Greetings! I hope everyone is doing well. Thank you very much for your support as you pray for the work God is among the displaced indigenous people here in Bogota. Let us pray that the Word of Christ would speed ahead and be honored and that the gospel would advance unhindered not only among the indigenous groups here in Colombia but also throughout the world. Our desire is for people from every tribe, nation, people, and tongue to worship around the throne of the Lamb. And that task is accomplished as we faithfully preach Christ and Him crucified and send out missionaries to do likewise throughout the world. God is faithful. He will be with us as we go forth. So may we be faithful to proclaim the gospel where we are and to send out preachers to the nations so that all might hear and believe.
Most of my work is among the displaced indigenous in Bogota. Due to the violence in some areas of the country, thousands of indigenous have moved into the cities. Every week, my team visit three different indigenous groups (Katío, Chamí, and Dóbida) in shelters and in a city park. During our visits, we teach God’s Word using Bible storying, starting with creation on through to Christ. We also help provide for some of their material needs. We bring diapers and food items. In one of the shelters recently, we bought some school supplies for the kids as they start of the new semester.
The indigenous in the shelters and park are seeped in spiritual darkness. They are divisions among the different people groups and also within the same people groups. Some are very open to our presence. Please pray that as we proclaim the Word, the Spirit would open up hearts to receive the Word, that people would believe and be saved, that people would be transformed by the power of God.
I also work with a few other groups outside the shelters and park. I have been visiting with a Wounaan believer every two weeks. During my visits with him, we pray and study Scripture together. There is a small Wounaan church in Bogota. Please pray that that church would grow and be able to reach the other Wounaan in Bogota and perhaps have the opportunity to reach the Wounaan in the western part of the country.
I have also been visiting with a Puinave man and his family. We pray together and read Scripture. I also help him with some of his material needs. Please pray for my visits with him and his family. Pray that his heart would be open to receive the Word.
One important part of my ministry is to help mobilize national believers to become involved in the indigenous work in Bogota. Some have already become actively involved in the work. Pray that more churches and believers would see the need that’s right here in their own city. Pray that my team will also be able to help teach them how to do cross-cultural ministry with the indigenous. We are working on getting together a training program.
In March, a few other missionaries and I will be making a trip to Guainía in the eastern part of Colombia in the rainforest. I’ve been there a few times in the past. So I’m looking forward to making this return trip. We will be working with pastors and other church leaders to get materials available in some of the indigenous languages of the region. Please pray that the trip will be fruitful and that many more people will come to hear the gospel.
This year, I will begin work on learning one of the indigenous languages. Pray that I will find the right language helpers to assist me in the process and that I will learn the language well enough to clearly communicate the gospel in the heart language of the people. There are no grammar books or written resources on this language, so the process will be different from previous language studies I have done.
Thank you for your support and prayers. Prayer truly is a crucial part of the missionary task. May the grace of our Lord be with each of you.
John 3:16 is probably one of the most well-known verses today, and it has a wonderful missions focus. It speaks of God’s great love with which He loves sinners, namely, that He gave His only begotten Son. God gave His Son as a propitiation, an atoning sacrifice for our sins (1 John 4:10). And now anyone who trusts in the Son and His sacrifice will not perish and face condemnation but will have eternal life. And what is eternal life? It is communion with the Father and Son (17:3). That is our highest hope that fulfills our deepest need and fills us with everlasting joy.
This gospel message is not limited to a certain group of people. It is for the world. God has determined save people from every tribe, nation, people group, and tongue (Rev 5:9; 7:9). So we take this message to the world and preach the gospel to everyone we can. A few verses early, we a comparison to the serpent lifted up in the wilderness: As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son a Man be lifted up. And Jesus was lifted up on the cross, and now He is drawing all men to Himself (12:31-33). Just as those bitten by the fiery serpents in the wilderness were healed when they looked upon the bronze serpent Moses raised up, today all those who look to Christ for salvation will saved.
Therefore, we proclaim the Word of the cross, for it is the power of God to those who are saved (1 Cor 1:18). We declare to the nations, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (1:29). Paul says in his letter to the Galatians that his gospel preaching was so vivid that it was as if they were eyewitnesses to the historical event of the crucifixion (3:1). May our preaching to the nations be likewise. May we boldly and passionately proclaim Jesus Christ and Him crucified for our sin (1 Cor 2:2), urging all the ends of the earth to look to Him and be saved.
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