January/February 2013
To the Uttermost Parts of the Earth
Well, we finally made it to the year 2013 and as I look at my calendar, I see the official day of spring is only about a month away! The Lord has been sooo incredibly good to us and has filled our work and lives with His presence. Thank you all so much for supporting us and praying for us as we labor in the harvest. As many of you know we took the boat out on its maiden voyage this month. A fellow missionary (Mark) and I got to the Rio (River) Curaray and I immediately realized that the water was awfully low. This particular river is only about the size of the Little Miami River in Ohio (maybe a little bigger), but leads to some of the most important Waorani villages. We decided to go for it anyway, because after all, that is what we had gone to do. After fighting shallow waters and difficult travel for over an hour, we realized that if we kept going we would only have that much more difficulty coming back up river. So, we reluctantly made the decision to turn around and try another day. We made good time coming back up-river and the paid truck that had dropped us off hours earlier was there waiting at the river (because they had just dropped someone else off there). This was incredible timing given the fact that we had expected to be spending the night out there. We actually made it home the same night and slept in the comfort of home!
When we did reach our home town, my preaching partner (Rick) picked us up at the bus station and said “Hey brother, do you want to go to the jungle with me in a couple of days to preach and pass out bibles? I have a couple of people that paid for a flight out to Sarayaku (a village in the jungle) with one seat open, so you don’t need to pay anything.” I started to see the Lord had a greater plan than I had! This is a Quichua village of about 1,000 people and almost no Christians, with a world famous witch doctor that keeps people in fear. Needless to say, Rick and I spent an amazing and exhausting time preaching from hut to hut throughout this jungle community and passed out dozens of bibles! It was clear the Lord was doing what He wanted to do.
Family that invited Rick and I to share the gospel with them in Sarayaku!
It seems like a lot of times when we run into hardships, trials, disappointments, and/or a change of plans, we believe it is because we are out of the will of God, but it often can mean we are exactly where He wants us to be. I am thinking of the apostle Paul on his journey to Jerusalem and later to Rome where history tells us he was martyred. On his way to Jerusalem in Acts 20:23-24, Paul says that he knows “bonds and afflictions abide me. 24 But none of these things move me…” Later as he was even closer in the city of Tyre (very close to Jerusalem) with every chance to turn back “there came down from Judaea a certain prophet, named Agabus. 11 And when he was come unto us, he took Paul's girdle, and bound his own hands and feet, and said, Thus saith the Holy Ghost, So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle, and shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles” (Acts 21:10-11). I am greatly encouraged and have great confidence that nothing that is happening here is by mistake. God is up to something big! Paul seems to have been led to the most powerful man in the land at the time (none other than Caesar) to testify of Jesus Christ!
I recently read a little article about the African gazelle. They say it can jump 10 ft. high and about 30 ft. long! When they put this same animal in a zoo with a 5 ft. high fence the gazelle just stays there. Why, you may ask? They say it will not jump to a place that it cannot see prior to jumping! Faith, I have learned over the years, is jumping into places that we cannot see, where we must trust God to take care of what is on the other side. I want faith that gives me the courage to jump, so that the small fences that attempt to hold me captive do not contain me! One of my fears is people will say “look at all the work they did for the Lord.” I long for God to do such a work that people say “look at what God did among them in Ecuador.” Pray the Lord would give me more boldness and faith to jump wherever He calls and I believe we will surely see what God will do!!!
ADDENDUM:
In news so very new that it didn't make it to our printed version of the newsletter, we'd like to ask for prayer for a very exciting step we may be taking in the next week or so. We have long thought and prayed about adopting a child, and it is quickly becoming a possible reality! On Tuesday, 2/12, Priscilla felt strangely led to email the director of the local mission orphanage, La Casa De Fe, to let her know that we'd be willing to foster a child younger than our Jude, with the hopes of adoption. We were explicit that the child must be adoptable (have full parental consent or abandonment), because we didn't want the child to be bonded with us and then taken away. The next morning, on Wednesday 2/13, the director, Patti Sue, called and notified Priscilla that she had coincidentally opened her email just as she was notified that a 2 month old baby was being released from the hospital later that day into the care of the orphanage! The little baby was born in an indigenous community in the jungle with a mild cleft palate and cleft lip, and as soon as he was born his mother rejected him (never once naming, even holding or breastfeeding him). We have taken it upon ourselves to name him Samuel if we get custody of him. The father of this baby attempted to feed him water boiled with plantain (essentially sugar water) but after 2 months time the baby's feeble state from malnutrition proved to be too overwhelming for him and he gave up trying. Essentially the parents left him for dead. The baby's aunt took it upon herself to travel the 5 (or so) hours to get the baby to our local hospital where she was able to also notify them of the parents' abandonment. When he was admitted to the hospital he weighed around 5 pounds and the staff thought he may have already been dead, but praise the Lord, he has a lot of fight in him! He now weighs about 7 pounds (less than a week later) and is strong enough to be cared for at the orphanage. Please pray with us as we will be going to talk with the parents and see if they want to sign over the legal rights of this child directly to us tomorrow (02/20/13), and that if God's will is for us to be his parents, that he would be able to come home with us. This process can happen very quickly here, so please pray for us as we prepare to take on a new child with his own special needs. Thank you for standing by us, and for loving us through so many transitions in the 2 years we've been here. We are blessed!
Andy & Priscilla DVarga Missionaries to Ecuador
