Antônio Simões
A FAITHFUL 91-year-old Christian elder named Antônio Simões fondly remembers how his father and his uncle found the truth by means of two tracts published by Jehovah’s Witnesses. “Do you want to hear about it?” he asks his visitors. “We would love to,” they say. Antônio’s kind eyes light up, and with a smile he sits down to tell his story.
“My father, Zeno, was a Baptist preacher. In 1931, he traveled to a remote part of the Amazon forest to visit a church member. In her home, he noticed two Bible tracts. She had found them in the church, but she didn’t know who left them. One tract spoke about hell; the other about the resurrection. Father was touched by what he read. He immediately thought about his brother-in-law, Guilherme, who had often told him: ‘I don’t believe in hellfire. A God of love couldn’t create such a place.’ Eager to show the tracts to Guilherme, Father got into his canoe and paddled for eight hours to Manaquiri, a settlement near Manaus, where Guilherme was living.
The first congregation in Brazil’s Amazonas State
“After Father and Uncle Guilherme examined the tracts, both said, ‘This is the truth!’ Right away, they wrote to the branch office in Brazil, asking for literature. Father resigned as a pastor, and he and my uncle began sharing the Bible’s message in that isolated area. The people responded so well that within a year a congregation was formed in Manaquiri. Before long, 70 villagers attended the meetings, making it, at the time, the largest congregation in Brazil.” Antônio pauses. Then, he asks, “Isn’t it wonderful to hear how the Kingdom message entered the Amazon?” Indeed, it is. Two tiny scattered seeds—two small Bible tracts—took root in the vast Amazon forest and sprouted into a flourishing congregation. And today the 83-year-old Manaquiri Congregation is no longer the only congregation in Brazil’s Amazonas State, but one of 143!