In recent years, Joyce Meyer Ministries has partnered with Jeff and Becky Hrubik, the leaders of Project Amazon (also known as PAZ, which means “peace” in Portuguese), to assist with spreading the Gospel throughout the Amazon Basin and other areas of Brazil.
PAZ’s mission field, the Amazon Basin, is roughly two-thirds the size of the continental U.S. and has an estimated 30,000 communities not yet evangelized. Their goal: a church in every community. To accomplish this, they’re sending Brazilian missionaries and pastors, as well as health, water-purification and church-construction teams to fuel the fire of spreading the Gospel and minister to the mind, body and soul of the people living throughout the Amazon Basin. Over the past 30 years, they have helped plant more than 500 churches.
Through our relationship with PAZ, Joyce Meyer Ministries sponsors a medical boat, which provides free medical and dental care to those living along the Amazon River. We are also planting churches, providing thousands with safe drinking water, and we have ministered to hundreds of prisoners in desperate need of hope.
The River of Life
Together with PAZ, we are bringing medical care along the banks of the Amazon River—in places like Saracura where families from miles around approach the village in boats and canoes. These poor families are coming for what may be their only opportunity to receive affordable medical care—they are coming for a chance to visit the Porta da Luz, a fully functioning, floating medical clinic that is supported by the partners of Joyce Meyer Ministries.
Josivana De Jesus Laurindo arrives at our boat with his 8-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son, who are both in a lot of dental pain. Josivana works 8 months of the year as an adult literacy teacher and fills in as a substitute teacher the remaining time, but he can’t afford the prices of medical care in the nearest city. Thanks to the medical boat, his children are able to receive free dental care.
“I am so happy and very thankful for this,” Josivana says. “I know that God is making this outreach possible. If I had to wait until I had money, my children would have had to wait for months to go to the dentist.”
Joyce Meyer Ministries supports 1 of 6 boats that travel from village to village providing dental and medical care to people suffering various ailments. A few of the commonly seen illnesses are severe impetigo, infection and malaria. Patients receive dental care aboard the boat, while a medical clinic is set up in each village.
After the physical needs are met during the day, the spiritual needs of the people are met in the evening. Villagers are invited to come and watch a presentation of the JESUS Film. Known as one of the most effective evangelistic tools available, the film brings the Gospel to life, and hearts are touched by the powerful message of Jesus Christ.
Water, Water Everywhere…
Imagine being thirsty, having endless amounts of water available, yet every time you drink it…your child drinks it…you become ill. The water is running rampant with parasites, disease and bacteria. Here in the heart of Brazil flows the world’s widest, and second longest, river—the Amazon. And although the water is in great supply, it is not clean, and the precious people living here are increasingly becoming chronically ill.
Thankfully, there is an answer. Through our partnership with PAZ, hundreds of families are receiving water filtration systems. To date, we have already sponsored the purchase and installation of nearly 850 systems which have literally transformed the quality of life for thousands living in the Amazon Basin.
These simply constructed BioSand Household Water Filters have been recognized by the World Health Organization as one of the best low-tech water filters in the world. The filter is actually produced in a facility built by PAZ and Samaritan’s Purse Canada, so the facility is not only providing clean drinking water, it is also providing jobs for many villagers.
Not only do the filters change their physical health, but in each village a church is also built where their spiritual health can be radically changed as well. In one village, a 96-year-old man received Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. He told the pastor who prayed with him that no one had ever spoken to him about Christ his entire life. And this precious man is just one of so many who are not only receiving fresh water, but who are also being introduced to The Water of Life.
Thank You
Friends and partners, your faithful support has enabled us to work hand in hand with Project Amazon to accomplish some incredible things for God and touch the lives of multiplied thousands through these outreaches, including helping them establish vital churches throughout the region.
Thank you for your help, which has allowed us to partner with cutting-edge ministries like Project Amazon. Because of you, the people here in the Amazon Basin are experiencing God’s restorative power…through things like gift bags, water filters, medical and dental care and most importantly, the Gospel of Jesus Christ.