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Brothers and sisters united in a service at a site in Suzano, Sao Paulo.
In Sao Paulo, at the end of the decade of 1940, members of the Independent Presbyterian Church of Cambuci, longing for the plenitude of the Holy Spirit, began to participate in spiritual retreats promoted by the Reverend Carl W. Cooper and his wife, Mrs. Sarah Cooper – also known as Daddy and Mother Cooper – in Suzano, Sao Paulo, where there was also an orphanage directed by the couple.
As time went by, men of God, revivalists, and people from different countries were invited to minister the word of God and pray with those pioneers, who felt more and more motivated to devote their lives. Members of the most diverse denominations that participated in those memorable revivalist reunions were awaken to a more intense prayer life, and that way, groups were formed day after day in many churches.
One of the first prayer groups would get together at Epaminondas and Ada Silveira Lima’s house. There, the America pastor Dom Phillips ministered during a prayer campaign, where he based himself off of the text of II Chronicles 7:14 – “if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and will heal their land”. There were so many people who came to these reunions that some could not access the interior of the house and fell knees to the ground in the gardens.
Dom Phillips was impressed with the thirst and passion that those believers threw themselves at the feet of the Lord, and he connected them with Pastor Haroldo Edwin Williams, who greatly influenced the revivalist cause in our country, since he brought the Evangelist Raymond Boatright – or simply “Mr. Slim”, as he liked to be called – to Brazil. He was the biggest instrument of God for the fulfillment of the revivalist effort, and Williams was also his interpreter.
Rev. Epaminondas and Mrs. Ada traveling to do God’s work.
The Holy Spirit was preparing the church for the great revival through the prayer ministry, which had an increasing desire to gain lives for Christ.
Even before being baptized with the Holy Spirit, some believers already threw themselves with much love in the search for the lost. The Silveira Lima couple is an example of that because not only did they receive dozens of revivalists, pastors, evangelists, and missionaries from all around the world for the evangelist effort in Brazil, but they also went to streets and squares themselves with other companions to evangelize, distributing Christian literature and preaching outdoors.
The presbyter Epaminondas would often take the train in the main stations of the city of Sao Paulo and go to the suburbs, sowing the message of Christ’s salvation. Even in the political protests, they would find precious opportunities to direct people to the way of Eternal Life. The missionary Ada reported that in a rally for the previous president of the Republic, Getulio Vargas, the couple distributed thousands of evangelist pamphlets.
There is no doubt that it was the greatest revival that ever occurred in Brazil, and that it was genuine and generalized, and it yielded broad results. From that on, the Gospel received a great push in our country, and since then, many denominations arose and have contributed to the expansion of the kingdom of God.
As it was said before, and it is nice to repeat: the revival was not born with a denominational flag, but resulted directly from the cry of believers of the most distinct denominations. The reunions were powerful and arose spontaneously through the influence of some believers over others, and, as a trace of fire, they spread all over the city of Sao Paulo, where many lives were consecrated to God and were baptized with the Holy Spirit.
Tent of the Brazilian Evangelist Crusade – Sao Paulo/SP
The church was a plowed field and was prepared by God for the work of the Holy Spirit when in 1953, the Evangelist Boatright arrived in Brazil. During the first semester of that year, the revivalist ministered at the temple of the Independent Presbyterian Church of Cambuci. His ministration of the word of God was done in a simple way to a crowd that was longing to receive a faith prayer at Rua Barao de Jaguara, number 1140. Before preaching, Boatright would sing accompanied by Betinho, a well-known guitarist whose nickname was “the king of the night”. His enlivened songs talked about freedom and lives that were transformed, also emphasizing the subjugation of evil armies through the power that believers received when they were baptized with the Holy Spirit.
It is estimated that around 15 thousand people from every neighborhood of Sao Paulo passed the church every day. Some would spend the night and wait for the new day in order to be the first ones to enter the temple and witness the repetition of the miracles of Christ that occurred back in the city of Jerusalem.
Rev. Epaminondas praying after being baptized with the Holy Spirit.
When the revival spread, Epaminondas Silveira Lima was in a missionary trip out of the country, accompanied by Dr. Carlos Han. They spent 5 months praying in countries of South America, Central America, and the United States, where more than 300 cities were reached. When he came back, presbyter Lima – as he was known – found his wife talking in tongues with a new dynamic, more excited than he had ever seen before.
His first initiative was to try to stop her, which at first brought some discomfort to both parts. But his wife remembered how genuine and equilibrated his life with Christ had been since he converted at 9 years old after listening to a message from Dr. Gioia, a converted ex-priest. The consecrated servant of God insisted in showing her husband that such experience was part of the blessing promised by Christ in Acts 1: 7 – 8, which both sought fervently, which caused Epaminondas to reflect on the occurrence a little more.
Meanwhile, the prayer services were still taking place at his house, to which he then participated with certain constraint. However, one night God woke his maid, who was illiterate, and made her prophesize in English. At first, he thought there were American visitors but then he saw what was happening. It was then that, dumbfounded, he saw his last restraints against such tongue manifestation end. He was entirely convinced that God was doing something new in the church and was using the manifestation of tongues through the Holy Spirit to do so. He then started to passionately seek this power in order to fully exercise his ministry in gaining lives.
He would cry to God with all his soul, asking that He would grant him with the same blessing as his wife. When he could not bear the burning desire in his heart anymore, he prayed: “Jesus, baptize me today with Your Holy Spirit or I will not ask you for it anymore!”, and right then, he was baptized with the sweet Holy Spirit of God, starting a new phase in his life.
At that period, the Independent Presbyterian Church was shaken with the work of the Holy Spirit. And it did not take long for dissatisfactions to appear, and a strong resistance against the revival was installed. As a consequence, those who were involved with the work of the Holy Spirit were invited to leave.
It was very hard for those pioneers to leave the church that they so loved. They did not want to stay away from their brothers and sisters of so many years, neither did they want to form a new denomination. However, God had a different plan for them. When the evangelist Boatright had to return to Brazil, the now pastor Epaminondas Silveira Lima received the tent, which was planned on his dinner table and supplied by Oral Roberts, and was brought from the United Stated by the revivalist.
The work then continued with the same fire… That was how the story of the Pentecostal Bible Church started – Life Door Ministry, with its first tents installed in neighborhoods in Cambuci, Pari, and Jabaquara, in the city of Sao Paulo.
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