Movements in Latin America - Part 2

He came to me and said, I want you to come and preach for me on Sunday night. He said, I have an interpreter for you. He said, I've been so busy writing letters on your behalf, I don't have a message for my congregation. I went down there, an Englishman interpreted for me, he was married to a Brazilian lady, and in the vestibule, or rather in the pastor's vestry, four of us were praying when the Lord told me, don't speak on revival, speak on the way of salvation. I know when the Lord speaks, so I decided to do this. I spoke on Romans chapter 10, verses 8 to 13, with special stress on if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. I spoke on who must decide, why we must decide, how we decide, what we decide, where and when we decide, and I made it as plain as I could make it. There were 310 people in the meeting. He said, how would you know? There were 300 seats filled and 10 people standing. At the end I said, if there's anyone here for the first time in his life wants to declare his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, let him stand up. To my amazement, more than 100 stood. I said to my interpreter, did they understand me? He shook his head. So I said, now please sit down again. Look, I'm not calling for rededications. Oh, if you want to dedicate your life to the Lord, do that, but this is for people who must confess with their mouth that Jesus is Lord to be saved. Now would you stand? Again, 100 stood. I said to the pastor, did they understand me? He shook his head. I was told afterwards that the average pastor in Brazil was delighted if he could report 10 conversions in a year. And here was 100 people standing. I was going to explain it again when an American friend of mine in the meeting said on a hoarse whisper, do something. I said, all right, if you really mean this, will you go to the social hall where my friend, Reverend Buenos Rios-Ribeiro, and my colleague, William Dunlap, will talk to you. And 103 professed conversion that night. One-third the audience. We just stayed on for 11 weeks. Only we had to move to bigger and bigger places, and finally our biggest meeting in Sao Paulo was in the Pacambu stadium. The revival had begun. Went to a place called Campinas, and there we saw the churches fill at 6 o'clock in the morning for prayer. The biggest church in town was Presbyterian, and it was just packed out. Went from there to Belo Horizonte. Started in a tiny little Methodist church, so small. It was like an upstairs room, and the stairs came right up into the middle of the room. But we had to move from there to the big auditorium of the Secretariat of Health, and then out to the open air. Then we went to a town called Governador Valadares. The churches were excited about the revival that was coming. They had been bickering among themselves. Brazilians are very competitive and individualistic, but they decided to meet in a sports field. I felt sorry for people standing for five hours at least. By the way, all the meetings lasted until midnight. We closed always at midnight. I said, no meetings after midnight. But then the churches were filled at 6 in the morning again. So I said, tomorrow night we're going to have ventures here. I want the Presbyterians and the Baptists and the Methodists and the Pentecostals to bring their pews. Nobody had ever done that before, but they had emergency meetings. They said, well, O Servant of God, the Servant of God has asked us. We must do what he says. There were Presbyterian pews and Baptist pews and Methodist pews. The Pentecostal pews squeaked a little, but otherwise there's no difference. But then guess what happened? The believers came and sat in the pews. I said, no, no, that's not for believers. This is for our visitors. If any believer wants to sit during the meeting, let him bring his own chair. Next night, supposing you're a Brazilian, never darkened a church door, and you're walking home from your work, and you meet 2,000 people coming along the street, each with a kitchen chair over his head, looking through the bars. What would you do? You'd follow them. Oh, the crowd's all right. The next place we went to was a college town called Presidente Soares. There we saw the streets packed from wall to wall. So the buses couldn't run. Brazilians are very easygoing. They enjoy any interruption with their routine. Young people sat on the roofs of the buses. I had to go and speak to the people outside this great auditorium as well as inside, and a lot of them kneeled in the street and crossed themselves. Four churches packed from about 10 till midnight. Then they came back to the auditorium for a prayer service. That was a revival. I had to fly over the great Sierras there to the state of Espirito Santo. When I arrived in Cachoeiro, I was met by six ministers. Now, they had difficulty arranging a place. The rainy season had begun, and they said, where are we going to have the crowds when the revival comes? They knew a revival was coming. They prayed for it. Somebody said, well, let's take the Gloria Theater, Teatro Gloria. The pastor of the First Baptist Church said, my church is bigger than the theater. They said, well, we don't want it really in the church to get everyone to come, but all right, let's use your church. He said, my church would be full of Baptists. What are you going to do with the Methodists and Presbyterians and others? They said, maybe you should try the open air. They were maybe drowned out the first night. A circus had come to town. So the six ministers went to see the manager of the circus. Now, in America, you go straight to business. You say, look, you're a busy man, and so am I. Let's go right to the point. Could we do thus and so? Not in Brazil. You ask first of all about the señora and the children, and you drink coffee, and then you all mention the business by accident, you know, as if it weren't too important. They said, how is the circus going? It's very poorly. Well, what's the trouble? Well, our lion is old. He can roar, but he can't bite. And the clowns are on strike. The monkeys have dissed me. And people are just not responding. They said, how much money are you making? He said, I'm losing money. Well, how much would you need to make to break even? He mentioned so many positive things. They said, could we rent the circus tonight? He said, what would your reverences want with a circus? Oh, we don't want the circus. We want your big top. You get the lion fitted with false teeth or whatever he needs, and have the medical attention for the monkeys, and just give us the men to work the lights. Now, the arena was filled with church pews. The amphitheater, it was very primitive. You walked on the planks and sat on the plank higher up, left your feet dangling. I waited five nights before I gave any kind of invitation. I couldn't give a Billy Graham invitation. They couldn't walk forward. You had a captive audience. So I just said, if anyone wants to declare his faith in Christ for the first time, let him stand up. The first man to stand up forgot he wasn't standing on anything. He just disappeared away into the depths. There was a great roar of laughter, and I thought, oh, this spoiled my meeting. But no, the Brazilians are very humorous. That was the talk of the town. Next night, the crowd was bigger than ever. And there was a Catholic priest in his tassic and girdle and sandals, concert head, listening very intently. We offered him a seat, but he didn't want to compromise his position. But he went back and told the people at mass, I have been to hear the Irish evangelist. He said, no, a protestante, a cristão. He's a Christian. Because I preached Jesus Christ and didn't attack his denomination. We had maybe one-third of all the converts were professed or nominal Roman Catholics.