PAZ is a non-denominational church planting movement in Brazil that was started by Luke Huber in 1976. Since that time, over 270 churches have been started in the Amazon Basin. Additional information about the PAZ movement can be found at www.projectamazon.org.
PAZ Castanhal, the host church for our new children's home, is one of PAZ's 15 bases of operation. The church currently has 528 members and 61 cell groups, with more than 600 attending weekly services. The main building in Castanhal that hosts worship services of the church is still under construction, and is pictured above.
PAZ Castanhal has also planted 12 churches along the Amazon and its tributaries, which have another 785 people attending services. Two of these river churches are pictured above, along with one of the PAZ medical boats that is used to bring medical care to communities along the river. The Arms of Love Children's Home will be connected primarily to the main church in Castanhal, but will have relationship with the river churches as well.
PAZ Castanhal is pastured by Scott and Michelle Toth, who have seven children of their own, but still take in other children who need a place to live. Scott and Michelle have long held a vision for the children’s home that is now being established in partnership with Arms of Love.
In the article below, Michelle Toth shares the testimony of one of the church’s river pastors:
It was May of 1995. I was trudging through the hot, dusty streets of Moju City. Our five oldest girls were with me, ages 5 to 12. Pastor Dave Cochrane had brought a team from Texas to build a church at Jutaiteau, our most distant church plant on the Moju River. The team had run out of groceries and fresh drinking water and I had come to the small town with pastor Dave to help with the shopping. As we walked, my children and I prayed for the people of that city.
That same day, another young child was also walking the streets of Moju City. Francinaldo, 12, had never known his father. His mother, who had too many children to support, had given him to his grandparents to raise. They lived in Moju City. Francinaldo was just beginning his life of drugs, prostitution, stealing, gang fighting and running from the police. Little did he know that some strange American lady, with 5 small girls trailing after her, was interceding for his life.
Between the years of 12 and 20, Francinaldo belonged to five different gangs. He took every drug available in the small town and soon became completely addicted. He used any weapon he could get to hold up people and steal money to support his habit. He was in and out of jail. By the age of 20, Francinaldo was a famous gang leader, running for his life from rival gangs and the police, who both wanted to kill him. He decided to hide out in the small river community of Bosque where his mother and some other relatives lived.
But God had his hand on Francinaldo's life. In Bosque, Pedrito, the 21 year old pastor of our PAZ church plant, invited Francinaldo to church. Francinaldo accepted, thinking that if he put on a front of being a Christian, it might get the police or other rival gangs off his back. But there in church, Francinaldo felt the conviction of God in his spirit and surrendered his life to Christ. His old life was swept away, and everything became new.
Francinaldo was set free from his drug addiction and alcohol. He left behind his life of immorality. Shortly after his conversion, the police came to Bosque. They were tired of going after Francinaldo and had come to kill him rather than take him to jail. However, when they asked for Francinaldo by his gang member nickname, the village people told the police that there was no one by that name living in Bosque. The police left, but rival gangs soon followed. They threatened to wait for Francinaldo outside the door of the church and fill him with bullets when he came out. They also threatened to set fire to his house and burn him alive. But God was protecting Francinaldo, and his life was spared on every occasion.
Today, Francinaldo has been a Christian for a little over one year. He is a cell group leader in the Bosque PAZ church and is discipling seven young men, some of them his ex-gang members. He is leading the youth group for the Bosque church. His life is so radically changed that he is free to come and go in Moju City -- both the police and the rival gangs have now realized that he is a changed person, and no longer make attempts on his life.
