Youths win people to Christ during Brazil's Carnival

Young Christians in Brazil say they have brought more than a thousand people to Christ in the northeastern city of Salvador during Carnival, the country’s biggest annual festival.

Carnival, which ended yesterday, drew millions of people to watch colourful and extravagant street parades conducted by “samba”schools.

In the midst of high rates of alcohol consumption and sexual promiscuity, members of Youth With a Mission JOCUM went out to do evangelism in the city of Salvador.

Salvador, in the state of Bahia, has one of the largest Carnival festivals in Brazil. Some 500,000 tourists joined the one million residents of Salvador to celebrate Carnival.

During this time, JOCUM missionaries approached people on the street and invited them to the ministry’s booth where they talked about issues such as family and drugs that could lead them to a deeper conversation about Jesus.

Jorge Santos, director of the evangelism ministry Impact in Carnival for JOCUM Salvador, told The Christian Post that he estimated more than 30,000 people were evangelised and that more than a thousand people would commit their lives to Jesus by the end of the festival.

He said about 400 missionaries from JOCUM and local churches were evangelising during the Carnival.

“I expect that God will bless a lot of people. Many will be reached and know Jesus Christ,” said Santos.

He told of a boy who was far away from the church and how he was approached by one of the missionaries.

"He could understand about love, saying that he never imagined he would meet someone who would speak about Jesus to him at the Carnival," said Santos.

JOCUM missionaries were also evangelising in other regions, even where the Carnival is not as popular as in Salvador, such as the Federal District in Brasilia state. One missionary was helping lead an average of two people to Christ each day of evangelism, said the director of JOCUM from the Federal District, Thiago Rodriguez.

“Thus, [in Federal District] these 100 young evangelists bring an average of 200 people a day during the Carnival,” said Rodriguez to The Christian Post.

Rodriguez states that the project of evangelism consists of “redeeming the culture” and is not about going in with an “anti-Carnival” attitude.

“We want to give a new meaning to the Carnival,” he said.

Other Christian groups, meanwhile, have decided to participate in the country’s festivities by organising their own Carnival Christian block.

The most famous Carnival Christian block is called “Cara de Leão” (Face of Lion) in Rio de Janeiro. This Christian Carnival is founded by the pastor and director of the New Life Project Church in Rio de Janeiro, Ezekiel Tan.

Last year, Cara de Leão attracted 5,000 people to the Carnival festival where the message of Christ was shared.