Dear Prayer Warriors, Family and Friends,

            I just wanted to give you a quick update on the wonderful doors the Lord is opening for the Gospel to go forth in other communities and Indians tribes.  Last month I made contact with an Indian tribe called the Kocama Kocamirlla (not sure of the spelling) through an Indian advocate office here in Yurimaguas.  This office steps in to help settle land disputes between villages and when I went to speak to them about going to some of the Indian communities they work with it just so happened that there were two men from one of their villages that were in Yurimaguas at that time.

            I had the chance to meet with these men to tell them what I do and it turned out that the only Christian in that village was one of the two men sitting in front of me.  His name, appropriately enough, is Melchizedek.  We made plans for me to visit their village the following week, which I did, to have a community meeting to discuss doing a water filter project for each family in the village.

            During the community meeting I had the opportunity to explain who I was and why I was there which led into the Gospel message.  We did not have the chance to lead people in prayer to accept the Lord at that time but Melchizedek set up an evening meeting to have a Bible study and several from this small village of 16 families came.  There, several adults accepted Christ as their personal Savior and Lord!

            The next day we had a children’s meeting for the same purpose and several children also accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior.  While there is no church in their village there is one about a 15-minute walk from their community, which just happens to be a church plant of the church I go to in Yurimaguas!  In fact, my pastor just came back a few days ago from visiting them!  Melchizedek, his family and apparently several of the children attend this church but the community, as a whole does not.

            Our plan is to go back to this village called October 8, and do the water filters, minister the Word of God and also minister in the church that is 15 minutes away. (I know this is a very odd name for a village but it’s very common to name a village after a date.  It could be the date the village came into existence.)

            The next opened door to minister in other villages came through a pastor friend, named Elwin, who had been telling me about a Shawi Indian village not far from his house (“not far” is an extremely relative term) that has no church and so we made plans to visit that village as well, which we did this past Saturday.

            To get there it took me a 45-minute car ride over an asphalt road to get to Pastor Elwin’s house.  Then a 45-minute forgon ride (a three-wheeled car with a pick-up bed in the back) over a very bumpy dirt road and an hour and 45 minute walk through the jungle only to find that the meeting that we were supposed to have was not communicated well enough and so hardly anyone was there.  This did give us a chance to rest and have lunch though before we could meet with those that were present.

            As it turned out there was a visiting family from another village who’s mother was very ill with severe pain in her shoulders, arms, hands and legs.  According to the daughter she had been that way for the last three months and was not able to get up and move about in her daily life without a great deal of pain.  She had gotten some shots from the doctor to relieve the pain but it was not able to cure it.  The daughter asked Pastor Elwin if he had any pain medication or shots that he could give to her mom but since he didn’t he said we could pray for her.

            We went right next door to where the mom was and she was lying on some wooden boards they used as a bed for her.  She appeared to be in a great deal of pain so Pastor Elwin read a Scripture to her and the family and then prayed.  When he did God’s power to heal was present and so when he finished I asked her if she still had pain.  She said she did so we prayed again taking part by part of her body that had pain and each part got healed.  When we finished with her upper body she could sit up without pain and raise her arms over her head, which she could do before.

            Then we started with her lower body.  We prayed for her lower back and especially her very swollen right knee.  As we prayed successive times I could see the swelling in her knee go down and Pastor Elwin had her stand up and walk around.  She was weak at first but was able to walk, which she could not do before.  The more she walked the better she got.  Her upper body became more mobile as well so that she could raise her arms much easier and much higher than when she first got healed.

            Pastor Elwin then led the whole family to the saving knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!  We made plans to go back to this village as well in two weeks to continue with the Word of God.

            I tell you this so that you can rejoice with me in the salvations and the manifestation of the presence of God to show Himself strong to a people who have not known Him before.  As we stand together in prayer to reach these communities who sit in darkness the Gospel is going forth and people’s lives are being changed!  This is real and it’s because the Body of Christ is joining hands together to form a long link to reach those that were once unreachable.  I want to thank you so very much for taking your part in this work seriously enough to pray for the lost to come into the Kingdom.

            I also want to strongly encourage you to pray for those around you who do not know Christ that the Lord will give you opportunity to share the Gospel with them.  You may very well be the only Light they will ever have the opportunity to see and know.  God bless each of you for all that you are doing for the Kingdom.

In Him and for Him Forever,

Sharon Malcolm

Amazing 5-Day Training

Sharon and Pastor Rufino teaching a class during 5-day training

      In spite of low attendance due to the river water level which prevented several families from coming in, we had an amazing 5-day training!  The emphasis was on discipleship and evangelism.  We taught people how to write a brief testimony of how they came to Christ, how to explain the Gospel to unbelievers and how to lead someone in a prayer to accept Jesus as Lord of their lives.  We also had the privilege of having Pastor Dale Hewitt and Greg Abernathy from Grace Church of Fredericksburg, VA join us to teach all of the Christian growth and discipleship material.  The purpose of the classes is to help young believers understand what the Lord has done for them and then be able to share that with others.

     To help facilitate this we broke off into pairs (pictured above) to practice sharing the testimonies, the salvation message and leading someone in a salvation prayer.  This process greatly helps reduce the intimidation that people feel when trying to share their faith.  The more prepared and comfortable they are the easier it is for them to tell someone what the Lord has done.  This is vitally important for the Shawis on the Shishinahua River because when the river water is too low and we can't get in they must be able to share their faith with clear understanding and conviction of the Holy Spirit.  Our goal is to bring them to a point where they are the evangelists and disciplers of their people and we are just brothers and sisters who help them in their work of the Lord.  We have already seen this begin to happen in some of the villages.  One man has been holding regular Bible studies in his home for his family, in-laws and anyone else that wants to join them.  Ignacio, a man in another village asked us to help him build a "house of prayer" so that he could invite the neighboring villages on either side of him to come to church, which we finished the basic structure in May.  A man named Nilton, who came to the training lives in one of the neighboring villages of Ignacio and has identified him as a leader and contact person for ongoing meetings in the new house of prayer.  Nilton also expressed a desire to start Bible studies in his village as well.  There are many other incidences like this happening among the people in different villages as a direct result of what God has done in their lives which stimulates a desire to know Him more.  These are the beginnings of the rumblings of a mighty move of the Holy Spirit as we continue to train and equip the villagers with as much knowledge, practice and prayer as we can give them. Please continue to pray with us for the full manifestation of the saving grace of our Lord in these communities so that they can be the advocates for the rest of the villages that have yet to hear.  

     Immediately after the training we went to Maria's village of Varadero so that Pastor Dale could perform a joint wedding ceremony for five couples.  Maria is the Shawi missionary who has been working with me for 6 years and co-pastors a church in her village.

     The Shawi culture does not have wedding ceremonies as we do in the States. Instead they come together through an agreement with the parents of couple.  In the past these "unions" were arranged by the parents and not necessary motivated by a love relationship from the couple.  While this is still the case today more couples are together because they chose to be rather than because of an arranged union.  When the Shawi come into Christ however, they have a desire to be married in the eyes of the Lord through making a public confession of their commitment to their spouse before God and the Church and so they often ask for a pastor to marry them.  This was the case in Maria's village where five couples from her church wanted to get married and so when Maria asked me if Pastor Dale could do the weddings we were very eager to accommodate them as is pictured above.

     This is one of the five couples that got married, Jonie and Alcidia with their daughter.  Although they have been together for a few years already they have just now gotten married.  For special occasions the Shawi women paint their faces, hands, legs and feet with a black ink that comes from a plant and lasts 7 to 10 days.  Their skirts are handwoven and the necklaces are made of tiny beads that are strung together to make very intricate designs as shown in the elaborate necklaces that Alcidia is wearing.  The headdress of the women and the criss-cross torso fitting for the men are pom poms woven together and often the women add colorful bird feathers to further adorn their headdresses.

      After the wedding ceremony there was a time of refreshment and later an evening church service to celebrate the events of the day.  Some of the Shawi women choreographed some dances that they often use as part of the worship in their regular church services.  This is very unusual for Shawi women to be so publicly demonstrative but again, it is the result of a changed life that has been set free by the power of Christ and we were so privileged to be able to see this.

      As if the weddings and church service were not a tremendous enough experience for us we also had the privilege of baptizing four new Christians from Maria's church the next day!  It was a very full time of ministry and opportunity to express the love of Christ to our Shawi brothers and sisters.  I want to thank all of you so very much who stood with us in prayer during this time.  Every event was extremely significant and will produce lasting and abundant fruit to years to come. God bless you in your part in this ministry and please take the time to give praise to God for what He has done through you in this amazing work.

Forever In Him,

Sharon Malcolm

Water filters and church building

Dear Friends and Family,

A team from my home church in Bethlehem, PA came to Peru in mid June to work with Maria and I (Maria is the Shawi missionary that's been working with me for 6 years) to do six bio-sand water filters in the village of San Francisco.  The 8-day trip was an arduous 13 hours up and 13 1/2 hours back of pushing and pulling a 2-ton boat over a sand-bottom river because the water was so low. But praise God, we made it and we were also able to visit the villages that we normally work with of Santa Clara, Santa Rosa and Yarina.

Sharon explaining why water filters are important to the families that will receive one

Team washing sand with villagers to make water filters

Village woman putting river water in filter to be filtered

While we were working on the water filters in San Francisco Maria's brothers were working with one of the men in Yarina to build a church that we had been planning on doing for quite some time.  The initial phases of the church were completed on this trip and although the building is not finished yet it is now ready for use.  We will be continuing to work on this project but we would like to wait to see the response of the people first to see if they will come.  This is our first church building on the Shishinahua since I've started working with the villages in 2007!  Praise God for His goodness.

           

The village of San Francisco is a community that I had worked with several years ago but had to stop because of lack of interest.  Recently however, the people have been responding much more and so we've started to work with them again.  Our heart is to not only evangelize but to equip and mobilize new believers to reach their own people with the Gospel and then disciple them on a regular basis. Since this village has heard the Gospel through us and maybe others, there are a couple of hopeful men that prayerfully will take up the charge of being advocates and trainers for the Gospel.

To prepare people for this we have an intense 5-day training in the town where I live called Yurimaguas and we invite every family from all the villages to come.  Their travel in and out, food and lodging are provided for while they're with us.  We've been doing this for three years and it has proven to be a very effective tool to bring the light of the Truth to the people in a personal way.

    

We will having our next training July 28 to August 1 and so I would ask you to please keep us in prayer for this event.  Would you join with me in praying using the following prayer points?

1. As stated earlier the river water is very low so it will be difficult for the people to get out but please pray that they will come anyway.
2. Complete safety as they travel back and forth to this event.
3. That the Holy Spirit will touch hearts and open minds to receive all that He has for them so that they can be ministers of the Gospel to their people.
4. Divine wisdom and discernment for us as teachers, in knowing what and how to present the material in the most effective way.  The teachers are:  Maria, Pastor Rufino and Sharon
5. That the children and youth will be touched powerfully by the Holy Spirit as well so that they become carriers of the Word to their peers.

Thank you so much for your commitment to pray and see God's glory revealed in the lives of these precious people.  It is our mandate to "go and make disciples of all peoples" and that is what we are striving to do.  As we work together we will see this come about.  God bless you all for all that you are doing for this work and everywhere else that the Lord has you minister.

Forever In Him,

Sharon Malcolm

Prayer Letter

Dear Faithful Prayer Warriors,

Our last trip to the Shishinahua River was to start work on a church in one of our villages named Yarina. A family there has been wanting to build a church for quite some time and now we had the chance to help them do that.  Maria's brothers joined us on this last trip and together we cleared the land to build the church and then her brothers took to finding hard wood trees and cut the wood with a chainsaw to build the framework. Unfortunately they were not able to finish cutting the wood before we left and so we will be returning the Shishinahua River next week to finish the task.

Cutting down large trees and then splitting them with a chainsaw

Boards cut by a chainsaw

This trip will be multi-focused in that while Maria's brothers are cutting the wood for the church the rest of us will be joining a team from the US to do six bio-sand water filters and present the Gospel with Bible studies and prayer for the village of San Francisco.  From there we will minister the Word of God in the villages of Santa Clara and Santa Rosa before joining Maria's brothers to help with the church building in Yarina.

My prayer is that San Francisco will be very receptive to the Word of God and to the moving of the Holy Spirit so that they will experience a true transformation of body, soul and spirit. Along with them that Santa Clara and Santa Rosa will experience the same. Would you stand with me in prayer for this as well?

We will be traveling from Saturday, June 18 to Saturday, June 25 and the prayer points are as follows:

1. Safety as we travel and wisdom for the boat drivers as they navigate their way through the rivers.
2. That each of us will be the open, sensitive instruments that God can use to reach all these villages with the power of the Gospel in the most effective way.
3. That all the people will be very receptive to what the Lord wants to do in them and receive all that He has for them. 
4. Please pray for anything else that the Lord lays on your heart for this trip.

Thank you all so very much for standing with us in prayer and believing for everything that the Lord wants to do during our time together. God bless you in mighty and abundant ways.

In and For Him Always,
Sharon

May News & Prayer Letter

Oral Bible Story Training for Condozi Indians

 

US missionary Steve Ford and Argentina missionary Maria Canilla with 

Oral Bible graduating class of Condozi Indians

 

Steve leading communion for the Condozis

 

Maria (left) with Condozi women

This past week I had the privilege of joining with this Assembly of God team to help train 125 Condozi Indians on how to learn the Bible through stories for those who cannot read or read well. This 6-day training started after two days of travel from Yurimaguas, where I live, to Ullpayacu community where the church that hosted us is located. The stories began with Creation and ended with Moses and The Golden Calf. Each class was designed to teach the Condozis Bible stories so that they can not only learn Word of God for themselves but also share it with those who do not know.

Steve Ford and his wife Terry are Assembly of God American missionaries who have been ministering in different parts of Northern Peru for 25 years. Maria Canilla, from Argentina, also an Assembly of God missionary, has been working with several Indian tribes in the area as well.

Steve has put together this incredible training to teach the Condozi Indians the Word of God through Bible stories and the results were absolutely phenomenal. For instance, when hearing about Noah’s ark and the rainbow one woman said that she never knew anything good about rainbows (they believe that if you looked at one you will break out in sores or some other type of skin disease). Now through learning what the Word says about them, she said, “I’m going to announce to everyone that the rainbow represents God’s love and promises.” On another story when the group heard about the 10 commandments this same woman said, “I can see that we are not following them.” Others said that they never knew them before and could see that the enemy was keeping them from knowing how to follow God.

On the last session, Moses and the Golden Calf the one I did, we had a very lively discussion about idols and different false beliefs. The result was that many of their long-held beliefs were challenged when held up to the Word of God.

Sharon sharing the Word of God through stories

This was very enlightening to me to see how this method of evangelism and discipleship could be used. Although we have done Bible storytelling in our 5-day trainings with our Shawi Indians we did not employ this method but we will surely do so in the future.

Prayer Request

In light of that I want to share with you that we will be traveling to the Shishinahua River this Saturday, May 21 to Wednesday, May 25. The purpose of our trip is to build our first church in one of the communities that we have been working in for the last 8 years named Yarina. One of the men has had it in his heart to do this for some time and so we have agreed to help him. Hallelujah! Our official breakthrough!

Maria’s brothers will be helping this man named Ignacio build the simple palm-leafed, wooden structure to house meetings that he will initiate. It should only take a few days to build and while the men are working Maria and I will go to the neighboring village of San Francisco to minister in the Word of God and coordinate a water filter project with them. During our time together we will be trying out this new method of Bible storytelling to teach the people the Word of God. Would you therefore, stand with us in prayer for this trip?

• Safety and ease of travel
• That the church will be completed by the time we leave
• That the people of San Francisco will be wide open to the Word through Bible storytelling
• Sensitivity to the Holy Spirit in knowing what to share and how.

Thank you so much for your intercession for this trip. Let us believe together for great things to happen in each heart resulting in a total community transformation. God bless you all.

Sharon Malcolm

Updated prayer letter

Dear Prayer Warriors,

I want to thank you so very much for keeping us in prayer for this last river trip. We were able to get in and out of the villages with no problems. Our meetings went well with the villagers and we were able to teach from some of the material that we had during our 5-day training in March. It was very encouraging to see how they responded and to realize that now they will be sharing the Gospel with their neighbors, family and friends.

What was also encouraging was that some would like to be further trained in order to minister to their people more effectively and so we will be starting a Bible institute with them from my mission very shortly. One teenager, Orenson, and his father from Santa Rosa, one of our villages, came to visit me while they were in Yurimaguas. Orenson said that he wanted to be a pastor and would like to be trained as well and he's only in 7^th grade! This is nothing other than the Holy Spirit working deeply in his heart and in the hearts of all the other people we are reaching for the Gospel.

One last blessing was that one of the men in the village of Yarina said in the past that he wanted to build a church so that when we came to his village we would have a place to have the meetings. Now however, he wants to build the church because there are extended family members in the villages on either side of him that he and his family have ministered to and now they want to go to church. Since there aren't any churches in their villages they would come to the one he builds in his village. This is amazing because it will be the first evangelical church on this river! Glory to God for His faithfulness.

Thank you so much again for standing with us in this tremendous work. Together we are truly making a difference for the Kingdom of God and it is my honor to be working with you in this.

Many and Rich Blessings to You,
Sharon Malcolm

April prayer letter

Dear Prayer Warriors,

We are making another trip to the Shishinahua River to encourage the believers and continue our training to equip everyone to evangelize and disciple their own people in the village. This will be a follow up visit to our 5-day training that we did in March to see how well the people that attended were able to use the material but also we want to teach those who could not attend. Our goal is to continue to work with the people in the villages so that they are confident enough to go out and reach the lost in their area themselves.

Would you stand with us for this trip while we travel Sunday, April 17 to Friday, April 22? Please pray with us for the following:

• Safety as we travel. The rivers are very high right now, which makes travel much easier but at the same time it makes the currents much stronger. So pray with us that the boat drivers will be able to navigate their way through the river debris of fallen trees and branches that are in the waters and that they be able to see what is there quickly enough to avoid it.
• That everyone in the villages will attend the meetings that we have in order that the Holy Spirit can minister to each person effectively.
• That there will be a passion and deep conviction in the hearts of every believer as they hear the training to realize the necessity and urgency of evangelizing their villages now. They need to understand that they, and not us, are the instruments that God wants to use to reach the lost in their area.
• Wisdom from the Holy Spirit as we re-teach the material from the 5-day training for those who could not attend the training in March so that it is very clear and applicable to every listener.

I want to thank all of you in advance for your prayer support for this trip. I can't tell you how many times the Lord has saved us from accidents and loss because of your combined prayers. Not to mention, of course, the powerful way the Holy Spirit has moved on the hearts of all who hear the Gospel. This doesn't come by accident or coincidence my brothers and sisters. It comes because we are praying together. So let us continue in this amazing work to complete the Great Commission together and take every village for the Kingdom of God!

Blessings To You in Every Way,
Sharon Malcolm