Gloria Santos spent many years in tourism working as a jungle guide and speaks 5 languages. After a difficult period in her life she went to Bible school in Canada and received a word from her teacher that the Lord wanted her to return to The Amazon to work with the children in the jungle. The teacher handed Gloria an envelope containing $200 and told her 'This is for you to start your missionary work and God will show you the next step'.

One day Gloria's father Joaquim was travelling from the village of Iranduba when a boy with blood on his face ran in front of the car. He took the boy to the hospital but no one knew who he was. Joaquim returned to the area where he had found the boy and asked a man passing by if he knew him. 'I know him, he's Narciso the son of the crazy woman' was the response. The boy lived in a shack in the village but the family were outcasts. The mother was mentally ill and suffered from epilepsy and the father was an alcoholic.

Joaquim brought Narciso back to his village and bought a bag of food for the family as they had very little to eat. He returned to his home and spoke with Gloria and his wife Irineia and they decided to use the $200 that Gloria had been given to help this family, so the following weekend Gloria held the first ‘kids camp’ in this village and 100 children and 20 parents turned up. At the end of the day a little girl came to Gloria.

'Today was the best day of my life. I have never been so happy. I never knew that someone cared for me, that Jesus cared, please when are you coming back?’

Gloria who had only intended to do this one camp said 'we'll be back next month, tell your friends to come'. One week later a jungle pastor gave Gloria a word, 'Nations will come and help you and you will make a difference in the Amazon Jungle'. This was just one month before John (who’s story is below) and his family arrived.

Meanwhile John Paculabo, Executive Director for Kingsway Communications, was working for his company in Roraima, Brazil's most northerly state on a project backed by the Government. It was there he met Gloria; she was his interpreter and guide. Over the next year business circumstances brought John back to Brazil, and on one such visit he brought his family. By now he had established a firm friendship with Gloria, so much so that she felt safe taking him and his family onto the river to meet 'her Indians' as she called them.

Arriving at the village of Terra Preta they were greeted by Chief Gabriel. During their visit he informed them that the government had withdrawn funding for the village teacher and the children now would have no schooling that year. Quickly family and friends huddled together to see if there was something they could help with, especially as the teacher's salary was less than £700 a year. John realised that they could and would provide this and he left knowing that they had helped somehow, but with a feeling that it was not quite enough.

John and his family decided they would visit the Amazon once more the following year. At Terra Preta they were warmly greeted by Professor Jonas (the village teacher) and all the children. During this visit John asked to see the school, no sooner had he asked than he was led to the medical hut that had one small window. On entering, the thing that struck him the most was the intense heat, there was almost no ventilation and it became clear that this was no school.

Six months earlier Wayne Drain, a US church leader had given John a very distinct message, 'It's time to release worship to the poor'. He never understood what these words meant until this very moment, and he immediately understood that God was telling him that worship was about building a school for this village, it was about loving our neighbour as ourselves, and although he lived 5000 miles away, these people were his neighbours.

Immediately John announced that they would build a school in this village. No sooner had he returned to Manaus, than several other village chiefs made contact with him through Gloria, all explaining their need of schools too.

So began a partnership between Gloria, John and their families and so began Ray of Hope.