Joshua Project - Fulakunda Ethnic People in all Countries

Joshua Project - Fulakunda Ethnic People in all Countries

Act 17:16 "Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols"

Many of you know that I read the Diary of David Brainerd sometimes as a devotional because of the heart that he had for Christ. I was taken aback this morning again of several things in this entry. 1) You can see his sense of his own unworthiness (which is common in his entries). 2) You can see his heart for his people to be saved. 3) You can see his love for Christ in that he cannot bear to see Him ignored or blasphemed. 4) You can get a glimpse of the prayer life of passionate pleas coupled with an amazing experience of being with Christ in that prayer.

Saturday, July 21. This morning, was greatly oppressed with guilt and shame, from a sense of inward vileness and pollution. About nine, withdrew to the woods for prayer; but had not much comfort; I appeared to myself the vilest, meanest creature upon earth, and could scarcely live with myself; so mean and vile I appeared, that I thought I should never be able to hold up my face in heaven, if God of his infinite grace should bring me thither.

Towards night my burden respecting my work among the Indians began to increase much; and was aggravated by hearing sundry things that looked very discouraging, in particular that they intended to meet together the next day for an idolatrous feast and dance. Then I began to be in anguish; I thought I must in conscience go and endeavor to break them up; and knew not how to attempt such a thing. However, I withdrew for prayer, hoping for strength from above. And in prayer I was exceedingly enlarged, and my soul was as much drawn out as ever I remember it to have been in my life, or near. I was in such anguish, and pleaded with so much earnestness and importunity, that when I rose from my knees I felt extremely weak and overcome; I could scarcely walk straight, my joints were loosed, the sweat ran down my face and body, and nature seemed as if it would dissolve. So far as I could judge, I was wholly free from selfish ends in my fervent supplications for the poor Indians. I knew they were met together to worship devils, and not God; and this made me cry earnestly, that God would now appear and help me in my attempts to break up this idolatrous meeting.

My soul pleaded long; and I thought God would hear and would go with me to vindicate his own cause: I seemed to confide in God for his presence and assistance. And thus I spent the evening, praying incessantly for divine assistance, and that I might not be self-dependent, but still have my whole dependence upon God. What I passed through was remarkable, and indeed inexpressible. All things here below vanished; and there appeared to be nothing of any considerable importance to me but holiness of heart and life and the conversion of the heathen to God. All my cares, fears and desires, which might be said to be of a worldly nature, disappeared; and were, in my esteem, of little more importance than a puff of wind. I exceedingly longed that God would "get to himself a name among the heathen": And I appealed to him with the greatest freedom, that he knew I "preferred him above my chief joy." Indeed, I had no notion of joy from this world: I cared not where or how I lived, or what hardships I went through; so that I could but "gain souls to Christ." I continued in this frame all the evening and night. While I was asleep, I dreamed of these things; and when I waked (as I frequently did) the first thing I thought of was this great work of pleading for God against Satan.

There is a video that I took in Jauja, Peru this week entitled "Partying in Jauja." You can view it on my Facebook page, and I will try to upload it here later. Sadly, I was amazed, curious, but not provoked...

Father, transform and intensify my longings for You, and for my people and for the nations to see you as their chief joy. Let me experience You in my intercessions with this kind of passion, and let it be contagious. Let me dream about You, find my satisfaction in you, even at night after I have exhausted myself in labors for you during the day. Make me willing to endure all things for the sake of your people, that Christ may be formed in them and honored among them. In His name, Amen

A Word of Thanks from Don

In the words of my hero Gomer Pyle: " Thank ya, Thank ya, Thank ya", for all your prayers sent up on our behalf as we served Christ as your repesentatives in Peru these past few days. We weren't able to see all goals we had hoped for (no baptisms) but progress was made in all the other areas. What a wonderful comfort we had each time we met a new challenge to know that you were holding the ropes for us. Striving to build the Kingdom in a cross cultural environment is a challenge but that's the Father's heart and we saw His hand at work in the Yacus Valley and the area around Jauja, Peru.

Now, instead of partnering with one church and having one national (man on the ground) working regularly in our two targeted villages, we brokered an agreement-- signed partnership covenant-- where we have two local churches from two different Evangelical denominations working with three nationals (men on the ground) who have agreed to work with three different fellowship groups in Julcan and Molinos. This is more than we imagined could be accomplished at this time, but goes to show us what can be done when God is allowed to work even through broken and weak vessels. And I want to emphasize that each of you had a part in this as you lifted our efforts to the Father.

There is still worlds of work to be done and the evil one will do all he can to sidetrack any progress of the Gospel so please continue to pray.

This week I am asking you to pray specifically for Oscar. Jason and I believe that Oscar has been given to this work for such a time as this. Pray for the following for Oscar:
1. Pray that Oscar will be able to find a way to support himself by Aug 1, 2012. (that is part of the covenant he signed). Tough, but not impossible. Either a job or small business.
2. Pray that Oscar can be freed from some family "baggage" that limits his effectiveness.
3. Pray that Oscar can work harmoniously with Hugo and Pastor Moises.
4. Pray that Oscar can/will be submissive to Pastor Romulo's mentorship.
5. Pray that Oscar would develop personal study and quiet time habits that would ensure his walk with Christ will be contagious.
6. Pray that Oscar will find a way to build relationships with men of the villages, evangelize them, lead them to be baptized, that they would lead their entire families to be Christ-followers and through this, churches would be established that will be self supporting and self reproducing thru lay-led leadership.

If you would like to receive future updates of some needs you can pray for in our targeted area of Peru, please reply to this email so you can be included in the future. Only in Heaven will we know the impact of your prayer involvement. The year 2012 is critical for us because the agreement between the groups was for one year and our involvement in the future depends on the next 12 months.

Please be assured of our heartfelt thanks,
Jason and Don

Aug 2011 Molinos, Peru

Here is the video from Peru in Aug!



Thanks for praying!

Confessions of Spiritual Giants

It's good to know sometimes that some things never change. And it's good to know sometimes that people you think of as spiritual giants have chinks in their armor just like I do. Not that any spiritual pressure is relieved when they fall, but that they wrote about the struggles they had, and it makes me feel like less of a worm to have those same struggles. I don't want you to read more into this than you should, so here is what I am referring to:

As some of you know, for my devotional time in the morning, I often read The Life and Diary of David Brainerd. Brainerd was a missionary to the American Indians who was immensely passionate about making much of Jesus, but died at 29 years old in the home of Jonathan Edwards of TB. If you aren't familiar with his story and passion, let me commend it to you. So this morning I read where he wrote on January 3, 1744

"...I find that I do not , and it seems that I cannot, lead a Christian life when I am abroad, and cannot spend much time in devotion, Christian conversation, and meditation as I should do. Those weeks that I am obliged now to be away from home, in order to learn the Indian tongue, are mostly spent in perplexity and barrenness, without much sweet relish of divine things; and I feel myself a stranger at the throne of grace, for want of more frequent and continued retirement. When I return home, and give myself to meditation, prayer, and fasting, a new scene opens to my mind, and my soul longs for mortification, self-denial, humility, and divorcement from all the things of the world..."

I have this same problem! And I always feel like such a failure, because I can't seem to do what I ought to outside of my routine. Vacations, conferences, mission trips, trips to see family, and the list could go on. Isn't my relationship with God more than a habit?! As Brainerd said on the day before this entry: "It is nothing but the power of God that keeps me from all manner of wickedness. I see I am nothing, and can do nothing without help from above. OH, FOR DIVINE GRACE!"

I am thankful (and you should be too) that our acceptance is not based upon our performance. And I still feel the obligation and the desire to continue fighting for the exercise of the disciplines and intimacy with God when I am out of my routine, but it comforts me some that the men of God of bygone generations whom I respect much, struggled like me...

"For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!" -Romans 7:19, 24-25

Wed Night Update from Jauja

Wow, I can't believe another mission trip to Molinos and Julcan is over! Just seems like it goes by so fast. We had another good day today. Several people came to know Christ in the village, and at the movie night. God is adding to His church daily! And we are just overwhelmed by the divine appointments God had for us.

Tomorrow will be a long day, so remember us in prayer. We got Oscar some things that he needed for ministry today, but tomorrow we will have to say goodbye to him. I would say it will be harder on him than on us, but hard on all of us. Again we leave him with the work, to nuture it, and make disciples. We leave here about 7 in the morning to head back over the mountain. Then we will stop by the children's home in Cineguilla, the on to our hotel for the night. Planes leave at 10:30 on Friday morning. Due to separate ticket purchases, John will have to fly on different planes, but we are all heading statesside on Friday.

Three major requests for tonight: 1) we inherited an american archeology student named Anna, and she is going to ride back to Lima with us. don't know anything about her spiritual condition, but we will find out tomorrow. pray for good conversation, and her salvation. 2) as far as we know the van driver, Amelio, has not been saved, but tomorrow we will talk to him some more. 3) and I cannnot stress enough for you to pray for these new converts! Pray that God sustains their faith, and grows disciples from their professions. The next few weeks is crucial as Oscar follows up with them.

Can't say thank you enough for your prayer support. You have helped move the muscles of omnipotence. And I know that your faithfulness will be rewarded. Probably won't get another update until next week, but I will fill you in then.

Blessings,

Jason

Some Pics from This Week in Peru

A womand in Pomocancha

The range of the Andes that is beyond us to the east

A little girl at the festival in Marco

Alpacas

The Ticlio Pass peak

Just thought I would share a few

Jason