Lord’s Recovery Literature in Brazil

Books like The Normal Christian Life and The Normal Christian Church Life were published by Christian publishers who found the value of books authored by our Brother Watchman Nee. By the end of the 1970s, many churches had already been established. Some churches were already enjoying Brother Witness Lee’s Life-study of Genesis and Life-study of John. They were being distributed as individual messages in a fragmented, haphazard manner, exposing the need for an appropriate service for publishing the ministry literature.

First, this service was developed by some brothers in the region of Brasília, the capital of Brazil, with a publisher called Fonte da Vida (Source of Life). As the need increased the co-worker brothers decided to move the publishing house to São Paulo, while continuing to outsource the printing in the Brasília region. This situation continued through the early and mid-1980s. In the late 1980s a complete publishing house was set up, including printing presses, under the name Editora Árvore da Vida (Tree of Life Publisher). This structure was set up in the city of São Paulo, firstly at church meeting hall 4. Later, as the church increased in numbers and needed more space, the publishing house moved to its own location, improving its warehouse and publishing structure. The printing, however, was once again outsourced, due to the high costs of in-house printing.

Many ministry books were printed during the 1980s and 90s, as well as many Life-studies, which promoted a great advance of the Lord’s recovery in Brazil. However, from the mid-1990s, there was a gradual deviation from the way of the Lord’s recovery and the teachings contained in the Living Stream Ministry publications. This culminated in a division promoted by the co-workers who oversaw Editora Árvore da Vida. Eventually, a good number of the saints serving with the publisher could not tolerate the situation and left in the mid-2000s.

Then through His sovereignty and loving care, the Lord burdened the co-workers in the Lord’s recovery and many of the seeking saints in Brazil to have a new start in the publication work with Living Stream Ministry’s encouragement and support. In Brazil, a bookstore, Livro Aberto, began to carry out the printing of books translated and published in Portuguese by Living Stream Ministry (LSM). We thank the Lord that through this service several titles by Brothers Watchman Nee and Witness Lee were produced and many of Brother Lee’s Life-studies. Today, new titles are being published month by month.

The limitation today is the ability to translate, edit, print, and distribute the ministry publications. We believe that this capacity will soon be expanded, as the number of thirsty readers is increasing.

Back to normality and having a mission aligned with the Lord’s move in His recovery, the Livro Aberto bookstore takes care of the printing of Portuguese books published by LSM, intending to supply all Portuguese-speaking countries. In this way, the Lord is once again reaching His seeking saints throughout Brazil, Portugal, and some African countries.

Brazil has continental dimensions and a population of over 200 million people. Of this population, 87% are Christians, the majority being Catholic. Thirty percent of these are evangelicals, representing more than 50 million. Furthermore, Portuguese is spoken by more than 260 million people spread across four continents and at least ten countries. The need for the publication of the healthy teaching of the New Testament ministry is great. We have a lot of work ahead of us, and we trust the Lord that we will continue to cooperate with Him in this service of publishing and distributing the ministry literature.

Concerning distribution, we joined the Rhema Distribution project around 2012 and began distributing the seven LSM titles that Rhema distributes for free. At first, the project made important progress, with hundreds of books distributed, but due to a lack of adequate understanding of the project, the initial work was of little benefit and was interrupted for around three years. We resumed around 2020, strictly following the principles learned from Rhema’s many years of experience.

We thank the Lord that after some time working and learning, we began to move forward in a normal way, and thousands of Rhema books have now been distributed during this short period in Brazil. We have many who are reading the books in groups, and these groups are organically multiplying. Below are some testimonies from readers and participants in these groups:

05/09/2020 – Good afternoon, peace. I would like to inform you that the books I received were of great help. Its content is rich and valuable. Mainly because it clarifies and highlights facts that I was unaware of, and also shows other facts that enabled me to improve my understanding of. The authors Witness Lee and Watchman Nee are fantastic. I already knew the book The Breaking of the Outer Man and the Release of the Spirit, which is also very valuable. All those books have helped me in writing my book, which is still to be finished as God guides my heart. Many blessings to everyone involved in this project. May you continue to make a difference. God bless you greatly. Thank you. (JT)

04/26/2020 – Good evening! My name is J.d.P. I read the first volume. In the midst of this pandemic this book came at a wonderful time, it gave me assurance of my salvation. I really want the other volumes because I learned a lot in the first volume. (JdP)

The literature service in Brazil is not for our country alone; it is for all countries where Portuguese is spoken. The Lord has given us the opportunity in the last ten years to cooperate with other countries. Hundreds of books, New Testaments, and hymnals have been sent to countries such as Portugal, Angola, Sao Tomé, and Mozambique. When traveling to have fellowship in these countries, we often carry suitcases full of books, usually exceeding 100 kg of books offered to the saints. They are received with joy, and we also rejoice in the Lord for allowing us to cooperate in this wonderful work of bringing the ministry to the saints in their local language. Below we have some testimonies from saints in these countries:

I have been in the Lord’s recovery for just under 6 months, I participated in the Training in South Africa, that’s where I started to appreciate the ministry books, previously I had already read a book entitled The Economy of God, but after the training I came into contact with other books such as: On Knowing the Bible, The Genuine Ground of Oneness, The Vital Groups, and The Character of the Lord’s Worker. These books brought me relief, a deeper clarification of Christ and they are also books that lead me to enjoy Christ in a very enlightening way. (VNM, Angola)

We are very grateful to the Lord for [the ministry] literature, because it is opening the Bible to us. Thank the Lord I have read the book of Galatians many times, but I used to feel like someone who was walking without realizing what was behind the place where I was walking to, but when I read the Life-study of Galatians, the epistle began to be opened up to me. I saw a lot of light, truth and life and I was clear about the other gospel that Paul said. Through literature, books, training, church life, reading leads us to an explanation of the Lord’s recovery. (B - São Tomé and Príncipe)