. They showed us the baskets and other crafts that they made by hand to sell. Although from Western standards it may seem poor, to these people, the difference is like night and day. God has done an amazing work here.