I suppose I should mention how our first week up in the Andes mountains was! Musho is a nice little village, but our ministry has been in Tumpa, a 15 minute walk down the rocky road. God is working in an amazing way right now. The people of Tumpa have been closed to the Gospel for many, many years, and all efforts of local believers and missionaries have seemed in vain.
Until now. Pastor Josúa shared with Ed that he felt God said the time is now for Tumpa and he has a vision, along with others, that ALL the people of Tumpa would come into relationship with Jesus.
We spent a couple days prayer walking in the area and a couple days going door to door, visiting with people and sharing the Gospel. God has gone before us in a powerful way, preparing the hearts and causing a hunger in the hearts of the Tumpa people. More people than I can count have given their lives to Jesus, and are sincerely seeking to know Him more – begging for Bibles, and for us to visit with them more to teach them what we know. Small groups and studies are already forming, after only one week!!
I have not personally been involved in any of these conversations, as I have been on the intercession team and we have stayed behind to pray or have been elsewhere, but Amy and Leah both have some really cool stories about praying for people and beginning relationship.
We had a wonderful outreach on Saturday night in Tumpa, and though we initially intended to have it outside, because of the rain, some man opened up a room next to the Catholic church and we held it in there. What a blessing that turned out to be, because people could hear and see better than anywhere we could have held it outside in the square. Chris Telfer and Shawna led worship, and Eric preached the Gospel in the most clear, concise and gentle way I have heard. Several young boys came up to accept Jesus Christ as their savior, but when we had finished, all the people stayed to talk, ask questions and pray with us.
I cannot begin to describe the blessing it was to have 5 translators with us, so that nobody was inhibited in speaking with the people.
Anne, Leah, Sarah and myself, along with Eduardo took the many children to the far end of the building to play some short games and teach some songs in order that the other Racers and translators could speak with the parents. The teams have scheduled another meeting in the same place next Saturday at 3pm to continue teaching them of Jesus. Wow, it is so incredible to watch God moving in this way.
ZEO will be back alongside the other teams on Tuesday night, after we finish our time here in Mancos and have a couple days off. (We will be enjoying our prizes from the last couple legs of the Race we won!)
I want to tell you all of our living arrangements – I mentioned that we are staying (while in Musho) in a couple rooms of the church. They are not attached rooms though, and they are not really closed off to the wind. The girls have created a makeshift door out of a mattress, and half of the roof sprinkles on us when it rains real hard. 🙂 There is part of a tree growing through the roof with some fruit growing inside the room! We had 9 girls lined up in a row, 3 people per 2 mattresses, and all of our stuff. There is hardly room to walk, but it sure is fun. We have thick wool blankets to keep us warm, since it gets to about 40 degrees and even colder in our room.
There is one toilet and one shower, but the good news is… we invested in a heating shower head, so that we can have warm showers!! The shower is practially in the ‘kitchen’, which consists of two fires and several big pots. The food is a little different here than Nicaragua – no more beans, still lots of rice, lots of chicken, lots of potatoes, and deep fried eggs each morning. Each meal is served with bread, which I did miss in Nic. I think that in the one week we have only had 5 various meals, including all three in a day. But I like it just fine. 🙂
While we are in Mancos, our sleeping arrangements are about the same – nice and cozy, ready to snuggle!! We are actually living the downstairs of a family’s house, and the bathroom is…outside, to the street, then into the backyard and then to the kitchen. We will have breakfast with them each morning and the remaining meals at the restaurant of one of the church leaders. Our food will be about the same as in Musho, but our environment is different. I am excited for the change of pace here. Oh… today at the restaurant, we had soup with all the leftover chicken parts that are not served on the plate – the feet, heart, livers, neck, spine, etc… YUM! Ha Ha!
I forgot to mention last week that I posted about 60 new photos, so you can view them at the link on the left.
(Browse My Photos) Check ’em out!
