Residents in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest have recently enjoyed a massive spiritual revival that is transforming the region’s religious makeup. After centuries of Catholic influence in the area, reports indicate that evangelical Christianity has been making great strides, with thousands converting and new churches being planted.
For years, Christians traveled down the Amazon River and its winding tributaries to spread the Gospel to the tens of millions of people who reside in the region. “Those early days were definitely much, much more difficult than today,” stated Josué Bengtson, pastor of Belem Foursquare Church. Bengtson has spent decades traversing the river’s intricate network, first as a missionary then as a pastor spreading the evangelical message of salvation.
Starting as a missionary and eventually becoming a pastor, Bengston has spent decades traversing the rainforest. “Back when we started evangelizing in this region, we had just a few workers and, in some municipalities, pastors had to walk 10 to 15 km to open a congregation,” Bengtson explained to CBN News. “Today, almost all medium-sized churches in the Amazon have a small boat.”
However, Bengston noted that the evangelical mission has picked up speed, where they are well on their way to baptize 30,000 people this year. “In the first six months of this year we baptized 14,500 people. Our goal for this year is to baptize over 30,000 people,” said Bengtson.
Esequiel Santo described his calling to spread the good news of Jesus Christ at a young age. “I was 15 years old when God called me to reach the unreached peoples of the Amazon,” he said. Santo has led missionary efforts in the jungle for over three decades.
However, as Bengtson noted, there are serious challenges to spreading the Gospel to such an isolated region. “One of the biggest challenges was the isolation and getting used to living among the indigenous or riverside communities,” Santo continued. “But God was with us in the work, we saw lives being transformed, so many people heard the gospel and now we are seeing the fruits.”
Santo added, “I’m from Rio de Janeiro, and back then since I couldn’t afford a plane ticket, I had to take a 6-day bus journey to Belem. From there I went by boat for another six days to the outskirts of the Amazon basin. Once I got there, it took at least 15 days by canoe, not a motorized boat, to paddle up the Solimões River and the Purus River, until we reached the remote communities where we worked. Sometimes it would take 35 days just to get to these remote areas.”
Brazilian senator and evangelical Pastor Damares Regina Alves noted how his view of the Amazon has changed over the years, as his eyes have been opened to the spiritual needs of those who reside there. “For many years, people looked at the Amazon and only saw rivers and trees. Today, people 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,” said Alves.
Featured image credit: Neil Palmer/CIAT, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Amazon_CIAT_(3).jpg