Prayer Stops Carnival Violence in BrazilCarla Harding - 16 Mar 2009

“We really enjoyed praying!” Writes Trina from Brazil.  “Our church is tiny so it was pretty incredible that we managed to fill all 24 hours but people were wonderful.  On average, each person gave around 5 - 6 hours of his or her time to prayer.  The youth were the most incredible; they wanted to carry on once we finished.  Some of them were trembling with the power of God and one young man says that for some reason, the extended prayer has simply given him a new perspective, a new way of being in life.  That is so precious."

"Our city is a violent one in the state of Rio de Janeiro.  Normally during the Carnival period there are many deaths here.  When I felt God put 24-7 prayer on my heart for the start of carnival, I felt as if we were being given a commission, a watch for the city."

"We prayed over the previous week’s newspaper, which was full of stories about assaults and deaths, and asked the Lord that the following newspaper would be free of all that stuff.  Incredibly it was!" No one died during this Carnival! " 

The headlines were something about how quiet the Carnival period was. We are so grateful to God!  Sadly, as soon as carnival finished we had a number of shootings and violent deaths nearby.   Though that doesn't detract from the prayers that were answered it brought home to us that prayer is so needed here.  We will definitely be doing another 24-hour prayer session, probably around Easter time.”