“Something inside” insisted, “Follow that van”; so the desperate and lonely old man – who was, at that very moment, on his way to take his own life – pulled into the busy Rio de Janeiro traffic and tailed the minibus. Eventually, the van pulled into the parking lot of a church, and the occupants – Peggy and her team of students from Charis Bible College – poured out. The gentleman followed them into the sanctuary, watched as they presented a drama depicting how Jesus can set tormented and addicted people free from the powers that enslave them, listened as some of the students shared their testimonies of how Jesus had become the Answer to their sins and failures, and hung on every word as one of the young evangelists shared the gospel message of how to receive new life through Christ. He then responded by coming forward for prayer. When two other missionary students visited the church a couple weeks later, they found the gentleman and learned that his life had been totally revolutionized as a result of that encounter. He had been restored to his family, had found a job, and was living a joy-filled life. This was just one example of the lives that were changed during the mission to Brazil. The same story – maybe not with all the dramatic details, but definitely with the same eternally life-changing effect – was repeated on a daily basis as people in each church and rehab center with warm tears of repentance and joy flowing down their cheeks filled the altars at the end of each service for Peggy and the students to pray for them for salvation, healing, and deliverance from addiction and depression.
For Peggy, the highlight of the trip was the release of Women for the Harvest in Portuguese – the thirteenth language for the book that has had an impact around the world through her personal testimonies, scriptural explanations, and the studies of the lives of women God that encourage women to participate along with the men in the harvest. At the women’s conference where Peggy ministered her heart for motivating women to serve the Lord, almost everyone in the room came forward for prayer wanting to do more for the Lord. When the book was released, the women flooded to the book table requesting Peggy to sign copies for them as a memory of the day that they had been launched into the harvest fields of the world – a fulfillment of the vision behind the book!
