The Forest Prayer Meeting

This one might push your envelope a bit, but what I write here is absolutely true.

For obvious reasons, I have no pictures of this time. It was just too holy an experience to bother with that kind of mundane stuff.


After dinner we headed to the prayer mountain. We had been told about this place at the conference. This one was not so high in elevation, but has been richly prepared in the Spirit. We got out of the vans and cars. George and the film crew were with us. We walked a ways along a path, across a rickety bridge, through some woods until we got to an ant hill. This was the stopping point, for the first stop. Here, we were instructed by the Brazilian pastors. No more talking and chit-chat. We stopped and prayed and prepared our hearts, sanctifying ourselves to enter the forest. It was dark, so we could see the stars above – not quite a half moon.

Then after prayer, we walked a little ways, read from Exodus 3 in English and Portuguese. We were instructed that we were to take off our shoes and put them by a tree next to the narrow path because the place we were entering was holy ground. Then, in our socks (or some with bare feet) we walked just to an adjacent clearing and each took our places around the clearing to pray and worship. We were still for a while, then the Brazilian pastors began to cry out to God and then we all prayed and worshipped and after a while, something began to happen.

The presence of the Lord came softly, at least to me. As I was kneeling, holding on to a couple roots or branches, (it was dark and I could not see anything) I noticed a little light right in front of me. Then others began to point out lights all in the bushes. Some picked up leaves and brought them around, and you could see little lights on the leaves. Then it seemed as though the trees across from where I was standing now, and some to my right were taking on phosphorescence. Like something held under a black light.

At first I thought it was the moonlight, but as soon as I thought that, it was like the Lord said, “oh yeah? Watch this!” And then it got brighter right before our eyes. These trees became different than all the other trees that were under the moon, and different than they were just a few seconds before. It was really like they were glowing!! There were lights that would appear like the one in front of me. Some people picked up leaves with the lights on them. J.R. and Lisa and others picked them up and showed them around as they held them in their hands.

The worship of the Lord increased at this time. There was a place where the trees became almost like a glow stick and the frequency of the lights increased. Then the Spirit of God really broke through in our hearts in adoration and praise, crying and laughter. When we saw the forest go back to its former state, it was all the more incredible. There was a sense of such openness and freedom and “lightness.” For myself, I was overwhelmed with the awe and wonder of it. We were all expressing our wonder and adoration to the Lord. It was a wonder that He would share such a thing with us! It was like the Lord was just so happy to come to us. He was delighted to be with His children, and in a holy way, it was almost like He was “showing off” a little for us. The whole group was just filled with joy and laughter. I talked with others afterward, and they said they too felt like it was very open, and “airy” and free.

We spent a while worshipping, laughing, crying, praising and singing. A lot of laughing, mixed with crying our of sheer delight. Then we got into small groups and prayed for each other. After this time of prayer together in small groups, at the instruction of the Brazilian pastors, we all shouted in our own languages – three times – Lord, Thank you for opening Your treasures to us! We got our shoes on, went to the ant hill and again, three times shouted, Lord, Thank you for opening Your treasures to us.

I talked with George afterwards, and he said that there are credible reports of this happening in four to five other locations. Since that time, I have had a totally different understanding of God's love and His delight in us as His children. I have also have a different perspective on how much of the glory of creation was lost in the Fall. Sin has "greyed" everything around us, and we don't even realize it.

City of Teresopolis

Wednesday, June 11

City of Teresopolis -- We went to the “slum” area of town this afternoon. This is an area that had a lot of poverty and drug issues. They said that two years ago, if we had come into this area, we would have been kidnapped, or killed or both.

The Lord has been doing a work in such a powerful way here. The drug problems have gone way down. They introduced us to several young people that have come to Christ and are now reaching out to the community. One young man was named Phillipe – a top soccer star who came to Christ and is now part of their outreach team and coaching the outreach soccer ministry About 50 kids are a part of that.

One young guy just seemed to be very special. His name was Fabio. Twenty-four years old, and now considers himself a missionary to the city. They have a Judo outreach in the school. They gave us a demonstration for us.

One of the young gals that was there was Camille. She was the girl friend of the major drug Lord in the area. She was also his runner and was highly regarded because she was so good at it. He was killed and she got saved. Now she is inviting all her former drug friends to church. When we were on the street, a couple of the guys got on their cell phones and called up the current drug lord there. They told him to come over; they had some people that wanted to pray for him. So he came over and quietly let us pray for him.

We then went to a Methodist church ( Igreja Metodista Centenario Teresopolis) that is re-doing their building to seat 1,500 – they are growing so fast in that area. We prayed in the church and for the pastor. We found out later that he had said that he wondered if anyone really cared about him – so to have leaders from around the world come and pray in his church and for him was a huge encouragement. We also went to the Baptist church – they work together and with about four other churches. They are also expanding and expecting God’s continued move.

We then headed up to their prayer mountain. A really hard climb! Very steep high steps up from the neighborhood. It was quite a climb! This hill was given by a Christian for the purpose of transformation and he sold a second piece of land to have the funds to build a transformation training center on the hill. It was a powerful time of prayer. It was so moving to see these young men, who were saved out of this neighborhood, on top of this mountain, looking out over their city, praying for their city. At one point one of our team prayed for these young men to be like David and as he was finishing his prayer, there was a meteor that came out of the sky…as a confirmation of our prayers. It was powerful experience to be with these young men.

Belo Horizonte Prayer Mountain

The first of our visits to transformational sites on the Fire Tour, was to visit the Prayer Mountain in Teresopolis. Frankly, I was not prepared for what we found. People are on this hill, 42/7. We got out of the van, walked across the street, through an opening in the chain link fence and began to walk up the hill. It was just a big dirt and rock hill in the middle of the city. 

As we walked up the dirt path, there were wooden signs with Bible verses in Portuguese along the way. Steps carved out of the hill let us to the top. As we got to the top, there were people praying out loud over the city. 

The Presence of God was so powerful; I could not help be weep and intercede over the city, often on my knees. Others on our team had the same reaction. The manifest Presence of God was so "thick" and "heavy" that it

 was literally overwhelming. From the top of the hill you had a 360 degree vista over the whole city. This was a holy place. On one side there were some small pup tents. We were told that a pastor was there praying over the city. At that point, he had been there for 80 days. He brought no food or water. Whatever he needed, he would ask the Lord for, and somehow it would be provided. 

One man named John, told us that when he was first saved, his daughter was very sick. The Lord told him to bring some water up to the mountain. As he approached the top, this pastor 

(apparently another time) met him, grabbed the water, and prayed that whoever would drink it would be healed. John took the water back to his daughter and she was healed. John also told us that they have many regular angelic visitations on this mountain. Everyone on the team was deeply moved by our time on this prayer mountain. 

For me personally, I was touched in the very core of my being. All the way on the ride home, I was still being impacted by the manifest Presence of God in that place.

This was not simply a matter of a powerful experience, but also a key lesson in understanding Presence. The Presence of God was there in that place because there were a prepared people who had, for years been investing, and sacrificing to seek the Lord, and cry out for their city.  Sacrificial prayer, and time by ordinary people attracted the Presence of the Lord to this holy place. Lessons we all need to learn.