Prayer for 3-day training

I want to thank you so very much for your faithfulness to intercede for this ministry. The Lord has moved mightily through our combined intercession in reaching the lost with the Gospel and discipling the new believers in the Word.

I would like to invite you again to stand with me in prayer for the upcoming event starting this Saturday. It is our quarterly 3-day training in the Word of God for the Shawi Indians that we work with

We will be bringing them in from their villages to participate in the classes for three days starting Saturday, August 1 and ending on Monday, August 3.  It will be an intense time of learning for them but one that is desperately needed to be able to stand against sin and compromise and grow in their faith and understanding of Who God is and what He's done for us. Therefore if you would please pray for us during this time so that:

1.  the Lord will open the minds and hearts of all who come so that they will make a decision to follow Him with all their hearts, souls, minds and strength.
2.  We, as the facilitators, will communicate clearly the content of the lessons and that everyone be able to grasp the meaning and application of what we are teaching.
3.  Everyone will be safe as they travel to and from their villages. We have people coming from two other rivers as well so we ask the Lord's blessing of protection on them as they travel.
4.  The child-care workers will be creative and articulate in presenting the Word of God so that all the children, no matter how young, will receive from the Lord.
5. Everyone will walk away satisfied with what they gained at the training so that they will come back when it is offered again.

Thank you again for your ministry of intercession for the Shawi Indians and may the Lord richly bless and keep you in all that you do.

Standing With You for God's People,

Sharon Malcolm

July Newsletter

Traveling the rivers to minister to the Shawi Indian communities

I want to thank all of you so very much who prayed for us during this last river trip. I am very happy to report that there were no mishaps, near accidents or low water that would have made travel more difficult. This was actually quite a relaxing 10 hour trip going up and an 8 hour trip coming back. Praise be to our God!  Although this river, called the Yanuyacu, has many curves and can be very difficult to navigate a 2-ton boat that is more than 30 feet long the boat drivers did an excellent job of getting us there and back safely and soundly.

Our 3-day training on the Authority of the Believer went very well also. The village where we ministered is called Nueva Papaplaya and it is mostly a Spanish village. It has a strong church and the pastor is a friend of mine and so we’ve done several projects of water filters and wood burning chimney stoves for his people. However, in this village there are also seven Shawi Indian families that we wanted to target along with ministering to the village church since not all of them speak Spanish and so cannot take advantage of the preaching of the Word. I asked Marcos, who is the leader of these families, to teach the material in the Shawi language which he was very glad to do so.

Marcos is a key person in working with these families because he not only speaks and reads Spanish and Shawi very well but also has a strong burden to see his people grow in their faith and understanding of the Word. I have been praying for more people like him that can lead their people into a strong, viable relationship with the Lord and so I am doing everything possible to train him, give him material to share with his families and opportunities to share in our trainings. The village church also allows them to have their own service each week on Wednesday nights where Marcos shares and of course the families are very welcomed to join in the rest of the services the church has during the week as well.

Marcos teaching on the Authority of the Believer to his people

We will be having another 3-day training in August for the villages that we work with on the Shishinahua River and, as before, I have invited Marcos and the other Shawi families to join us. He will be sharing the same material he did with his people but now he will also share it with all those who attend our training as well.

While I was with Shawis during this trip I had the chance to talk at length to Marcos and the rest about our call to fulfill the Great Commission and how they can do this starting from right where they are. I was encouraged to see Marcos’ interest and the others at least sincerely thinking about it. It is a new concept for most of them and so the how, when and where needs to be worked out but I believe we can do this very well and very soon. We also want to concentrate on the villages where Maria lives (she is the Shawi YWAM missionary that has been traveling with me for about 5 years) so that more and more people are mobilized to share the Gospel. When Maria is not traveling with me she helps pastor a church in her village. Her people have had much more exposure to the things of God and are very accustomed to “church”  therefore it should be much easier to explain the call of evangelism and help set up a strategy to reach out to those who have not yet heard.

We are continuing to work diligently to train and encourage our villages on the Shishinahua River to become advocates for the Gospel as well. This is a bit more challenging because most of them did not have any previous point of reference for the things of God and so do not yet understand the need to share about it. However, I have seen the Lord move so mightily in these villages to bring to clear light His Truth that in no time they will be evangelizing their neighboring villages as well.

I will be sharing more about this endeavor soon but in the meantime as the Lord lays these plans on your heart would you pray in agreement with us? I am becoming so very aware of urgency of the times and so it is vital that all of us move forward aggressively to complete what the Lord has given us to do on the earth. God bless you all and thank you so very much for joining with us in prayer by standing in the gap for our Shawi brothers and sisters.

Together With you in Christ,

Sharon Malcolm

July prayer letter

Dear Prayer Warriors,

I want to thank you so much again for your faithfulness in prayer for us as we travel the rivers to disciple and encourage the new believers.  It is because each of us are doing our part in this great work that the Holy Spirit is moving so mightily to bring people into a saving knowledge of Jesus and those that know Him into a deeper, richer relationship.

I am writing again to inform you that we will be traveling to minister to a village named Nuevo Papaplaya on the Yanuyacu River.  This is a village that is mostly Mestizo (Spanish decent) and has a strong church.  The pastor is a friend of mine and we have done several projects in his community in the past with the purpose of evangelizing and discipling his village.  We are going again, this time to do a 3-day teaching on the Authority of the Believer for his congregation.  We will be having 3 meetings a day; one in the morning for the Shawi Indians that do not speak Spanish or speak it well, one in the afternoon for the children although everyone is invited and one in the evening for everyone.  We will be praying for people as well at the end of the services for any needs that people may have.

Would you join with us in prayer so that these meetings will be powerfully effective in bringing down strongholds of ignorance and unbelief in the people?  As we present the material we are praying that everyone will understand the spiritual battle that we are engaged in and how to use the Word, prayer and praise to defeat the enemy at every turn.  The more we are educated in what is available to us the less the enemy has to work with to blind us from the Truth.

Our dates of travel are Thursday, July 9 to Monday, July 13.  Please agree with us in prayer for:

1)   Safety as we travel.  The river is low due to lack of rain and so there will be many fallen trees, branches and tree stumps in the water, some exposed and some underneath.  This river also has many curves so please keep us in prayer for wisdom for the boat drivers as they take these curves (we've already have two collisions in the past, one of which resulted in severe injury to a passenger in the oncoming boat) and so that they have clear vision to see the obstacles in the water to avoid them.

2)   The people to receive everything that the Lord wants to give them in every way.  Our goal is to equip them so that they can take the initiative and defeat the enemy on their own as well as join with others in prayer to see powerful victories in every areas of their lives.

3)   Each of us as we deliver the material so that it is strongly anointed and very clear to everyone who hears us so that it can be applied to their daily lives.

Thank you so much again for standing with us in prayer, I so appreciate your faith and commitment to all that the Lord is doing in these communities.  God bless you richly and in every way!

Sharon Malcolm