Dews In Brazil, #4
April 04, 2004
Sao Paulo, Brazil
SNOWBALL? THAT HAS GOT TO BE A SPECIAL CHURCH
Five years ago, 20 people begin meeting and start a church in Sao Paulo. They are the “surfer” crowd. They even have a surfboard as the pulpit. They call it Snowball (Bola de Neve). Many would not have given it a snowball’s chance … But they thought of it as a snowball gaining momentum as it careens down a mountain slope. You see, it is made up of the younger crowd. They have long hair, many with dreadlocks. Many have tattoos or body piercings. And in keeping with the culture of this country (and perhaps of the world), we have seen more skin showing at the midriff than in a long time. They have a reputation around town now, as you might imagine. These are not the straight-laced twenty somethings of the typical Pentecostal church. But they are passionate, passionate, passionate for Jesus. It reminds us of the “Jesus Movement” of the 70’s. They are about 2000 strong now, with another 7 or 8 churches planted and 10 cells that will become churches, accounting for another 3000 people. So, even though they do not fit the norm, they have been included in the group of churches that are sponsoring the large meeting for which we are training the 7 different churches. Pastor Daniel Marins who is spearheading Randy Clark coming back to Sao Paulo to do this large Gymnasium event, is to be given a lot of credit for recognizing their impact on Sao Paulo.
PASSION. DEAFENING. HEALING
Thursday night we walked into the church for our first night of training with them. They had called and said there was a misunderstanding, that this was their normal Thursday night service, and could we just do a message for it and not the training. No problema, as they say. Our regular service message will be A Biblical Basis Of Healing (but that is the first night of training message–shhhh, don’t tell them). Two thousand people crammed into a building that comfortably holds about 1500. I was afraid the balcony was going to collapse. People sitting in every aisle. And absolutely no room in which to minister. During the message I stopped and started calling people out and having them stand. I have to admit, it took a little bit before the power began to fall, but there it came in a mighty wave. Soon they were all standing, shouting and yelling for God to come, and He did. People were getting touched. They had many people new to the church that night and we heard reports of people getting radically touched by God for the first time. Twenty-two words of knowledge produced well over 100 people healed in a matter of minutes–too many to count. Hands waving like windmills. At one point their passion was so deafening it was hurting my ears. Pastors–they had been brought in from the other church plants to receive the fire–on the platform flying everywhere. The pastor had said he wanted the fire and he got it. That was the beginning night.
GOD MAKES A STATEMENT!
Like so many churches, they have just had the pastors, leaders and elders praying for the people. And there was some concern expressed because of the attacks they had been receiving from occultists about allowing just anyone to pray. We satisfied their concerns and taught on the Prayer Model and Words of Knowledge. Eleven people (we had to restrict the number because of time) who had never gotten a word before did, and they were all accurate. Many of the people they prayed for got healed, and it was the first time they had prayed for anyone. At the same time, we gathered the others in groups of 3 to 5 and had them pray for anyone who had pain or sickness. Interestingly, there were more people healed by people who were praying for the FIRST time than when the leaders and elders prayed!! God was making a point! He wants to use EVERYONE who will say yes to Him.
TEN YEARS OF KNEE PAIN. GONE!!
Saturday night was once again packed as Carol taught on Deliverance. Her teaching was incredible, considering the time constraint she was under and the fact of translation. When she led them in renouncing certain things in their lives where they may have opened the door to the enemy, many, many were touched. We must have had 300 say they had felt something happen to them during the prayer. She then said that often times healing becomes easier when we get issues of unforgiveness, anger, bitterness, and sin out of the way, so we went for Words of Knowledge again. On the first wave of healing, I stopped when I got to 60 and had only counted one small section. There was no way to count them all. In the second wave when we got everybody who had pain or sickness in on the prayer, it was the same. Conservatively, all of us on the platform figure we had 300+ healed that night. Then we had those who had been healed of an infirmity they had for 5 + years come up to testify, and 15 came. One woman had received her smell back and she confirmed it when we got some fragrant aointing oil. Maybe the most dramatic healing was an older woman. She told us her knee was completely healed from the pain she had for 10 years. Then she showed us her knee brace. I had her take it off and asked her if she could do something she couldn’t do before. She started bending, doing deep knee bends, jumping up and down! The place erupted in cheers!! We finished the night with a “fire tunnel.” Why not. They had never done this before, and they loved it!
GOD HEALS DURING THE MESSAGE
Sunday night was their regular service. The building was packed like Thursday night, with people sitting in every aisle. Carol had a message to encourage them in the love of God, and to say He trusts them. She used the example of how Jesus restored Peter after he had denied Jesus three times. And after the Holy Spirit came, Peter was a different man, moving in the compassion of Jesus as he and John brought healing to the cripple at the Gate Beautiful. It was the Holy Spirit flowing thru them. We were ready for ministry but first we had to check in with them. Before the message I had gotten the impression that He wanted to heal certain categories during the message (neck, shoulders and upper backs; lower backs; hips and pelvis realigning; knees; and ankles and feet problems). Another 70+ people healed! Then the Holy Spirit fell. People crying, shaking, etc. We moved into them praying for each other for healing or blessing. Another 50+ healed in literally five minutes. Unfortunately, it was nearing 11 and there is a “quiet law” and on the weeknights you can get fined if you are too noisy and disturbing your neighbors. It was with great dismay that we had to adjourn. Otherwise, we might still be there. There will be a team going there on the 18th, so they are looking for more from the Global group. Off we go to the 5th church on Monday the 5th. Blessings. I will report later.
Bill & Carol Dew
Dewnamis Ministries, Inc.
dewnamis@sbcglobal.net
www.dewnamis.com
