8/13/2012 Lana's Story

Lana’s* mother is Ese Ejja, an indigenous tribe of the northern Bolivian jungles. Her father, she tells me, is also native, but hails from a different tribe in Peru. Her grandparents still live there and she has never met them. Lana was one of our first students to come from the interior. Her acceptance letter had to be dropped from the mission plane and the villagers thought they were being bombed! Since then that little village has seen some drastic changes. Our current directors lived and worker there for about a year, and recently  Lana came to see me because her health class is scheduled to give the morning worship talks this week, and her turn will be on Sabbath at the 11 o’clock service and she is quite nervous. The topic that she has been assigned is on demon possession. We start conversing about cases of demon possession that are mentioned in the Scriptures. What does it look like? She remembers the most dramatic example, the two demoniacs who went naked and lived in the cemetery, and could not be restrained even with chains and terrorized all who passed by (Matt 8:28-34).
“Teacher, how does someone come to be possessed like that?” she asks me.
“It has to do with our choices.” I reply. “When we don’t choose to surrender our lives to Christ, the default is that Satan starts to take control. God in his mercy to us limits how much Satan can do, but if we keep ignoring God’s spirit we move closer toward demon possession. There are all different levels of demon possession. You don’t have to act like the demoniac in Matthew 8 to be controlled by Satan. He has many distinguished, intelligent, cultured people who are just as well quite possessed. Whenever we continuously follow our own thoughts and desires we invite possession because one of the principle tenets of the devil’s philosophy is “do as thou wilt. He has so infused humanity with his character that most of us come to think his thoughts as our own.”
“That’s what I thought, that it happens when Satan can get to your mind. That can happen when somebody drinks alcohol, right teacher?”
“Definitely”
“And when they take drugs?”
“That too. Anything that alters the mind or affects our ability to reason and make decisions can be a door for Satan to make suggestions to our minds, and even to take control. That doesn’t mean that everyone who does those things will automatically be under the complete control of Satan, thanks to God’s merciful restraining power, but it definitely increases the risk! And its obvious that people under the influence are out of control and do things they wouldn’t otherwise do. I think you could fairly say that they are temporarily possessed”  
“My dad had a real anger problem. He used to get mad at us and do terrible things. When the baby would cry too much he used to dunk it in hot water. I was lucky because when I was little I wasn’t a crybaby. But I was afraid of my dad. One time he almost killed my sister. He had the knife in his hand. He could get angry so quickly. In an instant he would become another person. I remember escaping to hide in the jungle with my sister one time because I knew that he was going to be angry. We stayed in the jungle a long time. I guess that’s why I never called my dad papa. I just always called him by his first name. After that my Grandpa Antonor called Dad the ‘assassin’”. Grandpa was always more like my real dad. He is affectionate.  But I could never understand why my father was like that when he is a school teacher. My mom was going to leave him, because besides being violent, he had other women on the side."
“She was going to leave? What happened?”
“My father has changed. He doesn’t treat us bad like he used to. My mom is still with him. They were married when they were 15 years old.”  I wonder how much of the change is a result of the change he has seen in his daughter.
    “I never told you this story. I never told anyone this story before.” She seems pleased to finally have it off her chest. “I told teacher Lyli one story, but it was about my uncle.” So she’s been working up to this. I realize. This is her third year with us here.
    Sadly, Lana’s stories are typical of probably at least 90% of our students. I’d like to pass it off as cultural, a local, national problem, but I know that is just not true. (See the poem below about my experience teaching in what was, at the time, the largest public high school in Washington State.) This problem is universal. We seem to live in a daily-increasing demon-possessed world. The family has failed. Schools have failed. We have failed. All we can do is ask for a miracle and agree to cooperate with the Master Teacher. He can fix anything, including me.

*name changed for privacy

Student Teaching: They call this high school—

Before they draft essays,
my students draft grass
and drink cervezas (1) on the weekends.
After work flipping burgers, flipping rivals
off, turning wrenches, loading dumbwaiters;
they are loading up on who knows what,
and later, loading guns. (2)

The bathroom smells of pot,
 not for being left un-flushed,
although the unplugged stall
was also hard to find. 

The school’s name is written on the wall,
but from where I park I only see the asco (3) part of Pasco,
and I appreciate the irony and step over some vomit
and wonder how many more youth
will puke away their lives before we learn to educate. (4)

(1). Spanish for beer
 (2).  “Sixteen-year-old Christopher Ruesga, [who a few short weeks ago sat in the same class that I am now teaching] was taken into custody Tuesday afternoon by members of the Tri-Cities Regional SWAT Team from a house at 1711 W. Fifth Ave. Ruesga is suspected of fatally shooting Eutimio Vivero-Martinez, 38, of Pasco, during a confrontation Sunday afternoon on North 14th Avenue near Agate Street. See more information on this site and Wednesday's Tri-City Herald”
 (3).  Spanish for disgusting, grotesque, despicable.
  4. See Hebrews 5:12. I need to be taught of God before I can truly teach.

Way behind schedule...

Hello all. How are you? I hope this letter finds you at peace in Christ, who is our life (Col 3:4) and the health of our countenance (Psalms 43:5). Lyli and I are well. The Lord's mercy is from everlasting and is new every day! I can’t keep up with it!
The “winter” vacation is over now,  and we’re ready to tackle the last half of the school year. The senior class should arrive today from their trip to the mountains to the southwest to distribute bibles and give health expos near La Paz in the altiplano. I can’t wait to hear the stories.
 There are so many things I haven’t written, but the battles are the same as always, for our souls and the souls of those we serve, and, as always, I solicit your prayers. Following is a story from about this time last year.

June 9, 2011
Wherever you are, let your light shine forth. Hand our papers and pamphlets to those with whom you associate, when you are riding on the cars, visiting, conversing with your neighbors; and improve every opportunity to speak a word in season. The Holy Spirit will make the seed productive in some hearts. . . .  {Te 250.3}

    As I wait for a ride today, I finally think about something besides my list of things to do in town and remember to pray. This time I ask God to get me a ride with someone who wants to hear words of life. In response to my hitchhiker plea, a big truck pulls up. Usually I would ride in the back, but the driver invites me into the cabin. His name is Mircol, but it doesn’t strike me until much later just how much his name sounds like what God does in our lives. Turns out Mircol lives in Riberalta, has a wife and two kids, and has been trucking in these parts for several years now. He asks about the internado and what I do there, and the conversation easily turns to spiritual things. I am amazed how one thing links to another and the words just seem to flow as I endeavor to uplift Christ. Mircol seems to enjoy our chat, and after a very fast forty minutes, we arrive in town. He refuses payment, but does accept a couple of small bible-study tracts.
    A couple of hours later I stop by to visit Antonia, one of the shopkeepers I met last school year. When I arrive, she is conversing with a short smiling man with thick hair and sparse teeth. Antonia interrupts her conversation with him to greet me cordially, introduces me to Carlos, and then asks me to please “share something with him from the word of God!”
    “What church are you from?” Carlos preempts.
    “Seventh-day Adventist!” I reply quickly with a smile.
    "Oh, I attended that church in La Paz" he says, and begins to share a few things he remembers. I can only hope that all the memories are not such to obscure the message born by the name: that we remember our Creator as He commands by observing the seventh day as His Sabbath (Exodus 20:8-11), and that we also remember him as our Great Redeemer and Liberator, (which significance is also found in the Sabbath, see Deut 5:14-15), and He is coming again to pick up his children in the Second Advent, a fact we can count on in light of the cross! After all, no one in their right mind pays an exorbitant price for a much-desired item, only to leave it behind and never return to reclaim it!  Our God, who has bought us at an infinite price will not so leave us unclaimed! He will surely come again and receive us to himself, that where He is, we may be also!

God's Works

3/25/2012 Flight to Trinidad in the twin engine Piper Comanche
We pass a cumulus gorilla with a fine chiseled face for being made of vapor, and I think of angels sculpting clouds. What mighty figures will they form on that great day when the Son of Man comes? Will he sit on the palm of an open hand, or come in the vengeance of a clenched fist?
While we fly, I write. The first time in awhile. The changing scenery of a journey seems to wake me some, as if the loft of wings has given some elevation to my thought. I feel I finally have a moment to think beyond my quotidian list of “what’s next.” The toil is still present (so is the turbulence as we bounce through a cloud) but the view is better. The rainbows are longer and closer to full circle. I pray.
I’d like to journal like the prophet Samuel, write a registry of God’s great works. If I could be inspired, not by some foul muse, but by the very Spirit of God, what would I say to wake the righteous and still hush them to reverence the Almighty Holy One?
My wife and I ride with three men, missionaries. Their first visit to Bolivia was several years ago, but they’ve been missionaries for a lot longer than that. In front of me sits Corrections Officer Audie “Hawk” Hawkins, from St. Luis, Michigan. He is a senior sergeant at the Saint Luis Correctional Facility, a level four security men’s prison. Hours ago I watched him joke and grin while handing out goodbye gifts to our students. He still wears his navy blue windbreaker suit that he used to frustrate the ubiquitous insects, in spite of the heat which brought him to my house every day for a glass of ice-cold Gatorade.
“No, I don’t do that” he said when I asked him to give the sermon on Sabbath. “I don’t do that up front stuff. I get too nervous!” So I was surprised to see him walk to the platform to give the mission report Sabbath morning. That was the first time he showed us the badge.
“I’ve been working in the prison for over 20 years” he told us. “For the first 11 years, I wasn’t a Christian. I wasn’t a very nice man!” he smiles and shakes his head. “But then the Lord got a hold of me! I’m still not as nice as I should be, but I’m a work in progress! The Lord gave me victory over alcohol, tobacco and swearing and my life had a complete turn-around!”
Now Audie talks to the inmates less like a warden and more like one who knows the joy of soul freedom. He always carries GLOW or some other literature with him. “I’m not allowed to proselytize, but if somebody asks me my opinion, I can tell them what I believe. Since I’m one of the senior officers, sometimes I have to administer tests. When the inmates are out on yard, I’ll call one of the prisoners over. His eyes get real big ‘cause he thinks he’s in trouble, but I explain to him, ‘you’re not in trouble man, I’m just testing the new officer to see if he’ll realize that you are missing. So we go hang out in a side room, and I have about half an hour to sit and talk with the guy one on one. God is really good, so far every time it’s been someone who is open and wants to talk about spiritual things.”
“So what do you do on Sabbaths, wasn’t it hard to get them off with the job that you have?” I asked him.
“Well, for a few years after my conversion, I still worked on Sabbath. My pastor had told me that prison work is just one of those jobs like caring for the sick: it has to be done all week long, even on the Sabbath. But then we got a new pastor and he challenged me to study the topic and rethink my position, and as I read the Bible and prayed about it I was convicted that I needed to be faithful to God’s commandment. If that meant losing my job, God would take care of me. When I went to work I found out that one of the senior officers was being transferred to another prison, and I was the guy next in line to have his spot! My schedule was for five days on two days off, and since I had seniority I got first pick of which days I wanted.”
“That all happened in three days!” the other missionary says exultantly. “We were praying for him that Wednesday night, and he was in church on Sabbath!” Speaking is Audie’s friend and spiritual mentor, Grandpa Deon Swanepoel, a giant South African of Dutch decent with a heart as big as he is. Mr. Deon is one of our best teachers, though his classes run for only two or three weeks perhaps twice a year when he comes to visit and help us out. His background is no less unlikely than Mr. Audie’s. He tells spine-tingling stories of his years as a construction foreman in a country where private residences are fortified like prisons against a society of cutthroats and renegades who run the streets at will. Just the fight to survive in such a place can bring out the worst in a person. On leaving South Africa he said, “it was either that, or lose my salvation.”
This spring he and Audie came to finish the primary school classrooms. We canceled regular classes for a week and all the kids worked with Mr. Deon. He makes them work hard, but he loves them and they know it and they give him 100%. He barks out orders in a mixture of accented English and Spanish accompanied by plenty of gestures and the kids very quickly learn to understand.
He preaches about the importance of faithfulness in the little things and points to two small diagonal supports that keep the whole roof from folding.
“I tell you what, these kids really surprised me.” He tells me later. “Those three little freshmen boys, I don’t know their names, but I challenged them with digging that trench and wow! Did they ever work!” As a reward for his faithfulness, Mr Deon moved Juan Jose, one of the three boys, to cement mixing. When the mixer broke down, instead of sitting around waiting for it to be fixed, Juan Jose went and asked Grandpa if he could go back and keep digging the ditch well he waited!
“Wow, that is the first time I have seen that from one of the new kids!” Mr Deon is impressed. “That really says a lot. And that other first-year girl, the real quiet one. She doesn’t say anything, but she just keeps going and doesn’t get distracted for anything.”
When I thank Mr. Deon for coming to get the classrooms finished, he can’t stop bragging on the kids. “These kids are the ones who did it!” Mr. Deon tells me triumphantly. They are the ones that keep him coming back year after year. Most of the senior class gathered around and lingered long when it was time for Mr. Deon to go.
At pilot is Herman Gonzales. He gave up a lucrative job as flight instructor at Andrews University to come fly in Bolivia as a volunteer. He’s been here two years without a paycheck. Does he regret it? No way, he says. This has been the best experience he could have imagined, and his faith has grown like never before.
So how is that I met these men here, a hemisphere away from home? I ask myself. What keeps them coming back year after year? I know what it is. They believe in education. Not the boxed-in, curriculumized, letter-graded foofaraw that ends with a fancy paper in the hands and a few more letters appended to the last name. Oh no. But a whole life-work. Raw character building: a helping hand, unselfish service, eternal-life preparation, complete transformation. In a word, redemption. The realest, truest, education there is. They believe in it because they believe in the Good Master Teacher. They believe in it because they have lived it and are living it still.

Early Rain

“He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass: as showers [that] water the earth.” Ps 72:6

It’s night in the jungle. My leg muscles are burning after a half a day of moving lumber and an afternoon standing on tiptoe to reach the washboard in the creek, now in flood stage after all the rain. I sleep, but without rest: delirious, tossing to and fro in a sea of interesting but incoherent dreams.
It is the 6th hour of the morning when I am awakened by a gentle rain. I spring out of my restless, troubled bed. The pain is gone from my legs, and in the east the sun is bursting out to make the day, shining all golden glorious behind the gentle showers. There is so much to be done today. Campus must be cleared of the encroaching jungle. It only took two months of neglect for a nearly complete takeover.
My first work is to hone both edges of my rust-crusted machete. An unused blade does not stay sharp long in these parts, but it still cuts, as my hand can attest. With my weapon spiffed up, I sally forth to do battle with the brush. After merely ten minutes I’m sweating profusely and need a rest. Apparently two months have done me the same as my machete and the advantage is with the jungle. As I pause for a breather I reflect on the encroaching vegetation. Funny how green has always been my favorite color. Today I think I’m beginning to feel a bit differently about it as I look upon choking vines and thickets where once were ordered rows. Some plants have survived, but are nearly destitute of fruit. I salvage three somewhat shriveled red peppers. A few bright pumpkins also catch my eye, but when I grab them my fingers sink into rotten bottoms. I lament the garden that could have been.
In the afternoon, cloudy columns billow upward on the horizon, promising a downpour. The distant rumble of thunder ensures that this is the real thing. I can soon hear the rain coming, drumming on the jungle canopy a drum-roll that swells to a deafening roar. That’s when it hits me. There is still a chance for beautiful fruit and a bountiful bumper crop! But it’s time to swing that machete, break up the ground, plant the seed, and work like crazy. Because when the rain ends, that’s it.

UPDATE

Greetings all. We’re back in Bolivia after a whirlwind trip to Mexico to get married, Houston to GYC (Generation of Youth for Christ Conference), and afterward home to see the family. The Lord has been so gracious to us, testing our faith, providing our every need and answering prayer. As usual I have too much to tell and too little time to tell it in a satisfactory manner. I will be teaching social studies, language arts, and religion to the juniors and seniors for starters. Also will be in charge of the garden and serve as school chaplain organizing worships, service day, and weeks of prayer etc. The rest of the volunteers are equally loaded. But God gives more strength!
I know it’s been a long time since I wrote last. Way too long. While I was home I was able to share with some of you the miracle God did for us with our passports. I’m working on a written version for those of you who didn’t get a chance to hear it. GYC was power-packed, encouraging and challenging as usual. I definitely recommend that you go online to audioverse.com and ask the Holy Spirit to lead you to the message you most need to hear.

We’re well into 2012, and God has rolled up His sleeves my friends! Psalms 119:126 is the prayer of the hour. “It is time, O Lord, for thee to work, for they have made void thy law.” Personally, I feel my greatest need is true humility, repentance, and a deep, consistent seeking after God. (2 Chronicles 7:14). Do I ever need Jesus and His Holy Spirit in my life! Check out the following. This just stirs my soul! May it get under your skin too…

“The man who loves God does not measure his work by the eight-hour system. He works at all hours and is never off duty. As he has opportunity he does good. Everywhere, at all times and in all places, he finds opportunity to work for God. He carries fragrance with him wherever he goes. A wholesome atmosphere surrounds his soul. The beauty of his well-ordered life and godly conversation inspires in others faith and hope and courage.” {PM 261.3}

“No earthly ties, no earthly considerations, should weigh one moment in the scale against duty to the cause and work of God. Jesus severed his connection from everything to save a lost world; and he requires of us a full and entire consecration. There are sacrifices to be made for the interests of God's cause. The sacrifice of feeling is the most keen that is required of us; yet, after all, it is a small sacrifice.” (GW92 248.2 emphasis mine)

“It is heart missionaries that are needed. Spasmodic efforts will do little good. We must arrest the attention. We must be deeply in earnest.”--9T 45. {PM 261.4}

“In a divided, halfhearted life, you will find doubt and darkness. You cannot enjoy the consolations of religion, neither the peace which the world gives. Do not sit down in Satan's easy chair of do-little, but arise, and aim at the elevated standard which it is your privilege to attain. It is a blessed privilege to give up all for Christ. Look not at the lives of others and imitate them and rise no higher. You have only one true, unerring Pattern. It is safe to follow Jesus only. Determine that if others act on the principle of the spiritual sluggard you will leave them and march forward toward the elevation of Christian character. Form a character for heaven. Sleep not at your post. Deal faithfully and truly with your own soul.” {1T 241.1}

“There are many in the church who at heart belong to the world, but God calls upon those who claim to believe the advanced truth, to rise above the present attitude of the popular churches of today. Where is the self-denial, where is the cross-bearing that Christ has said should characterize His followers? The reason we have had so little influence upon unbelieving relatives and associates is that we have manifested little decided difference in our practices from those of the world. Parents need to awake, and purify their souls by practicing the truth in their home life. When we reach the standard that the Lord would have us reach, worldlings will regard Seventh-day Adventists as odd, singular, strait-laced extremists. "We are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men." {FE 289.1}

I don’t know about you, but after reading all that I start to wonder where I’ve been all my life! LET’S WAKE UP FOLKS! EZEKIEL 36:23 is a PROMISE and a PROPHECY. GOD IS GOOD FOR HIS WORD! LET’S LET HIM PROVE IT!

“And I WILL sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which YE HAVE PROFANED in the midst of them; and the heathen SHALL KNOW that I am the Lord, saith the Lord God, when I shall be sanctified IN YOU before their eyes.” Ezek 36:23 (emphasis mine).


April 18, 2011
“And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not” Galations 6:9

There have been many moments this year when I’ve felt as though Paul penned those words just for me. God is so good, every now and then He gives us encouraging glimpses that show us that all the blood sweat and tears we pour into this school is not all in vain. This week during an outing to town Ruth came and asked me for some literature so she could share it with the friends she had made in the market. Later I heard comments from some surprised townspeople: “Where are you from? There just aren’t many kids like you these days that are excited about spiritual things! They’re just all caught up in themselves, in fashion and music!”
But what really made me smile was the comment from the pastor’s wife: “I saw some of your kids in the market today. I’d never seen them before, but I knew where they were from! They just look different! They’re so happy and helpful!”
All I could say was “Praise the Lord! He’s doing something in spite of our selves!”

************************
Just by way of context, the following installment reports on our month-long excursion into the interior of the department of Pando from the last week of June to the last week of July. Twenty-eight students and staff chose to spend our mid-year break traveling in a 2.5 by 12 meter wooden schooner powered by a 13-horse diesel engine. We stopped at a total of ten different communities where we visited the sick, distributed literature, did community service, kids programs, and gave Bible studies. Following are a few of the promised stories.

Ravenous. Rio Horton, 4th day.
“Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly [is] great, but the labourers [are] few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest.” (Luke 10:2).

It’s relaxing to be out on the water in what feels like the middle of nowhere. Here, distance is measured by turns in the river, and the days by the beaches we’ve camped on, while the hours are marked by mealtimes. My appetite seems insatiable. I'm still hungry after two plates of rice and salad, a grapefruit, and cookies, and rather shocked at my own voracity.
Every two bends it seems we see another caiman, or a turtle, and once or twice we even see an anaconda. The birds are ubiquitous: kingfishers, egrets, and. This is an ornithologist’s paradise. We see a herd of capybara clambering up the riverbank, and a troop of monkeys swinging in the trees along the shore. I feel like I’m in the middle of a National Geograpic documentary on the Amazon, only without the “millions of years.” Contrary to what the scenery would suggest however, we’re really not that far from civilization. At least once a day we come upon a river community and stop to visit the sick and hand out activity books to the kids, and books and literature to the adults.
We stop at Humaita to load on more fuel and water, and distribute some literature while we’re at it. One family told us they would like us to do a full-blown prophecy seminar preached in the town hall. Unfortunately we are unable to accommodate that request at this time.
Ingavi is probably the most developed town on the river aside from Humaita. They have a daily flight that arrives from Riberalta. When we entered the mayor’s office I was surprise to see our literature precedes us… a copy of the Great Controversy was already on his desk. Turns out he had been in Humaita the day we stopped and one of the kids gave him the book. He welcomed us to the village and said we were welcome to use the town hall for children's meetings or Bible studies.
There is not a single Adventist church along this entire river. We did find one backslidden Adventist at Ingavi. Her evangelical husband was quite a chatterbox. Their son, a young lad by the name of Henri has a nasty wound where a piranha tried to snap off his finger. It looks rather infected. His mom blames it on the fact that he’s been out in the sun too much! We do a simple treatment and encourage him to keep the wound clean.
I can’t believe how many people we have met who want to study the Bible. But they don't want to hear just about the Christ of Calvary, they want to hear about the Christ of the heavenly sanctuary, the Christ of prophecy, judgment, and the Second Advent! They want to know what the Bible really teaches about the antichrist, and what to expect at the end of the world.
The community of San Luis wants a school like the one here near Guayara to serve all the communities along the river. The people accompanied us to the riverbank to wave us off.
In nearly every village we visited I had people ask me when we can come back. There is so much work to be done here.

7-3-2011
Wow, it’s the eve of Independence Day, and I didn’t even realize it!.It seems apropos because tonight one young person found true liberty in Christ. There are no noisy rockets here, but the sky is alive with the fireworks of God. Pleiades, Ursa Major, Orion, the Southern Cross, a dome of wide-open, stretched-out freedom: light years of it. It’s not some cheap, ephemeral sparkle of man-made freedom, but the power of God shining down into this little speck of life in the middle of the Amazon jungle.
We just finished a prayer meeting like very few I’ve ever been a part of. A call came on the radio earlier this evening with the news that Rodolfo, a former student who left us in the middle of the first trimester, was hit by a truck Sabbath night while taking his sister to the disco. She suffered only a broken leg, but he took a blow to the head and was pronounced clinically dead at the scene. They rushed him to the hospital where they shocked him twice and his heart restarted. Though alive again, he remained unresponsive, and the myelin sheath, the membrane that protects the brain, was compromised, causing severe hemorrhaging.
I thought of Rodolfo’s attitude when he left the school. Ruan had seen him at the port in Riberalta the day that we embarked. He turned his back on us without returning our greeting.
Dave, a young man who grew up not believing in God came with us on this trip. He is from the states. I met his uncle when speaking in California. A couple of months ago the uncle sent me an email and asked if his nephew Dave could come visit the school. God worked it all out and Dave arrived just in time to come on this trip. He seems to be enjoying the adventure, and despite the double culture shock of Bolivia and Seventh-Day Adventist, he seems to be enjoying the trip. As we all gathered to pray for Rodolfo, Dave joined us and said a prayer for, as I understand it, the first time in his life. He doesn’t even know who Rodolfo is, but something drew him to stay and pray with us around the campfire.
“Rodolfo, I know you’re out there bud...” he began. "I'm praying that God will make you better."

As we knelt in that circle under the stars and prayed fervently for Rodolfo I was suddenly struck with by the gravity of my own condition and the inconsistency of our petitions. We’re as near death as Rodolfo, and yet we are just as oblivious! How would it be otherwise possible to gather together in such fervent prayer for life and healing when there is an immediate physical threat, but we seem incapable of uniting to plead with the same earnestness for our own spiritual life and healing? How sad that it took a tragedy like this to bring us together in such intense prayer… we’re in a spiritual coma and there is no prognosis of recovery without direct divine intervention. We need some shock treatment to WAKE US UP!

7-6-2011
Today was the second time we took a group of kids 20 minutes upriver from Las Amalias to the community of La Paz. About 18 families. A few of us first went to ask what we could do to help the community and if they were interested in anything. We ended up cutting back the brush around the village, and in the end two families wanted to study the bible. They are hungry for the Word! They go 15 minutes up river at least 3 to 4 times a week to attend the evangelical church. Their names are Alcides and Rosa Suarez and Ayzer and Miriam. The two women are sisters. Ayzer is president of the town council. They all bring their Bibles look up all the texts and ask questions. Ayzer went to get a pencil so he could mark the verses. Today we realized that we have been meeting during their typical lunch hour of about 2:30 pm. You have to understand the sacredness of the lunch siesta here in eastern Bolivian culture to really appreciate this. It is extremely rare to get people out to do anything between the hours of 12:30 and 3:00. I have been totally ignored by shop keepers during this afternoon rest period when their store front is open and the wares are within arms-reach, but they are completely absorbed in their lunch and the television set. Not even the prospect of making a sale will stir some of them. Not so in this case.
“Why are there so many different religions and sects when the Bible says there is one Lord and one faith and one baptism?”
“What about the second coming?” Many theologians and church leaders in their study claim to have discovered the time of the Lord’s appearing. What do you believe about that?" I felt like they were testing me on something they'd already decided!

7-7-2011
Today we studied Daniel nine, and I realized I need a better handle on this before I can explain it well. Franz, the school teacher canceled his classes so he could attend the Bible study today and seemed to be completely absorbed in the study. He was sincerely impressed that the scripture predicted the anointing of Christ


7-9-2011
I’m up before the breakfast crew this morning, and as I say my morning prayers, I decide to stoke last night’s fire. It strikes me that the glory of the coals glows from the inside out. Coals are wood possessed by fire… it dances on the inside. As I watch the fire this morning I’m thinking of the Holy Spirit, and it strikes me how much the physical teaches us of the spiritual. The seen of the unseen. The cloven tongues lie as of fire representing the Holy Spirit in Acts 2:1-4 are not haphazardly chosen symbol. To get the fire going there has to be plenty of oxygen… blowing breath, or wind or both (John 3:8). Prayer is called the breath of the soul… but this is not just any breath, but a specifically directed, purposeful, forceful exhalation that longs for light and heat to dispel the dark and cold. That breath combines with the invisible natural currents of the air. The wind is so subtle that at times we cannot even feel it, let alone know where it it comes from, yet is there working (John 3:8). And at last springs forth the flame. But how slow the wood is to respond! The larger the log, the longer it must be enveloped in fire before it lights up. So we look for smaller sticks. We must be little in our own eyes before we can receive they Holy Spirit. The cracked, knotted, pitchy, and dry… the ugliest and most unlikely to all appearances is the most readily used. The arrangement of the wood in respect to each other is also key to success. When the wood comes together, leaning on one another, the fire shoots up between them. As the fire continues to burn, the wood is undergoing a chemical and compositional transformation. A jet of gas escapes from the end of one log. It must be part steam, because it only lights sporadically. As the wood heats, liquid within is converted into gas, which then leaks out through the wood’s expanding pores and combusts on exit, causing the wood to burn hotter. As we are cleansed of self and the impurities within by the work of the Holy Spirit, it is impossible to have a lukewarm experience. At this point, the size of the flame is no true indication of its quality or heat. We cannot and should not pass judgment on someone elses spiritual experience based only on the apparent size of their flame. At last, dead wood has been converted in living coals, vessels of fire, natural little lamps.
*************************************

back at the school....
FIRE and RAIN… 8-18 to 8-29-2011
“Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn ye [even] to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God: for he [is] gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil.

We’re three months into dry season and the rain forest has become a fire forest on a slow burn. It smolders all through the night and often ignites, the flare spots betraying where the wind gusts are. I imagine shifting constellations: fallen galaxies scorch the land into their own version of the heavens. In the morning the smoke hangs around, a malevolent fog that stings the eyes and constricts the throat, like creosote in a chimney. If we were under the circumstances, singing God’s praises would be pretty difficult right about now. Thankfully, God’s promises are above all that… higher than heaven, what cans’t thou know?
Last week the kids burned a hornet nest behind the dorm, and somehow a fallen ember escaped their notice and we had our typical dry-season burn. It really gets going wild, but thank God it’s a quick and easy out with many hands and a little water. Unfortunately the fire burned the same section of waterline that burned last year, still left uncovered from last year… that’s what happens when one leaves things half done. Diligence and perseverance are such important and yet difficult qualities to develop.
The chacos are dust bowls and all the banana plants are yellow and invest their energy in survival, not in producing fruit. I see a lot of myself and a lot of my church in those dry withered plants. And if all we do is sit and cry about it, although it's better than being apathetic, we’ll just end up dryer than we were to begin with. It's time to prepare for rain (Joel 2:11-32, Hosea 6:3, Zechariah 10:1).

Broken Pipes
1. “In one moment, by a hasty, unguarded act, we may place ourselves in the power of evil; but it requires more than a moment to break the fetters and attain to a holier life. The purpose may be formed, the work begun; but its accomplishment will require toil, time, perseverance, patience, and sacrifice.” {Testimonies for the Church, vol 8. 313.1}
So Ruan’s dad has been here putting in an irrigation system for us to water those bananas. I’m digging at the valve junction at the corner of the girl’s dorm. I told Mr. Deon I think this spot has been cursed. We had it repaired and tested to satisfaction and asked one of the boys to back-fill the hole. The next time we turned on the pump, a geyser shot up in that spot and quickly converted the freshly turned dirt into a slime pit. When we dug out the muck, we found a big chunk of cement and brick that had been carelessly tossed directly on top of the pipe joint! All the pipe had to be unscrewed back to the bad joint which had to be re-threaded and taped and then the whole section had to be pieced back together. One small, careless error cost hours of labor to repair!

2. “And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man's, who shall give you that which is your own?” Luke 16:12
The apathy and negligence here just slays me sometimes! Someone on a motorcycle drove over, not just one, but nearly a dozen lines of pipe that were stretched across the path to Enrique’s house, cracking each one wide open. WHAT IS GOING ON HERE!!! At some point we have to learn to take care of the things God has given us! We cry for more things, but we must be stewards before we can be owners!

3. “For [the LORD seeth] not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7
Of course we still use that cracked pipe. We just cut out the broken part and splice it together with a union. Mr. Deon told me to cut it back 12 inches. But as I inspected the crack in the pipe, it only extended about three or four inches. Cutting off a whole foot seemed like an unnecessary waste, so I made my cut just a few inches back from where the crack ended. Then I threaded and taped the pipe, ready for assembly. While cutting the next pipe, I happened to glance inside. And hey, look at that! Mr. Deon knew whereof he spoke! The crack on the inside ran over twice the distance of what it showed on the surface! Now isn’t that just like us!

Banking for the Kingdom of Heaven

Hello everyone. We’re back safely from our nearly month-long mission trip on the river Horton in the department of Pando, Bolivia. Twenty-eight students and staff chose to spend the mid-year vacation traveling in 2.5 by 12 meter wooden schooner with a 13-horse diesel engine. We stopped at a total of ten different communities where we visited the sick, distributed literature, did community service, kids programs, and gave Bible studies. I have several pages of my notebook filled with reminders that I will expand into fuller reports as I have the time.
Please pray for the school. We are a week into the second semester, and we are facing a number of deep challenges. The Lord is working in mighty ways, but we need special prayer that the Lord will raise up a standard against the enemy. We are also praying more fervently here, and have freed up an hour in the evening schedule to dedicate to prayer. This week Ruan is speaking in the evenings on the 3rd angel’s message, and I am presenting “Lessons on Milk” in the mornings from Hebrews 5:11-14 and 6:1-3. That passage has really spoken to my heart this last month, and goes along beautifully with Ephesians 4 and 1 Peter 2. If we do not desire the sincere milk of the word, it is plain that we have not been born again, for all babies naturally desire milk. They live for it. They seek it with tears. And in partaking of it they grow. And it’s amazing how quickly they grow! If we’re not growing spiritually we haven’t been born again and we’re not really internalizing the milk. Interestingly enough, the very first thing on Paul’s list of ingredients in God’s milk in Hebrews 6 is repentance from dead works. Repentance is a gift from God. We need to ask for it, and when it comes, we need to swallow it down in complete humility. The Lord has asked me to do that a few times this month already. It’s hard to conquer pride, but when you finally surrender and confess and forsake what the Lord is calling you to leave behind, it is so liberating! I feel a special urgency to seek the Lord more fully and to truly understand and practice the first commandment of Mark 12:29-31. My prayer is that each one of you will join me in this.
I’ve also just started to teach social studies this semester and we are studying AT Jones’ book Empires of the Bible (you can download it for free online). History is coming alive for me like never before!
The following is a story from last May. I hope it is a blessing and a challenge to look for the leading of the Lord’s hand in the middle of the inconvenient and annoying circumstances of life.

Banking for the Kingdom of Heaven 5-4-2011
As the school chaplain and director of religious activities, I’m also the treasurer for our company of believers from Yata. At the end of each month I take the book of accounts along with the tithes and offerings to turn in to the pastor in Guayaramerin. Well, I was running a bit late with April’s accounts because I was traveling last week in order to process more of the seemingly eternal documentation required for my two-year residency. When I finally got back and went to leave the tithes and offerings with the pastor so he could turn them into the Eastern Bolivian Conference, he just gave me the account number and told me that from now on I would make all the deposits!
When I arrived at the bank it was only mid-morning, but the line of customers was worse than at the DMV back home. I took my line ticket, and it was F-162! The electronic screen above the teller read “now serving T-29.”
What? I thought. How does that work?
Just then I noticed a ticket that someone had dropped on the floor. I picked it up and it read T-46! Yes! But alas, I soon noticed that those who went up to the counter when a T-ticket was called were all senior citizens and pregnant mothers. So I left beloved T-46 on top of the ticket machine and exited the bank with my original ticket. I’d run a few errands and check in later on the progress of the line.
When I came back in the afternoon, the F line was just approaching the 70’s, and the waiting crowd now occupied the covered sidewalk outside of the bank as well. Come on! What’s the deal! I don’t want to wait here all afternoon!
I decided I’d wait awhile and see how fast the line was moving. I sat down just outside the front window, positioning myself so I could check the line inside without having to get up. I was about to get out some papers and do some grading when I noticed a lady sitting nearby and the Holy Spirit reminded me about the pamphlets I had in my backpack.
You should give her one!
Okay... But what, just like that? Out of the blue?
You can make conversation!
Right. Easier said than done!
I was trying to think of something to say when she got up to look through the window.
“Long line isn’t it?” I said.
“Yeah!”
“What number are you?”
“F-146.”
“Hey, at least you’re ahead of me. Do you like to read? Here’s something to help pass the time” I handed her a GLOW tract.
“Hey, that’s a good idea! The time always goes by faster when you have something to occupy you.”
I wasn’t sure if it was indeed keen interest or the small print, but she seemed to be very studiously pouring over the pamphlet. Not noticing any squint in her eye, I chanced that it was the former. After a few minutes she finished reading, and felt I should give her another one. While I debated, I looked through the window at the screen and she followed my gaze. Now serving F-73.
“Not much progress is there? You needed something longer than that little pamphlet to last you for this line, huh?”
She laughed. “I need a book like this!” she indicated the thickness of a multi-volume set of encyclopedias.
“Well, I don’t have anything that size, but you’re more than welcome to read any of these other pamphlets.” I spread out half a dozen more tracts on various topics.
“Oh! Thank-you!” She selected one, read it straight through, and took another. After finishing the third she took a break from reading. We checked the line again, and I realized that I really had no hope of making it before closing time. I was going to leave, and voiced the same, but I felt like I should keep talking to this lady.
“Do you come here often?” I asked what immediately seemed to me a dumb question. Banco Union is the federally controlled bank where nearly everyone has to do at least some of their banking.
“No, I’m just here from Cochabamba to visit my sister.”
“Oh wow, that’s nice. How long will you stay for?”
“I’m leaving tomorrow.” We continued chatting and she asked me where I am from and what I do here in Bolivia and I asked her about Cochabamba. She told me about her kids and how she’d gone through some hard times. Once she was really sick and almost died, but she couldn’t bear the thought of leaving her kids without a mom and asked the Lord to spare her life. He did, and ever since she felt like it was God who holds her up and keeps her going, but there were a lot of things she didn’t understand about God.
“Like what?” I asked her.
“Like, if I were to die tomorrow, what would happen to me?”
It was about then that I really wished I had my Bible with me. But God is good for His promise, and the Holy Spirit just kept bringing texts to mind. For every question she had, there was a text. (Genesis 2:7, Ecclesiastes 12:7 and 9:5-6, Job 7:9-10 and 14:10-12, Psalms 115:17, Ezekiel 18:4, Matthew 10:28, John 11, 1 Thess 4, etc.) Sometimes I didn’t remember the exact reference, and I realized, I need to learn this stuff better!
We talked for over an hour, and I will never forget the smile on her face as she heard the truth that death is a sleep until the trumpet sounds in the resurrection at the second coming of Christ, and that God doesn’t send people to hell or purgatory when they die. And I thought, man, I thought I was coming here to make a deposit for God’s work and I got mad and frustrated because of the long line and apparent waste of time, when all along God had a much more important deposit for me to make! God is just good like that!

Showdown

Well, this has been a long time in coming. It still isn't written to my satisfaction, but I decided that you all needed to hear "the rest of the story."
Please keep in mind that this all happened toward the end of last school year. I have many more stories to tell from this year. God is working in exciting ways! My prayer is that each of you let him work His ways in your hearts and lives every moment of every day. Jesus is coming soon! I know it, not merely because of the signs of the times, but because He himself said so (Revelation 22:20). And the Word of God has the inherent property of being self-fulfilling: it does what it says! When one comes to believe and experience that personally, life gets a lot more exciting!

Part IV: SHOWDOWN

“If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them; Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams…” Duet 13:1-3 (emphasis mine).

The next morning dawned overcast with colorless gray clouds blanketing the sky. When I arrived at the aula A, most of the faculty were already present and seated around the classroom tables, arranged in a large circle.
“Do you have the voice recorder?” someone asked me. We had agreed the night before that it would be a good idea to document the meeting, just in case we needed an accurate record later of exactly what was said. We had also asked the pastor to attend the meeting, as Saúl was a member of the church in Guayaramerin, and these were clearly issues that could affect his membership status. We also hoped to thus avoid any rumors that otherwise might arise in town should we need to ask Saúl to leave the school.
I returned to my room to fetch the Dictaphone along with several extra batteries. When I returned, we prayed and then reviewed our strategy. Keila gave each staff member a piece of paper with one of the questions that we had formulated the night before, and Salim then went to fetch Saúl.
Typically, if students get in serious trouble, they have to meet with the administrative council of four members and most students find that intimidating enough. I wondered what Saúl must be thinking as he entered to face the entire staff! After prayer, Salim began the meeting by telling Saúl how much we were worried about him and that we were meeting with him out of concern for his salvation as well as the influence he was having on other students. Next we began with the questions.
“So why did you decide to return to study here this year?” The story that Saúl proceeded to tell us was quite ordinary in content, if not in length, as he explained his reasons for coming here, beginning with his freshman year.
“But what brought you here this year? What is your purpose in this place?” Salim had to refocus him on the specific question. He got real quiet for a moment and then answered with one word:
“God.”
“You are sure that God wants you here?”
“Yes.”
“Why are you so sure?”
“Lately I’ve been studying about the Godhead, and I realized that I have to really know Him… yes, know Him… Even though many people are sure that He exists, that is not enough.”
In the context of the Juan Carlos letter about knowing “the unknown God,” I wasn’t sure how to take the otherwise innocent-enough comment.
At this point Salim got to the heart of the issue and asked Saúl outright if the reports were true that he had come back this year (2010) for a specific person and/or purpose apart from what he had mentioned so far.
“Yes.” He replied. “But that purpose is completed.”
“So you did have another purpose that brought you here apart from what you have told us up to now?”
“Yes. I’ll explain more clearly.” And again he launched into his reasons for coming to the school his freshman year, which he claimed were partly to get away from his mom who had always been controlling and overly protective. Yet he still seemed to be avoiding the question.
“So how did you know that you needed to come here for a specific person?” Salim prompted.
“Because of a dream” he said softly. I thought of some of the remarks that Yani and Juan Carlos had made regard their comings and goings from the Internado respectively.
“I was sure that the dream was from God,” Saúl continued. “Now I don’t know, because lately many have told me that I shouldn’t base my actions on dreams.[i] But at that time I prayed a lot and I took the dream as divine.”
“And what was it exactly that made you take the dream as divine? What were your reasons?” we asked.
In response, he proceeded to tell us the circumstances leading up to the dream. During the vacation of 2008, he was helping his mom move some belongings by boat from one town to another. During that time, he made a mistake (of which he didn’t give details for personal reasons). After his mistake, according to Saúl, he felt remorse and spent a long time in prayer, not only asking God to forgive him, but also praying for all the people who he knew. Afterward he fell asleep and dreamed about a stranger, a man in a white shirt and black tie explaining the Bible to Damaris. Afterward, the scene changed to something obscene, and he awoke. Disgusted with the final image of the dream, he prayed and told God he didn’t want those images in his head! When he fell asleep again, the same dream reoccurred, but without the bad ending. The dream was so vivid that when he awoke he couldn’t stop thinking about it.
About two months after the dream, Saúl returned to UETIRG for the 2009 school year. He still couldn’t forget about his dream, but it wasn’t until some time had gone by that he connected the new teacher Juan Carlos with the man he had seen explaining the Bible to Damaris in his dream. He claimed that this realization came to him during a deja vu moment in Yata one Sabbath afternoon when the actions and dress of Juan Carlos somehow reminded him of the man in his dream. Around that same time, he was able to begin bible studies with a lady who he had prayed for the night of his dream, and he saw that as an answer to his prayer and evidence that the dream that followed had been from God.
In response we shared verses like 2 Corinthians 6:14-15 and asked him how he could believe the dream was from God when part of it had been impure. He admitted that this was a problem, but was sure that his dream was related to things that happened later on. Besides, he had dreamed the same dream the second time without the obscene part, in apparent answer to his prayer.
“But don’t you think that if the dream were from God he would have gotten it right the first time?” He agreed that that made sense. We also asked Saúl if he had ever seen Juan Carlos talking with Damaris as he had seen in his dream, and he said that he hadn’t, yet he would not relinquish his claim that the dream had already been fulfilled. I wondered if perhaps he looked on himself as a symbolic fulfillment of his own dream since he had given Juan Carlos’ book to Damaris, but I never asked him to confirm this. In any case, it turned out that the dream about Damaris and Juan Carlos was not the one he had initially referenced as his reason for returning to UETIRG in the present school year of 2010.
Apparently in July of 2009, about a month after Juan Carlos had left campus, Saúl had another dream in which he had seen Keila. (While he did not elaborate on the details of what he saw in the dream, he made it clear that it was because of this dream that he had returned for another school year.) He said he remembered talking to Keila afterward and wanting to tell her about his dream. Instead, he asked her opinion on Juan Carlos and his teachings. Somewhere in Keila’s response, she mentioned that she was “still a babe in the gospel,” and that phrase was apparently sufficient to warrant Saúl's return. The implication was that his purpose in returning in 2010 had to do with Keila. In a way this made sense, as she was the director of religious activities that year, and influencing her would be a way to affect the whole school. Keila, however, is not so easily influenced as he may have imagined. We asked Saúl if his second dream had also been fulfilled, and he said it had, and then revised his statement to say that it was being fulfilled right now in this meeting! That seemed like a spur of the moment interpretive decision on his part and we drilled him with some more questions on how he could know this. He couldn’t explain to us his reasons, but he did not recant his conclusion.
So now was the time to draw him out on what he really believed. We continued the meeting with the questions we had planned. I asked Saúl to look up 2 Timothy 3:13-17. We read it together, and then I asked:
“Do you believe that ALL of scripture is inspired by God and that it helpful for all of the reasons that the text mentions?”
“Yes.” That was encouraging. If that were true, at least we would still be able to reason with him from the scriptures. The next few questions passed in the same way, with Saúl agreeing with the biblical position. When we got to the question about the Sabbath, however, the differences began to arise. He claimed that the Sabbath has been fulfilled, or that it has another fulfillment, and tried to use Hebrews chapter three to support his theory. We pointed out the inconsistencies of his argument using the same chapter, and brought in some additional texts and arguments to supplement, all with little apparent impact. At one point in the conversation, Saúl even suggested that God’s main purpose in creating our world was to show the plan of redemption to the angels. This seemed to corroborate, or at least favor Juan Carlos’ assertion in the letter that God had predetermined the fall and that it was part of His original design for us. (Essentially saying that God made the mess we’re in.)
We continued to reason with Saúl from the scriptures, but as I saw him there, his arms crossed and his face dark and hard as flint, I must confess that I had little hope for a breakthrough. Yet, the more he tried to explain himself, the more mixed-up and uncertain he seemed to be, and finally, it seemed, he began to realize it.
“What is your understanding of faith?”
“That’s something I still don’t really understand. Can we skip to the next question?”
At this point we were about an hour and a half into the interview and we came to the question on tithe.
“Do you believe in tithe? We know that tithe is first mentioned in Genesis 14:20. Do you believe that tithing is a commandment from God that still applies to us today?”
(Long pause). “Yes.”
“Why? Why do you believe it? There are some people who say it was just for the Jews.” (Another long pause).
“Well, the truth is that I’ve tithed as a tradition. I haven’t studied the topic. Juan Carlos said no, tithe doesn’t apply now, and he had his explanation. I’m still uncertain about this topic too. I want to ask all of you, and teacher Ruan… I want to hear all the topics, and I want you to show me from the Bible, and disprove all the bases that he put.”
“That’s the reason we’re here” Ruan said.
Finally, a little softening! Keep working Holy Spirit!
By the time we adjourned the meeting over an hour and a half later, things were looking more promising, but there was still a lot that needed to happen. Since Saúl had voiced his doubts to many of the other students and had even shared some of Juan Carlos’ material, we needed to give a detailed presentation biblically exposing the errors and dangers of his teachings. Since the last letter he had sent was so blatantly contrary to everything the Bible teaches about the nature of God, the fall, sin, and redemption, we decided to make that the focus. Once we showed Juan Carlos’ final product, there would be no need to wade through his previous, more convoluted teachings. The fruit would identify the root.
We scheduled the meeting for first thing after breakfast the next day. Since most of the new students knew very little of the history, we shared just enough so they could understand the situation before getting into the doctrinal aspects. The meeting went very well, and we could sense the Spirit of God with us. My favorite part came after we had rebutted the letter point by point. One staff member spontaneously began to read a scripture passage warning of rampant last-day deceptions similar to what we had just experienced. When he finished, another teacher across the room arose and read a relevant biblical passage. When he finished, another followed with another text, and so it continued for about 15 to 20 minutes with the majority of the staff participating, reading straight scripture. All of it tied together beautifully.[ii] The students were visible affected. It was incredible! God’s word is so eloquent and powerful and so apropos!
In worship that evening we made the call for complete consecration to God and invited all students and staff to get rid of anything in their lives that could be separating them from Him. We made a bonfire outside in the middle of campus, and the students and staff went to their rooms to collect anything that they might want to burn. All of us were waiting to see what Saúl would do. Would he take advantage of this opportunity? What was my surprise when Saúl was the first student to arrive at the fire and cast in all of his books and other materials from Juan Carlos. Other students also burned materials from Juan Carlos, and others took the opportunity to burn other books and materials that they knew were not pleasing to God. It all added up to quite a little pile! When everyone was gathered, Saúl stood up and made a public confession and apology for his subtle undermining and rebellion and for confusing the minds of many of his classmates. Afterward we all joined in singing hymns of praise and consecration. Oh, where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom and there is victory! We were singing the last song when I felt someone grab my shoulder.
It was Saúl. He apologized to me personally[iii] and we hugged. There were tears in his eyes as he told me:
“Teacher, thanks for not giving up on me. I could have lost my salvation!”[iv]
So will we all if we are not grounded and settled in the truth as it is in Jesus.[v]


[i] I remember Saúl telling me about some dreams that he had during the 2009 school year, and proposing that they contained some kind of significance or perhaps divine guidance. He didn’t tell me any details about the content of the dreams, but I remember cautioning him not to become fascinated with the novel and sensational, nor base his beliefs and decisions in emotions and manifestations. “Guard your thoughts and your imaginations. Test everything by the Word of God,” I told him. “That is our only safe standard.”

[ii] Some of the passages read included Col 2:2-10, 2 Thess 2:1-4, Acts 20:28-30, 1 Cor 3: 10-13, 1 John 2:18-22, and 2 Pet 2.

[iii] When he apologized to me, Saúl took the opportunity to remind me of a document that he had showed me in 2009. “I’m pretty sure that visualization was the technique Juan Carlos was using with that story I shared with you last year,” he told me. (Visualization is one of the spiritual exercises used in spiritual formation, a process touted by many of today’s mainstream churches as a new way to bring life and power into your spiritual experience. In this exercise, first practiced and taught by Jesuit founder Ignatius Loyola, the object is to meditate upon a story from the Bible, imagining the sights, sounds, smells and other sensory details until it seems that you have entered into the scene and are able to converse with the characters of the story. It is basically a self-induced hypnotic trance.)
During the 2009 school year Saúl had asked my opinion on a document that I later came to realize was a letter from Juan Carlos, commentating on the story in John 8, of Jesus and the woman caught in adultery. At the time he shared with me, I knew next to nothing about Juan Carlos or what had happened previously, but I remember telling Saúl that it seemed to me that the article was missing the point of the story, and that we have to be careful not to get caught up in speculation about extraneous details that are not given in the scripture. In fact, we are told that “it is a masterpiece of Satan’s deceptions to keep the minds of men searching and conjecturing in regard to that which God has not made known, and which He does not intend that we shall understand.” (The Great Controversy 523) Saúl was fascinated at the time, however, and kept coming back around to the same questions. We were getting nowhere, and he finally dropped the subject.

[iv] Please continue to pray for Saúl. He is volunteering with us at the school this year and seems to be doing well, yet one does not easily leave behind all the effects of such deception.

[v] Ellen White makes the following statement in Early Writings: “I saw that we are no more secure from false teachers now than they were in the apostles' days; and, if we do no more, we should take as special measures as they did to secure the peace, harmony, and union of the flock. We have their example, and should follow it. Brethren of experience and of sound minds should assemble, and following the Word of God and the sanction of the Holy Spirit, should, with fervent prayer, lay hands upon those who have given full proof that they have received their commission of God, and set them apart to devote themselves entirely to His work. This act would show the sanction of the church to their going forth as messengers to carry the most solemn message ever given to men.
God will not entrust the care of His precious flock to men whose mind and judgment have been weakened by former errors that they have cherished, such as so-called perfectionism [SEE APPENDIX.] and Spiritualism, and who, by their course while in these errors, have disgraced themselves and brought reproach upon the cause of truth. Although they may now feel free from error and competent to go forth and to teach this last message, God will not accept them. He will not entrust precious souls to their care; for their judgment was perverted while in error, and is now weakened. The great and holy One is a jealous God, and He will have holy men to carry His truth. The holy law spoken by God from Sinai is a part of Himself, and holy men who are its strict observers will alone honor Him by teaching it to others" (101.2).

Hello everyone! As usual, all my prepared updates are late… You would think that they are arriving by ship, not email! So here are a few current hot items of interest before the warmed-overs. :)
This Sabbath we will be attending a district wide camp meeting. Ten of our students will make a public declaration to commit their lives completely to the Lord in baptism! The next day we leave for a month-long mission trip into the interior to conduct medical clinics and evangelism. I also just found out today that JAC, the Bolivian version of GYC was founded this month and will hold their first conference next year in Santa Cruz! That is a direct answer to prayer! Since I attended GYC in Baltimore last January I have been praying for just such a development here in Bolivia! (There is more to this story too!) We also have a couple of incredible opportunities for further expanding the work here in Bolivia, including a large parcel of donated land for another school like the one here. More details will follow… but probably not until I get back from the jungle in August. Thanks for all your prayers and support. May God bless you all and keep working us over…and over: until we shine like the stars, and mirror his image like polished pictures of silver.

Jordan. June 1, 2011
“…and [if] in the land of peace, [wherein] thou trustedst, [they wearied thee], then how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan?” Jeremiah 12:5 b.

I find myself dismayed today at the passing of yet another month! Oh how I long for the day when I will no more be confined by time and can bask in the eternal! Yet the constraints of time frame even that wish, and my hope is still in a day.
We’re already hip deep into the year, and with each day that flows or surges by I feel that the river-bottom underfoot falls farther away. What faith will it take to slog through these days? Will we wet ourselves to the chest, or must we hold our breath until death takes it? How many more steps? Or dare we hope that the river will part before our steady tread (quadrupled soon with hands) and drop us to dry land? I cannot know what will happen to me in this great slosh: the Jordan is beginning to swell. But I know what land lies beyond the river, and the King who reigns there, and so whatever the cost of the crossing, it will be cheap enough!
Yet I am too quickly frustrated by mere ripples, too quickly wearied by the silt, or worried about the depth or width of the river. I feel so unprepared for what lies ahead.
We must be buried with our Lord in Jordan. For some of us, it may take seven burials like it did for the haughty Naaman. And yet I think he had more faith than many of us. God requires a complete death to self, to the world.
This morning as I read from Early Writings the message is so clear, and so apt: “Time is almost finished. Do you reflect the lovely image of Jesus as you should? Then I was pointed to the earth and saw that there would have to be a getting ready among those who have of late embraced the third angel's message. [Yet how many of us even know and understand what the message of the third angel is? I know I have a lot more to learn!] Said the angel, ‘Get ready, get ready, get ready. Ye will have to die a greater death to the world than ye have ever yet died.’ I saw that there was a great work to do for them and but little time in which to do it.” {EW 64.1}
Those same words are repeated a few pages later: “Get ready, get ready, get ready. Ye must have a greater preparation than ye now have, for the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate and to destroy the sinners thereof out of it. Sacrifice all to God. Lay all upon His altar—self, property, and all, a living sacrifice. It will take all to enter glory” (66.2, emphasis mine). Wow. What does that really mean? I feel I know so little of giving, of real self-sacrifice and unselfish service. And yet, “those who reject the privilege of fellowship with Christ in service, reject the only training that imparts a fitness for participation with Him in His glory. They reject the training that in this life gives strength and nobility of character” (Education, 264.3). Lord, give me a heart to serve!

Some like it blunt. Feb 27, 2011.

This last Sunday we were working to clear the church building site in Yata when a man walked over from across the street to see what we were doing. He told us he was from Guayaramerin and had stopped by to visit family. (“My sister is the fat lady who lives across the road” was the way he put it). Such candidness is typical with many Bolivians, and they seem to appreciate it when you respond in kind.
“Are you building a house?” he asked
“No, we’re building a church,” Ruan replied.
“What kind of church?”
“An Adventist church.”
“Oh, today is like your Monday isn’t it?”
“Yep.”
“And Saturday for you is like Sunday.”
“That’s right”
“Why do you keep Saturday instead of Sunday?”
“Because the Bible says that Saturday is God’s Sabbath day.”
“It does doesn’t it”
“Yep. And it doesn’t say anything about Sunday.”
“You’re right, it doesn’t. Why then do all churches keep Sunday?”
“You really want to know?”
“Yep.”
“Because the emperor Constantine proclaimed himself a Christian and made a decree to venerate the pagan holiday of Sunday, claiming it was to honor Christ’s resurrection. And most all of the churches have obeyed him to this day. So you have to decide, do you want to obey God, or Constantine!”
“You’re right!” he said. They chatted a bit more and he left, and we haven’t seen him since. We’re really looking forward to the day when the church will be finished and more people will stop by and ask about the truth!

Well everyone, here is the anticipated part 3... just to warn you however, there will have to be a part four to finish up the story...As usual, I can't keep up with life when it comes to telling the interesting stories... I haven't told you any of the stories from this year yet! Thanks for all your prayers and support. It's not easy being chaplain, part of the Admin. committee, and teacher... but God is good. I know he doesn't allow any trial to come without providing the strength to meet it... I just pray that I can be a quicker study...it's not only not fun, but also dangerous to have to keep repeating the same lessons!
"Great peace have they which love thy law and NOTHING SHALL OFFEND THEM." That verse often reminds me that I apparently don't love the law of the Lord as I should... May God grant more love. :)
P.S. (I had a problem with the formatting copying and pasting from Word, so the endnotes might be hard to follow. If you see the letter(i) in parenthesis, check the end of the document to read the endnote.)

PART 3: Antichrist Strikes
“Now we beseech you, brethren…That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for [that day shall not come], except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;” 1 Thess 2: 1-3.

“Hey Kody, we need you to read a letter and let us know what you think. Saúl asked Lyli to print it for him yesterday, and praise the Lord she had the presence of mind to save a copy on her computer. It’s a letter from Juan Carlos.”
Oh great. More trouble! I thought. With the Yani incident still fresh in my mind, I was really curious to see what the letter would be all about. At Ruan and Tara’s house, I began to wade through the nine-page epistle. After a short salutation, it began by quoting Acts 17:22-31, followed by the reasonable claim that in this passage Paul is giving a summary of the gospel. Next came an admonition to memorize the passage and meditate on it, letting the words become your “rational worship,” or as some versions say “reasonable service:” That phrase from Romans 12:1, in its original context refers to submitting and surrendering ourselves to God, but Juan Carlos’ application seemed to imply that knowledge (memorized scripture in this case) is a valid substitute for surrender and sanctification. This first problematic statement was immediately followed by a second:
“I just want to concentrate on a specific phrase from Paul’s discourse,” he continued. Interestingly, the single phrase of his choosing was the inscription from the pagan altar in the Athenian Areopagus, ‘to the unknown God.’” In the rest of the letter he more fully defined and explained his concept of the “unknown God.” He used an eloquent and wordy style, sugarcoated in fragments of bible verses taken out of context and familiar phrases such as “the great controversy” that feel comfortable but, upon analysis, are diametrically opposed to his argument.

The teachings of the letter can be summarized as follows:
1. The purpose of existence is to know the Unknown God
2. The Unknown God is defined as the “greatest mind” of the universe, and thus immaterial.
3. God the Father and God the Son therefore are merely manifestations of the Unknown God, this Greatest mind, and they will one day cease to exist because they will no longer be necessary when the Unknown God becomes truly known. (i)
4. The existence of everything began first in the mind or imagination of God. Nothing can surprise him (it?) because he knows everything, but has always kept at least certain important parts of that knowledge secret. (ii)
5. Knowing everything, God chose from all the possibilities of existence a single course of events (history), or line of existence, and that is the one that we have lived and are living in the world today.
6. Since God is love, we can assume that he chose, or predetermined, from all the possibilities, the best line of existence and the one that best serves his purpose for us, which is to know him. (In other words, God created sin intentionally in order to give us the opportunity to better know his mind! Does not this sound like the age-old deception of Genesis 3:5, “you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil”?

The terrible implications of this basic framework are not hard to recognize, and the conclusions immerge clearly in the rest of Juan Carlos’ letter, although they are not all stated so explicitly as in the following summarized list:

1. God (The greatest mind in the universe) is the originator of sin and evil.
2. Therefore, sin is not really bad or wrong, because it comes from God. (In the letter there is no reference whatsoever to Satan, at least not in the sense of an “Adversary.”)
3. It follows logically then that there is no sinner, and hence, no necessity of a Savior or of any plan of redemption. Christ and his sacrifice therefore has very little significance, and his coming to this earth had no purpose other than that it was an attempt to help men realize their purpose of existence in knowing the “unknown God” In fact, the letter alleges that it was a failed attempt, because although “the face of Christ is now everywhere,” men today are farther from knowing the “unknown God” than they have ever been. (p. 3).
4. Since there is no sin or redemption, neither is there a final judgment or reward. In fact, everyone at the end will realize that they have played the part they were meant to play in the history of the world (p. 9).
5. Finally, since the plan of salvation outlined so clearly in all of scripture is not necessary, we need a new way of interpreting the Bible, and that is to “look beyond the words themselves and connect with the divine mind” (p. 8).

Wow! Unbelievable! This was far beyond anything previous that we had heard from Juan Carlos, and it clearly exposed what he was really about! After I read the letter we met with all of the staff and went over it again. How many letters like this had Saúl already received? Just how indoctrinated might he be? We didn’t know how much he may have communicated with Juan Carlos during the three-month vacation, but we doubted that Juan Carlos would have shared such blatant heresies without having conditioned his target to be ready to accept them!
As we talked, more troubling details began to emerge. Damaris, one of our teachers who graduated a few years ago when Saúl was still a sophomore, and who had also been one of his romantic interests, shared that Saúl had given her a book on justification and had pressured her to read it, urging that it was of the utmost importance. At the time she hadn’t paid much attention to the incident, dismissing it as another one of his attempts to get her attention. She hardly even gave the book a glance. As it turned out, the book was by Juan Carlos, and Saúl had given it to several students as well. He also told several of his classmates that he had returned to the school that year for a specific purpose, and it was beginning to appear as though that purpose was to recruit more followers for Juan Carlos. Limbert, Joaquin, and other 3rd and 4th year students had recently begun to approach staff members with questions on the Sabbath, tithe, the covenants, and other teachings that had previously been clear to them.
Worried, and not without some righteous indignation, we began to form a plan of action to determine whether all of this was really part of a sinister plot as it appeared to be. Obviously we needed to talk to Saúl. But how would we broach the issues? Someone suggested we pray about it. We all knelt and poured out our concerns to the Lord, and I was struck by the realization that this was the first time in months that we had all been together on our knees as a staff, asking God’s guidance! As we prayed, I took courage from the story of King Hezekiah and how he prayed over a disturbing letter from the King of Assyria that was also attacking the nature and character of God.(iii) I knew that God would give us wisdom. We figured Saúl would already have some idea about what was coming, and we decided we should start by making it clear to him how much we care about him and his salvation. We wanted to be sure he knew that we were meeting with him because we were deeply concerned for him as well as those that he was influencing. Next we would ask him why he had decided to study here again this year and continuing with a series of questions on his personal beliefs, particularly in regard to the doctrines that had recently come under question. Each staff member chose a question to present so that one or two people wouldn’t do all of the talking.
It was in the wee hours of the morning by the time we finished planning and praying and went to get a few hours of sleep before the morrow's conflict.

(i) It was after reading this letter that Ruan realized what Juan Carlos had been intimating in his week of prayer sermon on angels back in 2009 (See Part 1, “A Trojan Among Us.”) By taking the out-of-context phrase “took upon himself the form of a servant” from the well-known passage about Christ in Philippians chapter two and connecting it with the thesis of his sermon that angels are “servants of God,” Juan Carlos was attempting to strip Christ of his divinity by making Him merely a created being like any of the angels!

(ii) This idea that God holds back essential knowledge from us is one of the very first accusations that Satan made in heaven. He wanted to enter into the secret councils of the Godhead. He was jealous of Christ, and spread lies and discontent to win over the other angels. He continued with the same rhetoric in the garden of Eden, claiming that God had forbidden the fruit because He wanted to hold back special knowledge from the human family. It is also noteworthy that this motif of secret knowledge and mysteries that can only be known by a select few, the initiated, is central to many popular clubs and organizations that at their highest levels are merely modern versions of ancient pagan cults, and thus Luciferian.

(iii) 2 Kings 19:10 “Thus shall ye speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, Let not thy God in whom thou trustest deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria.
19:11 Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, by destroying them utterly: and shalt thou be delivered?
19:12 Have the gods of the nations delivered them which my fathers have destroyed; [as] Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden which [were] in Thelasar?
19:13 Where [is] the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivah? 19:14 And Hezekiah received the letter of the hand of the messengers, and read it: and Hezekiah went up into the house of the LORD, and spread it before the LORD.
19:14 And Hezekiah received the letter of the hand of the messengers, and read it: and Hezekiah went up into the house of the LORD, and spread it before the LORD.
19:15 And Hezekiah prayed before the LORD, and said, O LORD God of Israel, which dwellest [between] the cherubims, thou art the God, [even] thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; thou hast made heaven and earth.
19:16 LORD, bow down thine ear, and hear: open, LORD, thine eyes, and see: and hear the words of Sennacherib, which hath sent him to reproach the living God.
19:17 Of a truth, LORD, the kings of Assyria have destroyed the nations and their lands,
19:18 And have cast their gods into the fire: for they [were] no gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone: therefore they have destroyed them.
19:19 Now therefore, O LORD our God, I beseech thee, save thou us out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou [art] the LORD God, [even] thou only.”

A Missionary of Another Nature

Hello everyone! Things have been insanely busy here with classes starting and a short-term mission group arriving from Weimar Academy to help build the church in Yata as well as hold an evangelistic series. The clutch on the truck went out, and we have had a number or other unexpected challenges, but the truck is working now, and God is blessing in spite of all the challenges.
It's always amazing the way most of the students are when they first come here brand new. By the end of the year you don't really realize how much they've grown until you contrast it with the new batch the next year! Friday I had my first classes, and even though I didn’t have a lot of time to prepare, the Lord blessed me with some good ideas, and I’m excited about my classes. In the afternoon, I installed some lights and switches in the dorm for Lyli and the girls. I'm no electrician, so it was slow going. But it was certainly satisfying to get it all hooked up and have everything work despite my incompetence and all the interruptions I had. At one point I had to leave what I was doing for about an hour, so I turned the breaker back on in the meantime. When I returned I forgot that I had turned the power back on and promptly proceeded to cut a wire. The sparks went half way to the ceiling and my wire cutters were left with a burned spot in the middle. Thankfully, I wasn’t hurt at all. Just startled!
Sometimes it can get very frustrating to have students interrupting every little bit to ask a question or ask for help with something. God is helping me to learn more patience. I thought of Christ with the multitudes and I wonder how he ever put up with it. Yet he always looked on them with compassion and treated them with such love. Of course there were times when he escaped to the wilderness for a short time to have a rest too! On Thursday I had several students ask me to make them some metal dowelings to use to bunk their beds. I had them measure the size and bring me a model made from a stick, and then I found some old pieces of rebar and cut them to size and ground off the rough edges on the bench grinder. It was not a long or hard task, but in the moment it can seem so frustrating to have people ask little favors when you feel so busy and have so many things on your to-do list! Anyway, I often have to remind myself that I'm not here to get a list of certain quotidian tasks accomplished, but to minister to others.
Later I spent about an hour cutting a trail between the kitchen and the garden so I could get through to the kitchen with a wheelbarrow load of green papayas from a tree that had fallen during a recent storm. I also needed to take the compost from the kitchen to the garden as it had been piling up and no one else had gotten to it yet. When I emptied the compost, I found plastic trash mixed in with it and had to pick it out by hand! Yuck! So later that evening after worship I brought the compost bucket in with only the trash remaining that I had picked out and carried it around to all the kids to show them how unpleasant it is and ask their cooperation to not mix the trash! (We went over this many times last year and they never seemed to learn, so I thought the olfactory reinforcement might be useful this time!)
On Sabbath we took invitations cards for the evangelistic meetings to distribute in Yata. I had the kids make them for the Friday night activity. On the 6 km walk there and back (the clutch on the truck was still out at that point) I talked to one of the new students who is full of questions about the Bible and what Adventists believe. She grew up in Argentina, but her mom is Bolivian and they recently moved to Guayara. They found out about the school through her grandma who lives in Brazil and happened (I think providentially) to have her bus break down at the entrance to the school. Anyway, the school year seems to be off to a good, although hectic start. We ended up with about 45 students in the high school and 26 in elementary. There are a couple more who still may arrive. I had a neat conversation in Yata today inviting people to the meetings. They asked if we’d heard about the earthquake in Japan and it made for a nice conversation starter. I pointed them to Luke 21 and encouraged them not to ignore these signs that Christ’s return is near, “even at the door.”
And now for part two of my last story. I still didn’t get it all finished and part three will follow.

The Trojan Returns
“Satanic agencies are clothing false theories in an attractive garb, even as Satan in the Garden of Eden concealed his identity from our first parents by speaking through the serpent. These agencies are instilling into human minds that which in reality is deadly error. The hypnotic influence of Satan will rest upon those who turn from the plain word of God to pleasing fables.” {8T 294.1}

I remember being briefed about what had happened with Juan Carlos sometime after I arrived at the school in August of 2009, but I had no idea of just how profound and far-reaching his influence had been over some of the students. It wasn’t until nearly a year later when something very strange happened that I began to understand the seriousness of what we were dealing with.
When he first arrived, most of us had no idea who he was or what he had come for. He just showed up one Friday evening in August of 2010, just as we were welcoming the Sabbath. He introduced himself as Yani (pronounced almost like Johnny), a systems engineer from Santa Cruz. He had thick black hair and a plastic smile and smelled of too much cologne. Lyli and I showed him to the unoccupied room across from mine and made sure he was comfortable and had what he needed. Minutes later, Saúl, one of our seniors, showed up and began to converse excitedly with Yani as if he were a long-lost friend. That is pretty normal behavior for Saúl however, so I wasn’t too surprised, and went to the cafeteria, leaving them to converse alone, something I may not have done had I been present for Yani’s conversation with the directors and some of the staff directly upon arriving. When they asked Yani where he was from and how he had heard about the school. His response was that “he came to know about the school through a friend of his in the church in Santa Cruz.”
“Oh really? Who is your friend?”
“His name is Juan Carlos.”
“Really? What’s his last name.”
“Martinez Estrada.”
“Oh. He’s from Mexico, right?”
“Yeah.”
This was immediate cause for concern. What was Yani here for? (1).
He went on to share that he had come into the church from a Catholic background as a result of the sermons of Stephen Bohr, a name he must have known we would be comfortable with. Our concern continued to grow when, in church the next day, Ruan asked the congregation for a definition of the gospel and Yani quickly responded that it is “information to save us.”
On service day that week Saúl was going to sell granola in Guayara, and Yani decided he would like to go along. In the truck, I noticed he and Saúl off in a corner, deep in conversation. Yani was making some signals with his hand, and Saúl was staring at them intently, as if hypnotized, or at least extremely impressed. Trying to mask my concern, I moved closer and nonchalantly asked what they were doing.
“Oh, it is a logic game. I make these gestures following a pattern, and he has to guess what comes next.” Yani replied. Maybe it’s just an innocent mental exercise afterall, I told myself, but I couldn’t quite shake the feeling that there was something very strange about this guy (2). I stayed close for the rest of the trip, making occasional comments to counteract what I perceived as some imbalances in what he was saying. For example, he was explaining that according to the Bible we should stay single. Scripture is clear that one option is not more righteous than another, yet he seemed intent on convincing Saúl that celibacy is the way for God’s true people.
During the first part of the week, Yani had confined himself to his room where he seemed to dedicate all of his time to reading and prayer,(3) apart from meals and plenty of conversations with Saúl. Saúl even showed up late to his English class, according to his teacher, “because he was in Yani’s houses talking with him. He (Yani) is very secretive in his discussions with Saúl which is not the way Jesus taught.”
On several occasions I found opportunity to casually approach Saúl and Yani during their conversations to try to ascertain what Yani was teaching, but I couldn’t put a finger on anything definite. At times he would seem to focus too much on a certain aspect of a truth, but that can happen in any theological discussion, and when I would bring out the balancing scriptures he would always seem to agree. Still, I felt that there was something odd about the whole dynamic. Yani moved and acted “like a robot on a mission,” as some of the staff put it. He made no effort to take part in any of the school activities, although I did manage to convince him to attend our education workshop on Sunday afternoon. On one occasion I also got him to take a break from his reading and get some exercise raking up the grass that I was cutting behind the house. He consented, but he only lasted about half an hour before he went inside to shower and re-perfume himself, commenting on how hard country life is. Later I invited him to join me in the chaco during one of the work periods, and he agreed at first, but later said that he needed to prepare for a meeting with the directors. He wanted an opportunity to “speak about grace” to all of the students, a request we were not comfortable granting. After his meeting with the directors the next morning, Yani agreed to end his visit to the school, and I accompanied him to town. Once in town, the first thing he did was to ask for the address of Mequias, the young man who Juan Carlos had discipled here in Guayara. Thankfully, I don’t know where Mequias lives, so I left him with one of the church elders, explaining to him the situation. Eventually Yani was able to meet with Mequias, and while I have no idea what the two of them talked about, within another month Mequias had denied the Sabbath, tithe, and other key doctrines and had to be removed from his post as teacher at the Adventist school in Guayara and disfellowshipped from the church. He retaliated by airing a slanderous denouncement of his employers on the local news, claiming that they had taken tithe out of his paycheck without his consent and claiming that the students at the school are mistreated. Church officials and the conference attorney came and easily answered the legal accusations, but the church itself continued divided. Mequias frequently visited many of the members of his home church to gain their sympathy, and many were confused by the arguments that he presented. To what extent that division and confusion continues, I don’t know, but I am sure that it continues to this day.
Meanwhile, back at the school, things would soon come to a crisis. To be continued in part 3).

1. The directors would later receive an email from one of the volunteers in Santa Cruz, apologizing for Yani’s unexpected arrival and explaining that he had appeared suddenly at the airport just as the mission plane was leaving for Guayara, and had insisted that he was supposed to go to the school. The email also warned that Yani was one of Juan Carlos’ disciples, and had been involved in the divisions and dissensions in the churches of Santa Cruz.

2. Recently I have been reading The Omega Rebellion by Rick Howard, a pastor who before his conversion spent five years studying and practicing spiritualistic and eastern religious practices. The following passage reminded me of this incident with Yani and Sammy on the truck and revived my old suspicions about what was really going on. I’m still not sure if the “logic exercise” was innocent or not, but either way, I think it is important to be cognizant of the following: “I discovered through the study of and the actual practice of meditative techniques that all the religions and occult theories that enabled their followers to contact the world of the supernatural used certain meditative practices that eventually led to an altered level of consciousness. I discovered that it was essential to learn these techniques to get to that certain mental level where I was able to contact the supernatural worlds. To leave my body in astral projection or to have any of numerous supernatural experiences, this unique corridor of the mind must be reached through certain meditative practices. These practices always involved a focusing of the mind on one thing to the exclusion of anything else. It could be reached by focusing on sounds such as music; or through chanting and repetition or recitation of words; through the sensation of touch; or the use of visual exercises. I learned that the most effective and most rapid method of attaining an altered level of consciousness was through the creation of mental images… and sustaining that image” ( p.50).

3. At one point, Carrie, one of the teachers pressed him to share with her “what he had been studying, and he said grace. She asked him to share with her what he had learned and he said it would take too long. She asked him for a short summary and he said he hoped to share it with the whole school this week. Carrie asked if he had talked to Keila or Lily, who are in charge of the worships here, about sharing with the school and he said he hadn’t but that God would provide a time for him to share. He said he knows that his trip here is not to be in vain and he feels like he has this message to share with everyone.” (Quoted from an email that Jason Churchwell, Carrie’s husband wrote about the incident.)