From: MissionNetworkNews
Evangelist Sammy Tippit met with church leaders and thousands of others in Brazil this month.
It became a harvesting moment for Christians in Imperatriz, Brazil. Tippit not only conducted evangelistic meetings in Imperatriz, but also in Maceio, the capital of the state of Alagoas.
Hundreds responded to the Gospel, making life-changing decisions for Christ. Church leaders asked Tippit to return next year. Sammy Tippit Ministries helped the churches hire buses to bring many to the meetings. A prayer furnace was stoked by believers meeting in churches during the public gatherings.
Strategically, counselors were on the buses to help disciple new believers and get them connected as they traveled back to the church pick-up and drop-off point. Even though church leaders were anticipating a lot of response, it was much larger than they had imagined.
The stage was set a year ago when a dozen church leaders gathered with Sammy Tippit in Goinia, Brazil. They worked together to ready a new generation of evangelists who would take the vision, strategy, and message of the Gospel to their people.
Tippit also taught the Brazilian evangelists principles and strategies of evangelism. Each of the Brazilians committed themselves to implementing the strategy during the following year.
On this trip, Tippit met with some of these same men and discovered they followed through with what they had learned during the "multiplying evangelists" meetings.
For example, Fabricio Freitas is a Missions and Evangelism Pastor for the large Memorial Baptist Church in Brasilia. He caught the vision that Tippit presented last year and recruited 94 churches to participate in the plan to reach the capital for Christ.
Since then, Freitas has implemented a program where more than 1,000 people commit themselves to pray for five people each for the next three months. They will be trained to share their testimonies and share the Gospel with those people during June. Each of the 94 churches will then host an evangelistic meeting during the end of July. They are praying for thousands of people to come to Christ. Pastor Freitas hopes that the training he received from STM will soon become a national strategy.
Plans are being made to continue the training of the evangelists in 2013. Those that have been through the training will continue their training at another level. Also, new evangelists will be brought into the group.
Tippit said, "I'm so excited about what God is doing with these evangelists. God has been faithful to bring the vision to pass. Pray for the evangelists that have been trained in Brazil and India, and those who will be trained in Africa later this summer."