Thousands reported salvation and deliverance during two weeks of youth-led revival meetings in São Paulo
Instead of basking in the sun during a summer trip to Brazil, about 250 teens and 20-somethings spent their two-week stay in the South American nation preaching the gospel and ministering healing and deliverance in dozens of churches.
In a joint effort to raise up a new generation of healing evangelists, revivalist Randy Clark of Pennsylvania-based Global Awakening ministry and Brazilian pastors from across Sao Paulo brought North and South American youth together for Youth Power Invasion July 4-17.
Instead of returning home with traditional travel stories, the young ministers talked about the cane left by the wayside after its owner was healed, a platform shoe no longer needed because the ownerís leg had grown out to match the other, the images of parents weeping as their children receive healing and their memories of standing before crowded churches and arenas teaching and preaching.
Aaron Bass, an 18-year-old from Franklin, Tenn., l’d one young man through deliverance from drug addiction. “Some time during the deliverance, two broken bones in his hand were put back together and realigned,” Bass said. “It was a two-for-one!”
The first phase of the three-pronged “invasion” featured ministry training by Clark, a former pastor who is credited with sparking the Toronto Blessing revival; Bill Johnson, pastor of Bethel Church in Redding, Calif.; Jaime Galloway, an itinerant minister from Nashville, Tenn.; Tom Ruotolo of Global Awakening; and eight Global Awakening interns. At the end of the training, Clark told the youth to “get ready for more” because “the anointing always increases in phases two and three.”
During phases two and three, the leaders organized the youth into “attack forces” and sent them into São Paulo. Teams of 14-58 youth held three-day mini-conferences in assigned churches. Replicating what they had learned during the training sessions, young leaders taught on the biblical basis of healing, how to receive words of knowledge and specific prayer models to minister healing and deliverance.
Jaime and Emily Galloway later led groups of young people into the streets of São Paulo, where they spent their mornings ministering healing to people alongside the road, in hospital emergency rooms and in grocery stores. In the evenings the youth ministered in packed churches.
Testimonies of healing and supernatural experiences ran rampant throughout the trip. Brazilian pastor James Baptista Ferreira of Campinas, located in São Paulo state, was visibly touched while watching children seated in the front rows crying as God touched them. Their parents also were moved to tears.
“Their hands started to shine,” he said, adding that he believed gold-colored dust was appearing on the youths’ hands “as a sign of anointing for healing.”
Many of the youth experienced much more than an anointing to heal others. Some said they received visions. Others said they felt an overwhelming sense of God’s love for them during an evening focused on worship led by renowned Brazilian ministry leader Davi Silva of Casa de Davi (House of David).
“When Davi prayed for me, I kept feeling this love that I had never felt,” said 16-year-old Kateland Hilty of Wasilla, Alaska. “It was a love I only wish I could express.”
Global Awakening leaders said by the end of the trip, the youth had impacted more than 44,000 people in some 50 churches throughout São Paulo and Curitiba, which is located in southern Brazil. More than 800 people reported decisions for Christ, and 8,673 people reported physical healing. Team members also noted that more than 2,000 people said they experienced emotional healing and deliverance.
“I know of no better or quicker way to be trained in the ministry of the supernatural than go on a trip with Randy,” Johnson said. “To spend time with passionate young people and those who have the commitment and anointing to shape the course of human history is an honor beyond words. Every day is filled with the gut-level awareness that anything is possible at any time. Everyone involved will be changed forever.”
Kathleen Seagram, a 25 year-old Global Awakening intern who helped teach basic ministry training in one of the churches, believes the youth should be allowed to minister in U.S. churches. “There have been so many different kinds of healings that it has made me realize that we would be wise to have youth teach in North America, in our own home groups and churches,” she said. “Look out North America, here we come!”
Julia Loren
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