More from Liberia

The following was submitted by one of our missionaries about the work in Liberia.

The team arrived on Saturday in San Jose and stayed overnight at Hotel Brilla Sol, near the airport. We left the next morning for Liberia, making a necessary stop at El Jardin and, of course, checked out the souvenirs. We arrived in Liberia in time for lunch at a typical restaurant in the downtown district. The natural fruit drinks and home cooked food were a hit. We made our way on to The Best Western for prayer walk training and orientation. That evening we attended church at a local church, where the pastor told his flock that they had been given a free gift that they needed to pass on to others. He explained that all are told to "go" and that there are no acceptable excuses for not going at least for a few hours while the team from the United States was working in town. Although the sermon was in Spanish, all of the volunteers understood the word "excusas" heard many times. As a result we had 11 people from the church show up on-time to help us each day we were there. What a blessing to work with these sweet brothers and sisters in Christ!

We spent Monday prayer walking in central Liberia and returned to distribute Gospels of John on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Everyone learned how to say "Upe!" and became bold in going right up to the door with the word of God. We sensed the Holy Spirit working through us. Bob and Wendy were walking down a dirt road off the main street, when a gentleman appeared out of nowhere. He showed them his legs, which appeared to be leprous. They laid their hands on him and prayed for God to heal him. They turned to leave and the man had disappeared.

On Tuesday evening, Dwayne and Adam went to the hotel bar…………to talk to the bartender. As they began to share what we were doing in Liberia, he began to share that his life was a mess and he was ready to do something about it. One by one, customers finished their drinks and left the bar--leaving the three alone to talk. The bartender accepted Christ that evening. As Dwayne said, "a bar was turned into a sanctuary." The next evening the bartender came out to our devotional circle and told all of us how Jesus had changed his life and lifted a burden off his shoulders.

Another special moment was when F prayed the sinner's prayer in Spanish, as tears rolled down her cheeks. When she received a copy of the Bible, she clutched it to her breast.

When another woman said she wanted to study the Bible, N, a sweet young girl from the church asked her when, and she said, "tomorrow at noon." There were several appointments set up to begin Bible study right away. We had asked God to prepare the hearts of the people and He did. Why were we surprised that people accepted Christ when we came to the door? It is always a blessing to see a salvation and a blessing to be in the center of where God is at work.

Although a few individuals refused the free Gospels, one man thanked Bob for what we were doing in his city. He was a successful businessman who stated that there is nothing more powerful that we could do than give people the Word of God. How right he is.

Most of the people in Liberia claim to be Catholic, but few say that they read or study the Bible at home or in church. H shared that he had been born Catholic, but had chosen to accept Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. "It grieves my heart that many well-meaning individuals can be locked into a lifetime of religious activity and miss God's greatest gift of salvation through knowing and accepting Jesus as the one and only way to salvation and into God's family."

Liberia

Distributing the gospel of John door-to-door was the order of business last week as Mitzi and I traveled to Liberia to work with a group of volunteers from the U. S. The process works like this: We divide up into groups, the number depending on how many workers there are, and go door-to-door talking to people, giving a copy of the Gospel according to John, and asking if they are interested in a Bible study in their home. Often there is also the opportunity to witness to the gospel of Christ.

Usually there are members of a nearby church, if there is one, working with us. Often this is a new experience to these national believers, but they enjoy it. The only problem is that they always want to talk and visit, which is good, but it takes longer to complete the project that way. Of course, that's a problem with us Gringos anyway. We are so task and schedule oriented that we often sacrifice relationships. To the normal Latin American, the relationship is more important than completing a given task, being on time, or keeping a schedule. We could learn something there.

We worked one day with the team, then had to return to San Jose. We always enjoy working with the teams and try to spend at least a little time with as many as we can.

There were over a 100 people that indicated that they were interested in having a Bible study in their home, but we realize that many of them were being polite, or didn't understand what was being asked. The broken Spanish, or Spanglish, which some volunteers speak is sometimes misunderstood, and, like we Americans dangerously do, the people give affirmative answers when they really didn't understand the question. It falls to those doing follow-up to further screen the lists of affirmative responses. This is usually one of our people along with national believers.

Pray for those who showed an interest and for those who will do follow-up screening and Bible studies. Pray that people will see the truth of the gospel and believe.

Still voice in the midst of confusion

After several irritating traffic delays in route to my fellow worker's house and arriving 45 minutes later than I planned, we were off to pick up Jose, his wife Felicia, and, as it turned out, their 10 year old son. (Quick introduction: Jose is a leader in some of the work, is an aggressive witness, and has a heart to see people come to know the Lord.)

After driving to their house in Atenas we made the hour and a half trip to Caldera, on the Pacific coast, where we visited several families. This village is very poor, but the people are friendly and polite, and we had a good time making some new friends, talking about the Lord, and sharing some Bible passages...and, at one home, petting the pet pig. (small pig, actually got more affection than all the dogs laying around. Ran in and out of the house at will.)

One visit was particularly significant. We were actually looking for a family that had been contacted earlier by a volunteer group, but "happened" upon another family. The young mother was a Christian, but her husband wasn't. At their invitation, we went into the house and sat in the plastic chairs that are so popular there. (No doubt because they are so cheap...but very comfortable.) Jose and Steve, with an occasional comment from me, began to tell the young man about Jesus. However no sooner had they begun than a guy next door...(pause for explanation...Next door is like 5 feet away...nothing between him and us except a board wall.)..anyway, a guy next door began to do karaoke...very loud, very off key. This choral offering evidently inspired the rooster outside the window, and he joined in. So now we have the wannabe crooner completely lost in his off key concert, which gets louder with each offering, the rooster, and, oh. Did I mention that the house is only a few meters away from the highway? Trucks, etc.

Well, either the people who live there are used to all the racket or God just shut out all that other stuff. I don't know which, but somehow through all that, the young man seemed to understand the gospel and accepted Christ as his savior.

Good day.

Catching up

Well, it's been a few days since I posted...so I'm going to summarize a few things to try and catch up.

One of our missionaries recently was working with a volunteer group from the U. S. He and a couple of them were witnessing to man who was deaf...or at least trying to. His wife came in the room and they immediately began talking to her instead of the man. After a while she prayed to accept Christ. They had virtually ignored the man while talking to her. At this point the man spoke up and said, "I want to accept Jesus too." A miracle of hearing? Don't know, but certainly possible. At any rate, two more people entered the kingdom.

We don't know whether to be disappointed or rejoice. We were excited when a group came through Llano Grande passing out announcements that they were going to begin having a "culto" (worship service) on Sundays there in Llano Grande. We have been praying for a church to begin there for some time. Of course, we were thinking that it would be from a result of "our" efforts, not some other group. No matter. God answers prayers in His own way.

We thought that the group was from a Baptist church we are familiar with down the mountain in another town. The name was the same...Palabra de Vida. (Word of Life) Well, last Thursday the Bible study leader told us he had invited the man leading the new service to come to our Bible study. He came, but we found out that in reality, he is Methodist, not Baptist.

Now we are faced with our own biases and conflicts of belief, be they slight. Most new believers wonder why there are so many different "religions" among Christians. Sometimes that is a difficult question to answer. I am glad, however, to be a Baptist, although there is no doubt that many people of other groups love the Lord and know Him well.

We had a nice visit with the Methodist man and praised the Lord together and agreed that the Bible is the basis of all true belief.

Speaking of which....Mitzi had an interesting conversation this past week. Several ladies were discussing the Bible and Christianity. One, a Catholic, stated that she had decided to read the Bible to find out just what was and wasn't in there that she had been taught. By doing that she had discovered that she could pray directly to Jesus and didn't have to go through Mary. She mentioned that she didn't find the rosary anywhere in the Bible, and several other things convinced her that she should read the Bible for herself and follow its teachings.

Another lady, staunchly Catholic, remarked that she respected the Bible, but that there was more than the Bible, indicating that subsequent teachings of the church and church leaders could, and did, supercede the Biblical teachings.

Problem is, when that begins to actually contradict the Bible, where is the true authority? If the Bible is divinely inspired, "God breathed", as 2 Timothy 3:16 says, why does man need to add anything or change anything?

Therein lies the reason we are here. Yes, the people here have the Bible, but they don't read it and don't know what it says. They do not know of a salvation by grace, but rather have a series of "works" that are required to have even a chance of heaven, and then it's not certain. There is little praise of God, but much for Mary, saints, and, Ok...I might as well say it, the Pope.

Speaking of which...without saying anything about the particular man who just died...isn't it interesting that even the Pope has to have the prayers of people to hopefully make it to heaven.

I think I'd rather depend on the grace of God and the provision of the Savior, Jesus Christ and the promise we have of eternal life through him.