Reaching Out to Other
Tribes
After much
prayer and soul searching for these last several months the Lord has opened
doors for me to reach out to other Indian tribes here in Peru. While the need to continue with the Shawi
communities we have been working with is desperate the same is true for those tribes who have never heard
the Gospel message yet. Therefore, I am asserting
my efforts to reach the less-reached villages as well.
Since May I
have been able to visit and work with three different Indian groups in bringing
the Gospel message to them or help train them for evangelism. In May I joined with another American
missionary to help him and his team do a 5-day oral training for the Condozi
Indians, in August I went to minister the Word of God to the Cocamillrio Indians (not sure of the
spelling), five hours north of where I live. Last week I met an Ashéninka
village and in the New Year I will try and make contact with the Maijuna
Indians. I also had the chance to meet
another Shawi village, which I visited on several occasions with Peruvian teams
to minister the Word of God.
 |
| Ashéninka Village of Santa Rosa, a two-day travel from my house to this village by plane and car. |
 |
| Health post of the village where the nurse lives and where I stayed while in the Ashéninka village of Santa Rosa. |
The most
effective way to reach these tribes is through tribal members who have accepted
Christ as their Lord and Savior. I have
seen how much of a quick and forceful impact they can have on their own people
when they stand for Christ. Therefore,
my goal is to locate these people, help develop them with any resources I have
and help mobilize them to reach their neighboring villages. There are pastors and missionaries that are
working toward this end and so I am trying to connect with them to help in the
process.
This
December I will be traveling back to the Ashéninka village that I just visited
for the first time last week to help the only Christian man in this community
put a roof on a church he wants to build for them (I will do this financially
not physically). I was encouraged to
hear that both he and the village leader said that the community wants to hear
about the Word of God and wants to have a church to be able to meet in. With that in mind I took the opportunity to
ask the school director if I could share at the grade school about the life of
Christ. I was granted permission and
after the talk I ask how many would like to pray and ask Jesus to come into
their lives and all of the children prayed with me. I realize that the Lord will have to solidify
this commitment with clarity and understanding but I know that He has planted
some very fruitful seeds in their hearts through this encounter.
Later that
night we invited the community to see a movie called “The God Story” which goes
from Creation to the White Throne judgment.
While not everyone in the community came out there were about 35 who did and
most of them stayed for the whole movie. When it was finished I shared what Jesus had done
for them and how much He loved them then asked how many wanted to receive Him
as their Lord and Savior. Gloriously
everyone who was there did, which was about 20 people. It was clear to me that the Lord was truly
moving on their hearts and so I said that I would come back in December to
bring some Bibles for each family and also fund the roof for the church that Janeco,
the only Christian there, wants to build.
I tell you
all this so that you can see that together we are really breaking ground in
other tribes and in so doing helping to close the gap of the unreached or less
reached people groups in Peru. According
to the Joshua Project, a data collecting organization on unreached people
groups in the world, the Ashéninkas have a population of 58,000 and only 2% are
reached with the Gospel. The other tribe
I that mentioned, the Maijuna Indians, have not been reached at all yet. As we join together in prayer, physical
resources and human resources we can effectively reach those who still have not
heard the Gospel message. With that in
mind would you stand with me in prayer for the following trips so that the
power of the Gospel will be shown and people will be brought into the Kingdom?
Nov 2-6: Cocamillrio
Indians to make 11 water filters for some of the families in their community
and to present the Gospel. Their village
is called “October 8” (probably named after the date they were officially a
legal entity). Please pray that their
hard hearts will be soften by the love of Christ and they will be moved to the
point of surrender and acceptance of His incredible love and forgiveness.
Nov 10-14: Shawi
Indians on the Shishinahua River to coordinate our next 5-day training and do
some discipleship classes with the three villages that we have been working
with, Santa Clara, Santa Rosa and Yarina.
Nov 18-22: 5-day
training on how to disciple new believers.
This would be a follow-up session on the last 5-day training we did on
how to evangelize.
Dec 1-4: Ashéninka
Indians to bring Bibles, fund a roof for the church, minister the Word of God
and visit a new Ashéninka village with a Shapibo Indian pastor.
Dec 6-Jan 22: Travel
to the States visit supporting churches in Florida, Colorado, Virginia and
Pennsylvania as well as visit family for the holidays.
I want to thank all of you who stand with me in prayer for this very important task of reaching the lost for the Kingdom. May the Lord bless you in every way.
Your Friend Always,
Sharon Malcolm
