In 2007, on the third day of the Haggai Leader Experience, Leonardo Paulino felt the Holy Spirit speak to him.

“I was eating breakfast, and I started to feel a great compassion for everybody,” says Leonardo. “I decided to go to my room because I started crying. There, I listened to God telling me about my calling. He said, ‘I’m calling you to help my children who are dying in the nations.’”

Leonardo goes on to say that the Lord also made him re-examine his relationship with his father and sent him to get his master’s degree in administration at Fumec University in Brazil.

“The Holy Spirit put His fire inside of me,” says Leonardo. “Each relationship I developed during the experience was unbelievable.”

Since returning home after the experience, Leonardo says that his professional life has completely changed. He left a comfortable job with a good salary to serve full time at his church. He now leads a mission-oriented nonprofit organization called Nations Help. Additionally, he teaches at FEAD University.

Of his worldwide children’s ministry, Leonardo says, “In the midst of chaos, children remain children, and we have a lot to learn from them. We need to take away everything that corrodes our minds and become what God wants us to be to enter His Kingdom!”

“It wasn’t a simple decision to obey God because I had a lot of fear in my heart, but I overcame it,” says Leonardo.

Leonardo also addressed what the Holy Spirit said to him about his relationship with his father. He has since written a book about the importance of forgiveness and what it really looks like to forgive someone.

Leonardo has served at Haggai Brazil for almost two years. He has trained more than 250 believers to share the Gospel of Christ and has preached and trained in some other nations as well.

Leonardo attends a seminar in Brazil.

Leonardo and his team have made some great progress in several cities in different nations. In Haiti, they have started a program that assists children and their families every month with feeding, educational, biblical, discipleship, and housing programs. So far, they have 97 children involved. In another city in Haiti, they have partnered with a U.S. Christian organization called New Life 4 Kids to raise funds to provide for children who were rescued from very poor areas and are now living in a New Life Children’s Home. Approximately 1,589 children have been assisted.

“My mission is to help highly vulnerable children in the nations, through the compassion of God, influencing and equipping churches to transform a new generation,” says Leonardo. “That is why I feel Haggai International is at the root of the entire ministry.”

Leonardo is proud of the progress he and his team have made in so many countries from Brazil, to Haiti, Cambodia, and Paraguay.

But their work is far from over.

Brazil, in particular, is struggling with a collective and political conscience problem. Leonardo reports that most people don’t know much about politics, and elections are won by those with the most money. Additionally, education is lacking, and most children are forced into sexual affairs leading to the deconstruction of families and values in society. The unfair legal system and the all-too-common corruption culture just add to the challenges.

Leonardo asks for prayers for Brazil and its people, as he is certain that the Lord can transform all hearts and minds.

“I believe that a new revival season is coming, and the Gospel can change it,” says Leonardo.