Main YWAM Page, or to YWAM Communications, or to Main News Digest PageAN ANSWER TO a teenager's unlikely, desperate prayer has led to a thriving church in a community that once stoned people who came to tell them about Jesus.
Tony Lima was just 19 when he took a team of young Youth With A Mission evangelists from Fortaleza to Taua, in the remote north eastern part of the country. The area - whose name means "The Valley of Demons" - was known for occult practices and violently opposing previous attempts to share the gospel.
Concerned for their safety, the pastor of a church trying to evangelize the area required the YWAM group to sign waivers acknowledging the risk they were taking before he would allow them to go. "He didn't want us to go because he was concerned for our lives," said Lima. "When he saw us he was shocked to see such young people saying they wanted to go."
After winning permission to go for a short visit, the team's first public meeting in the town square drew a small crowd of curious by-standers - and a group of men who seemed intent on breaking up the gathering. "My knees were shaking, and I didn't know what to do," Lima recalled. "The only thing that came to my mind was, 'Give them what you have'."
So he told them that by the following week God would demonstrate his love and power by sending rain to the area - which had known a six-year drought that had widely ruined crops and killed livestock. "I think I said it through fear more than faith. I thought that the people were going to stone us," he admitted. "Someone from my team asked if I was sure about what I said, and I had to admit I wasn't."
Lima and his team began to fast and pray, but as the days went by the sun "seemed to shine even hotter". Then, in the middle of the week, a storm broke out suddenly. "It rained, with thunder and lightening. The people came out of their houses and danced in the streets with us, thanking God.
"The next weekend we didn't have just a few people with us in the main square of the town, there were about 400. When we asked who wanted to receive Christ about 85 came forward and knelt down."
Later he was stopped by a man told him he had been one of those planning to break up the meeting when Lima threw out his challenge. "He said that many animals on his farm had died during the drought, so when the rains came he took his wife's hand and they prayed to become Christians."
In the years since, Lima has learned how the church has continued to grow through meetings with members who have traveled to Fortaleza, where he now directs YWAM's ministry. "The place was never the same. Today there are about 500 people in the church. God is doing great things."
Lima said that he believed that God allowed it to rain as "maybe the only way to reach the people there". "I said that it would rain because I was scared that the people were going to stone us. After I did, they left us in peace."
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