The Word of Faith Fellowship’s reach reportedly extended far beyond Spindale, North Carolina. The church maintained affiliated congregations in Brazil that, according to the Associated Press, served as a pipeline funneling young Brazilians to the mother compound on tourist and student visas. Sixteen Brazilian former members told the AP they were made to work without pay while being subjected to physical or verbal abuse. Andre Oliveira said he was eighteen when his passport was confiscated and he was forced to work approximately fifteen hours a day. He described the experience as trafficking and slave labor. Thiago Silva, who traveled from Belo Horizonte at eighteen expecting a youth seminar, said Brazilians were brought for labor and nothing else. American workers at the same job sites were reportedly paid while the Brazilians were not, according to an American former member who supervised projects. The church’s international network included congregations in Ghana, Scotland, Sweden, and other countries, but Brazil was the primary labor source. Several hundred young people reportedly traveled this pipeline over two decades. When former members reported the alleged forced labor to a federal prosecutor in 2014, she promised to look into it. According to their accounts, she never followed up. Tony Brueski continues a five-part investigation into a church that allegedly moved people across international borders and exploited their faith to extract free labor.

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