An Update from South America
The elder unto the wellbeloved Gaius, whom I love in the truth. Beloved, I wish that thou be prospered in all things and be sound, even as thy soul prospers. For I rejoiced greatly when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou dost walk in the truth. I have no greater joy than this, to hear that my sons walk in the truth. —3 John 1–4
It was past midnight in a little, pine-yellow room of a small cabin somewhere in the iron range woodlands of America. I had just finished working on an urgent proposal project to support a missionary-accredited teacher willing to help with a desperate need. Emilia, a wife and mother of two underage children, accepted the troublesome task of filling the gap as a temporary replacement for Manuela, the young and only teacher of a little community of persecuted native Christians in Colombia, South America.
Despite her young age and suffering life, Manuela has been a tremendous example of overcoming all kinds of troubles (including the death of her two-year-old boy), but now she is in a high-risk pregnancy and also fighting a kidney sickness, needing time to recover and seek treatment. It was God placing all things together and sending Emilia to help the almost fourteen children, all from different grades and ages, to finish their academic year while Manuela recovers.
But Emilia and her family’s willingness requires more than financial support. She will have to leave her family for long periods during the next academic semester and live in the little community located in one of the most hostile areas of Colombia. She will have to live in a territory that suffers delinquency, illegal armed groups recruiting children, drug cartels, and furious radical natives who persecute Christian natives. Even more, her current home is almost two days traveling by land from the village.
Trusting for Provision
Our mission organization has been going through one of the tightest seasons for our economic support after a tremendous effort of distributing over 60,000 Bibles in the frontier of Venezuela in the first part of the year 2024. Despite our economic impossibility to support this situation, which seemed out of our hands, I found myself firing the last triggers to raise some support for this task with friends around the world. We have been taught not to give up until all possible efforts are depleted—to act by faith.
I pressed the send button of my email with the proposal attached, and instantly, a new message came into my inbox—an email from the person I was sending my proposal to. It was almost 1:00 a.m. for me and 8:00 a.m. for him, but we were writing each other at the same time.
I opened my email and found a beautiful note from my friend with the following: “I remember your back problems and wish you that your health will soon be as good as your faith.” He mentioned he wrote those words after reading the third letter of John to Gaius saying, “I wish that thou be prospered in all things and be sound, even as thy soul prospers.”
Trusting God through the Pain
I have been fighting an almost chronic lower back pain after I fell from the cliff of a precipice in the mountains of Colombia on a mission trip with my father-in-law, Russell Stendal, years ago. After the nearly twenty-foot fall, I landed on my back and kept rolling down until I was able to stop myself by grabbing a long root I felt in my right hand. My backpack prevented my back from rupturing, but I ended up with a couple of herniated disks. The story of that trip and how the Lord allowed us to facilitate the rescue of the bodies of a crashed plane in those almost inaccessible mountains is “a matter of another message,” as Russ would probably say.
The first two years were a painful recovery. Still, I came out of that miraculously, after the prayer of a man I barely knew from our church in Bogota. However, on a recent trip to the frontier in Venezuela, I hurt my back again by trying to get out of a dangerous situation on the road back home. After that, I have been up and down, with this 2024 summer being the most painful period for my back.
It was all I could do to sit in the chair of that little room for periods of time to be able to finish this urgent educational project. That is why it felt amazing to receive the note from my friend wishing me health at the exact same moment when I sent him the project proposal. I felt the Lord was happy that I did not quit and worked with diligence despite pain and lack of rest due to the discomfort and weakness of my lumbar area.
Trusting in His Grace
As soon as I read the message, I put my hand on my lower back area and said, “Dear Lord, I extend these good wishes to all those who need health,” and I mentioned some of the names that came to my mind at that moment. Then I took my Spanish Jubilee Bible and looked in the dictionary for the meaning of the name John, who had written the letter in Scripture that my friend had quoted. This is what I found:
John: “The Lord has favored” or “the Lord extends His grace to us.”
I was impacted that I had just used the same word “extend” when I made my petition to the Lord after reading my friend’s note. As I was finding support and help for Manuela, the children, and Emilia and her family, the Lord was leading my friend to encourage me. As soon as I extended my health wishes to others, I understood that our good Lord´s plan is to extend His grace and favor to His children with an exponential impact that is impossible for us to picture.
Just as this project extends the grace or favor of the Lord to so many lives, that is the wish of the Lord for His people—for them to impact the lives of others. Everything He does produces an extension of His grace that we cannot even imagine!
That same afternoon, I received a note from my friend saying, “Warm greetings in Jesus! We are happy to inform you that your project proposal for Emilia, Manuela, and the children of the little school has been approved.” What an amazing and blessed day!
Give Toward Projects that Equip Leaders – Here
God’s Work in South America
In doing a short review of what the Lord has done in our lives and has been working the past year, we included:
- Sixty thousand Bibles for Venezuela
- Three thousand Bibles in a native tribal language
- More than 5,000 New Testaments in Piaroa
- More than 15 portable water purification systems for persecuted Christians
- One thousand twenty-six Christmas presents for children located in hostile territory
- Two Christian conventions with more than 5,000 assisting from the jungles in the frontier lines
- Many testimonies of health in our family
- A new member of our family born
- And so much more that would take pages to tell
The Lord’s blessings are incalculable and just as impossible to count as there are stars in the universe. He is teaching us all to walk on the water of lost humanity and tribulations by faith, and all this was able to happen because all of you (our friends, supporters, and partners organizations) were able to let the Lord use you to provide a way for us to operate. Blessings to all of you and thanks from all of us.
Coming Soon to Video
Final note: We will be announcing information soon about the release of our new film, The Parish of the Pines. To catch up on what has happened on this extraordinary journey, visit www.theparishofthepinesmovie.com
