The Shishinahua River
Nilton, from the village of San Francisco, driving us to his village to do the next course in the Bible Institute. This will be the 8th course out of 30 that we’ve completed and Nilton is preparing to be the pastor of the church village.
Houses in the village of Santa Clara on the Shishinahua River where we shared the Word of God.
This trip to the Shishinahua River to continue with the Bible Institute in San Francisco was especially eventful because we combined our class time with visits to other villages as well. We did the course material in the morning and then visited the communities in the afternoon to share the Word of God.
Our plan was to do a children’s program followed by an adult service with a Christian film about the life of Christ. We did this in the villages of Nueva Esperanza (New Hope) and Santa Rosa and shared from the Word of God in Santa Clara. In each village there were open hearts and several people in Nueva Esperanza and Santa Rosa prayed to ask the Lord into their lives. We will do follow up in these villages as well as continue to visit Santa Clara to encourage and teach the Word of God. My prayer is that those who prayed will truly have a desire to follow the Lord and will experience a permanent life change.
Sharon doing a Bible story with some of the children of Santa Rosa
We will also continue to do 3-day training in the village churches of Progreso and Huancayo on the Nucuray River. This is a new work for us and our goal is to help build up the believers in these communities to reach their neighbors for Christ. We will work with them to set up evangelistic outreaches to their neighboring villages and encourage them through training on how to follow up and disciple the new believers. Some of the unchurched communities on this river seem very open and willing to have a church in their village and so the Lord has already started working on their hearts.
We had planned on going to the Nurcuray River this Friday, March 16 but it was canceled. The pastor of the church village of Progreso, Pastor Bartolome (Bartholomew in English), is in quite a lengthy legal dispute concerning a contract he signed with a wood company which gave the company rights to extract hard wood from his community. The village was in full agreement with this contract because the company promised to give each family a certain sum of money in exchange for the wood. Unfortunately, the community does not have the right to sell the wood to anyone and so Pastor Bartolome, who is also a village leader is the one who signed the contract in behalf of the people and is now personally liable for about $120,000. This case has been going on for about two years now but I just learned about it when the pastor just recently told me that he had to cancel our trip because he had to go to the capital for legal dealings concerning this case. He said that we could come again in a few months and so we set it up to come the first week in June.
Please keep him in prayer to resolve this without him having to go to prison or having to be responsible for the money. Out of the only two churches on this river his church is the stronger of the two but still needs to be built up. This is a terrible interference in his life and ministry and especially to those who are willing and waiting to hear the Gospel. I am praying for divine wisdom for his lawyer and any other help he can get from his mayor or advocacy groups in his district. I can’t imagine the stress he and his family must be under and so I am praying more diligently for a quick and easy resolution that will satisfy everyone.
I am also praying for the village of Nueva Esperanza on the Shishinahua River since several people prayed to accept the Lord. They are in quite a bit of spiritual darkness partly due to their traditional belief system and the strong superstitions that are very typical in indigenous communities. The spiritual bondage of these must be broken over their lives so that they can fully appropriate all that Christ died to give them.
Please join with me in prayer for this as well and may the Lord continue to bless you in all that you do for the Kingdom.
Reaping the Harvest Together,
Sharon Malcolm
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