“I Heard Angels Singing”: A Discipleship Experience in Brazil
“Brazil is a country that is undergoing a revival and where you can deeply connect with the Holy Spirit.”
Sarah Hensley (second from right) with other women from Mt. Bethel Church’s Brazil Discipleship-Mission Team in January 2025
This is what Sarah Hensley–Mt. Bethel Church member–says keeps her returning to the Southern Hemisphere. She recently returned from her fourth trip with Rick Bonfim Ministries. What was different about this trip from her previous ones was that this time, she traveled with nineteen others from Mt. Bethel Church.
Rick Bonfim Ministries and Mt. Bethel Church have been connected for several years, and throughout the last decade, there have been other Mt. Bethel Church members like Sarah who have gone to Brazil to serve with Rick and his team individually. In January 2025, however, Mt. Bethel Church sent a group exclusively from our congregation to Brazil for a 10-day discipleship encounter with Rick.
Donovan Starkey, who became acquainted with Brazil and Rick Bonfim for the first time on this recent trip, agreed with Sarah’s assessment.
Donovan Sharkey (left) worshiping with other Mt. Bethel Church team members during a revival service in Juiz de Fora Brazil. Photo Credit: Rick Bonfim Ministries
“People in Brazil worship with a passion like you wouldn’t believe,” he elaborated. “People prayed for healing with a conviction you could feel. The faith they had in the Lord was visible and moving. It was like a lightning bolt to my spirit.”
“I felt connection to and clarity from the Holy Spirit unlike any time before,” he added.
Personal Revival Sparked by an Invitation
The movement of the Holy Spirit via Brazil in Sarah and Donovan’s lives started before they stepped onto the plane on January 17, 2025. It began several months before with an invitation.
Each of the twenty team members on this trip were prayerfully and personally invited by someone from Mt. Bethel Church’s prayer and discipleship ministry teams. Donovan was invited by Pastor John Freeland.
While Sarah had been to Brazil before, she recalls her first trip was also by invitation.
“I was originally introduced to Rick and his ministry through a former pastor of Mt. Bethel Church,” she explained. “My first trip completely changed the trajectory of my life. I chose to go this time to help others from Mt. Bethel experience the life change I’ve had.”
More Than a Mission Trip
Sarah, Donovan, and others agree this occasion is better described as a discipleship journey than a mission trip, especially considering the unique depth Rick Bonfim and his team bring in their approach to ministry.
Mt. Bethel Discipleship-Mission Trip team members praying over a Brazilian woman.
Mt. Bethel’s team spent their first few days in Santa Barbara, Brazil, at the mission Rick’s family built.
“The mission serves the needs of local women and children, feeding 2,800 of some of the most-in-need in Brazil every month,” Donovan stated. “Far greater than the physical and resource needs the mission is meeting in the community is the spiritual transformation they are supporting, which is awe-inspiring.”
People served by the mission are also told the truth of the gospel and invited into Bible Study. Mt. Bethel’s team spent much of their time in Santa Barbara in intense study of God’s Word and committed prayer.
“Like going scuba diving at great depths or skiing at high altitudes for the first time, a warm-up is necessary,” Donovan said in comparison to describe how the first half of the trip prepared him and the rest of the team for the second half.
Mt. Bethel Brazil Discipleship-Mission team worshiping together during Bible Study in Santa Barbara.
 Donovan Sharkey being baptized in Santa Barbara by Rick Bonfim and John Freeland. |  Donovan Starkey studying the Bible in Santa Barbara. |
He recalls he tried to go into this trip with few expectations, but the time spent in study during those first few days revealed personal assumptions he had about the Holy Spirit and how He moves in people’s lives. “It was a time to peel back preconceptions of our relationship with the Holy Spirit to fortify us with the armor of God as we prepared to minister during the revival in Juiz de Fora.”
A multi-service revival in the city of Juiz de Fora is how Donovan, Sarah, and the others from Mt. Bethel Church spent the latter half of their time in Brazil, and where they witnessed the Holy Spirit move in extraordinary ways.
Picture of crowd during one of the revival services in Juiz de Fora. Photo Credit: Rick Bonfim Ministries
“I heard angels sing,” Sarah recollected. “In our prayer time before one of the services, I asked God to show me something heavenly. During the second song in worship, I heard what sounded like 100 beautiful singers behind me. I realized it was angels singing. Two other team members heard it as well. And when we sang the word ‘holy,’ the angels sang exponentially louder.”
“There was a ‘dancing girl’ and her family who had lost their father last year,” Donovan described of his most memorable moment of the revivals in Juiz de Fora. “You could literally see joy and faithfulness pour out of her as she danced, worshiped, and sang.”
“Believers in Brazil tend to be much freer in worship. It’s a beautiful thing to see,” Sarah explained.
 Mt. Bethel Team Members during a revival service in Juiz de Fora |  Donovan Starkey worshiping during revival in Juiz de Fora. Photo credit: Rick Bonfim Ministries |
The Lasting Impact
Mt. Bethel’s mission team returned to the United States forever impacted by their time in Brazil.
“I have always viewed missions from a ‘service’ or ‘acts’ perspective. I still think these demonstrations of faith are important parts of ministry and testimony; however, this trip reoriented my thinking around missions to its true purpose, which is to go and make disciples for Christ. Worshiping and discipling as missions work and ministry is the core of sharing the love of Jesus and advancing His kingdom,” Donavan elaborated.
“These trips help me grow in Christ. This growth allows me to be better mother, daughter, sister, friend, and servant of Christ in however God leads me,” Sarah reflected regarding her many experiences in Brazil.
“[My experiences in Brazil] allow me to be better mother, daughter, sister, friend, and servant of Christ in however God leads me.”
– Sarah Hensley
If you’re ever given the opportunity to go on a discipleship-mission trip to Brazil, it will encourage your faith in a unique way, although Rick Bonfim will be the first to tell you that you don’t have to travel to another hemisphere to experience a great move of the Holy Spirit.
God wants to do incredible things in and through you. All He’s asking you to do is to step out in faith and join Him where He’s already at work around you.