San Francisco

When we first met Ester she was 14 and pregnant. She did not speak any Spanish and had ran away from home to save the life of her unborn baby. Today 11 months later she is in the custody of the Hogar and has a beautiful healthy 11-month old boy. You can read her whole story in our previous post, Pray for Ester.

Ester

She is from an indigenous Shawi village called San Francisco. It is remote. Located at the end of a small river the only access is walking. It is what we call, “campo blanco,” meaning it is an unreached village without a gospel witness. Since first learning about San Francisco, we have prayed that God would reach out to the people there and open the doors for the gospel to enter. Yesterday I was able to see that prayer answered first hand.

The church in Nuevo Yurimguas

We attended a special church service in Nuevo Yurimaguas. The road is in good shape right now so this is the third time in as many weeks that we have visited. We were invited by Pastor Orlando. He has a burden for his people and travels to unreached villages sharing the gospel. As a result, there are many new believers that need discipleship. He decided to have a special service and invited all the churches in the region as well as the new believers. It was an honor to attend. Orlando started the service by introducing all the different communities present and I was floored when he introduced a family from San Francisco.  

 

An example of the worship that lasted an hour and a half.

For the next three hours we sat through the service. An hour and a half of worship followed by three different messages from three different pastor and 90 percent of it in Shawi. I tried to listen and pay attention but I do not understand Shawi and my mind kept wondering, how did that family from San Francisco get here?

Finally, at the end of service a man stood up to give a testimony and Pastor Orlando sat next to me to interpret because he thought it was important that I understand.

Gathering for lunch after church

Inico is a man that lives in a nearby community. Six months ago he was a drunk. He would often hear the music from the church in the evenings as it is quiet in the jungle and the sound of worship travels to his village. But he thought, “those Christians are crazy, I don’t want any of that.”  Then one night he had a dream. In his dream the devil was chasing him with a spear. He was caught and the devil stabbed him with the spear and all of his guts came spilling out. He thought he was dead and he cried out. Then he heard a voice saying only one thing can save him from death. God. The next day he walked to Nuevo Yurimaguas, found pastor Orlando and gave his life to Jesus. Today, six months later, he is a changed man.

He was very sick with stomach problems and God told him in another dream to quit drinking. Now he is sober and healthy. He reads his bible everyday and all the people in his village ridicule him.  They tell him that the witch doctor will kill him for being a Christian. He has had other dreams where a bright light is shining on him and his house and he can see demons approaching his house but they can not enter the light. In John 1:5 it says refering to Jesus, "The light that shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." This is God’s protection. He does not fear the witch doctor. 

In the Shawi culture when a man is married he leaves his village and goes to live in the village of his wife. As a result, the women never leave their village but the married men are always from a different village. Inicio is heartbroken for his home village. He thinks about his parents who have passed away and did not know Christ. He wants to return and share Christ with the people. Guess where he is from? San Francisco. 

This is crazy! God is answering our prayers for the people of San Francisco. But never as I had expected, God’s plan is so much better. Through a dream he touched one man’s heart with the plan to touch many others.

A three hour walk from Nuevo Yurimaguas, Inicio walked to San Francisco on Saturday and brought some of his family to church on Sunday. I thought is was rough to drive two hours to church, they got up at 6:00am and walked three hours to church. But this is only the beginning. We need to pray for Inicio. Daily he faces persecution because of his faith. Daily he faces trials and temptations. Pray for Orlando as he disciples Inicio and please pray for the people of San Francisco.

Maggie with her new amigita.