March Bruce Brief

After torrential rains in January and February, March has brought us strangely dry weather…perhaps from the same weather pattern that is bringing such warm temperatures to the East Coast this week. We are grateful for a respite from the landslides and mud! The dryness provided us with an excellent opportunity to haul some gravel and rocks to fix the worst of the mud holes and slippery spots on the new road coming up to our Outpost.

 

Thanks for your prayers for the outreach in Palm community! We sense that there is a spiritual battle taking place among the people there. The priest’s presence has brought us a barrage of questions from the folks there. “What does the priest mean when he says we should pray every day to Mother Mary, that she listens better?” “When he baptized the babies, he announced that they were now without sin. Can that be true?” The teacher we have before asked prayer for, Andrew, is doing a lot of thinking these days. He talked to Gloria, one of the believers one day, and asked her many questions about what the Bible says. She did her best to answer (and she flooded us with questions on our next overnight stay at her house!) The last Sunday we were there, after teaching the Bible account of Noah’s flood, Andrew again asked question after question…. “What is the priest talking about when he says he will teach catechism to the school kids?” “What is first communion?” ”And why are there so many different religions in the world?” Andrew expressed to Gloria that he felt like he was looking at the two options (what we are teaching and what the priest is saying) and that he needs to make a choice about what to believe. Over the many years we have been here, we have realized that most of the Awa do not spend much time thinking on things outside of their daily physical routine. But we have certainly seen many ‘mind wheels’ turning these days! We’d appreciate your prayers for the Lord’s wisdom to wisely answer these folks, and for the Holy Spirit to do His work in the hearts and minds of these people.

 

Both of the elders, Milton and Paulino, are under much pressure from their own people these days. Paulino missed a community meeting this last Sunday because he had wanted to be present for church and the elders’ meeting with us in RV community. He shared with me yesterday, “I know the people will be talking badly about me because I wasn’t there. I told them that I needed to be here for hearing God’s Word and meeting together, it’s more important! But they don’t understand.” Milton is in the process of breaking ties with his soccer team, as they are putting pressure on him to bet larger amounts of money on the games, and often want to play games on Sundays. “I can’t bet so much money, when I need it to take care of my family,” he told us. In a culture where community pressure is a huge form of social control, these are very difficult issues for both of these men. They are constantly told, “Dios pit puna kaints” (God’s Word is worth nothing.) Please pray for them to think clearly, and to stand strong without getting angry!

 

The annual Awa Believers’ Conference is coming up April 6-8^th, and plans are underway for a special time of teaching, fun, and fellowship. Our prayer is that He will be glorified and build His church among the Awa. Thanks for participating with us in this venture!

 

In HIS grip,

Kevin & Kathy