Hello everyone! It’s been awhile
since I’ve sent you an update! Our first semester is over already, and Lyli and
I finally have a moment to take a breath! Well, kind of. If I could describe
the last few months in two words, I would chose abundant and accelerated. We had the biggest rice harvest this year in
the history of our school! The banana and plantain grove has produced in
splendid fashion as well. Last week we took about 70 bunches to sell in town!
Also, since I last wrote about the pickup truck, a Brazilian donor has given us
a farm tractor, and we have received funds to repair the dilapidated ogre (now
in progress of being renovated). Most recently another donation came in to upgrade
the water system! In over six years here in the mission field I have never seen
so much support come in such a short period of time!
This year we also have had unprecedented levels of interest
in our school. One Sunday a camera crew from one of the local news stations
showed up to shoot some footage for a documentary! That was a surprise! Since
the director was not on campus they asked me to respond. Praise God He heard my
quick plea for help and gave me words and boldness. I said some things that I
know would not have occurred to me otherwise. Additionally, unprecedented numbers
of students want to enroll, even for this upcoming second semester, and as
always, our limiting factors are staff and infrastructure. It is hard to turn
anyone down. A new boy’s dorm is on the horizon.
Impressive as it is, all this local acceleration takes on an
even much greater significance to me as I consider it in the larger context of
the acceleration in current global geological, political, economic and
religious events. Have you all been keeping up with the news? Prophecy is being
fulfilled in incredible ways right before our eyes! Events of a truly startling
nature are right upon us! Why is God pouring out such blessings on us just now?
I truly believe that God is preparing and equipping us to participate in the
last great offensive in the battle between right and wrong! My hope and prayer
is that we will humble ourselves in deep repentance and prepare spiritually to
courageously stand in our assigned lot! This everlasting gospel of the kingdom
(Revelation 14:6-12) will soon be heard in every corner of the globe, and then
the end will come! Are you ready? Are you gaining the little victories today
that will prepare you for the more intense conflicts of tomorrow? May the grace
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ be with you and may you be found in
Him!
The following is just one of many
precious experiences we have had this year in the colporteur work.
“You just showed up out of nowhere!”
May 3, 2015
The
number of factors that must have combined to make our meeting possible, not to mention
successful, left me completely astounded. Yet, at the same time, it was nothing
short of what I had asked for.
It was Sunday morning again, and
that meant distributing materials to my colporteur teams and collecting my
plastic-bag lunch from the cafeteria. But today the kitchen crew hadn’t made
our sack lunches, and that was just the beginning of our troubles.
“The police checkpoint isn’t letting anyone through today
because of elections” Damaris was the second person to inform me.
So, Lord, where should
we go? I thought. Please send your
angels to guide us to people who are hungry for truth today. I heard no
voice and saw no vision, but it occurred to me that I should take the road
toward Riberalta. Almost in the same instant, however, it occurred to me to go
the other direction to km 21! Oh, when
will I learn to distinguish the promptings of the Holy Spirit from my own
imaginings? But on the other hand, no doubt there were honest truth-seekers
to be found in both directions! So I took the pragmatic option and went left,
as I needed to drop off some voters and the Health service group in Yata. Since
the larger towns were closed to traffic, our territory would be a number of
small communities and solitary farmhouses strung out over a span of about 30
kilometers.
When I stopped to drop off the first
team of colporteurs on the outskirts of the village of Alvaroa, a large man
approached pushing a motorcycle. I recognized him as Henrry’s[i]
dad, Henrry Senior. We greeted one another, and Teacher Gabriela and Hanzel
soon had him convinced to be their first customer.
I dropped off the next team in 12 de Octubre, the official polling
station for this portion of the rural sector, and continued on to another wide
spot in the road called El Hondo. Only
three or four villagers were home. The other half of the population had gone to
vote, and those who remained were merely waiting for their friends and family
to return with the motorcycles so they could go too.
“These are beautiful books!” they all said. “But right now we
have no money!”
I
guessed this would not be our best day for sales, but hoping to accomplish at least
something useful, I offered them a ride to the polls on my way back through if
they still needed it.
Farther up the road we fared no
better. We took a side road with a sign for Los Angeles, but merely found a
small number of isolated houses, most of them far from the main road and
accessible only by motorcycle track. We parked the truck and walked fifteen
minutes to one house, just to find it empty. Apparently everybody had taken
their civic obligations very seriously today.
It was about quarter ‘till noon when
we finally found a house full of people, but although we captured their
attention for a few minutes, most of them soon lost interest, and the two women
who said they wanted books again had no money. Out of time, we started back to
pick up the other groups. As we
approached El Hondo, however, I
remembered my promise to give the folks a lift. One lady was waiting near the road,
so I stopped and asked if she wanted a ride. She gestured and made some
guttural noises in response, and I observed that while she could understand me,
she was unable to talk. I asked her if she knew if anyone needed a ride to the
voting station, and she shook her head. I told her about what we were doing and
asked if she liked to read. When she saw the books she seemed excited, and
pointed us to some people sitting on their patio on the other side of the
highway, about 70 meters from the road. It was a house that had been empty
earlier in the morning.
We crossed the road and walked down
the path toward the hut, accompanied by the mute woman. As we approached I
observed an elderly lady resting in a hammock and several children playing
nearby.
Probably not much
chance of a sale here, I thought.
“¡Buenos días!” we greeted.
“¡Buenos días! Responded the woman in the hammock. “Come on
in and sit down!” she invited with the characteristic hospitality of the rural
folks in this province.
“Thank you!” We sat on the 1x10 board that constituted the
other half of the deck furniture and began the canvass. Hardly had I begun to
explain when a young couple appeared and sat on the bench next to me. I greeted
them and handed them books to look at as well. I could see they were interested
in Christ’s Object Lessons and Steps to Christ.
The old lady in the hammock was also interested. “Oh, what
nice books! They are all so beautiful!” She said.
“Yes, indeed, they are wonderful books, and we want so much
for everyone to have a copy that we are offering them for an excellent bargain!
You can’t find these books around here, we have brought them from far away, and
it really is an opportunity you don’t want to miss! Which ones will you take?”
I explained the prices.[ii]
“Oh dear” said the woman in the hammock. “I really do like
these, but I don’t have the money right now. Can’t you come back another day?” She
looked at the couple next to me. “Are you going to buy?” she asked. They
exchanged glances. They must not have
money either. I thought. But to my surprise, the young woman reached into
her bag and pulled out a 200-boliviano bill![iii]
“I really like these! We’ll take these two.” She picked out Steps
to Christ and Christ’s Object Lessons from the stack of books I had
shown them. “Do you have change?”
Oh no, what a fool I
was to take the money out of my wallet this morning!
“Let me check!” I quickly counted all the cash I had on me: I
was twenty bolivianos short. Now not only would I lose the sale, but
this young couple would miss this opportunity to have the truth in their homes!
Suddenly I remembered the DVDs.
“I’m 20 b’s short of change, but I have these fabulous videos
here. Usually I sell them for 30 b’s, but if you take them with the books I’ll
let you have them for 20!”
“Let me see those. Hey, these look good! What are they
about?” The young man asked.
“They are dramatized documentaries that explain the
prophecies of Revelation.” I explained. “Your whole family will be sure to
enjoy them. Some of your neighbors here wanted to buy them this morning.”
“Oh, we don’t live here, we are just stopped to visit my
mother-in-law on our way home. We’ll take the DVD’s though!”
I was shocked. Apparently so was grandma, for she piped up:
“This is amazing! We never have peddlers come by like this! You just showed up
out of nowhere, and exactly at the right time!” She seemed more excited about
it all than if she had been buying the books for herself! And why not?
[i] Please pray for Henrry. He was baptized his freshman
year, but during the vacation he slipped into the attractions of the world, and
this year he is really struggling. “It’s like there is this voice telling me, ‘quit
wasting your time here, just go out and have fun’” he told me. “But I know God
wants me here. I came back because I felt that if I didn’t I would be lost.”
Just a few days ago Henrry’s grandpa passed away. They were very close, so this
is an especially hard time for him.
[ii] Most of our books go for $6.50, and while that may
sound cheap, it can be a daunting price here where most folks make a daily wage
of about $14.00! We also have some
materials for about $4.25 and some booklet versions of Steps to Christ and The
Great Controversy that are 70 cents each. I always offer customers a discount
if they buy more than one book.
No comments:
Post a Comment