Logan (10 years old) and I (Kathy) were sitting at a table in the Palmira church doing a lesson he had missed one Sunday in the King of Glory course. The lesson was about Lucifer wanting to be king, wanting his own will instead of God’s will. God threw Lucifer out of Heaven and now as the accuser and deceiver Satan he “prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8)
“Oh, I know!” Logan said without much surprise, “The devil and the demons walk around and really bother people.”
As we worked on Logan’s lesson we were interrupted by shouts, anguished howls, and loud banging noises from a house in Palmira just below us. We went outside to check on what was going on, but realized it was some drunken Awa fellows fighting and brawling at the nearby house where liquor is sold. Going back inside to finish our worksheet, I had a good chance to talk with Logan about how important it is to be God’s child, with His presence to protect us, and to rescue us from Satan’s darkness and deceit. So many of the 450 Awa in Palmira Community live in the realm of the enemy, deceived into a life of slavery to fear, drinking, and many forms of misery; we could hear the living illustration just outside our doorway.
Lord, how we long to see this community redeemed for Your Name!! Pray for the Awa believers who live in this community to be able to stand firmly in the face of much temptation; pray for the children like Logan who are growing up with the howls of sin so commonplace around them.
In two weeks we will be holding the annual Easter conference right there in Palmira. We pray the Conference may be a time of sharing LIGHT and TRUTH in a dark place! The Andersons and German Impact youth will be helping us with the children during conference; Kathy and I will be teaching the adults. This year the Impacts will also help us with a special day for youth on Thursday April 2nd before the 3 day conference begins. We appreciate your prayers for these days as we gather in His name.
We thank God:
- Our coworkers the Shaubs were present in the USA for the birth of their fifth grandchild; they made it to their daughter’s house on the very day of the birth!
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An excellent Youth Saturday at the camp in Lita March 14th; 18 youth attended and the lesson about “True Love” was well understood. Most of these youth are not believers, but as we watch their faces we see the hunger for something more than the empty lives they are living. (click here or follow the QR code for a video) - Rainy season seems to be slowly fading away! The roads have become more stable and travel easier. We are praying for good weather for the coming Conference!
In His grip,
In the last few years gold mining here in the Andes Mountains has brought in a flood of change to the Awa people in the communities surrounding us. Some have found work in the mining firms; others have gotten involved in small mining operations that are continually being shut down by the military as they are not safe or sanctioned by the government. Chemicals used in the gold mining process have now contaminated the Lita River. Our friend Marco Antonio recently lost his 12 year old son, who drowned in a nearby river when his aunt was taking him along to watch her baby while she panned for gold. While many have been caught up in the hope of earning easy money, the presence of gold seems to have brought more hardship to the land and the people than it has brought blessing. 
The process includes our coworker Andy first doing a rough translation into Awa, which we then review along with Guillermo, David, and Ramiro, the translation team. The resulting work needs to be checked by three separate Awa individuals (or groups) and back-translated into Spanish in order to check for comprehension and content. Needless to say, there is much work involved, and yet we recognize the value of having God’s precious Word for the Awa in words that they understand. Please join us in prayer for this important work!
