Originally published in CBN
A profound spiritual transformation is unfolding in the Amazon.
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For centuries, the Catholic Church held a near-monopoly in the region. Today, evangelical Christianity is reshaping the region’s spiritual fabric, leading to new converts and churches. CBN News travelled to Brazil’s northwest Amazon region to witness it firsthand for this exclusive report.
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Linger on the banks of the Amazon River and you’ll uncover more than the rich tapestry of life amid the natural splendour.
For many, such as Ramos, the river isn’t just a backdrop; it’s a sanctuary.
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“My family and I all grew up here. My grandmother, grandfather and my parents lived and died in this house. I was born in this house and I’m also going to die here,” Ramos told CBN News.
As an 83-year-old resident of the Amazon River, Ramos refuses to trade his floating bamboo house for life in any Brazilian city.
“It’s so much cooler here than in the city. You cannot walk freely in the city. It’s very dangerous, many cars, many people. I’m free here. I keep my windows open. The doors are always open. At my age, I’ve never faced danger,” Ramos said.
Spanning more than 15.5 million square kilometres of South America, 60% of the Amazon rain forest is in northwest Brazil. The approximately 30 million Amazonians currently living here are experiencing an unprecedented evangelical revival.
“God is everything for me. God is my father and without Jesus I’m nothing,” Ramos told us.
Ramos epitomises this spiritual shift.
Growing up Catholic, he remembers when the faith dominated his riverside community. Not anymore.
The Amazon River here in the northern part of Brazil is filled with hundreds of these small tributaries that in essence snake through the jungle, and over the many years evangelical Christians have been traversing these waters in an attempt to bring the good news of Jesus Christ to the Amazonian people.
“Those early days were definitely much, much more difficult than today,” said Josué Bengtson, pastor of Belem Foursquare Church.
Bengtson has spent decades traversing the river’s intricate network, first as a missionary then as a pastor spreading the evangelical message of salvation.
“Back when we started evangelising in this region, we had just a few workers and, in some municipalities, pastors had to walk 10 to 15 km to open a congregation,” Bengtson told CBN News. “Today, almost all medium-sized churches in the Amazon have a small boat.”
Bengtson helped establish one of the Amazon’s first Foursquare churches.
Today, he says the evangelical presence here is undeniable, with 3 200 Foursquare congregations alone flourishing across the region.
“In the first six months of this year we baptised 14 500 people. Our goal for this year is to baptise over 30 000 people,” said Bengtson.
We obtained a video that captures a remarkable mass baptism in the Amazon River, where hundreds including, men, women, the elderly, young adults, and children — publicly profess their faith in Jesus Christ.
And this growth goes beyond numbers, reaching the hearts of many like Esequiel Santo.
“I was 15 years old when God called me to reach the unreached peoples of the Amazon,” Santo told CBN News.
Santo spent 32 years as a missionary in the jungle’s interior.
“One of the biggest challenges was the isolation and getting used to living among the indigenous or riverside communities,” Santo said. “But God was with us in the work, we saw lives being transformed, so many people heard the gospel and now we are seeing the fruits.”
Santo says sharing the Gospel here can be full of challenges.
“I’m from Rio de Janeiro, and back then since I couldn’t afford a plane ticket, I had to take a 6-day bus journey to Belem. From there I went by boat for another six days to the outskirts of the Amazon basin,” Santo said. “Once I got there, it took at least 15 days by canoe, not a motorised boat, to paddle up the Solimões River and the Purus River, until we reached the remote communities where we worked. Sometimes it would take 35 days just to get to these remote areas.”
José Eustaquio Alves, a leading Brazilian sociologist, says evangelical churches here benefit from long term pastors or missionaries like Santo who foster deep community ties and growth.
“The Catholic Church has a lot of difficulty in training new priests, so it is very common to see Catholic Churches in the Amazon but not enough priests to lead congregations,” Dr Alves said. “A priest goes once a month or once every semester to the Amazon and is often far from the community. Evangelicals, on the other hand, quickly train pastors who integrate into the community and for a long time.”
Today, small evangelical churches like this one are springing up in remote riverside communities.
“I think that the revival that we have been waiting for here in Brazil is happening in the Amazon,” said Alves.
Brazilian senator and evangelical Pastor Damares Regina Alves sees this movement as a miracle that’s not only reshaping spiritual practices but also fostering a sense of community and empowerment.
“For many years, people looked at the Amazon and only saw rivers and trees. Today, people are beginning to remember that there are people living there who need to be taken care of, need to hear the gospel and whose lives need a transformation. The church is making this revolution happen,” said Alves.
Evangelical Christians often must rely on small canoes or medium-sized boats to hold church services and other ministry activities as they reach remote regions.
Meanwhile, church teams from Brazil’s major cities send volunteers here to conduct educational, humanitarian, and medical missions.
This outreach often helps introduce people to the gospel message.
These pastors, missionaries and many others laboring in this vast expanse believe the shift is more than just a change in religious practice – it’s a movement that promises to redefine the region’s spiritual and social landscape for generations to come.
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