Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised:
He is ever faithful to lift us up in our darkest hour, and I am so grateful for His sustenance and His faithfulness!
Prayer Necessities:
1. Pray for Leah and me as we struggle through this time of discouragement. Ask that we would the "God Who gives endurance and encouragement" (Rom. 15:5) would grant us both and that we would persevere in completing the work to which He has called us.
2. Please pray for Leah and me as we make our first and only trip to Taramarca next week. We will be there for about ten days teaching stories to the church there, then will focus full-time on the new church in Salvatierra. Pray that we would be faithful to finish this work among the Quechua.
3. Be in prayer for our friend Simon, who has had some recent job changes that require him to spend two weeks a month in another city. This has been hard on him and his family and will continue for the next year, so please pray that he would be strengthened and encouraged during this time.
Inquiring Minds Wanna Know:
I have intentionally sent this particular blog update only to a select group of people who are certainly my brothers and sisters in Christ. There is a reason for that.
So this blog is going to be a hard one for me to write and maybe even harder for you to read. But I have thought and prayed about it, and I think these things need to be said...
It's been a rough few months. Beginning in July with the women's conference in Ayuma, Leah and I have been working pretty much non-stop with constant community trips and teaching. When we got back from our last trip to Ayuma, we essentially collapsed from exhaustion.
Shortly thereafter, Leah went on a vacation trip to Ecuador, followed by a trip to Peru for a short training time. She'll be back in Sucre later this week. Her travels have left me alone in my house in Sucre for about two weeks.
I was looking forward to that time after such a grueling few months beforehand. But, to tell you the truth, I have never felt more alone. My phone rang once when a friend called to ask if I could take him somewhere in the truck. I checked my e-mail incessantly and did receive some e-mails in response to ones I sent out but only a very few where I didn't initiate contact. I sent out multiple blog updates and got hardly any response.
The truth is, even before this time in Sucre, I had begun to feel forgotten by my family. And when I say "family," I don't mean my biological family but those who should love me even more: My family in Christ. I have two sisters in Christ who have faithfully kept up with me for these three years that I have now been on the mission field, and I can't begin to describe how grateful I am for those beautiful women. On the days when I feel most down, I remind myself that they care enough to stay in touch with me.
But here's the deal. October 15 marked the third anniversary of my time in another country. That magical date also means that I am no longer obligated to remain on the field. Let me explain: When I signed on with the IMB as a career missionary apprentice, I committed to serve a term of at least three years. If I had left at any point before that period of time was up, I would have been obligated to pay back a prorated portion of the money required to get me here and back and the money required for the set-up of my house here. But, as of October 15, 2011, I can leave the field at any time with no financial obligation whatsoever.
I have lots of friends with whom I attended our mission board's orientation back in 2008. The majority of them are leaving the field now to go to the States for a period of stateside time of rest and rejuvenation. Right now, I'm tired. I'm burned-out. I'm discouraged. And there's nothing I want more than to join those friends of mine in going home to my own country where I can eat my own food and speak my own language and spend time with my family and friends.
Basically, the only thing that's keeping me here at this point is the command of my Lord.
That being said, that financial motivation to remain on the field is a tangible one. With that out of the way, disobedience seems a little bit easier. Especially knowing I could tell myself, "What? I served my three years! Nobody can say anything to me!"
So why am I telling you all this? Because the main thing that makes me want to come home is feeling like no one cares about me at all. Discouragement is a powerful enemy, especially when you feel alone and just want to be with people who love you.
In the midst of one of my darkest times over the last week or so, God reminded me of Jesus in Gethsemane. He had also spent three years in ministry, pouring into this group of men, only to have them not be able to stay awake for even an hour with Him when He was in His hour of greatest need. When those guys should have been around Him showing Him that they cared and praying alongside Him in order to encourage Him before He faced His greatest trial, they were sleeping! Oh, how my Lord can relate to my feelings right now, and how wonderfully encouraging that is to know.
But all of you have a responsibility, too.
"But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called 'Today,' so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness." (Heb. 3:13)
I'm asking you as my brothers and sisters in Christ to please help me now. I desperately need your encouragement to persevere in finishing the work here. God has called us to stay and to disciple this new church in Salvatierra, but I need you to help me. I need to hear from you. I need to know that you care about me and this ministry and that you are praying. Please don't desert me in my hour of greatest need.
None of this is meant to make you feel guilty. I have resisted sending this blog for a long time because I hate the idea of being manipulated or of manipulating others, and I hate making myself vulnerable to others. But vulnerability is a necessity as a believer, and I don't think it's manipulative to express what could help you to stay the course. So I want you all to know that I do need you, and there are others around you that need you, too. Please don't get so caught up in the things of this world that you forget the things that are everlasting. Among those eternal things are our relationships with our brothers and sisters and our obedience to the Lord concerning them.
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Friday, October 21, 2011
Showdown with a Curandero
Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised:
We have now completed our work in Ayuma, teaching the last two stories to Nelly a little over a week ago. She is still recovering from some recent abdominal surgery but was eager to learn and did a great job. In all, she has learned 19 stories from Scripture, beginning with creation and ending with a story from the book of Ephesians. She has worked so hard, and we know that the Lord's Word will accomplish every purpose for which He sends it forth!
Prayer Necessities:
1. Please be in prayer for Leah as she spends time visiting a friend in Ecuador, then heads to Peru for some training. Pray that she will be rejuvenated by time with other believers during this time and would return ready to make one last trip to a Quechua village.
2. Pray for our upcoming trip to Taramarca, the community where our journeygirls Misty and Amy worked. We have been promising to come there for some time now but had to wait until we had completed the task in Ayuma. We are planning to make a 10-day trip in which we will teach seven stories related to the church. Please pray that they will learn them and that the Holy Spirit would use those stories to teach them what they need to know about how to be the church.
3. Continue to pray for the new church in Salvatierra. We talked with one of the believers there last week, and she told us that they are meeting together and are studying 1 Corinthians. Pray that the Spirit would continue to work in their hearts and mature them in the faith and that they would be able to stand firm in the face of persecution.
Inquiring Minds Wanna Know:
Our last trip to Ayuma was a bittersweet one. We had planned to drive out there on a Thursday and come back the following Monday, but our trip was cut short by a blockade that kept us from going out until Saturday. Still, even during the shortened time, we were able to teach two new stories to Nelly and two new stories to the church as a whole. We spent a lot of time with our friends there, and everyone, including us, was sad when we left on Monday morning. We have loved these people, and they have loved us, and it's always hard to say goodbye to loved ones. But they were excited to hear of the work the Lord has called us to do next.
Nelly is probably the one we will miss the most. She has been one of our best friends there and is always ready to hear stories or just to talk to us. She especially loves it when we all cook together, and we are always glad to eat what she makes because she's a great cook! :)
She recently had some abdominal surgery, though, and is still a little sore as she recuperates, so she's not able to cook with us right now. She spends most of her time in the house because of the surgery, so she was especially glad to see us. I think she's been bored. :)
We are glad she was able to have the surgery for her female problems, and we feel confident that she will feel much better now. She has been complaining to us about her pain for the entire time that we've known her, and she says she's had these problems for four years. So we are certainly glad that she's gotten the treatment for her medical issues.
She was scared to have the surgery. That's typical of most Quechua people. We Americans can be scared of going "under the knife," too, but at least it's a relatively common occurrence in our culture. Not so among the Quechua. The idea of being put to sleep while someone cuts you open is absolutely terrifying for them, and they often choose not to undergo even life-saving surgery simply because they're so afraid.
When Nelly called her father to tell him that the doctor had suggested surgery, he was understandably worried. Nelly's dad is not a follower of Christ, so his beliefs align with an animistic worldview, as do the beliefs of most Quechua who aren't believers.
When a Quechua non-believer has a health problem (or just about any other kind of problem), they seek out the curandero. Now there are a wide range of curanderos, anywhere from a person who uses herbal medicines to treat sickness all the way up to a full-blown witch doctor who reads coca tea leaves (the Quechua equivalent of palm or tarot card reading) and casts spells in order to determine the problem and cure it.
When Nelly's dad found out about the surgery, he asked his local curandero what could be done for Nelly. The curandero read his coca leaves and said that Nelly definitely didn't need to have the surgery. She would die if she did! And she needed to come to him for treatment because he had the cure for her problems.
In the meantime, she had also had a dream about a cow. In Quechua beliefs, a dream like that means you are going to die. Needless to say, she was pretty worried about all of these things. And her father was absolutely insistent that she come home and see his curandero. She would die if she had the surgery!
It was a crisis of faith for her, a clash of her old Quechua cultural worldview vs. her new worldview as a disciple of Christ. Who was she going to believe? Her culture or God?
Well, you know she had the surgery, so you know she chose to believe that the Lord could cure her without the use of a witch doctor. I know Nelly well, and I know that worrying is deeply ingrained in her nature. Even now, after an uncomplicated surgery and with good healing, she still worries about whether she has an infection or any other potential complication. So the fact that she chose to ignore these fears that align with what she has believed all of her pre-Christian life and trust God to control her health means so much.
We are so proud of her! And we are hopeful that she will be able to tell her dad that her God is so much more powerful than his curandero. Maybe he, too, will come to know the God Who is the Great Physician!
We have now completed our work in Ayuma, teaching the last two stories to Nelly a little over a week ago. She is still recovering from some recent abdominal surgery but was eager to learn and did a great job. In all, she has learned 19 stories from Scripture, beginning with creation and ending with a story from the book of Ephesians. She has worked so hard, and we know that the Lord's Word will accomplish every purpose for which He sends it forth!
Prayer Necessities:
1. Please be in prayer for Leah as she spends time visiting a friend in Ecuador, then heads to Peru for some training. Pray that she will be rejuvenated by time with other believers during this time and would return ready to make one last trip to a Quechua village.
2. Pray for our upcoming trip to Taramarca, the community where our journeygirls Misty and Amy worked. We have been promising to come there for some time now but had to wait until we had completed the task in Ayuma. We are planning to make a 10-day trip in which we will teach seven stories related to the church. Please pray that they will learn them and that the Holy Spirit would use those stories to teach them what they need to know about how to be the church.
3. Continue to pray for the new church in Salvatierra. We talked with one of the believers there last week, and she told us that they are meeting together and are studying 1 Corinthians. Pray that the Spirit would continue to work in their hearts and mature them in the faith and that they would be able to stand firm in the face of persecution.
Inquiring Minds Wanna Know:
Our last trip to Ayuma was a bittersweet one. We had planned to drive out there on a Thursday and come back the following Monday, but our trip was cut short by a blockade that kept us from going out until Saturday. Still, even during the shortened time, we were able to teach two new stories to Nelly and two new stories to the church as a whole. We spent a lot of time with our friends there, and everyone, including us, was sad when we left on Monday morning. We have loved these people, and they have loved us, and it's always hard to say goodbye to loved ones. But they were excited to hear of the work the Lord has called us to do next.
Nelly is probably the one we will miss the most. She has been one of our best friends there and is always ready to hear stories or just to talk to us. She especially loves it when we all cook together, and we are always glad to eat what she makes because she's a great cook! :)
She recently had some abdominal surgery, though, and is still a little sore as she recuperates, so she's not able to cook with us right now. She spends most of her time in the house because of the surgery, so she was especially glad to see us. I think she's been bored. :)
We are glad she was able to have the surgery for her female problems, and we feel confident that she will feel much better now. She has been complaining to us about her pain for the entire time that we've known her, and she says she's had these problems for four years. So we are certainly glad that she's gotten the treatment for her medical issues.
She was scared to have the surgery. That's typical of most Quechua people. We Americans can be scared of going "under the knife," too, but at least it's a relatively common occurrence in our culture. Not so among the Quechua. The idea of being put to sleep while someone cuts you open is absolutely terrifying for them, and they often choose not to undergo even life-saving surgery simply because they're so afraid.
When Nelly called her father to tell him that the doctor had suggested surgery, he was understandably worried. Nelly's dad is not a follower of Christ, so his beliefs align with an animistic worldview, as do the beliefs of most Quechua who aren't believers.
When a Quechua non-believer has a health problem (or just about any other kind of problem), they seek out the curandero. Now there are a wide range of curanderos, anywhere from a person who uses herbal medicines to treat sickness all the way up to a full-blown witch doctor who reads coca tea leaves (the Quechua equivalent of palm or tarot card reading) and casts spells in order to determine the problem and cure it.
When Nelly's dad found out about the surgery, he asked his local curandero what could be done for Nelly. The curandero read his coca leaves and said that Nelly definitely didn't need to have the surgery. She would die if she did! And she needed to come to him for treatment because he had the cure for her problems.
In the meantime, she had also had a dream about a cow. In Quechua beliefs, a dream like that means you are going to die. Needless to say, she was pretty worried about all of these things. And her father was absolutely insistent that she come home and see his curandero. She would die if she had the surgery!
It was a crisis of faith for her, a clash of her old Quechua cultural worldview vs. her new worldview as a disciple of Christ. Who was she going to believe? Her culture or God?
Well, you know she had the surgery, so you know she chose to believe that the Lord could cure her without the use of a witch doctor. I know Nelly well, and I know that worrying is deeply ingrained in her nature. Even now, after an uncomplicated surgery and with good healing, she still worries about whether she has an infection or any other potential complication. So the fact that she chose to ignore these fears that align with what she has believed all of her pre-Christian life and trust God to control her health means so much.
We are so proud of her! And we are hopeful that she will be able to tell her dad that her God is so much more powerful than his curandero. Maybe he, too, will come to know the God Who is the Great Physician!
Me alongside Nelly and her oldest daughter Danitza and youngest son Oscarito
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Being the Light in the Darkness
Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised:
We are so excited after a short trip to the community of Salvatierra! The four new believers gathered with us for church meetings almost nightly while we were there, and it is thrilling to watch the Holy Spirit do His work among His people. They hear His voice and are receptive to what He says. We can't wait to see what else He will do to build His Church among the Guarayo people!
Prayer Necessities:
1. Please be in prayer for the new church in Salvatierra. They have already faced some persecution, and this is a critical time for them to stand firm in the faith and to be grounded in sound doctrine. Pray that they would be emboldened from the start to make disciples of others and that the Spirit would enable them to stand strong for Christ.
2. Pray for the church in Ayuma, as we have just made our final trip to disciple them. Pray that God's Word would take root in good soil and that they would bear fruit. And please pray especially for Nelly, who is currently recovering from a recent surgery.
3. Please pray for wisdom for Leah and me as we complete the work among the Quechua with a short trip to Taramarca in November and then begin the work in Salvatierra in earnest in December. We only have four months to spend there, so pray that we would make the most of every opportunity and that we would know how to focus our efforts in discipleship.
Inquiring Minds Wanna Know:
First of all, please forgive the lack of pictures in this blog installment. I'm having some major computer issues at the moment and will upload pictures as soon as I can.
As I've previously mentioned, the church in Salvatierra is small with only four baptized believers. But those four are faithful, and the Lord's work in their lives is evident. Their names are Mariluz, her husband Umberto, her best friend Adela, and a young man named Benjamin.
We recently spent a week with them, and it was an emotional roller coaster of a trip. Salvatierra is in the jungle, and that's definitely an adjustment for me. When I first arrived in South America, I spent five months in the jungle doing training for our team. However, for the last two years, I've worked in the mountains at around 10,000 feet, which has its own set of challenges. But suffocating heat and biting insects are not among them, so Leah and I have definitely had to readjust. :)
Discomfort was certainly one of our greatest challenges, and the other was being asked for things - CONSTANTLY. The Quechua are subtle in asking for what they want; they hint around and, if you don't bite on the hints, they usually won't ask you directly. Not so with the Guarayo. They asked us for rides to their fields, for food, for money, for medicine, for anything they saw and lots of things they didn't see. Learning to discern when we should and shouldn't give has been an enormous challenge, and I'm sure will continue to be for the remainder of the time that we work inSalvatierra.
The village is predominantly Catholic, and the influence of those beliefs is strong. The priest comes every Sunday to perform mass, and catechism classes are taught in the schools. This has actually been one of the greatest barriers we've faced, and I will address some of that in a future blog.
Before we went to Salvatierra, Leah and I had discussed with the men's Xtreme Team what they had previously taught and had developed a list of stories that we wanted to teach that would address some of the problems that had been seen. Our first story was taken from the Sermon on the Mount, mostly focusing on anger, lust, and how to treat others.
One night after we had taught the story, it rained heavily. We were cooking dinner, and Mariluz and her son and his girlfriend were visiting in our house with us. It had just gotten dark, and someone came to the door and spoke to Mariluz in Guarayo. She then told us there had been an accident. One of the men from Salvatierra had been chopping down a tree when part of it fell and hit him in the chest. He was in an ambulance on the way to the hospital about 90 minutes away.
Mariluz left to go find out more and returned several minutes later to tell us the man had died on his way to the hospital. Leah and I were dumbfounded. This man had a wife and five sons, and now he was gone. We decided to stop and pray for the family he had left behind.
After praying, I went to the door and looked out, and Mariluz pointed out to me that all the other doors were closed. Now, let me tell you, that is unusual. It is HOT in Salvatierra, so people have their doors open almost all the time. When I asked Mariluz why they were all closed, her answer shocked me, even as it gave us great insight into the worldview of this people.
She told us that the people were scared that the spirit of this dead man would come to bother them. There is a larger town about 10 miles away that the ambulance had driven through on its way to the hospital, but the spirit wouldn't bother the people there because they had electricity. In Salvatierra, where there is no electricity, the spirit could come and wreak whatever havoc he desired because there was no light to drive him away.
This belief didn't surprise me. Beliefs in appeasement of the spirit world are common among indigenous peoples here (this is called animism) and, although they consider themselves to be Catholic now, their true worldview is really just a mixture of Catholicism and animism. But all of it made me sad that these people live their lives in such fear.
But the Lord encouraged me by reminding me of the story that I had taught just the previous night. At the beginning of His famous Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells His disciples:
"You are the light of the world." (Matt. 5:14)
I realized that Mariluz wasn't afraid. She was standing with us in the only house with its door wide open. I realized that she didn't need to be afraid because she had the True Light that drives away every evil spirit. And she, as the light in Salvatierra, could show others the way out of this dark abyss of fear in which they live.
I then told Mariluz what 1 John 4:4 says:
"You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world."
She just nodded and said, "Yes, I believe that, hermana." And I knew that she really did because the threat of an evil spirit in the darkness outside didn't bother her at all.
Praise God that He has called her - and us - to His marvelous light!
"But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light." (1 Pet. 2:9, NAS)
We are so excited after a short trip to the community of Salvatierra! The four new believers gathered with us for church meetings almost nightly while we were there, and it is thrilling to watch the Holy Spirit do His work among His people. They hear His voice and are receptive to what He says. We can't wait to see what else He will do to build His Church among the Guarayo people!
Prayer Necessities:
1. Please be in prayer for the new church in Salvatierra. They have already faced some persecution, and this is a critical time for them to stand firm in the faith and to be grounded in sound doctrine. Pray that they would be emboldened from the start to make disciples of others and that the Spirit would enable them to stand strong for Christ.
2. Pray for the church in Ayuma, as we have just made our final trip to disciple them. Pray that God's Word would take root in good soil and that they would bear fruit. And please pray especially for Nelly, who is currently recovering from a recent surgery.
3. Please pray for wisdom for Leah and me as we complete the work among the Quechua with a short trip to Taramarca in November and then begin the work in Salvatierra in earnest in December. We only have four months to spend there, so pray that we would make the most of every opportunity and that we would know how to focus our efforts in discipleship.
Inquiring Minds Wanna Know:
First of all, please forgive the lack of pictures in this blog installment. I'm having some major computer issues at the moment and will upload pictures as soon as I can.
As I've previously mentioned, the church in Salvatierra is small with only four baptized believers. But those four are faithful, and the Lord's work in their lives is evident. Their names are Mariluz, her husband Umberto, her best friend Adela, and a young man named Benjamin.
We recently spent a week with them, and it was an emotional roller coaster of a trip. Salvatierra is in the jungle, and that's definitely an adjustment for me. When I first arrived in South America, I spent five months in the jungle doing training for our team. However, for the last two years, I've worked in the mountains at around 10,000 feet, which has its own set of challenges. But suffocating heat and biting insects are not among them, so Leah and I have definitely had to readjust. :)
Discomfort was certainly one of our greatest challenges, and the other was being asked for things - CONSTANTLY. The Quechua are subtle in asking for what they want; they hint around and, if you don't bite on the hints, they usually won't ask you directly. Not so with the Guarayo. They asked us for rides to their fields, for food, for money, for medicine, for anything they saw and lots of things they didn't see. Learning to discern when we should and shouldn't give has been an enormous challenge, and I'm sure will continue to be for the remainder of the time that we work inSalvatierra.
The village is predominantly Catholic, and the influence of those beliefs is strong. The priest comes every Sunday to perform mass, and catechism classes are taught in the schools. This has actually been one of the greatest barriers we've faced, and I will address some of that in a future blog.
Before we went to Salvatierra, Leah and I had discussed with the men's Xtreme Team what they had previously taught and had developed a list of stories that we wanted to teach that would address some of the problems that had been seen. Our first story was taken from the Sermon on the Mount, mostly focusing on anger, lust, and how to treat others.
One night after we had taught the story, it rained heavily. We were cooking dinner, and Mariluz and her son and his girlfriend were visiting in our house with us. It had just gotten dark, and someone came to the door and spoke to Mariluz in Guarayo. She then told us there had been an accident. One of the men from Salvatierra had been chopping down a tree when part of it fell and hit him in the chest. He was in an ambulance on the way to the hospital about 90 minutes away.
Mariluz left to go find out more and returned several minutes later to tell us the man had died on his way to the hospital. Leah and I were dumbfounded. This man had a wife and five sons, and now he was gone. We decided to stop and pray for the family he had left behind.
After praying, I went to the door and looked out, and Mariluz pointed out to me that all the other doors were closed. Now, let me tell you, that is unusual. It is HOT in Salvatierra, so people have their doors open almost all the time. When I asked Mariluz why they were all closed, her answer shocked me, even as it gave us great insight into the worldview of this people.
She told us that the people were scared that the spirit of this dead man would come to bother them. There is a larger town about 10 miles away that the ambulance had driven through on its way to the hospital, but the spirit wouldn't bother the people there because they had electricity. In Salvatierra, where there is no electricity, the spirit could come and wreak whatever havoc he desired because there was no light to drive him away.
This belief didn't surprise me. Beliefs in appeasement of the spirit world are common among indigenous peoples here (this is called animism) and, although they consider themselves to be Catholic now, their true worldview is really just a mixture of Catholicism and animism. But all of it made me sad that these people live their lives in such fear.
But the Lord encouraged me by reminding me of the story that I had taught just the previous night. At the beginning of His famous Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells His disciples:
"You are the light of the world." (Matt. 5:14)
I realized that Mariluz wasn't afraid. She was standing with us in the only house with its door wide open. I realized that she didn't need to be afraid because she had the True Light that drives away every evil spirit. And she, as the light in Salvatierra, could show others the way out of this dark abyss of fear in which they live.
I then told Mariluz what 1 John 4:4 says:
"You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world."
She just nodded and said, "Yes, I believe that, hermana." And I knew that she really did because the threat of an evil spirit in the darkness outside didn't bother her at all.
Praise God that He has called her - and us - to His marvelous light!
"But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light." (1 Pet. 2:9, NAS)
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