My Trip to Brazil with WOFF – Part 2

     This series of posts includes my remembrances from a trip with members of Word of Faith Fellowship (WOFF) to Brazil in 2005. For sure, I will not remember everything in correct time order and some of the surrounding “observations” may be misplaced or just misstated. However, the main points of this trip I do remember and still do cherish the encounters with the Brazilian people. Each one of them welcomed us and made room for us in every regard.

   We begin this post where we ended the last one,  the arrival on the first day of the time in Brazil. After we stopped at the first house, I believe we again boarded the bus and went around to the main entrance of the church. There the luggage was unloaded and we were grouped by the assigned household list and ferried to our respective homes for unloading and settling in. The streets were dirt and gravel.  We were in a neighborhood on a large hillside. Each home was fenced in and gated. I was told that because of the poverty, everyone needed heavy security for their properties.

    For my time there, I would stay a very nice, large home on what looked to me like about three to five acres. The surrounding fence was brick and the large electric gates were wooden. The owners were a very sweet husband and wife, who were leadership in the local church. The estate had a large home, a pool and a large pool house where another couple lived with their children. There were several fruit trees on the property, some near the front and more towards the back of the property.

     The owners had three dogs. If I remember right, two were German shepherds. These dogs took commands on three languages, Portuguese, English and German. Every guest had to allow the dogs an opportunity to greet them and sniff them. During this greeting, a young man became frightened and a dog jumped on him – growling. He showed even more fear, as this became quite an incident. After what seemed like a minute or two, the owner of the house helped the dogs calm down and the young man regained his composure. These dogs certainly were effective watch dogs.

    As we unpacked and were shown around the property, it was evident that this couple had more resources than some others in Brazil. He worked a job in Sao Paulo which was about an hour away. I am not sure the wife was occupied outside of her duties surrounding the church. About 30 people stayed at this home during the seminar. Several young men stayed in bunk beds in a large room on the second floor. I slept on the top bunk of a set of beds near a door to a balcony. There was no central air, but for those nights, it was not needed. The temperatures were in the 70’s at night and there was a breeze that came in through the open windows or balcony doors. Jane Whaley’s “adopted daughter” stayed downstairs with the women and girls. Her husband stayed upstairs with the men.

    Breakfast was served in the houses and lunch and dinner was served at the church. This was a big undertaking. Many of the church members labored for hours to cook, serve and clean-up after each meal. The food was very good as it was clear that every effort was made to accommodate the Americans as much as possible. There was a snack bar open after meetings with drinks, candy and ice cream for sale. That proved very helpful. We were also told not to drink the tap water unless it was filtered.

    We arrived on a Thursday morning. We would stay until Monday morning. The first night, there was a called meeting at the church for the Americans. We were taken to the church in groups as it was not safe to walk the streets. We were only about a three minute ride from the church. At the meeting, certain basics were covered as well as a warning about the dogs from the incident previously. Strategies and plans were laid out for the Americans to not only help with the wedding that would be held Friday night, but the “ministry” methods for the meetings on Saturday and Sunday. Who would speak and what would be spoken was some of the information covered. Everyone was instructed to “find someone to take hold of…”. This trip was not a vacation. We were encouraged to get as much rest as possible as there was plenty of work to do for the wedding and the seminar meetings on Saturday and Sunday would be long. There was a Brazilian couple getting married and Jane Whaley would preside over the ceremony. This was standard for weddings in America or elsewhere in WOFF churches. If Jane would not do the ceremony, then the couple would not be married!

   Friday was a hot day and basically a blur for me. If I remember right, there may have been a prayer meeting that Friday morning (in casual clothes), then lunch at the church and then the preparation for the wedding began in high gear. All afternoon there were things to do and people to help. I worked in one of the kitchens until the wedding started, then quickly changed clothes in a school office. I had to stand in the back for the ceremony as the sanctuary was packed with members and visitors. During the ceremony, I almost passed out from the heat. The fellow next to me had to help me a couple of times. It was very warm in the sanctuary even with the fans blowing.

   Saturday and Sunday were filled with meetings, ministry, meals and then more ministry. I cannot remember the correct order of everything. At one point, I found myself helping in a kindergarten or first grade class. The children were told to sit-up straight in their chairs and fold their hands on their desk. The services were being broadcast through closed circuit to the rooms in the school.  The school was on the church property. Each class would follow along with the singing and preaching and the praying. Obeying the rules proved difficult for some and they would be escorted out for “help”. Many would return and take their seat with a “renewed attitude”. During one of these meetings I was the only one who spoke English. That was fun.

    Before one of the services, I was sitting in the sanctuary talking to another WOFF member from NC. The husband of Jane Whaley’s adopted daughter came up to us and rebuked us soundly. He admonished us that this was no vacation! Go take hold of someone!  Of course the WOFF tape kicked on in my head, “You will never find your place in God until you help someone else find their place in God.” Never mind your issues (devils) – “go help someone else get their devils out and your issues will fade.” Yes, I had heard that a few hundred times. So, we got up and found some teenage boys who needed someone to “take hold of them.” I remember some of their faces and some of their sad stories. But, at WOFF, you could not trade pictures or gifts with folks from other churches. (Rarely even with the WOFF members you knew in NC!) If you wanted to check on someone after you had met them in Brazil, all of that communication had to be cleared through the office in North Carolina and eventually through Jane Whaley. So, most of the ministry was during the seminar. Every seminar service had time for prayer and deliverance afterwards. Most times, the quality of the meeting was determined by the length of the prayer, blasting and deliverance times afterwards. You could hear that in the comments afterwards of the members from both churches. “Wasn’t that a good meeting last night? Why, we prayed for two hours AFTER Jane stopped teaching. Whew, I was blessed…Did you get prayer?”  

       Every day was long and packed with WOFF activities. We were just in a different country. While I was there, I did not realize it. But, the net effects of these seminars were to teach these Brazilians the WOFF way. These folks were hungry to be like WOFF in North Carolina. I see it now, as I remember the idolatry and the feelings from being at the Greenville church prior to 2002. While in Greenville, there was the idea that WOFF members were living in God’s will and it was expected that you were to learn and want to be like them. I came under this idolatry while in Greenville. (Otherwise, I would not have spent thousands of dollars in gas and all the time to travel back and forth to WOFF- for TEN YEARS!)  

     When I moved to Spindale, NC in 2002, I saw how downright FAKE, FALSE and LUDICROUS that idea had been. Many of the Brazilians were infected with the same idolatry and unfounded envy for the Americans. Did it serve a “good” purpose? I do not think so. In my opinion, it puffed up the Americans and deceived the Brazilians. Jane Whaley and WOFF members, I include myself on that trip; lead these folks and many others, down an empty road. The LAWS of WOFF bring no lasting heart changes. When I walked among the Brazilian people, they dressed like WOFF members in NC; they emulated Jane Whaley, WOFF leadership and regular members. Jane Whaley and WOFF members have taken WOFFness to Brazil.

   We finished our time in Brazil and made our way home, starting Monday and traveling overnight. We would arrive back in Charlotte about lunch time on Tuesday. We returned to a very long prayer meeting at the church. It was  over the latest episode of Jane’s court situations. I was so hyped; I stood in the front of the sanctuary and helped lead that meeting. For sure, I was glad to go and glad to be back in America. The Brazilian people still hold a special place in my heart. The understanding of what WOFF truly exported then and does export now to Brazil will be the subject of another post. From what I have learned, things are not peaceful in the WOFF churches in Brazil.

   Please, consume the information on this site responsibly. The author is not a licensed mental health professional and encourages those that need professional help to seek it. The intent of the material is to inform and be a resource. Be sure to tell every member that you know at WOFF about this blog. There are readers at WOFF. Comments are invited from all readers, including present or former members. Polls are not scientific and no private information is gathered.

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      (Please, take time to read the Terms of Use for this personal blog. As mentioned, the information about WOFF is from my memories and recollections as perfect as that may be or not be. ) Scripture references are Amplified Version unless otherwise noted. (Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation ) This is post number 165.

Shall We forget??