Prayer Transformation Ministries: Algodao

It has been a little while since I posted here. It has been pretty hectic, but I do want to tell you more about this amazing work of transformation in Algodao de Jandaira.

The believers from First Baptist Church in Valentine, Joao Pessoa were faithful in their prayers and visits to Algodao. When they would drive in, they would stop by the "Tree of Life," and pray and consecrate themselves, then drive on into town. They would hold gospel meetings, and every time poeple would come to the Lord.

On the way out of town they would drive a good 45 minutes up a very steep mountain, park and walk the rest of the way up to the top of this granite mountain where they would pray over the city. This was not convenient or easy, but they were faithful in their prayers and visits.

As I mentioned, in December 2003/ January 2004, the rains came. Everyone knew that it was the prayers of the believers that had brought the rain. The rains came so strongly that as the water filled the resevoir, and flooded over the spillway, it was throwing boulders up in the air.

There was even a place up on one of the mountains not too far from there, where water was coming out from the rock!

Today, they catch shrimp and fish out of the resevoir. There is a resident missionary who is there to minister to the people.

The stick and mug shacks that once were about all anyone lived in are now replaced by cinderblock homes. The streets are paved. Where there was once no water table, now there is a water table that would last at least 16 years. They grow three of four different types of crops.

The change has been truly miraculous, and is a testimony to the power of God and His faithfulness to His Word to "heal their land."

There are so many "layers" to how God worked in this story that it is not possible in this brief overview to even give justice to the story.

It began in mid-2002 when First Baptist Church of Valentine, in Joao Pessoa was going to celebrate their 7th anniversary. They were a church plant from the Lagoinha church in Sao Paulo. One night as they were practicing the songs for the celebration, and began to close in prayer, God came with great power and conviction. They spent two hours in repentance on their faces. In the following weeks, God continued to visit them in this way. One of the choir members, Vitoria, had come one evening to quit the choir, but was not able, and when she went home, late in the night she had a dream of this community. God gave her the name, showed her what it was like, and she even saw the faces of the people! As they prayed, God put this place on their hearts. They had no car, and had to borrow a car and hold bake sales to raise money for gas. When they arrived, it was all as Vitoria saw in her dream. When they went to one house in town, they met a believing couple who told them that they had been praying that God would send someone to help them.

Thus began God's miraculous work of the Transformation of Agldao de Jandaira.

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.