Forgiven...

"Forgiven already...I am forgiven now...forgiven now..."

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Today was an exciting day in the village of Santa Justina (the one behind the rice fields for those who have visited us here). Today was the final lesson in the Bible stories that lead up to Christ, and they talked about His death, burial and resurrection - then went to Hebrews to talk about the fact that Christ's death was the perfect sacrifice, and it is a finished work, lacking nothing.

The captivated audience was in shock over what Christ had done for them and its implications. Jose (far left with the little boy in red, click to enlarge) just sat in stunned silence and repeated 5 or 6 times quietly to himself, "...forgiven already...I am forgiven now..." After that, Jose prayed and thanked God for sending Christ to die for their sins. He also said, "Before, the thing we were hoping in was wrong. Now, we really understand that Christ is the One who we need to hope in." This group has already chosen several new villages where they want to take the Bible Stories, and they are excited to be trained as teachers. "It won't be hard to explain because we really understand it clearly now!"

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The truly humbling thing about this experience is that we almost gave up on this group. At first, they were incredibly shy and wouldn't even come to the Bible study, even though they kept insisting they were interested. Then when they did come, they would just look down and never make eye contact or answer questions or even seem to be tracking. This went on for months on end. Several times, we evaluated whether it was even a prudent use of our time to continue there - it was just so frustrating and seemed like a complete waste of time. God burdened our hearts that we should continue even though it seemed like such a losing battle. Here's the cool thing that we were reminded of - THE BATTLE IS THE LORD'S. Even if it may seem like a losing battle to us, we need to trust that GOD will build His church and seek HIS direction for how He wants to use us every step of the way. Thankfully, we listened to the Spirit prompting us to continue teaching in the village of Santa Justina, and what a privilege it was to see them clearly understand the Truth for the 1st time and put their faith in Christ alone. And to think that we were ready to give up on them!

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Even though we were the ones who had the amazing privilege of being physically present to see this, many of you were there right beside us; you are praying for us, giving financially to allow us to be here, and encouraging us to keep on when the going gets tough (and it has gotten tough LOTS of times, as you well know!). Thank you for your faithfulness to fulfill the role that God has called YOU to in the massive task that we have ALL been given to make disciples in all nations. He is using you in mighty ways.

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To God be the glory for the great things He has done in the village of Santa Justina today! We can't wait to see what He does in and through them in the weeks and months ahead ~ please continue to pray with us for them.