Greetings! I hope everyone is doing well. Thank you very much for your support for me as you pray for the work God is doing among the displaced indigenous people here in Bogota. Continue to pray that the Word of Christ would speed ahead and be honored and that the gospel would advance unhindered both here in Colombia and also among all peoples. Our desire is for people from every tribe, nation, people, and tongue to worship around the Lamb who was slain and is alive forevermore. That is accomplished as we faithfully preach Christ and Him crucified and send out missionaries to do likewise throughout the world.
My work in Colombia focuses on the displaced indigenous peoples living in Bogota. I spend my days
visiting the indigenous living in a park and various shelters where three particular people groups live.
Several times a week, I also go to several spots throughout the city where the indigenous sell the beaded
jewelry they make. We often help with several material needs such as diapers, food staples, and soap.
During these visits we evangelize, pray with them, share Bible stories, and spend time just talking with
them and getting to know them. Please pray for us that our visits would be fruitful. Pray they the Spirit
will open hearts to receive the Word. Pray that people would come to trust in Christ and be saved.
National believers are also working with us and have been doing some great work. Pray that more local
believers will get involved in the indigenous work.
Recently, I have begun learning one of the indigenous languages of the groups we visit. I am meeting
with a few indigenous guys to help learn the language and practice speaking what I learn during our
regular evangelistic visits. I’m still early on in the language learning process. And it will take a lot of
hard work. Pray that I will learn the language and learn it well so that I can more clearly communicate
the gospel in the heart language of the people.
Please continue to pray for my visits with the Wounaan. I haven’t been visiting them as frequently as I once did, but I still visit with them every other week to read and study Scripture and to pray together. It is always and encouraging time for both me and them.
Pray for my visits with “Mike,” an indigenous man from GuainÌa living in Bogota. I meet with him about once a week for prayer and Bible reading. Pray that my visits with him would be fruitful. A few weeks ago while visiting Mike, I was bitten by a dog near his home. So I made a trip to the hospital and got a few shots and antibiotics. The wound is minor and is healing up fine. But pray that that doesn’t happen again.
The last week of May, a team from Georgia will be coming down to Bogota to work with the indigenous. Pray for the team and the work they’ll be doing with us. Pray for the week to be fruitful and beneficial for our ongoing work among the displaced indigenous in Bogota.
I have just begun the process to renew my visa. The visa process in Colombia has changed over the passed few years. I know of at least one family who was denied renewal. My renewal last year went through fine. Let’s pray that this year’s renewal will go through fine as well. And hopefully, I will be given a three-year like I have in the past instead of the one-year.
Again, thank you for your prays and support. It really is crucial to the work. May the grace of our Lord be with you all.
While on the cross, Jesus quotes the opening line of Psalm 22 in His cry of dereliction: My God, my God, where have you forsaken Me? Jesus was teaching from the cross that all of Psalm 22 was about Him. Psalm 22 speaks of the sufferings and death of Christ on the cross. Some of the specifics of which it speaks include the mocking He endured (v. 7-8; Mat 27:39), the piercing of His hands and feet (v. 16), and the diving of His garments and casting of lots (v. 18; Mat 27:35). And it speaks of our Lord’s sufferings 1000 years before it occurred in history.
But Psalm does not only speak of His suffering. Christ suffered and died to save us from our sin. Through His work on the cross, through His blood, He forgives sinners. The second part of Psalm 22 speaks of the victory that Jesus’ suffering achieved. That victory includes salvation to the ends of the earth. It means the fulfillment of the promise God made to Abraham that all the families of the earth will be blessed through his Seed (Gen 12:3; 28:14). The work Jesus accomplished on the cross brings salvation to all nations. It will bring us to what we see in Revelation where around the throne of the Lamb who was slain and is alive there are people from every tribe, nation, people, and tongue worshiping our Lord (Rev 5:9; 7:9). That is why we go to the nations and preach the gospel and make disciples (Mat 28:16-20). The work of salvation is finished (John 1930). All we do is rest in Him. And that hope does not put us to shame (Psa 22:5; Rom 5:5). So may we rest in Him and go to the ends of the earth proclaiming Christ and Him crucified. May we take this hope to everyone we can.
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