Thanks for your prayers for Maria Luisa! We have seen God’s hand working in their lives. This week, after hearing rumors from several relatives that Maria’s family was moving her closer to our location, we did some searching and finally located Maria and her parents staying in the common house of a small Awa community north of us. It was so good to see them face to face, after weeks of just passing messages and hearing news from afar! Maria began to talk as Kathy perched on the edge of the bed beside her, and she kept talking and crying for almost two hours straight as she told and re-told all that she’s been going through. I sat on another bed with Maria’s father Alfonso, while he also shared with me the difficulties they are passing through. Their story is full of fear---fear that Maria will die; fear of her husband and his family, who supposedly want to kill them; fear of the hex and the shaman; fear of losing their house and land, as a family of squatters have moved in. At the same time, we saw signs that they are being reminded to turn to the Lord in this difficult time. Maria’s sister Gloria had visited the week before and encouraged them to ask God for help. After going to many different ‘curers’, some of which used marijuana and other remedies that ‘made me worse’, Maria said, they are now going each week to the government health center in Lita. Maria is under treatment for an ulcer, and feels like her stomach, where she feels the ‘snake’, is getting better.
“My father says I need to have faith in God,” Maria told Kathy. “But I’m sick, and for weeks I haven’t been getting better. I don’t know if God is remembering me.” We were so thankful for the chance to encourage them that God never ‘throws us away’ (as Maria’s husband is doing to her), but sees us in our struggles, and is present with us at all times. We prayed together with Maria, and invited the family to come up to stay with us next week for several days. Please pray that we can use the time of their visit to encourage them with God’s truth in many different ways. And pray that the believers in our community will also rally around them!
In other notes of news:
• After a long summer break, we have started up the adult literacy program again! Each Monday we gather with the students to study reading, math, and now something new---an hour of Bible School! Adapting some materials from our national churches called ‘The Good Servant’, we are presently studying the basics of salvation, and memorizing Romans 3:23-24 together. This is an excellent opportunity to work on spiritual terms in Awa, as we begin by talking about such concepts as ‘sin’ and ‘justification’. Last week it brought us great joy to see a new level of understanding dawning in Jaime’s eyes as we talked about how sin separates us from God. As a new believer, there is much that is new to him!
• I was thrilled to finish editing and formatting the portions of Exodus that our co-worker Doug has translated. What a joy to print out an updated version, all ready for use! At this point, the next step will be to read over the portions several times with the Awa, revising any mistakes or misunderstandings that we find.
• Holiday separations as a family are not our favorite thing. But we have seen the Lord’s provision in many ways for Kenny and Keilah as they both are learning and growing in their studies. We are thankful for the many ways to shorten the miles between us—email, Facebook, phone texts, and Skype, to name a few!
In HIS grip,
Kevin & Kathy
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