Perhaps the most surprising thing about Jao Pessoa and the other communities where Jack, Margo, and Everette taught in August was a palpable spiritual darkness in the area of sexual immorality. Everette told me the prominence of abuse, promiscuity, and prostitution in the community had created deep emotional wounds and a spiritual stronghold for people in the church that Margo and Jack reported was almost tangible.
In previous years, the Restorative Team’s seminar and the resulting “Restoring Your Heart” groups have brought hidden immorality and emotional problem to light in some church members. This has created problems for the church. Jack says, “They left [the church] and went into lifestyles that were immoral.” But after a period of time, he reports they came back to their senses and rejoined the church.
So this time when the team arrived Jack told me, “A lot of the people who had been caught in the problems after we left were back [in the church] and were now ready to take a hard look at their lives, because there were issues in their lives that caused the problems to start with and when we got there it all made sense to them.” Those individuals are now back in Restoring Your Heart groups and taking a serious look at the wounds and sin issues that had created road blocks in their discipleship journeys.
The future is bright for the Restorative Team’s work in Brazil. If all goes well with the re-launch of Restoring Your Heart, Jack is hopeful that many of group members will go on to train new leaders and plant new groups. New opportunities for teaching continue to emerge not only in Jao Pessoa but also in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. Meanwhile, initial reports on new Restoring Your Heart groups are extremely encouraging.
*The Restorative Ministry is dedicated to teaching churches (and other ministries) how to help people heal emotionally and relationally. We believe that a major roadblock to a person’s spiritual growth is unresolved emotional issues from their past. Our Restoring Your Heart Ministry trains people in churches and in other ministries to help people through a healing process that will enable them to become healthier in all their relationships, including their relationship with God.
Location: Rio Tinto & Jao Pessoa, Brazil
Trainers: Jack Larson, Margo Theivagt, Everette Albrecht