Dr. Tim joined Pastor Mike Herron (from Houston, TX) for an event-filled week in São Paulo, Brazil in October. This is Mike’s 30th time in Brazil and his 5th just this year! He is so loved and respected throughout this great nation! It was our second time to minister together internationally (see Lebanon and Turkey). The folks in São Paulo graciously rented a beautiful cello for me while ministering there. So, with Mike on the piano and me on the cello, we were able to minister to hundreds of Brazilians in many services.

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With some rest after our 10 hour flight to Brazil, we started our time of ministering at Pastor Gerson Ortega’s church in São Paulo. Though this was just his worship department of about 40 people, the whole meeting was powerful from beginning to end. Ranging from songs to exhortations and Mike sharing, we ended the night with Mike prophesying over just about everybody there! Tears and exclamations ensued as he accurately spoke over each person in the room. What a great night of confirmation: we were in the right place at the right time!

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The next day was the main conference in downtown São Paulo with about 800 worship leaders, teams and pastors from all over the area gathered for an intense time of worship, praise, prayer and teaching. Our host, Pastor Samuel Odierna of Igreja do Evangelho Quadrangular (Foursquare) of São Paulo, led a powerful time of praise and worship with his Gibson guitar, a great worship band behind him and a very animated and responsive group of worshipers. Mike and I spoke in the morning with a great response. Many of Mike’s songs are in Portuguese now so he was able to share some of those and ministry through them. I sang my favorite Portuguese-translated song of mine: Alegria (Joy in the House) and shared on our part in worship. Mike shared some fascinating studies of the beauty in the relationship of music and the Bible.

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In the afternoon, Pastor Adhemar Campos shared powerfully with the conference – what a great pastor, musician, preacher! In the evening, I got to sing my song, ‘Isn’t He Good’ (Deus e tao bom) using my ‘expert’ Portuguese (ha) and flowing some with this great group. I then shared the two biblical words for worship: Shachah (Hebrew) and Proskuneo (Greek) – ending by bringing up about 30 dancers to illustrate these two fascinating words  (meaning to bow) Mike capped off the day with 3 of his best songs and then prophetically spoke some amazing visionary words over Brazil, the Foursquare Church and Pastor Samuel. God is restoring His presence and power in this great country.

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Sunday morning in Sao Paulo found us at Pastor Samuel’s church – worshiping and dancing right along with this raucous congregation! :) It was impossible to resist the excitement and exhuberance of this great church (actually many churches came together for this gathering). I was honored to add my cello to the mix – amazingly there’s always room for cello! Ha. Mike did a masterful job of mixing song and preaching with quite a bit of Portuguese thrown in – I was impressed! He shared his famous revelation of the four living creatures in Revelation – the lion, the calf, the eagle and the man. Finding our expression and realizing the great variety that God provides in worship is truly freeing. The final response was a fun session of dancing and shouting (just another day of praise in Brazil).

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Our final night was spent with Pastor Gerson Ortega at his great church in Sao Paulo. The worship was rich, led by Pastor Gerson on the keys, with dancers interpreting most of the songs beautifully. I love flowing on the cello with such rich expression! I ministered briefly and then Mike took everything to another level prophetically speaking over the congregation, ending with an altar call where 5 people responded to the call of the Holy Spirit in their lives. Transformed lives – that’s Kingdom work!

We truly enjoyed our quick journey to Sao Paulo, and it seems God has now opened up huge doors to both of us in Brazil. Thank you for your prayers, the worship was rich, the teaching inspiring, the release evident everywhere – hearts were transformed and His Voice was heard in the land once again!

in Him, Dr. Tim Smith/Worship Without Borders

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