For many tourists visiting Brazil’s ‘Marvelous City’ this 40 meter high depiction of the Christ is their first port of call. Sitting high on a mountain the colossal statue looks out over the sprawling city of Rio de Janeiro on all sides.
But the immense scale of this man-made world wonder is just the tip of the iceberg in an enormous and rapidly developing nation. Many people don’t know that Brazil is the fifth largest country in the world and hosts the greatest known source of iron ore, the fourth largest reserve of oil and exports more beef, grains and corn than anyone else. Brazil’s economy is also the fifth largest in the world and is growing just as quickly as the super-economies of India and China.
The Brazilian church is growing rapidly too, welcoming approximately 6,500 new believers each day and opening 300 new local churches each week! The indigenous church in the Amazon is also growing swiftly, and reaching out to those who live farther into the rainforest. But there are still at least 150 language communities who need a translation of the Bible. Approximately 100 of these groups have had little or no exposure to the message of the Gospel.
Photo: Elyse Patten