CAVANNA

My three week visit to Brazil in 2007 was truly wonderful, with literally hundreds of testimonies of healings and many who came to know Christ as their Saviour. The first state of Brazil I visited was Minas Gerais, where I was privileged to share the good news about Jesus in seven different cities over seven nights. Here is a summary of what happened.
The first miracle I witnessed in Brazil was a weakened lady who began to walk in Jesus’ Name. This was in the city of Uberlandia, where fifteen precious souls came to the Lord, including a drug addict. The next evening, a further ten people accepted Jesus in the smaller city of Uberaba. This was a wonderful meeting, as my interpreter and I prayed for large numbers of people and it seemed like everyone (who could be tested) was healed, for around ninety minutes – something like thirty people. Another frail lady walked unaided on the platform, much to the thrill of everyone, while another testified that her stomach growth had vanished while I had been preaching. Someone with back pain was cured while they were waiting to receive ministry, while others were set free from migraines, cancer, and ear problems. Many were being healed as families, which was so wonderful.  I prayed for the sick for three hours, from 9.30 pm until 12.30 pm.

The third evening I visited Conceicao das Alagoas, to preach in the sports’ stadium for a combined Baptist/Methodist crusade. This was a difficult meeting, not just because of the heat and the strange flying insects (!), but because of the large numbers of people who wanted prayer (perhaps more than a hundred). It was almost impossible to minister to so many people, and it made me re-evaulate the egotistical desire to preach to large crowds! Around five people came to Jesus as Saviour and there were certainly half a dozen or more healing testimonies. In the midst of all this, a mother asked for prayer for her little girl who was stone deaf. As I prayed for her in the crowd, the girl began to smile and signed to her mother that she could now hear! Of course, I would love to have been able to verify this properly but there were so many people, it was not possible. Who knows what Jesus did there?

    
On the fourth evening, I made a brief but thrilling visit to the city of Araxa (pronounced Ara-sha). This was a church that had a special touch of God upon it and was one of my favourite meetings in Brazil. Six hundred people were present and the service went out live on the internet to the city, and I was conscious of that while speaking. In the church, ten people came forward to be saved, including young people, which was so thrilling. But then the miracles began! Wow – the healings in Araxa were almost inumerable to report. Did almost everybody get healed that night? Maybe! Around twenty testified to being cured of back pain before I began preaching, and as my interpreter and I went down the healing line at the end, it was difficult to find someone who was not healed – hallelujah! A girl who was deaf in one ear received her hearing back, while a man who was blind in one eye began to regain his vision. Lots of children were healed in this meeting too. As I left the service to get on a 11.25pm bus to go to the next city, I felt that I had experienced one of the greatest manifestations of healing so far in the ministry.

Arriving in Ubaporanga, the local churches had hired a large High School yard as the venue for the service. A brilliant Brazillian Christian “pop group” preceeded my time in the pulpit. This meeting did not have quite the strength of the previous ones, but it was an awesome privilege to share the Gospel with hundreds of people on a hot Saturday evening, large numbers of whom were not saved. God was faithful to save three precious souls and then to stretch out His hand to heal at least twenty people, who were able to give live testimony to the goodness of Jesus. Some were healed in their seats by he Holy Spirit. There was a “festival/party” atmosphere at this meeting, and so once I had finished preaching, the people returned to their socialising and eating. At the front, it was good to continue to pray for the sick people, quietly and with no show. After the chaos at Conceicao, it was helpful that out of the multiple hundreds of people present, only a small number came for prayer! Jesus was faithful to heal many of them.

    

The sixth evening and meeting was a Sunday night, and Ebenezar Baptist church in Contagem, Belo Horizonte was packed out. It was a night of awesome miracles, quite comparable to Araxa! I had a truly excellent interpreter here as well and he told me that he had not seen this many miracles before in Brazil. A blind woman began to see again and was able to grab the interpreter’s finger to demonstrate what was happening. A number of people were healed before I began preaching. A lady who had suffered a stroke recovered right in front of us and began to move her arm again freely, glory to God. The healings went on for hours, and fifteen people gave their hearts to the Lord Jesus.
My final meeting in Minas Gerais was in the city of Ipatinga. This service was a challenge for a couple of reasons. First of all, I was getting very tired and the temperature was 32 degrees in the meeting, not helpful when weaing a thick suit! Secondly, I was a little unnerved by the confession of my interpreter as we drove to the meeting that he wasn’t a committed Christian! I wondered how it would work out, as the interpreters and I had worked as a team before. However, these problems made me want to press in to see something wonderful happen. And it did. The Lord opened the ear of a deaf man once again. He testified that he has been deaf in the single ear for twenty-eight ears, and it was an indisputable miracle of Christ. I wonder what my interpreter made of that? Three teenager lads came to know Jesus as Saviour and the miracles continued. The pastor’s wife had been suffering with pain throughout her body for years, helped only by very expensive medicine. Jesus healed her and everyone was so excited. Another lady came for prayer, and had come for prayer seven times during the week. On this seventh time, the Lord touched her and she went home free, a good lesson in perseverance and a reminder of Naaman, an Old Testament story I mentioned regularly in my meetings. There were probably twelve testimonies of healing and I left Ipatinga rejoicing, although exhausted. Tomorrow, I would go to another state and so an aeroplane journey across Brazil was ahead. It had been an amazing week. What would the Lord do in Mato Grosso?

Praise God!

November 2007