Greetings! I hope each of you is doing well. Thank you for praying for me and for the work God is doing in Colombia and throughout the world. Prayer is a crucial part of the missionary task. May the word of Christ continue to speed ahead to every tribe, nation, people, and tongue.
This past month, I have been meeting with “Mike,” a Puinave man from Guainía, near the Venezuelan border. Life is difficult for them as they try to eke out a living. They have lived in several places throughout the city. Pray that my visits with him and his family will be fruitful.
Please continue to pray for my friend “Ted.” He lives in a shelter where he can get some physical needs taken care of. He still deals with depression since his wife passed. He often just needs someone to just be with him. I am meeting with him once or twice a week to talk and read Scripture together. We have been reading through Ephesians together. He will be returning to Vaupés in a week or so. Pray that I can show him the peace that Christ can give as I meet with him a few more times before he leaves Bogota. I will also get him in touch with some believers I know in Vaupés who can continue to minister to him.
I am also meeting with the Wounaan once a week. We are just finishing up Ephesians discussing the glorious gospel of what Christ has done for us and how we should walk in light of what Christ has done. At times, it’s just me and “Silas,” and sometimes others are there too. Silas will often translate our discussions of the text into Woumeo. Pray that the Word will do its work to save the lost and sanctify believers.
Continue to pray for the Embera Katío and Embera Chamí. Right now, there are ≈ 1,300 Embera living in one city park and ≈ 1,000 more living in another. Among them is a Katío Iused to visit three years ago before he returned to Chocó. His name is “Eli.” He and his family have returned to Bogota because of the violence in Chocó. Please pray that I can minister to them during this difficult time.
In a few weeks, I will have the opportunity to visit some indigenous in two other Colombians cities. The third week of November, I will be visiting communities in Risaralda and Quindío. Pray that my time there will be beneficial to me and to them. Again, thank you for your prayers. Pray that the Name of Christ would be great among the nations.
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Romans 1:14-17
14 I am under obligation both to Greeks and to the uncultured, both to the wise and to the foolish. 15 So, for my part, I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written:
“But the just shall live by faith.”
Paul was not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. He had an intense desire that Christ be preached among the nations. He had suffered greatly for the sake of the gospel. He suffered persecution and various hardships in his endeavors to preach the gospel.
He knew that the gospel of Christ was the power of God to everyone who believed. And it is the preaching of the gospel that the church must use in her Great Commission work.
The gospel of Christ is the good news of who Christ is and what he has done to save sinners, that he lived a perfect life for us, that he died on the cross for our sins bearing the wrath we deserve, that he rose again for our justification, and that he has ascended to the Father where he makes intercession for us. The good news of Christ is that he has done all that God requires for us. And everyone—Jew, Greek, cultured, uncultured, rich, poor, anyone and everyone—who trust and rest in Christ as their only hope for salvation has the promise of forgiveness of all their sins. That is the message that has the power to save people.
The just shall live by faith. This verse helped spark the Reformation over 500 years ago. May it continue to be boldly and unashamedly proclaimed today.
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