Job 26:14
And these are only a small part of God´s works. We only her a small whisper of him. Who could understand God´s thundering power?
Wow! As I read that this morning I couldn´t help but think of all of the awesome things we have seen and heard from God. What amazing things He has done! And yet this is only a small whisper of all that He is… Wow.
We are here, in Nauta, Peru. It is in the Amazon jungle and we are living on a boat that is parked in the river. It´s close quarters, but we are making it work. I have actually been incredibly blessed with having my own bedroom. It is definately an answer to prayer because for some reason lately I have felt a need to have some space to call my own. However, I want to tell you about all that is going on in this town of about 18,000 people.
The first day we arrived a lot of us went to meet the Pastor of the church we would be working with, Templo de la Mies. He shared his vision for the youth with us, and also shared with us some of the spiritual warfare that has been going on here. He said that many of the youth here are involved with playing with Ouija boards, and that they have made covenants with the devil. He said that about 3 months ago a few teens came into the church seeking help from their demons because they had started telling them that they had to kill their mothers to give the hearts to the devil. There were some intense spiritual battles, and manifestations but in the months that have passed these teens have become a large part of the congregation. The pastor mentioned that you know that someone has been involved with satanic worship when he or she has killed themselves. There is some really dark stuff going on around here.
Because of this I reread the part in Ephesians about the armour of Christ. It struck me as I read that the Bible is our sword. I have since been thinking a lot about that. We are going out everyday to speak the Good News about Jesus and we are expecting to enter into spiritual battles, but for the majority of the time we, at least I, did not have my Bible with me. What was I thinking! Going into battle without a sword! I have since started carrying it with me, and I really feel that it is important for everyone to bring their sword with them. This battle can not be won with wishy washy soldiers who do not even bring a sword. We can defend ourselves with our salvation and righteousness and faith, but we can´t attack. What good are we?
Our team has set up a Vacation Bible School, which we have renamed Fiesta Con Dios (Party with God). This is two hours long each afternoon and it is attended by at least 100 kids. We have split into teams of Red, Yellow, Blue, and Green. I am one of the leaders of the Yellow team, along with Magen and Steve. By leader, we essentially herd the kids from games, to drama, and to the Bible lesson. Yesterday worked out really well, even though we got rained out after only 2 of the 4 stations. We instead chose to play with the kids, and make up team cheers in the rain. At the beginning of each day we sing songs as an entire group, and pray. This lasts from 3-5pm. At 5pm we have an hour long youth group time. Yesterday we had about 15 youth from age 12-20. We played musical chairs, and then both Kelton and Caroline shared. Afterwards we split into guys and girls to better get to know them, and hopefully for the next week we can encourage and disciple them, raising them up as leaders for the younger kids.
I am really enjoying it here in Nauta, it is a really beautiful environment. I am thankful to God for bringing me here, and I am thankful to you, my supporters for bringing me here as well. There are people on my team who have not reached full support. Please consider helping them to continue on this incredible journey that God has placed us on. Check out Magen Bradley´s blog and Angie Tibbo´s.
