We have now finished with the women's conference, and the best part was that we got to watch both our translator Ester and our good friend Nelly from Ayuma teach the stories of the crucifixion and the resurrection. It was so exciting to see them share!
Prayer Necessities:
1. Please pray for the churches in Ayuma and Taramarca. We have been working in Ayuma since last year and will be headed to Taramarca this month to do some teaching. These will be our last trips to Quechua villages, so please pray that the teaching they have received will change them and that they will be unified and loving toward one another.
2. Be in prayer for a new church in the community of Salvatierra. The people are part of the Guarayo people group, and there are now four newly baptized believers there. Leah and I began working in this community with a short trip this month and then will be making more regular trips out there beginning in December. Pray that they will mature and that Leah and I would have wisdom to know how we should disciple the new believers.
3. Please pray for our team as they make a transition to working with unreached people groups in Peru next year. Ask that the Lord would grant them favor with government officials and that He would provide the means whereby these groups can hear the Gospel.
Inquiring Minds Wanna Know:
Following the second weekend of our women's conference, Leah and I both struggled with some serious discouragement. We had wanted these women to learn the seven stories we were teaching and to share them with others, but we didn't have a single one who had learned even the first four stories that we had shared.
But the Lord readjusted our attitudes and reminded us that this is His work and that His purposes are never thwarted. So we headed back out to Ayuma with our translator Ester on August 27 ready to see what He would accomplish in the last weekend.
By that time, we had learned to just expect the unexpected. There were a few more people there this time when we arrived, and we settled down to help prepare food as usual. But, before too long, they were asking us to go ahead and get started with the teaching.
Leah started out with teaching a story about the cost of discipleship. This is a story that is drawn from several passages, and it talks about having to lose your life in order to find it and how following Christ involves denying yourself, taking up your cross and following Him. It's a difficult story to learn because it is mostly based on Christ's teaching and doesn't have much action, but they seemed to learn it quickly enough.
That evening, the elder from the church in Taramarca preached and, though we couldn't understand his teaching, we could tell he was a very good speaker. He had the crowd laughing and interacting with him, and it made us laugh to watch all of them.
Then, on Sunday morn
ing, our friend and translator, Ester, got up to teach the story of the crucifixion. She had told me she was nervous, but you couldn't tell it from how she told the story. She was very animated and enthusiastic in her teaching, and the women seemed very interested. Many of them had heard the story before, so they learned it fairly quickly. Ester was so excited to be able to do this, and she did such a great job with teaching! (She's pictured here portraying Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.)Finally, we were ready for the grand finale - the story of the resurrection. Months before the conference began, we had started talking to Nelly about teaching this story. She had learned it from us and knew it like the back of her hand. It was not a question of her knowledge but whether she would overcome her fear and get up in front of the crowd to teach it.
Even up to a few minutes before time to teach the resurrection story, we weren't sure Nelly would get up and do it. But she did, and I can't tell you how excited it made us to watch this young Quechua woman teach such a powerful story to her own people! (She's pictured here as she taught the story to her friend Marina.) Ester is also Quechua, so it was great to see her teach. But it was even better to watch Nelly do it because she lives in Ayuma and is one of them. We are hopeful that this will send a direct message to these women that they, too, can do this!
Once we arrived back in Sucre, Leah and I rejoiced in all that the Lord had accomplished through this time. Ester had told us that she feels more secure than ever in her calling to be a missionary (God has called her to go to India, and she is awaiting His provision for that to happen), and she is currently going on short mission trips to nearby cities to share stories with the people in Quechua. And, now that Nelly has taught this one story to a large audience, we are hopeful that she will continue to teach the stories she has learned and that others will see her example of obedience and follow it.
In short, Ps. 126:3 expresses our thoughts perfectly:
"The LORD has done great things for us, and we are glad."
Church elders Abdon and Felix with a certificate of appreciation that we gave to the church
