Pastor Roque (Rocky) preaching on the authority of the believer
I am thrilled to be able to share with you that our second conference for the Shawi Indians held on March 2-4 which went very well. We had several more people attend this conference because we invited whole families this time to be trained in the Word of God. In the three days that we met together we had teachings for the preschool, school-age, youth and adults during the day and a church service at night for everyone. This proved to be very effective because it allowed mothers to a part of the teaching since they did not have to care for their preschool children and it provided for the children and youth to receive teaching on the Word of God at their level.
Sharon and Maria teaching school-age children how and why to worship
All children and some of the youth watching a video on the birth of Christ
During our adult sessions we explained who Satan is, where he came from and why there are evil spirits in the world today. Since the Shawi people are very aware of the spirit world we stressed that evil spirits are created beings that chose to follow Lucifer in rebelling against God and were therefore expelled from His presence forever. It was important to stress that they are not more powerful than God or even equal to His power but rather are merely created beings that as Christians we now have authority over. In light of this they no longer have to be afraid of spirits of the deceased trying to enter them or their children or spirits of animals wreaking havoc on their families by the belief that these spirits can enter them or their families causing physical maladies.
Maria and her brother Camilo leading and teaching the people on how to worship
We also had sessions on how to pray and the importance of praise especially as a weapon of warfare. Although we emphasize and practice these themes as much as possible on our river trips to the villages it was worth going over again and dedicating whole sessions to them in the conference. The result of these repeated teachings and practices was amazing because this time when I asked for a volunteer to lead us in prayer, three women, one from each of the villages that attended, came up almost immediately to do so! This has never happened before! Shawi Indians do not deliberately draw attention to themselves and the intimidation of not being confident in how to pray has always resulted in a lack of response every other time I have ever asked them do this. Now however, through the knowledge of the Word and the working of the Holy Spirit within them three women (I only asked for one) marched right up front to take their stand in faith to pray as we joined them.
The next morning I asked again for someone to come up and lead us in prayer for a specific need and this time, without any coaxing, three teenage boys came up and led us in prayer! This was huge because it showed that the Holy Spirit was working on the youth as well as the adults to the point where these boys had enough confidence and faith to be in front of all their peers to lead us in prayer.
Since we started doing these conferences people have taken giant leaps forward in their commitment to Christ and have shown great desire to learn more about the things of God. I want you to know that this has come about because of our combined effort to pray, break ground and establish the Kingdom of God in these villages. Strongholds are being destroyed through the knowledge and application of Word on a regular basis. Therefore my brothers and sisters, I want to encourage you to continue in warfare prayer and intercession for these communities because the Lord is doing mighty things through all of us. God bless you over and over again for all that you have done for us and the villages in helping the Word of God go forth to change lives forever.
Reaching the Lost Together,
Sharon Malcolm
