June 14 , 2006

Greetings!

I am finally in a place to email again. We have been out of email area for the last week. I think in the entire week we only saw two phones. What we did see was a very wonderful outpouring from Heaven.

We have been in the cities of Guia Lopes da Laguna and Jardin. They are at foot of the Pantanal, and are very much out of the well traveled path.

When I agreed to come, I was tempted to have a bad attitued about it, due to the far away nature of the place. I know it sounds funny that I would agree to go and then struggle with my attitued, but hey, all of us are growing!

It was not until we arrived at the pastors house in Guia Lopes that I understood the reason we were there. Last year I was in Nova Santa Rosa for the first time. Pastor Giovanni' church is there, and the fire was falling. There was a young man there that I called out of the crowd and ministered to prophetically. He was a Lutheren priest, and thought he was losing his mind. Evidently so did everyone else, and the Lutheren church had told him that he had to submit to mental physcology treatment or he was out of the priesthood. He was so confused and condemned in himeself. I told him by the Spirit that he was not crazy, only desperate and hungry for the presence of God, and for a real experience with Jesus, not just what he was accustomed to. I told him that God was going to move him from where he was to a new place, and that God was preparing him for a new time of ministry with and new church. He hit the floor when I prayed for him, and later I had him help me serve communion the the church there. I have not seen him or heard from him since that time.

Well, when we arrived at his house, my attempt at a bad attitude changed when he walked out of the door. Imaging my supprise to see him standing there. I remembered him immeadiatly, and my attitude became one of repantance. Sorry God, I doubted our call to this place. We bonded instantly and stayed at his house that night until almost midnight. His wife Karla had been seeking the HG and before we left she was seeking no longer. She was praying in tongues and loving it. What a great end to a tiring days travel.

It seems that Pastor Mario and 43 other priests were run out of the Lutheren church. They were all hearing from God about deeper things than a 500 year old liturgy and culture. Ps Mario said if he had not fled the city, they would of murdered him. I do not know if he was kidding or not, but evidently he told them that he had studied Luther, and that Luther did not do what they did, and that they did not do what Luther did. It was not a popular word, and out he went. He had been waiting to hook up with me again, and knows Ps Giovanni very well. It was a Divine appointment, and what a friend and partner in revival we have gained. He told the other 43 priests what had happened to him in our meeting last year, and the leadership of the new group was there from Durados. People came from as far away as Bela Vista, Durados and Bonito. I tell you, no one was dissapointed in the move of God that followed. Doors of opportunity and friendships opened up there that will be with us for the rest of our lives.

The next day the meetings started, and after a time of preaching and ministry, the firestorm started. Wow. You should of seen these Lutheren brothers on the floor in my room during the prayer meeging before the meegings. What joy, laughter and deep drunkeness in the Spirit. And that was just in the prayer time. The meegings were very well attended, some with standing room only. These people have been so hungry for so long, that they are like men who dream. Pastor Mario read that scripture out of Pslams one night, and was overcome with joy. Jesus just came in and touched all of them. Simply wonderful.

The pastors in Guia Lopes have been in prayer with several pastors in the close town of Jardin. They all co-operated to bring us in. We were not only with the Lutherens, but the Baptists, and a community church that just came out of the national 4square. All of them have experienced persecution due to their hunger. What a great time we had, watching them drink the radical Waters of God that they had suffered for. One old pastor that works with Ps Mario, had prayed for revival for years. His name is Sadi got so touched one night that oil appeared in his hands, and he just walked around the building crying. Words do not express the scenes, but many of you have experienced these life changing meegings yourselves.
Remember when Jesus anointed you fresh and new, filled you with fire and saved you life? Well, it was just like that!

The leaders from these various churchs and organizations are looking for us to return in September, and God willing, that is where we will be.

Tonight I am writing from a hotel lobby in Campo Grande. Tomorrow very early we board a bus for a 7 hour trip to the city of Rondonopolis. Ps Giovanni has a good friend there that is hungry for the move of God. We will spend the next week there in his church, and with many of the leaders in his area. From there we bus to Cuiaba, catch a plane and are home to Belo for a few days. Candi will be with Marti Duke in Rio, and we will get home just about the same time on the 19th. We travel again to the city of Santos on the 22nd, and are there through the weekend. Pastor Nelson and his wife Anna have a revival church there on the Alantic coast just below Sao Paulo. They have been in revival for a few years now, and I am really looking forward to being there with them. We will all be refreshed by the time of Fire and Glory that I am sure God has planned for us.

One the 28th we begin 5 days of meetings with a 4Square church in Betim, and hour out of Belo Horizonte. It is our second time, and we are developing a deep relationship there with the Pastor and his wife.

Our travel tomorrow is right along the west edge of the Pantanal. The Pantanal is the largest wetland area in the world. It hosts the largest and most varied animal and plantlife on the planet. It on the western edge of Brazil, and is very much like the people of Brazil. The people here are so varied and multi-cultural... so full of color and diversity. Yet they share a common need: the fresh anointing and intimacy that come with the current move of God. All of us share that need. None of us are exempt.
Thanks to all of you that make this ministry possible with your finances and prayers.

Many of these outreaches do not pay for themselves. God has honored us with going anyway, free of charge to the people we minister to. It is true that we always give the people in these cities a chance to sow, and to invest in the harvest. We would be dishonest not to do so. Most of these churches have not been taught to give, and most do not tithe. We always bring a word from the Scripture about Tithing, seed and harvest.
Sometimes it is the first time they have ever heard a message on prospering Gods way.

God has blessed us with partners that share in this gospel outreach, and hold up our hands, so that people in these faraway places can have us come. So many ministries do not come due to the financial burden. Plane tickets cost real money, as do the costs of being here. When you bring a team, it doubles what you yourself would spend if you were alone. Pastor David Gomes travels with us, and acts as co-preacher, interpreter, and good all around company for me. His ministry and fellowship are vital for me personally. Ps Giovanni pays his own way, and often is the driver for the hundereds of miles we go every trip to these remote cities in the interior.

Our next need will be to take a worship leader with us. I have such a man in mind, but it triples our financial need. The music and worship in some of these places is simply terrible. A worship leader opens levels of ministry up that simply are not there without the music. Jesus always moves mightily, but takeing the people places in the Spirit that are available to them without anointed music is very difficult. Anointed music just adds a dimension that silence can not do. If any of you have heard me sing lately, you know why I do not lead worship myself...

Anyway, thanks to the ones that help make it all possible. The fruit is yours eternally. If you would like to become a partner with us financially, or send an offering for a specific seed , contact Linda Holfinger at our office in Jacksonville Florida, and she will tell you how to invest with us. The harvest is truely plenteous, and your additon as co-laborers with us would be a joy!

From the interior of Brazil and loving it, Jeff, David and Giovanni
Stay in the River...