My Hope on the Amazon
Our current television broadcast features stories from the My Hope project that took place in Brazil last November. Learn more about the people whose lives were forever changed.
For three nights in 2008, the BGEA aired evangelistic messages in partnership with 50,000 Brazilian churches, which had trained some 850,000 hosts. These hosts invited neighbors to their homes to watch the programs, and then invited them to respond to the Gospel.
Called Minha Esperança in Portuguese, the outreach stretched from the beaches of Rio de Janeiro in the south to the Amazon rain forest in the north. The following stories are from Amazonas, one of the most remote regions of Brazil.
Careireio
Leir Silva and her mother run a tiny store from the front of their weathered wood home in Careireio, a 40-minute ferry trip from Manaus, the capital of Amazonas. A Christian for four years, Leir, 39, hosted a Matthew home with the six women from her church small group, setting up plastic chairs on a concrete slab in front of her store.
On the first night of the My Hope program Silva witnessed to 12 neighbors, but no one accepted Christ. Now on the second night she prays with Kelvy Monteiro, a visiting pastor, that people will be saved in this town, which is plagued with drugs and prostitution. They pray also for electricity—the rainy season has started early in Amazonas, and the electric grid has failed. Monteiro reassures Silva: “We will preach the Gospel. We will not lose this opportunity to share the Good News.”
By 6:30 p.m., a half-hour before the scheduled television broadcast, Careireio is Amazon-jungle dark. Silva lights candles and places them on the store countertop. Ten adults and four children arrive in the dark, filling all the chairs. By candlelight Silva welcomes her guests and apologizes for the lack of television. She introduces Monteiro and asks him to share Christ.
“You will only find true hope in Jesus,” Monteiro tells the group. Then he quotes Hebrews 10:23, “Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise” (NLT).
Monteiro shares his testimony. “My life belonged to alcohol,” he says, then tells how Jesus has changed him. He concludes with a question: “Does anyone here want to accept Jesus?”
From the darkness a single voice rings out, “I want!”
Another woman starts sobbing, almost uncontrollably. It is Silva, the host, who says between sobs, “I’ve been praying for my older sister for four years.”
The single voice was Lourdes—her older sister.
Compensa, Manaus
Manaus, a booming port city of some 2 million people, sits next to the river junction where the Rio Negro flows into the mighty Amazon. It is the region’s epicenter for trade and transport. Honda manufactures 1.5 million motorcycles a year in Manaus. Streets are clogged with made-in-Brazil Fiats, Chevrolets and Volkswagens, most running on ethanol distilled from Brazilian sugar cane.
Isadora Macedo, 53, moved to Manaus from a remote village on the Jurua River when she was 16. For 10 years she worked in the Mitsubishi factory making television sets until she saved enough money to open a lunch counter in her home across the street from her church in Compensa. “Now when people eat lunch, I tell them about Jesus,” she says.
Macedo leads a small group of 10 women at the church. When her pastor, Raimondo Chagas, told small group leaders about My Hope and asked them to be Matthews, Macedo agreed. Some members were concerned that they were too poor and their homes were too small, but Chagas encouraged them: “Do not be afraid,” he said. “Do not be ashamed. [You] must share the Gospel even if your house is small. The important thing is to talk about Jesus Christ.”
Because of the lunch counter, Macedo’s house really was too small, so she asked her neighbor and small group sister Rhimonda Lito if she could use her home.
On the first night of the broadcast, Macedo and Lito set up 17 chairs under a guava tree in Lito’s courtyard. Neighbors and small group sisters filled every chair.
After the broadcast, Macedo repeated—in her own words—the invitation to receive Christ. She asked for a show of hands of those who wanted to accept Christ. One woman tentatively raised her hand. Macedo rushed to embrace the woman as her small group sisters broke into applause.
Later Macedo explained, “We’ve been praying for her all week.”
Jorge Teixeira, Manaus
“I’m 25,” Jaime Pamtoja says as he begins anxiously pouring out his story. “Most of my life is a sad story. Altogether our family has seven boys and seven girls. I was always the black sheep.
“I’ve done so many bad things. I lived in a world of drugs and prostitutes. I sold drugs. Cocaine. Marijuana. Meth. The drugs make you violent—very violent. I lost my family because I was always fighting.”
He hesitates for a minute and then continues, tears streaming down his face. “My brother Hebert always wanted me to leave the drugs. Sometimes I would see his pastor, Judimar Monteiro, on the street. Pastor would try to tell me about Jesus, but my friends and I would make fun of him.
“Sometimes I would listen outside the church, but I never went in. A week ago I went in and I accepted Christ. I have to have a new life in Jesus. I need a 180-degree turn in my life.”
Pamtoja is already letting God use him. “In church I heard about the My Hope program, and I asked the pastor if I could be a Matthew, too. He said yes. I invited some of my old gang friends to my house to see the program. The first night two of them accepted Christ. And the second night, two more.”
Find your cable listing and learn more about the My Hope television special. Click here »
Our current television broadcast features stories from the My Hope project that took place in Brazil last November. Learn more about the people whose lives were forever changed. 
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DonateCalled Minha Esperança in Portuguese, the outreach stretched from the beaches of Rio de Janeiro in the south to the Amazon rain forest in the north. The following stories are from Amazonas, one of the most remote regions of Brazil.
Careireio
Leir Silva and her mother run a tiny store from the front of their weathered wood home in Careireio, a 40-minute ferry trip from Manaus, the capital of Amazonas. A Christian for four years, Leir, 39, hosted a Matthew home with the six women from her church small group, setting up plastic chairs on a concrete slab in front of her store.
On the first night of the My Hope program Silva witnessed to 12 neighbors, but no one accepted Christ. Now on the second night she prays with Kelvy Monteiro, a visiting pastor, that people will be saved in this town, which is plagued with drugs and prostitution. They pray also for electricity—the rainy season has started early in Amazonas, and the electric grid has failed. Monteiro reassures Silva: “We will preach the Gospel. We will not lose this opportunity to share the Good News.”
By 6:30 p.m., a half-hour before the scheduled television broadcast, Careireio is Amazon-jungle dark. Silva lights candles and places them on the store countertop. Ten adults and four children arrive in the dark, filling all the chairs. By candlelight Silva welcomes her guests and apologizes for the lack of television. She introduces Monteiro and asks him to share Christ.
“You will only find true hope in Jesus,” Monteiro tells the group. Then he quotes Hebrews 10:23, “Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise” (NLT).
Monteiro shares his testimony. “My life belonged to alcohol,” he says, then tells how Jesus has changed him. He concludes with a question: “Does anyone here want to accept Jesus?”
From the darkness a single voice rings out, “I want!”
Another woman starts sobbing, almost uncontrollably. It is Silva, the host, who says between sobs, “I’ve been praying for my older sister for four years.”
The single voice was Lourdes—her older sister.
Compensa, Manaus
Manaus, a booming port city of some 2 million people, sits next to the river junction where the Rio Negro flows into the mighty Amazon. It is the region’s epicenter for trade and transport. Honda manufactures 1.5 million motorcycles a year in Manaus. Streets are clogged with made-in-Brazil Fiats, Chevrolets and Volkswagens, most running on ethanol distilled from Brazilian sugar cane.
Isadora Macedo, 53, moved to Manaus from a remote village on the Jurua River when she was 16. For 10 years she worked in the Mitsubishi factory making television sets until she saved enough money to open a lunch counter in her home across the street from her church in Compensa. “Now when people eat lunch, I tell them about Jesus,” she says.
Macedo leads a small group of 10 women at the church. When her pastor, Raimondo Chagas, told small group leaders about My Hope and asked them to be Matthews, Macedo agreed. Some members were concerned that they were too poor and their homes were too small, but Chagas encouraged them: “Do not be afraid,” he said. “Do not be ashamed. [You] must share the Gospel even if your house is small. The important thing is to talk about Jesus Christ.”
Because of the lunch counter, Macedo’s house really was too small, so she asked her neighbor and small group sister Rhimonda Lito if she could use her home.
On the first night of the broadcast, Macedo and Lito set up 17 chairs under a guava tree in Lito’s courtyard. Neighbors and small group sisters filled every chair.
After the broadcast, Macedo repeated—in her own words—the invitation to receive Christ. She asked for a show of hands of those who wanted to accept Christ. One woman tentatively raised her hand. Macedo rushed to embrace the woman as her small group sisters broke into applause.
Later Macedo explained, “We’ve been praying for her all week.”
Jorge Teixeira, Manaus
“I’m 25,” Jaime Pamtoja says as he begins anxiously pouring out his story. “Most of my life is a sad story. Altogether our family has seven boys and seven girls. I was always the black sheep.
“I’ve done so many bad things. I lived in a world of drugs and prostitutes. I sold drugs. Cocaine. Marijuana. Meth. The drugs make you violent—very violent. I lost my family because I was always fighting.”
He hesitates for a minute and then continues, tears streaming down his face. “My brother Hebert always wanted me to leave the drugs. Sometimes I would see his pastor, Judimar Monteiro, on the street. Pastor would try to tell me about Jesus, but my friends and I would make fun of him.
“Sometimes I would listen outside the church, but I never went in. A week ago I went in and I accepted Christ. I have to have a new life in Jesus. I need a 180-degree turn in my life.”
Pamtoja is already letting God use him. “In church I heard about the My Hope program, and I asked the pastor if I could be a Matthew, too. He said yes. I invited some of my old gang friends to my house to see the program. The first night two of them accepted Christ. And the second night, two more.”
Find your cable listing and learn more about the My Hope television special. Click here »
You can help train families in other nations to serve as hosts and counselors as they open their homes and turn on their TVs to the power of the Gospel.
Partner with My Hope today!
Partner with My Hope today!
