Written by Neia Lucina, Justice & Mercy Amazon Missions Assistant
Justice & Mercy Amazon is committed to taking the love and redemption of Jesus to places that have not yet heard of Him. In the Amazon, we have the privilege of doing so in partnership with jungle pastors through the river churches spread out into some of the most distant and remote places of Brazil. Since 2010, we have trained pastors, missionaries, and leaders of the jungle church to encourage, empower, and equip them to love and serve Jesus more and more. We want to help them fulfill the calling God has placed upon those who believe to go and make disciples.
In 2020, as we built our new boat, the Splendor, we also started a program allowing U.S. churches to help Indigenous river churches take mission trips on the Discovery, JMA’s original hammock boat. This sounds simple, but the reality is that these jungle churches have members with little income, but abundant passion for Christ. Reston Bible Church was the first partner to step up and fully fund our first year of jungle church mission trips for our Indigenous pastors and their congregations.
I had the privilege of being on the first jungle church mission trip in October 2021. It was amazing! I give praise and honor to the Lord, who provided and made everything possible.
Twenty-three indigenous church members came with Pastor Rildo França as the leader on this first trip. We have served with Pastor Rildo for years, as he has attended many of our Pastors Conferences. He is very mission-minded and has shared that passion with his local church.
The team was shy at the beginning, but as the days passed by, they started to feel more comfortable and started fully living everything that God had in store for this trip. We visited four communities: Foz do Canumã, Pindobal I, Aparecida, and Sorval (an indigenous community), and around 750 families overall were loved and served by the team. We had two nursing technicians on the boat, Ana and Adriana (first-time JMA volunteers), who made it possible to provide medical care to the villagers. We assisted 115 patients, and the pastor and his team visited 10 families. We also donated clothing to the village.
In every village we visited, we provided medical care, home visits, and activities for the children. In the first village, Foz do Canumã, the community doctor, invited us to work with him and see the patients at their Primary Care Clinic. At the end of the day, we donated some medications and medical supplies (gauze, syringes) to them, as they didn’t have enough. I will never forget the look on the doctor’s face when we brought the donations to the clinic. Dr. Dierry said: “WHAT? HOW? WHO ARE YOU? You guys are amazing! You are donating medication to the clinic, things that we don’t have here, and I know we wouldn’t ever have the chance to get it.”
As every patient would come into the clinic, it was amazing to see the nursing technicians from Rildo’s church praying for them. The nurses understood exactly how JMA relates to the people we serve. It’s not just about giving medicines that cure illnesses but also about the understanding that Jesus wants to touch people through us today. We just need to let Him lead us, which Ana and Adriana understood very well. God spoke to them so much on the boat and in the communities. It’s beautiful to see what God does in the lives of our volunteers. We just have to be available!
Pastor Rildo and his children are fantastic. He hopped on the boat with three children between 9 and 14 years old, and I was amazed as I saw them working like grown-ups. Pastor Rildo led VBS activities in the last two villages, and he is really good at them. I noticed that as we were working in the villages, the children and teenagers were always surrounding him.
Another highlight of this trip was in the last community. We arrived at Sorval, which is a very needy indigenous community, and until recently, they did not allow any missionaries to go there. However, through another family that Pastor Rildo evangelized, he is now one of the only pastors allowed to enter that community. When we were there, the village chief gave ownership of a piece of land to Pastor Rildo. On this land, he will be able to build a pastoral house, a church, and a well. The pastor was so happy!
The jungle church mission trips program project is beautiful, and I believe it will bless many people, both the local church going on a mission trip and the communities hosting the teams. The fact that we’re giving local churches the opportunity to go on mission trips and helping them with the costs is such an encouragement. They know now that everything is possible for anyone who believes. No one is so poor that they cannot give, and no one is so rich that they cannot receive. Pastor Rildo and his church helped provide for their trip with 400 liters of diesel, 4 kilos of fresh pirarucu (fish), 1 box of chicken, and 8 kilos of flour.
When we arrived in Nova Olinda to drop off the team, some people left the boat crying joyfully. A 14-year-old teenager named André from the pastor’s church could hardly speak. One of Pastor Rildo’s sisters who was on the trip said, “I’ve never been on a mission trip like this.”
In Matthew 28, Jesus said to his disciples: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
This commandment is for whoever believes in Him and to believers in the middle of the jungle being able to missionally apply their gifts and minister to their own has been an answer to their prayers. We praise God for partners who believe in the missionary force in Brazil and in the calling of indigenous churches in the fulfillment of their purpose. We could not do it alone.
“Not to us, Lord, not to us but to your name be the glory,
because of your love and faithfulness.” – Psalm 115:1
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