After more than 450 years of European intrusions into South America's rainforest, small groups of people across Europe now gather discreetly to participate in Amazonian ceremonies their local governments consider a criminal act. As devotees of a new Brazil-based religion called Santo Daime, they claim that they contact God by way of ayahuasca, a potent psychoactive beverage first developed by native communities in pre-Columbian Amazonia. This bitter, brown liquid is a synergy of plants containing DMT, a mind-altering chemical classified as an illicit "hallucinogen" in most countries. By contrast, Santo Daime members (daimistas) revere ayahuasca as a sacrament, combining it with rituals and theologies borrowed from Christian mysticism, indigenous shamanism, Afro-Brazilian spiritualism, and Western esotericism. The Santo Daime religion was founded in 1930 by an Afro-Brazilian rubber tapper named Raimundo Irineu Serra, now known as Mestre (Master) Irineu. Presenting results from more than a year of fieldwork with Santo Daime groups in Europe, Marc G. Blainey contributes new understandings of contemporary Westerners' search for existential well-being on an increasingly interconnected planet. As a thorough exploration of daimistas' beliefs about the therapeutic potentials of ayahuasca, this book takes readers on an ethnographic journey into the deepest recesses of the human psyche.

Peru's Ticuna Indians are a jungle people. Only a few years ago they had no written language and were ignorant of the outside world. Simple illnesses caused tragic handicaps and death. drunkenness and violent fights produced a climate of fear and hatred. Then the tribe collided head-on with Lambert and Doris Anderson--and the gospel of Jesus Christ. The result? Ticunas were transformed. This book is the moving story of how God is creating a new society in the Peruvian jungle. Despite obstacles of language, superstition, and distrust, God has built his own jungle city.

Many communities are ravaged by problems associated with poverty, crime and drug and alcohol abuse. Substantial answers to the urban crisis are all but non- existent. 'Christ, the Cross and the Concrete Jungle' is the story of a young man's deliverance from a lifestyle of desperation and delinquency to a new life of freedom and hope. This books reveals the remarkable journey of transformation and redemption that is made possible through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Does life feel futile? Doesn't have to. Do your failures seem fatal? They aren't. Does the grave seem to be the final stop? According to Christ, your death is just the start of the something great. Max Lucado delves into Jesus' last hours on the cross and shows how your life has purpose and meaning through his death and resurrection.

David Servant has been ministering to Christian leaders in conferences around the world for over three decades. From his experience of speaking to tens of thousands of pastors in over forty countries, he has complied biblical teaching in this book that addresses the most important issues that Christian leaders are facing today. Servant covers topics such as church growth, spiritual warfare, divorce and remarriage, biblical interpretation, house churches, women in ministry, church government, spiritual gifts, evangelism and many more. He often questions the prevailing opinion, always considering what Scripture says. His conclusions may sometimes surprise you. Servant's foundational condition is that every Christian leader should be making disciples who obey all of Christ's commandments. Translated into many languages, The Disciple-Making Minister is helping Christian leader around the world be more effective in fulfilling the Great Commission.