Working for the Big Guy

This past Thursday God amazed me….

My partner in crime, Edward, on of the Peruvian Bible workers, had decided to go into the next town to visit some families. That left me wondering what I should do for the afternoon. I really wanted to just sit down and write out some lessons plans, but I did not think that my boss would be too excited about that, so I forced myself to fill up my water bottle and headed out into the heat. The day before we had promised this one girl about my age that I would come and visit her the next day, so I figured that was a good place to start. Well, when I got there, I found out that she was not there at the time, but I started talking with the older guy who was there. At first we talked the weather, then politics, and then we started discussing religious beliefs. The first thing the man brought up was eating meat and such and I figured that he was going to be one of those people who ask you a question and then when you cannot give adequate responses in Spanish, they wham you with a bunch of Bible verses. But this was not the case with this guy, he actually invited me to come sit down and talk. With nothing else to do, I accepted the invitation.

Ends up the guy used to live in Iquitos and had talked with David Gates once upon a time so he was slightly familiar with Adventism. I am not normally one who likes to talk directly to people about my religion; I am definitely more about showing people God’s love through action. So as I started conversing with this guy I sent up a quick prayer to God asking Him for wisdom and the words to speak in Spanish! Well, three hours later our conversation ended. We talked about everything from marriage, divorce, personal testimony, taking care of our bodies, dancing, the Sabbath, we covered it all! Several people came in while we were talking and listened in as well. It was crazy! I was amazing first of all that this guy seemed so open to so many Adventist ideas, and secondly because we had conversed for all of that time on varying subjects with no problems! Needless to say, that when I left I was on cloud nine.

Next, I rushed off to meet with Edward for a Bible study. That evening we studied the Sabbath with an Evangelical family, quite a touchy subject. At the end though, the husband spoke to us. He told us that the lesson was beautiful, then he went on to tell us about a dream that he had recently. Ends up before we had come he had a dream about God telling him to guard the day of rest. In his dream, God also had given him the name Edward…..as I heard this, I got goose bumps. I remembered back to our first day when we had stopped to visit the family to ask if they wanted Bible studies, Jehovah Witness style. The had not looked friendly, but when we stopped to talk and Edward had explained who we were and introduced ourselves, they had warmed up immediately. Since then we had been studying with the whole family, all six kids included! As we finished up the Bible study, I was once again up in the clouds.

The stories for the day were not over yet though…As Edward and I were walking back to the house for supper, he also shared something else with me. As he had been giving Bible studies in the next town, Bellen, he had a touching interaction as well. When he had been studying with a mother and daughter, the daughter began crying throughout the whole study. Afterwards, Edward asked her if she was okay. She pulled him off to the side and told him the story that as a young girl she had been beaten and raped several times. She had never told her mom. She felt worthless and lost. Edward explained to her that God could help her through this and asked her if she wanted that. She agreed and Edward offered more comfort…another door opened to spread God’s love.

This past Thursday God amazed me…I can’t wait to see what else He has in store!