November 12, 2004
More News from the Field
I received a letter from Jim Leonard about the most recent evangelism campaign among the religious pilgrims in Juazeiro do Norte. Here are excerpts from the letter, along with some pics from the event:
We had a successful evangelism campaign among the Romeiros this year.
We worked with a team on the Praça Padre Cicero, and another team near the Franciscanos. Some distributed water, some tracts, and some got people's attention with the "3 Doors". The greatest number worked at the personal counselling. There were times when we had 15 romeiros being dealt with one-on-one at the same time, and others waiting their turn.
We did not use the puppets this year. They equipment is not in good shape, and we haven't had any students (or faculty) dedicated to this ministry. Do you remember, Andrew, that you were in on the first campaign we had, and how the puppets were such a hit? What year was that?
The final counts were: nearly 300 counseled one-on-one, with name and address registered for follow-up. All of these received the Source of Light course to study the Bible at home. >From these we registered 72 salvation professions. These are from nine different states: Ceará, Paraiba, Pernambuco, Alagoas, Sergipe, Bahia, Piaui, and Maranhão.
We are following up on all of the counseled ones with a letter.
The tract written by Edson turned out nice, and it was a real success. We had 40,000 of them made. We also had 20,000 cordeis made; this was a new one written by Jackson, Petinha's brother. The tracts are an effective tool, but the personal counselling stations, where we just set up chairs on the praça, has been the most effective method to witness, confront, and lead people to Christ.
The puppets he mentioned were taken to Brazil by myself in 1994. That autumn we took on the project of evangelizing the romeiros who come every year to worship Padre Cicero (I will include a short biography of him in a future post). That first effort used puppets almost exclusively. Now, as you can see, they have branched out significantly.
Now for the pics.
This is the "mother church" in Juazeiro do Norte. It is interesting to note the Padre Cicero was excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church, and yet the Church in Juazeiro continues to host these pilgrimages in his honor. Then again, it is a tremendous source of income for them.
Seminary students ariving and setting up the water barrels. This appears to be the same park where we held our first puppet shows in 1994.
On a hot Brazilian afternoon, free water is a big attraction for the pilgrims of Juazeiro, most of whom have traveled there on the backs of large flat-bed trucks. Besides the sign advertizing the free water, there is one containing the text of John 4:14: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.
One of the seminary students giving a Gospel presentation to a group of pilgrims.
One of the seminary students in a counseling session.
Posted by Andrew at November 12, 2004 11:12 AM
Comments are not allowed on this entry.