After lunch and grubs we went back to the school room where we would be completing the lessons for the community. The plan was to start at 1:00 pm and finish 3 lessons by 5:00 or 5:30. We ended up waiting another hour and a half for folks from the neighboring community to show up. The two communities are about a 30-45 minutes walk apart and we didn't want to start without everyone. I ended up starting with a re-cap of the last month's 5 lessons, which gave some time for the others to show up.
After the people from Jandiayaku (the other village) showed up we began with the lessons. It was a privilege for me to be able to share the story of Nicodemus coming to Jesus at night and Jesus telling Nicodemus that he must be born again. Although a spiritual re-birth is a pretty heavy theological subject, it was easy to draw many contrasting parallels for the people of the village. In the story, you probably remember, Nicodemus is supposed to be a teacher of the law, but he doesn't understand God's grace. He wants to rely on his "jewishness" being a son of Abraham, being a pharisee, at least on the outside complying with all the laws. The contrasting parallel for the folks in Masaramu and Jandiayaku is that God isn't concerned with any of those things. He's looking for an inside change. God isn't just God of the rich or the beautiful, or the white missionaries, or those who seem to have it together. He's God of all and He wants a relationship with us. He wants a relationship that isn't based on those things that Nicodemus was hung up on, but on His grace through His Son.
Because of the late start we only got two lessons done on the first day. The folks from Jandiayaku had to leave by 5:30 or they would be walking in the jungle after dark. Even folks from the jungle don't like to be out there after dark. I can't say that I blame them!
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| This wound is on a boy's leg. It's from a sand fly bite and called Leishmaniasis, and can be very serious. We arranged for medicine to be sent in to treat it. Look it up on the web, it's pretty nasty! |
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| Thankfully for me, the kids loved it when I got the camera out. After each series of photos they would swarm around me to see each picture on the screen. |
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| Some of the ladies that came from Jandiayaku to hear God's word. |
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| Me, trying not to sweat too much on my Bible and notes. |
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| Wilson sharing a snack in the middle of the lessons. |
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