São Paulo - 2024

This last trip to São Paulo, Brazil, had some amazing unexpected surprises.

We arrived expecting to be speaking with several major Christian leaders at a conference for about 5,000 to 10,000 people. However, this plan fell apart due to several reasons, including natural disasters in Brazil and prior terrorist attacks on some of the Iris Ministries locations in Mozambique, which hindered our planning.

Upon our arrival in São Paulo, the only person scheduled to speak at what remained of our conference plans was Heidi Baker. We attended the 15,000-person church, Lagoinha, in São Paulo, to watch her speak, which was truly a sight to behold. We also had the privilege of meeting and spending time with some of the pastors and staff.

Having only 10 days in Brazil, we quickly shifted our plans with the help of Pastor Dirceu, one of our closest friends, and a man who has helped to launch various men and women into international ministry. With only one church available for this weekend, which was Pastor Dirceu’s, we prayed and made some phone calls. Amazingly, many churches were open to us, and most of these were churches with pastors we had known for a long time. We were busy almost every day, preaching and ministering.

Don spent much time speaking on restoration. The Brazilian pastors expressed how much of a blessing this was, as many churches in Brazil were growing, but the pastors were struggling to keep up with the stress, experiencing failures, and facing challenges they didn't know how to address.

Several of our pastor friends requested that we translate our materials into Portuguese, which we are currently working on. We enjoyed spending time dining with these pastors and getting to know them better, while also forming some great new relationships.

Currently, we are translating our materials and writing a book together with Pastor Dirceu and several other Christian leaders. This book will be used in an ongoing conference called “Open Heavens.”

I also did some connecting through my coffee business "Brazilian Gold Coffee". I tested out our Brazilian coffees which we have imported and roast ourselves in the United States on various Brazilians including one really nice coffee shop in our hotel. As I learned in Brazil long ago, great coffee is a great way to establish and maintain meaningful relationships.

It was amazing to see the hand of the Lord working during this time. What initially seemed like a trip falling apart was suddenly put back together in an incredible way. Sometimes the Lord asks us to take a step of faith, but He always provides a solution when we are faithful to take that step.