The Amazonian heat pressed against me like a living thing, wrapping around my body and my thoughts alike. I sat alone, wondering — aching — for clarity about where my life was headed. Thousands of miles away from my beloved Santa Catarina, the longing to return home and plant a church had become a constant companion: sometimes a comfort, more often a heavy burden that wouldn’t let go.

It was during that season of deep questioning that our paths crossed, Rick — during that retreat, in one of those life-altering conversations that start casually but end like a flame to dry tinder.

I told you about my two years serving in the Amazon. About the seeds God had planted in my spirit that would not be silenced: a calling to pastor, to create a place where His presence would flourish. I shared the ache to go back, though I had no human way to make it happen.

We talked — and then you paused.

Something shifted in you. Your eyes seemed to look beyond the moment, as if you were seeing something I couldn’t yet see. You prayed over me, and spoke a vision:

“I see you in a dense jungle,” you said, voice gentle but clear.
“You’re hacking through thick vines, your arms heavy with exhaustion.
But don’t stop.
Just ahead, there’s a clearing — wide, open, and filled with light.
Keep moving forward.”

Rick, those words sank deep into my spirit. They became an anchor.

Every time the jungle closed in tighter, every time doubt and discouragement wrapped around me like the vines of the Amazon itself, I would remember: A clearing lies ahead. Keep going.

The Waiting and the Wonder

But the breakthrough didn’t come overnight.

There were days I wanted to lay the machete down and weep. The work was endless. The path invisible. Some days it felt like my strength would never be enough.

Yet those words you spoke kept my feet moving when my heart wanted to freeze.
“Continue with faith. Continue with determination.”

And then — in a way only God could orchestrate — the unexpected happened.

In September of 2024, out of nowhere a military officer I’d once served under, called me.

Without my asking — without even a hint from me — he offered to help me return to Santa Catarina. He said he could personally arrange my transfer as part of a new assignment circuit he was overseeing. A miracle of rank and timing. In our system, a private request like that to a general is unthinkable — and yet here was a general reaching out to me, offering help.

It was a door no man could open — but God had already swung it wide.

By October, my transfer was approved.
I was going home.

The Clearing Revealed

When I arrived in Santa Catarina, I wasted no time.

I went straight to my pastor, told him the whole story — the Amazon journey, the vision of the clearing, the miraculous transfer.

We knew it was God’s leading.

And so, with trembling hands but a burning heart, we planted the seed: a new church community.

It’s been six months now.

Ten people already gather regularly. Ten souls who are part of a miracle bigger than any of us can see yet. We are taking it slow, building carefully, honoring the sacred weight of this new beginning.

Hope is rising out of the soil of obedience.

Reflections on the Journey

Looking back, the trail is clear. God’s fingerprints are everywhere:

• In a retreat conversation that became prophecy.
• In a weary traveler armed with a machete of faith.
• In a general moved by divine prompting.
• In a jungle cleared by the unseen hand of God.

Rick, your willingness to listen and speak what you saw that day changed the course of my life. You became a lighthouse when I needed direction most.

Your words didn’t just predict a clearing — they created resilience for the road that led me to it.

God used you as a channel to show me that even when we can’t trace His hand, we can trust His heart.

And now, standing in the clearing, I can tell you:
He is faithful.
He still leads His people.
And He still answers — often in ways far more surprising and glorious than we dare to imagine.

A Call to Seek and Believe

To anyone reading this:
Maybe you’re hacking through your own jungle right now.
Maybe you’re exhausted, lost, tempted to believe the clearing will never come.

Don’t give up.

God speaks.
God leads.
And God sends unexpected answers — sometimes through friends, sometimes through generals, sometimes through whispers that become the roar of fulfilled promises.

Seek Him with everything you have.

Expect Him to answer.

You may be closer to the clearing than you think.

“For He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
(Philippians 1:6)

Amen.