Sunday 11/7/10 6:13am
Last night Jorge brought Vicente over to speak with us. Vicente is the school teacher here in the village. Brandon asked him several worldview questions. His answers were very enlightening. He said that when the first harvest comes in the village gets together and drinks this stuff that causes them to hallucinate and see spirits. If they see the Boa then it is the keeper of the plant, not sure what that is about. hey dance around and celebrate. Jorge does not see a problem with this.
They are married when a young man and woman like each other and they go to their parents and tell them and that day they are considered a couple. They do not perform a ceremony but they see them as married even though they may be too young by the laws of the land. There were many questions so we have them written down in our worldview report. We will get more answers today possibly from Sebastian. Pedro told us last night that Jorge told him after our meeting that he did not want us to be here. He feels threatened by our presence. This is true spiritual warfare.
“God in heaven, please give Brandon the wisdom today and discernment. Allow your Holy Spirit to move mightily in this village. The gates of hell cannot prevail against your Kingdom. It is your desire that every tongue stand before your throne and worship you. So for your name’s sake work today, cause your enemies and our enemies to stumble in their words. Give your servants favor before Sebastian and the Maijuna people so that your truth will go forth here, that the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ will penetrate this land. Amen!”
Jorge had a “church” service last night but we were not invited. They sang songs for about 45 minutes and then he began preaching. And of course he preached on the Holy Spirit and the power and filling. It was basically a war cry as at one point he screamed “I will not shut up, I will not stop talking about it.” He was rallying the troops. No worries though…I serve a great God who does not need me to do such things.
It began to rain last night, Praise the Lord! It really cooled things off. When it started raining we came back to our place and sat around praying. The Lord is good! Pedro said he prayed Ps. 2:8, that the Lord would give him the nations…to send him to Africa…but then the Lord reminded him he has mountains here that need to be climbed and reached. I was encouraged. It rained a lot last night. Thank the Lord for his grace in sending the rain. Well it is morning and time to get moving out of this tent.
9:36 am
We are just haning out, visiting and reading. I was very moved by 2 Samuel 24:25 “…God was moved by prayer for the land.” “God please hear our prayer for this land we are standing on today. May your word pierce the hearts of every man, woman and child here in Sucusari. For your glory!”
4:16 pm
The Lord is great! His mercy endures forever! The Lord has moved greatly today. We met with Sebastian and learned so much. Where do I start? He is the last Maijuna of this village that speaks and writes Maijuna. Is that incredible or what? The last one and God has brought us here at this time to learn their language. The Lord heard our prayers and Sebastian told us that he is the one who says whether someone is welcome here or not and we are welcome! Yahoo…praise the LOrd! The Lord has given us favor. He told us that they were taught salvation by faith alone but then Jorge taught them they needed to be baptized and filled with the Spirit in order to be saved.
8:17pm
I did not get to finish earlier because we went to Sebastian’s house to take a picture of his family. Then we went to his kids house to take pictures. So back to my earlier conversation…
They have now been taught two ways and they just want to know the truth of what the Scriptures say. We found out that a man from the U.S. (Virginia?) came here from the University of Miami to live with the Maijuna’s to help them keep their (lands) as he wrote his doctoral thesis on them. His name is Michael. A guy named Jerry from Iquitos knows how to get in touch with Michael. We are going to get his research to help with our worldview research. There is also a Maijuna who lives in the U.S. but we have to follow up on his information. The guy Daniel Bellie, who is the linguist that translated some of the Bible and did the c.d’s has died but his son came down at the request of the Maijuna’s with Michael. He gave them the books for teaching the kids the Maijuna language. Now we have them. This will be very useful as we try to learn their language. We are also going to make copies of the c.d’s.
Before I forget…Sebastian gave us Maijuna names while we were there. My name is Mateto Dei. It means “big melon or fruit.” Dei is Sebastian’s last name. Gerald’s name is Chichibi Dei which means “crazy raccoon” (he got that because he told them he used to ride bulls. Brandon’s name is Boiyo Dei which means “Big white bird.” The Dei at the end of each name is the last name of the chief, Sebastian. he has adopted us as his sons and gave us his last name. Pretty cool stuff…even though they called me a big melon head. Ha!
Sebastian spent a lot of time with us answering worldview questions. When we were done we learned more about their culture and his desire for the word of truth to be taught. He actually said that he does not know what the benefit is of speaking in tongues when those who do it do not have a changed lifestyle…it they keep doing the same sinful things.
After the interview we went and took pictures of the families. Then we went with Vacente to the school and he got us copies of the books. Oh, we found out that they are going use this community center for a school. They have about 30 kids in the village. We met a very smart kid today, which it turns out that his aunt is where Brandon’s house church meets in Iquitos. He has seen Brandon at the Miller’s.
Well it finally rained again so I went to the gutter that leaks around back and took a very cold refreshing shower. I am so excited about what the Lord is doing here. I know the spiritual warfare is really just beginning but the Lord is on our side and he will prevail. This must be bathed in prayer like we have never prayed befeore. The Lord is surely working here…we just need to join him. Well its bed time again. Plans are changing a littel but not sure the extent yet. I will know more tomorrow. We pull out of here at 7am. Oh we bought some tribal heads that they make and sell here in the village. I am so ready to go home now. It was like a great weight lifted after the meeting today and the mission was set. Now it is time to go home and see my family whom I miss greatly. I can’t wait to see them. I am listening to one of their favority songs on the Passion album “Say It.” I can hear them singing it really loud in the car. I got to stop before I cry…Can’t wait to get home!
