"In our youth, Gladys and I felt the call of God on our lives to serve Him in Amazonia, Brazil. Later we were accepted as prospective missionaries for the field by the Overseas Missions Council of Assemblies of God. We took several training courses to prepare ourselves for what we believed would be our life’s work. A war was raging in Europe, but eventually in 1946 passages aboard ship were booked for us to travel to Manaus. However, the Missions Council was facing a financial crisis and reluctantly informed us that they could no longer finance the opening of a "new field". However, they said they would be most happy to send us to any of their existing "fields" in other parts of the world. This was most kind of them but after our hearts, minds and prayers had been involved for so long with this burden for Amazonia, it was difficult at this point to change direction.
We could not understand what God was saying or doing. We could only put ourselves into His hands and meanwhile throw ourselves wholeheartedly into the work and ministry He had given us in England.
Then in 1977 a dear friend David Newington and his wife Loreen, having been in Brazil seeking to introduce their wonderful "Life Line Literature", landed in Bogota, Columbia. At the airline’s expense they were staying a night in a hotel. As they opened the door of the apartment there flowed out to meet them a sense of God’s presence. It took them completely unawares. Their suitcase unopened on the floor, they sought God’s face and within an hour were writing a letter to me, convinced that I had a central place in their venture - a part I was later able to play.
Shortly afterwards, I received a letter from Pastor Tulio Barras Ferreira (no doubt David had spoken to him of me) inviting me to visit Brazil to preach in the churches and to teach in short-term Bible Schools arranged for pastors. He leads a fine temple in the Sao Cristavao area of Rio and a thousand pastors are working in the churches related to it.
I accepted the invitation and God worked a financial miracle for me as I travelled thousands of miles - 17 air flights, countless bus journeys and numerous hotel bills. On my journey our Pastor Tulio kindly arranged for me to have a few days in Manaus to see the work and the place to which I had felt called so long ago.
I thought I would never go back but the next year I returned and travelled widely in the jungle. I caught the vision of the ways in which we could help the Manaus Church bring in the harvest from the vast jungle interior. This has continued year after year and Gladys too has had the joy of joining some of these missions".
John and Gladys Phillips