The town of Tumpa has been inundated with gringos. Whenever we walk through we hear that word, whether we’re talking to someone or just passing through overhearing conversations.
In these past two weeks we seen the effect of God’s presence through us in that town. We have had two groups in Tumpa, an intercession group, and an evangelism team. Scott and I have both been walking the streets of Tumpa greeting people and sharing the love of Jesus, whether through helping in fields, cutting potatoes, singing silly kids songs, or simply holding a little girl’s hand. And then sometimes sharing has been straightforward. God has shown us how to approach people in this town. Because they never see white people, they constantly ask, “what are you doing here?” And that’s when we say, we’re coming through wanting to make friends, and sharing the love of Jesus with everyone. They kind of look at us, and then we ask them if they know Jesus or just know
about Him.
Most people we’ve shared this with have come to a saving knowledge of Jesus. And since the Catholic church has a major influence over Tumpa, everyone pretty much knows about Jesus. And we don’t tell them that the Catholic church is a bad church to go to, and we don’t tell them that we are evangelicals. We simply tell them that we don’t come in the name of religion, we come in the name of Jesus. Jesus didn’t come to earth to make a religion, he came to save souls! And everyone we’ve said this to, says that it all just makes sense. Out of all of the people who’ve come sharing their beliefs in Tumpa, this just makes sense. And why wouldn’t it?
No one wants to be bound up by rules and regulations. Jesus came to proclaim freedom for the captives, not to give them more lists of rules to follow. Jesus bought our freedom with his blood. And that’s what we’re sharing, that’s what is making sense in Tumpa. That’s why people are now coming up to us on the street saying they want Jesus!
We’ve had the opportunity to buy stacks of Spanish Bibles for Tumpa. Our first 24 copies are gone. We’ve just bought 36 more, and have ordered another 40. And when we offer Bibles to the people of Tumpa, and share the basics… why the Bible is true, what’s different about the New and Old Testament, who wrote the Bible, how to look up Bible verses, they eat it up. We’ve revisited people we’ve given Bibles to, and they keep their Bibles with them, constantly reading, soaking up truth!
We’re seeing Josue’s vision start taking place… the vision to start a church in Tumpa. We’re trying to put together a small group meeting at the mayor’s house in Tumpa. We’re really excited about what God is going to do through this area of town, as they are hungry for God’s word. God is doing some awesome things in Tumpa.
And Satan is getting nervous. Just in this last week, the leaders of the Catholic church have been using the loudspeaker in the town to tell the townspeople not to talk to us. The keyholders can’t let us use the meeting houses in town. But somehow we still make it into houses, and people are still coming to us, and the Holy Spirit is still moving in Tumpa.
This next week Nessa is leaving to live in Utupampa (about 1000 feet above Tumpa and Musho) to serve the pastor there. Basically, we’ll be edifying and building up the congregation there so that they will be better equipped to evangelize to and disciple the people in their own town. Sadly, I leave Musho and Tumpa and the work that God is doing there, to help pastor Marino shepeard his flock. Hopefully this week will refresh Nessa so that we can go back to Tumpa with a renewed spirit, ready to dig in deep with the people there.
