We Forget That He has a Name Too!!!

I think about Pedro constantly when I am thinking back of my life on the streets or when I am telling my testimony. He grew up poor and he was still very poor on the streets. He was considered the fastest boy on the streets because he used to rob people and they would never be able to catch him. The police either!!! He used to tell me that he left home because he hated going to school and he had no interest in those borings subjects. He used to tell me that he never had nice clothes before he came to the streets because his family was too poor. His clothes were always torn, no slippers and he was always out of the house most of the time. He only cared about soccer and more soccer. He used to tell me the number one rule on the streets, he used to say “Bro(Sidney), you can`t be weak on the streets because the streets are tough”. Pedro was a boy that was totally indifferent to what was happening around him and another thing he used to say to me in his Paulista(People from Sao Paulo) accent was “Bro,you gotta live each day as it goes, if that means robbing or stabbing someone you gotta do”.

But he didn`t stay alive very long. They burned him alive with paint-thinner and he was taken to the hospitals and I never heard about him no more. He was cool but he talked too much. He was too crazy but his craziness took him to the grave. I didn`t really like him a lot because he used to dominate all of us on the streets and to tell you the truth I was afraid of him or what he would had done to me if I did something wrong.

The Most Amazing Woman in My Life!!!

I will forever be grateful to mom and her name will always ring in my memory. Her name makes me cry and laugh at the same time. I love my mom and always will. My mom`s name is Juraci Pinto da Silva and she is a strong woman that has been through a lot. My mom has superpowers – the power to love, the power to understand, the power to sacrifice and to give everything that she has. I remember many times we wouldn`t have food or enough food and I remember she would sacrifice her own food for her us. She would give the last portion of rice and she would assure me that she was very full but today thinking back I know she was hungry and she needed to eat but she gave to me or my brothers and sisters.

I think my mom is very patient because she is still living with my father but now there are couple of months that she filed the papers to divorce my father but she is doing that through public service so it will take very long time, my mom is also very humble, caring, carefree and God-fearing.

My mom didn`t grow up in a city with big buildings but she grew up in the rural area and she tells me that she loved that life because life was very simple and you didn`t have a lot of things to worry about. My grandfather married early but he lost his wife because of diseases, then he married again but lost his wife again and then he married the sister of the second wife that died. He has had so many kids and most of them are still alive. He has had more than a dozen of kids and my mom is one of oldest. My mom just like my father didn`t study that much because in the rural area there wasn`t higher level of education. My mom says she would had loved to study more but it was not possible. My grandfather had a big land with a lot of acres and they used to have animals, plantations, a lot of fruit trees, water fountains and horses, cows, etc.

My mom grew up learning how to cook for her mom and take care of the house. My mom tells me some really fun, interesting and exciting stories of her childhood. She tells me stories of when she would steal oranges, bananas, berries with her friends just for fun on the way back from school. My mom grew up with a very innocent childhood and she had a fairy-tale of someday a prince was going to come and rescue her but instead of a prince came someone else. My mom tells me that when she was growing up it was hard for them even to see a car or television because they were living so removed from the city and all those things like car seemed like a dream to be near or even touch someday.

My mom tells me stories of how she and her family would walk for hours to get to a family`s house that had a small Television so they could watch the evening soap-opera or movies. She tells me to have a television back then it was a luxury thing and she used to love to watch the television and she would watch the soap-operas and she would image of someday being married and having her kids .

She tells me that everyone around her would be so afraid to get old and not get married so they would get married very early in their teens and back then it was completely ok. So all my aunties got married very early and my mom too. My mom got married in her teens and she tells me that she didn`t really love my father but she just wanted to get married to get away from home. She didn`t want to stay home until she would be older.

My mom got married and moved to the city and that`s when her life was changed completely from an innocent life to an abusive life. My mom tells me that when she was pregnant with all of us but I mean and especially with me my father used to kick her stomach and belly and he used to scream horrible names. She tells me that my father used to beat her down with pieces of woods, sticks and with his fists in her stomach and many times she thought she was going to lose one of us when she was pregnant. She tells me that my father used to choke her neck when she was pregnant and he would force her to carry for miles carrying woods for the fire because she didn`t have stove to cook with or get water from far away.

My mom has always been Christian and she tells me that when she was a teenager she started going to church and she has always been a member of a Pentecostal denomination called Assemblies of God here in Brazil. The Assemblies of God here in Brazil back then and still today most of them demand their members to wear long skirts and they can`t have their hair cut, trimmed, died and there are other little things like you can`t watch television or the guys can`t play soccer or can`t wear shorts. I think it`s so funny because we are a nation that is crazy about soccer and The Assemblies of God don`t allow the guys to play soccer. I remember when I was a little boy I used to feel like I was sinning by playing soccer or wearing shorts. Since I was little I never really liked those rules but I would go because my mom would tell me so.

My mom is a woman of faith and for me I think she is the greatest woman ever lived and will ever live. She is a woman of faith and forgiveness. I remember days and nights when I would see my mom kneeled down with her face down praying for God to save her children. I remember she used to tell me someday I was going to preach the Gospel and I was going to serve God. She used to call things that didn`t exist like they existed. She used to say that someday I was going to be serving God and today I am. Praise the Lord for my mom!!!

She has never given up either. I bet she has thought so many times to give up but she hasn`t. She had three of her kids running away from home and never coming back and she still never gave up. Even when my oldest sister ran away for a week she still didn`t give. She has been beaten, choked, slapped and she has heard many but I mean I think every bad word from my father and she is still standing and following Jesus.

My mom lost a son when he was just a babe and I never really know what really happened. I keep asking her for the whole story but she only tells me that my brother when he was just an infant and he died in the hospital without being able to breathe. I always try to get more information from her about my brother and I always feel she avoids that topic. I feel there is another part of the story that hasn`t been told and she doesn`t want us to know what really happened. She never mentions my brother that died and it seems like it is too painful to talk about it. But She is still standing and going.

She is a fighter and she will always be in my heart. She has fought for me and she is the greatest example of my life. She has taught me about forgiveness and love. She has always loved me and her love is so genuine and real that is hard to find anywhere I go. I love my mom and she is the most amazing and incredible woman in my life and history. Thank you God for mom and what she has done for me.

My Friend from the Streets of Brazil

I think this is the hardest story I have ever heard on the streets. I had a friend called Lucilene but our crew used to call her by her nickname “Lequinha”. She was 14 years old when I was on the streets and she had a scar to her face that she bragged saying it was her father that did that to her. She used to tell me stories of her siblings and parents and I always felt that she hated her family but I couldn`t say anything to her because I hated my father too.

Lequinha told me one day when we were seating under a bridge downtown Belo and we were watching the cars pass by and we sniffling glue and re-thinking about our past. That is the day she opened herself to me. She walked with that posture that she didn`t care about life and didn`t trust people either. I knew it was going to be hard for her to talk so I gave her a little bit of more paint-thinner to sniffle. I tried to make her feel at ease by giving her that bit of thinner and a cookie I had with me, but she sat there just frozen gazing at the cars passing by.

Her face looked sad and her eyes were always big, almost always she had dried lips and she was so quite and she hated talking to people. She always seated by herself and she always used to sing a song that I knew called “Deus de Promessas” and in English would be “God of promise” and it was funny because I knew that song because they used to sing in my mom`s church. I was always so curious why she would sing that song when she was by herself and I always had that crazy thought that Lequinha had been or grew up going to church with someone.

I tried to make Lequinha to talk but I knew it was too painful to her. Her soul had been scarred and wounded. She was trying to forget her past and I wasn`t helping but I was so determined to talk to her that I was not going to let go. I understood what she felt inside and I think I was attracted to her quietness because most of the girls on the streets were loud and crazy.

She was young but she had seen so much and let`s not even talk about how she had been hurt so severely. Just two years ago she had seen her father beaten and shot, her mother and sisters raped in front of her. She herself was thrown and forgotten for dead in an alley of a slum until nightfall and then someone found her and took her to the hospital. She had been hurted, used, abused, thrown away. Man, I hated life on the streets because I was a lost case and everyone around me too.

It is so sad but funny because where we were seating under the bridge we could see the slum where she grew up from far away. The name of the slum is “Pedreira Padre Lopes” and that is he most dangerous slum in Belo Horizonte or better saying in the state of Minas Gerais. I did ask her if she wanted to go back to her relatives that still lived in the slum and she forced a smile and said “No Way”. She told me about the slum where she grew up and she told me that near her house there were restaurants, bars and magazines stands that there were bullet holes, stains were everywhere. When she was telling me her story I could hear Lequinha` voice drifting through the hot summer, humid Brazilian air.But I knew her mind was churning and she wanted to scream or cry. It was painful thing for both of us but we were glad we were under the influence of paint-thinner.

She began to unfold her story. I had made her feel good about herself I think. For a moment the pain was clear to her. I can`t believe my next reaction My hands reached out for hers and I wanted to hold her hands so tight during her sharing and I remember she kind of hesitated it but she allowed me to hold her hands. We smiled. Our eyes met and we looked at one another and we knew we were very similar in many ways. So after that she talked to me about her pain and her past. She talked, I listened, and tears welled up in my eyes as I heard her story in childlike terms. I felt her heart, I felt her soul, felt her pain. It was as if I was experiencing it vicariously with her and I couldn`t hold but cry with her. She saw my tears, she felt my hand squeeze hers and I could hear her heart beat so fast and she stopped using the paint-thinner and you could see for that moment both of us forgot about our addictions and we were in a time of healing together even though we didn`t know we were being healed by Jesus in that moment.

Lequinha explained to me with details about the ache of her heart and about her rejections, of feeling thrown away like a used Kleenex. I felt so bad for Lequinha because she was dumped somewhere to die by herself. I had never been dumped somewhere to die so I couldn`t really fell her pain but I could image that would be hard as hell. She had so many scars in her life that I even thought to myself that she would never be healed of her past.

That day I will never forget because it was the only time on the streets that I felt someone really understood me and I really understood someone. She wasn`t a close friend on the streets but I will never forget that moment we spent together. After two months and a half Lequinha died in a car accident downtown Belo Horizonte running for her life because there was three other street kids trying to attack her and she crossed the streets without looking.

“Looking at the World through the Eyes of God”

John 3:14-21 – “Looking at the World through the Eyes of God”



I can’t think of a greater condemnation to be levied against a people than this: They loved darkness instead of light. I would never want that to be said of me. But that is the way God sees the world. You and I see the world as it is right now. Most of the people around us try and do the right thing and when we are wrong hopefully we apologize. So we tend to think well of most people. But look out on the passage of time….



The Ancient World of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Hellenism, Rome, Persia, India, and East Asia was filled with the ignorance of hundreds of thousands of gods, magic, rituals, superstitions, human sacrifice, conquests, sewage(refuse was mostly thrown into the streets for the rats and dogs), disease (priests attempted to foretell the course of a disease by examining the livers of sacrificed animals). And the list doesn’t end there: ethnic bigotry, civil wars, persecutions, despots, tyrants, class rule, and the systematic murders of tens of thousands.



The Middle Ages of Persia, Constantinople, Islam, Britain, China, India, Genghis Khan and the Mongols, Timur and the Turks, Europe, African Empires and the Americas. All of them covered in the darkness of man’s inhumanity to man: Revolutions, expansionism, Mohammad’s Conquest and Christianity’s Crusades, warlords, heretics, witchcraft, increased trade bringing death and plagues to millions, and the crowding in the cities spreading the misery all the more. And on top of this misery wars fought for every ridiculous reason known to man.



The Enlightenment and the Modern world also have faired no better. We too have loved the darkness instead of the light. Europe, Africa, Mid-East, India, and the Americas have all dipped their finger into the cesspool of sin: Guns, germs, slavery, the need for women’s suffrage, massacres, socialism, resistance to democracy, religious fundamentalism’s resistance to progress, Fascism, Communism, The Holocaust, the Ku Klux Klan, greed, the market crash, The Depression, world wars, The Bomb, terrorism, the crisis in Africa.



I can’t tell you what a short list this is. And this says nothing of the millions of women and children who have suffered throughout the ages at the hands of ruthless men. There is no way to write that history because it is hidden from the pages of history.



Yes! Men have loved darkness rather than light. There is a morbid destructive tendency in all of us. We dabble in the diabolical. We revel in revenge. And we hate in our hearts. My, how we love to live in the shadows! What must God think of us?



Here is his verdict, as true today as it was when it was pronounced 2000 years ago: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light, because their deeds were evil. This is Jesus’ description of mankind. And can any of us argue with him?



For a few moments let’s look at the world through the eyes of God. What does he see? He sees that....



1. There are those who acknowledge not the darkness.

2. There are those who acknowledge the darkness.

3. There are those who acknowledge their need for forgiveness.

Africa is Rising!!!

I have heard my whole life about Africa and the issues Africa is facing. It is really sad when you think about the natural as well as man made disasters that have lampooned the continent in pretty much the same way with the droughts and famine such as endured for years in countries like Ethiopia and the region of Sub-Saharan Africa, and now Niger where millions are at risk of annihilation. I have witnessed civil wars and related conflicts that have culminated in genocides of the sort that have been witnessed in Rwanda, some parts of the DR Congo, and lately Sudan’s Darfur region.

I might say that Africa is like a demonstration continent that is constructed and then demolished, and constructed again, only to be demolished once again. It literally goes on and on in Africa. There seems to be no permanent or consistent pattern of development and advancement on the continent that is one of the richest in resources yet has the poorest and most miserable people in the world.

Something I really fight for is the change of social problems in Africa because there are some well to do African families that are living quite comfortably although these are surrounded by the sad realities of deprivation that hound the generality of the African populace.

Once again the pleading eyes of African mothers and children are watching us from our TV screens. They are destitute and starving. This time it is Darfur, Sudan. The terrible TV images of children with bloated bellies and stick-like limbs. Why does it keep happening? Is Africa somehow doomed eternally to hunger and misery? Can we not do something about it? Yes I believe we can.

I have been very frustrated every time I go to Africa because I see horrible social injustice in Africa and I think about our world that is just standing by and watching what`s happening in Africa. There are millions of refugees and internally displaced people from conflicts in Africa. Hundreds and thousands of people have been slaughtered from a number of conflicts and civil wars like in Sudan. I have been to Sudan and I heard the missionaries and people telling me stories of kids fighting for something they don`t even know. They are just kids but child soldiers in the same time and if you would ask them how old they are they would tell you I believe that they are 11 or 12 years old. If this scale of destruction and fighting was in Europe or in Americas, then people would be calling it World War III with the entire world rushing to report, provide aid, mediate and otherwise try to diffuse the situation.

I am going to tell you stories from my mission trips to Africa and I am only telling you these stories because I believe we can change Africa. We were created to be agents of transformation, change and healing. God has called us to be a difference-maker and a generation that is willing to give up everything for the Gospel and my greatest joy is Africa but it is also my greatest cross.

I love Africa and I always will. I have been to Africa 3 times and this year I am planning and praying to go twice. I have been to many countries like South Africa, Mozambique, Uganda, Sudan,etc. God has been so good to me because he has allowed me to see or hear many different things in Africa. I will never be the same. My testimony seems or becomes small when I am in Africa. My problems become small when I hear or see what`s happening to millions of people in Africa.

My heart is to bring doctors, lawyers, police officers, nurses, teachers, politicians, pastors, missionaries, worship leaders to Africa for short-term or long term to see the realities of Africa. And I know when they see the realities of Africa they will never be the same and I pray many of these people that go to Africa with me they will go back to stay and live in Africa to transform communities from the inside out.

Africa is in the heart of God and I know he loves every African person just as much as he loves me and you that live outside of Africa. God is bigger than the problems in Africa and he will raise up a generation in Africa that will love and serve him with everything they are. I believe Africa is going to be the epicenter of the revival that is about to happen in our world. I believe Africa will shine and will be great among us. God is rising up a new generation in Africa of pastors, missionaries, worship leaders and true followers of Jesus Christ that will impact the whole world for Jesus. Africa is ready and the time is now!!!

I will never forget Peru!!!

Peru is located in western central South America. It is a country that is pretty big, it has close to 30 million people. Over 90% of the population adheres to Roman Catholicism and only close to 8 percent out 100% are protestant Christians. It is a very oppressed country and the people in Peru likes to practice Vudu or better saying Witchcraft. I spent a little bit over a month there and I was preaching and trying to disciple the missionaries on the ground and pastors. I spoke in some mission conferences but to tell you the truth you can drive or walk for hours in Peru and not find or see a church. That is the reason why I really wanted to go to Peru and I knew God was going to do amazing things in that place. I knew I was going to see signs, wonders, miracle happening in Peru because the church is at the earliest stage in Peru. God is pouring down his fire in that place and many, I mean like multitudes are coming to Christ.

I traveled all over the country and it is a very beautiful country and I love Peru and especially the people. They are so open and receptive to foreigners. They love Brasilians so I felt at home in Peru. I worked with streets kids too trying to restore their dignity and there are so many street kids in Peru and God used my life to impact their lives because I could tell all of them that I was an ex-street boy from Brazil and now I was a preacher of the word of God. I did a lot of leadership training with the missionaries and I also visited the slums of Peru and I cried out to God to rise up that nation as a nation that serves God.

But the most memorable thing that happened in Peru was when I got an invitation to preach at one of the most dangerous prison in Cusco, Peru. It is one of the largest and tightened prison in Peru. It was a Sunday morning and the sun was radiant and I was so happy because I was going to meet all these guys that had done horrific things in life that had harmed them and other people. I was so excited but so scared at the same time. I thought to myself this is real church and I had the conviction in my heart that if Jesus was still on earth he would be chilling with the people in that prison. I know he would and that is the reason why I accepted the invitation to go.

It was close to 9 o`clock in the morning and I was in front of the that huge prison with this pastor and his crew. They were giving me all these instructions of how to act and what to say inside of the prison. I was paying very close attention because I didn`t want to die or get hurt in that day. They told me that the worst criminals of Peru was in that prison and many times they would riot and evoke their rights by getting people hostage in a visit day meaning an open day for their family members and friends to visit them. I was processing all these things and I was thinking “Oh, God. I know we are going to have a lot of people in our service this morning and what if these crazy guys go crazy and decide to get us in hostage here?” and God quietly answered in my spirit “I have called you, I have a calling for your life and even if you wanted to die you wouln`t because I am not done with you yet.” I was so encouraged by that word that I couldn`t stand still and I started singing and praising the name of Jesus right in front of that prison and the people that were waiting on line were looking at me and thinking I was a crazy foreigner that had a relative inside or someone I knew.

The line kept walking and I could still hear the voice of the pastor explaining to me how did the whole prison ministry started and about the hardships of his ministry. I was right in front of a hero in our faith and he was definitely a miracle. He was so in love with God and you could see in the pastor`s eyes that he loved God above everything else in life and he loved the lost souls inside of that prison. He was willing to give his own church to be full time as a counselor and pastor of that prison. He helped the prisoners in everything they needed from lawyers to supplies of food and clothes.

It was a very tight security and it took us close to an hour to bring all the equipments and boxes inside. Everything we had were checked by the prison guards and they were very tense you could see that because I tried to be nice to them by trying to talk to them but they didn`t even look me in the face and they were short and mean. But I was willing to shine the light of Jesus in that day but it wasn`t working maybe it is because of my Spanish. Maybe not!!!

After they were done checking everything we had and checking out our own bodies if we were bringing anything illegal to give to the prisoners they let us go but the funny thing is that they didn`t want us to go by ourselves because of security reasons. I remember walking inside of that prison and thinking the prisons in Brazil are luxurious mansions compared to this one. The structure was horrible and falling apart and it was a dirty place full of people with mean looks and tattoos. All the prisoners were checking us out and they wanted to jump us. Some of them asked me for money and some of them even threatened me to give them money. I wondered to myself “Are these guys going to be in the chapel this morning for service because if they are I want to leave?” The prison guards were protecting us and they made sure nobody would touch or steal us. One guy heard I was going to be the speaker for the morning chapel and he started yelling and telling all of his friends that a Brazilian preacher was going to be there that morning. He was very excited that he went through his whole section announcing there was a Brazilian preacher there and everybody had to go.

I was shaking during worship time and I was crying out to God and saying God “what do you want me to speak this morning?” and God said speak about my restitution and just tell your story to these guys. I remember after 4 songs in Spanish the pastor got up to introduce me in front of that big crowd and I remember I was sweating and I wished God would take me out of that place because first I was going to have to preach in Spanish. I can understand and speak Spanish very well but I had never preached before in Spanish. I thank God now for all the classes I had taken of Spanish in Brazil and all the Hispanic people God had brought into my life years passed. I had many friends from Spanish speaking countries and I kept in touch with all of them and now I was desperate for God`s help.

I stood up and suddenly something happened inside of me. I knew I was just like Moses because in that moment I felt like I couldn`t speak and didn`t have the words for that type of crowd. But the Spirit of the Holy Ghost fell upon me and I remember I said good morning church. And to tell you the truth, it was one of the best experience of church I have had in my life because I heard God`s voice and I saw God manifesting himself in ways I had never seen it before. The worship was genuine and those guys you could see they were really hungry and desperate for Jesus. Jesus seemed to be their everything and they knew without God they were done. They knew their sins were too big and they knew that God was bigger than their problems and sins. They were crying, kneeling down, jumping, praying during worship and now I was looking at these guys with a different eyes. I was looking at them not as prisoners but sons of God. They were physically in Jail but their Spirit wanted to be free or better saying I believe most of them were free in God.

I stood in that pulpit looking at the audience and I could see some familiar faces from the moment I came in and they were asking me for money. I don`t know how long I stood there but I think couple of minutes and all of them stood there waiting for me to start preaching. They were staring at me and hoping I would say something that would change their lives. I was praying inside and asking the Holy Spirit to anoint me and suddenly the power and anointing of God fell upon me and I opened my mouth and I started declaring in the spiritual world that God was going to do super-natural things that morning and I started calling things that didn`t exist like they were and God started doing some crazy powerful things in that prison. I told all of them that God could restore their lives and families. Their past was their past. Their past didn`t have to determine their present of future. They were so passionate and ready for change and in that day many but many accepted Jesus Christ. It was hard to count how many accepted Jesus Christ but a Christ revolution was about to start in that place. Many of them came to the altar call crying and screaming for Jesus to come and change their lives and family. They felt really encouraged by my testimony and they started believing they could so it too. Until these days, almost two year later I still hear about what God did in that prison in that day. Many started reading the Bible and obeying the prison system because now they were willing to fight for purity and their families. They are walking in victories now and many of them have left and they are doing good. I still hear from my friends in Peru that the fire that started that day has not stopped but it is growing and it is spreading across the prison guards, family members and different cities that are involved in the prison in anyway.

I love South America and I know God is going to raise a generation that will follow God 100%. I know we have problems with idolatry, extreme poverty, millions of street kids, child prostitution, child slavery, forced prostitution, killing addictions like alcohol and drugs that are destroying families, unemployment, huge slums with horrible conditions but still God is raising up a generation that will change the face of South America. It is time for South America and I know we will fulfill God`s calling in this era.