MANAUS, Brazil (FBW)–For more than 100 years Southern Baptists have been sharing the Good News with some Brazilians. For others, the indigenous peoples of the Amazon River Basin, all outsiders, especially westerners, have been told to steer clear of the tropical rain forest and its unspoiled populations.

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In a historical first in early September, Southern Baptists, through Amazon Vision Ministries [AVM], a relatively new work in Brazil, announced an invitation by the director of social and ecological research in Brazil to work among the indigenous peoples, bringing them medical and dental care–along with the Gospel of Christ.

In an isolated region of the world near the equator in South America, the Amazon River Basin spans over 4,000 miles of deep jungle with the world's largest river, the Amazon. The main river is some 4,080 miles long, second only to the Nile in length. It is fed by more than 1,000 tributaries, including seven that are more than 1,000 miles long.

Gary Crawford, pastor of Westside Baptist Church in Gainesville, told members of the Florida State Board of Missions meeting at Lake Yale Conference Center in Leesburg Sept. 22 that he believes every person should have the opportunity to hear the Gospel.

"We are servents entrusted with the secret things of God," Crawford told SBOM members in a devotional session in which he read 1 Corinthians 4:1-2.

Everyone should be able to approach God with "freedom and confidence" in knowing they are made in God's image, he said.

Sharing about a time he traveled to a village isolated deep within a country, he said the knowledge that these people had never been told of Christ's love greatly impacted him.

"I was spiritually and emotionally stunned as I stood staring into the eyes of those who had never heard the mystery of the Gospel," Crawford told listeners.

Though more than 2,000 years have passed, there are still people throughout the world who do not know about God, he said.

Four years ago, Crawford said he stood by his son and watched him share the Gospel with the "river people" of the Amazon River Basin.

"I saw them embrace the Gospel," Crawford said. This is part of fulfilling the Revelations prophesy of accomplishing God's purpose. "If we fail, we frustrate the very purpose of God in our lives."

Reporting 22 mission trips in the past nine months with more than 8,000 decisions for Christ, Crawford said AVM now has more opportunities than ever before to share the Gospel with the Brazilian people.

"We have an historic opportunity to penetrate the Amazon River Basin with the Gospel," Crawford said.

"Never before has there been such means," he continued.

Crawford said the regional and national leadership of the Southern Baptist Convention's International Mission Board has "caught the vision" of what's happening in the region, along with the Florida Baptist Convention.

"The International Mission Board cannot go to the indigenous peoples, but we can take Southern Baptists," Crawford said, through AVM.