300 lives transformed in three days

A BMS Action Team in Brazil describes how a sleepy, remote town in the north of the country came alive in worship to God after an incredible mission trip – and how 300 people’s lives were transformed in three days.

We were told that that BMS Action Teams would give us many new experiences, but when we found ourselves lying facedown on muddy grass in the pouring rain in a remote town in northern Brazil, we had to admit that it was not quite what we had expected.

We were taking part in a mission trip – a collaboration between the youth at several different churches in the city of São Luis, Maranhão, where about 100 passionate, enthusiastic, God-seeking young people took over a tiny, isolated town called Matões for four days aiming to bring Jesus to the people there.

Distant
Matões is a ‘drive-through’ town; just a couple of roads and dirt tracks bordered by mud and brick houses, which quickly gave way to an expanse of empty shrubland and distant palm trees, hours away from the nearest city.

It is a place with many problems – health, poverty, sanitation and education to name a few. It is the type of place where you can’t really imagine anything happening; the type of place people never really leave.

Blazing
Yet in early January, the town was full of Christians walking through the streets visiting homes, evangelising, playing worship music, performing plays, running children’s Bible clubs, driving around with loud speakers blazing and generally creating an atmosphere of change.

We found ourselves sleeping on a hard tiled floor in an empty school, waking up to freezing cold bucket showers at 5am, devotions at 6 and out onto the streets at 7, followed by an action-packed day of meeting local people and attempting to share the Good News with them.

It was an incredible encouragement to see how this affected the inhabitants of the town. We visited many homes, asking the families questions about faith and leading Bible studies.

Blown away
We were amazed by how receptive people were, listening to what we had to say and giving their views, which often ended with people being blown away by the gospel and committing their lives to Christ.

To see God work so powerfully in the town, changing and transforming the hearts of the people we met in spite of their difficulties was a dynamic testament of God’s love and his ability to save. It reminded us how all things are possible with God.

In the course of three days, over 300 children and adults gave their lives to Jesus. Praise God!

Moving
In the evenings there were different events in the streets; people just sat outside their homes and watched as a hundred singing, dancing, dressed-up youth praising God and lifting the town up in prayer walked past. Loud and ecstatic worship events were held, in which we often found ourselves participating in powerful, moving dramas.

So it was that on the last night, in spite of the monsoon rain that had been pouring down and turning the dust into mud all afternoon, we found ourselves lying face-down ready to perform our last drama.

Afterwards when we were praying we were all just struck again by the incredible motivation and passion of the youth here who, despite their exhaustion, had been so eager to bring people to Jesus. And it had a powerful impact.

The BMS Brazil Maranhão Action Team is Tim Glover, Sophie Bryant and Ben Sheldon.
 

The trio have been working with local Christians on social action projects in Brazil since October 2010 and will return to the UK in March to embark on a two-month tour of churches and schools.

Find out more about Christian gap years with BMS.

16/02/2011