Pleasant surprise

After Paraguay, we ended up back with Uiliam and Aryane on the Brazilian coast near Paraty. A beautiful coastline with mountains covered in tropical forest. Last year, we gave an online training course here.
Uiliam and Aryane were invited to attend a mission week in another state and asked if we would like to join them. That week, students would be taught and we would go on outreach. We were also allowed to teach. Neither we nor Uiliam had much information about this week, but we thought it would be nice to go.

On the day of departure, Arjan suddenly came down with severe food poisoning. You know, with all the gates open on both sides. We felt that this was no coincidence. But with a 16-hour journey ahead of us in cars and plane, this was not a pleasant prospect. Half an hour before departure, he was still visiting the toilet. We prayed and addressed the problem. Yet it became clear to us that God wanted us to be part of that mission week.
Only in the last five minutes before departure did Arjan drag himself out of bed and sit meekly in the car. But victory had been achieved. The gates were closed from that moment on. Gradually, during the first car ride, he cheered up completely. Hallelujah, there is power in the blood of Jesus!

Our journey took us to the northern state of Maranhão. To the city of Vargem Grande, about 200 kilometers inland. The driver was apparently in a great hurry and was speeding at 75 mph, swerving across the poor asphalt road full of potholes. With all the windows wide open, we were roasted in the 99-degree wind. Well, it’s always more fun to type this than to experience it.
Quite tired, we were among the first to arrive at the camp where the week would be held.

Five years ago, Pastor Antonio from São Paulo wanted to do an outreach in one of the poorest cities in the country. This turned out to be Vargem Grande in Maranhão. During the outreach, people came to faith, but his question was: who is going to help these people now? His wife Jenny then suggested: us, let’s move there.
These wonderful people have now started a thriving ministry here and are reaching out to the surrounding villages with various projects. They have a grand vision to lift this city and its surroundings out of poverty and see lives transformed by Jesus.
Antonio and Jenny organized this camp for the second time to get people excited about mission work.

We were pleasantly surprised because we didn’t arrive at a more traditional full-time mission school, as we had expected, but ended up at a camp with 178 enthusiastic young people and their leaders, gathered from all over the country. Ready to walk more with God and reach out to the villages!

The first three days were devoted to teaching and prayer. Between classes, we had many good conversations with pastors and young people. It was so cool to be able to pour into these people. It was super fun. Hammocks were hanging everywhere and tents were scattered around.
It touched our hearts when so many people prayed fervently for the Netherlands and Europe. Some even felt that they should go to the Netherlands as missionaries in the future. God has not forgotten the Netherlands!
During the last few days, we were divided into various groups to go to different villages, sleep there, spread the love of Jesus, and hold services.

Maranhão is Brazil’s poorest state, and it showed. For us, it was comparable to parts of Africa.
The people there are extremely friendly. It is customary to clap your hands when you arrive at a house. The residents immediately brought out chairs for the strange visitors so they could chat in the shade.
A local Christian offered us gongo. This is a larva that lives in a small coconut. This caused quite a stir in the group, but almost everyone was brave enough to try a fresh larva. It’s like a white jelly bean that tastes like coconut milk. A little strange, but tasty.
During these days, our group was able to pray for various people, we saw healings, and six people were baptized. God is good!

One baptism was quite special. We arrived at the house of Maria, an elderly woman who had been dying when Antonio visited her once. Through prayer, she was healed and had given her life to Jesus. Now we told her about baptism. She wanted to be baptized, but there was not enough water in the barrel at her house because of drought. She said she wanted to be completely submerged, like a burial. We found a murky pool nearby, but it turned out to be too shallow. So she sat in the barrel of water and had plenty of water poured over her. Because the water was so white, we called it “the first baptism in milk.” Maria was very happy and felt completely new.

For the young people, this outreach was a wonderful experience, because many of them came from a richer, more comfortable life. They saw God at work and now have tools to move forward.

Through this wonderful mission week, we made many new contacts and have also been invited to come to southern Brazil. May the Lord arrange it.