The Brazilian Amazon is aflame. But it’s not with the same forest fires consuming Alberta’s borrel forests. The fire comes from God’s Spirit moving among the 3 million or so people living in what is considered one of the most remote places of the earth. In the early September 2024, as cooler temperatures descend on what is usually the hot and humid areas of northwestern Brazil, 14,700 people gathered on Sunday September 8th by the great River to be baptized in the name of Jesus – young and old, men, women and children, everyone who has heard the message of salvation in Jesus and are willingly declaring the power of God to save. The few news agencies that gathered to witness the event called it an unprecedented revival. Why is this happening? To be certain, the region where this great movement of God is taking place is not easy to get to. The earliest pastors from São Paulo walked 10 to 15 km to open a congregation. Others from Rio de Janeiro travelled to the remote town of Belem, then by boat for another six days to the outskirts of the Amazon basin, and then at least 15 days by canoe, not a motorized boat, to paddle up the Solimões River and the Purus River, until they reached the remote communities where they worked. It would take 35 days to reach these communities, but God’s love for these people took them to “the ends of the earth,” and the people gladly heard. And these pastors didn’t just go once in a while. They poured their lives out for the people, lived and worked among them, taught them God’s Word and established churches, some as small as 10 to 15 people, others encompassing the entire village. Brazilian senator and evangelical pastor Damares Regina Alves described this movement as a miracle. “For many years, people looked at the Amazon and only saw rivers and trees. Today, we are beginning to remember that there are people living there who need to be taken care of, need to hear the gospel and whose lives need a transformation. The church is making this revolution happen.” And revolution it is. By the end of 2024, the church expects that the number of people baptized in the Brazilian Amazon would exceed 30,000 in one year.
As I think on these things, my spirit is raised to heights of praise to the God of our salvation. Presidential candidates may spar at verbal debates; Space X may put commercial flights into the space. But the greatest news is that lives are saved from the ravages of sin, the gates of hell are besieged by the church of our Lord Jesus, and the power of death is conquered through the transformed life in Jesus. But remember. Those of us who rejoice at salvation must likewise be willing to go where the gospel is least lived and least preached, to invest our lives among those who are least likely to want to listen and to keep at the task of making Christ known. Paul reminds us, ” How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!’” (Romans 10:14-15). So let’s make this our calling. Speak the gospel. Live it out where you are. You may not have to travel for 35 days to be given the privilege of bringing the message of salvation to those you love. Perhaps it’s as close by as crossing the street, or picking up the phone, or texting a message. But how are they to hear without someone saying something? So please. Go and make Christ known, and let Him set the forest aflame.
