"Apostles and Prophets". In 1909 in the USA, two Swedish immigrants, Gunnar Vingrin, a minister in the Chicago Baptist Convention, and his friend, Daniel Berg, a labourer, both received a "baptism in the Holy Spirit". Later in a prayer meeting in South Bend, Indiana, they received a prophecy telling them to go to Para. Para? They had never heard of it! Enquiring at a public library they discovered it was a State on the Amazon in north-east Brazil. While attending another prayer meeting, another prophecy told them to go to New York City. Here they were approached by a believer who gave them enough money for their third class passage to Belem, Capital of Para, at the mouth of the mighty river Amazon. They arrived in 1910 with only 16 cruzeiros in their pocket. Walking up the main street they sat down in the Plaza Republica. Some mangoes fell from a tree and the Lord gave them their first breakfast in Brazil. It was the earnest of God’s provision. In due course they began to preach with much success.
As they read the Scriptures, they saw several features. For example, there seemed in New Testament times to be only one church in each city and with a city eldership. It also seemed that it was the responsibility of such a church to evangelise the surrounding State: so Jerusalem would reach out to Judea and Samaria; Ephesus to Asia and so on. So following this, the church in Belem would be responsible to evangelise the State of Para and the church in Natel, the state of Rio Grand de Norte and so on. Today in Belem the "mother" Temple has about 6000 folk, but she has planted scores of congregations across the city, the total membership of the "Church in Belem" being tens of thousands. Then out into the State of Para, hundreds of congregations are planted - the total being called "A Ministry". Following this practice the whole nation is honeycombed with churches.
In due course brave folk from Belem ventured 1000 miles up river to Manaus, capital of the State of Amazonia and sought to plant a church. In turn this church in Manaus became responsible to evangelise the huge jungle State of Amazonia. What a task! Poverty, unbelievable living conditions, difficulties of travel and communication, disease and danger. Our burden is for the jungle population.
The jungle covers six States in the northern half of Brazil. Hundreds and hundreds of square miles of trees, watered by the mighty River Amazon and it’s tens of thousands of tributaries.
Amazonia is the largest jungle State. At Manaus, 1000 miles from the estuary, the river is still three miles wide and ocean-going ships reach here. Except for a limited air service the only means of travel is by boat. In the rainy season the whole water system can rise as much as 179ft. Floods, crashing timbers, floating islands and rushing torrents make travel treacherous. Rivers can be so sinuous that after 8 hours by boat, one can be almost back to the same point. Here we travel by boat, sleeping anywhere in hammocks and eating whatever the poor folk can provide, continually invaded by mosquitoes, ants and flying cockroaches, preaching, teaching and encouraging the people and the brave pioneers who labour so sacrificially.