NTM

Guanano Church Planting Team Lindy and Carol Drake, Barry and Denise Spor
June 2009

Praise: Mario and Getulio, Guanano Bible teachers, have gained some good experience. They have taught the first 8 lessons of the 68 lesson series From Creation to Christ. They are growing more comfortable standing before a group and teaching without being glued to the paper lesson. As they have taught the stories of the creation of the world and the creation of the first man and woman, they have majored on the goodness, loving kindness and greatness of God. Pray: Teaching anything is hard work. Time must be set aside to prepare and think the material through so that the presentation of truth is clear and concise. Getulio said, "I get on my bike and sell bread door to door all over town. By late afternoon when I get home I’m tired. But I try to sit down and study the Bible lesson some time before I go to bed. About 4:00 am, when I can’t sleep anymore, I get up and prepare to go out on my bread selling route again. But before I go, I sit down and study the lesson some more. Do you suppose God is pleased with me?" I was a little surprised by his question. These guys have come out of such a rough background. They have been beaten down by Satan and told over and over again they are bad. In many ways they have confirmed that evaluation over and over again by the way they lived. What a change the Gospel has made in Getulio’s life! It was my privilege to encourage him. "What you are doing demonstrates to God that you think his Message is important. So important in fact, that you are giving up other things in order to be able to teach it to others. You are doing what he has asked you to do, and I think He is very pleased with you!"

Praise: We finished teaching the believers the book of Revelation. Now they have heard the whole story: how things got started and how they are going to end. They are encouraged with the good things that are ahead for them, and concerned about the fate of their friends and relatives who fail to trust Christ as they have. That’s a pretty good perspective for them to have.

Praise: Translated portions of the Old Testament from Leviticus to Judges are in the hands of Larry Richardson, the consultant, who will begin content and comprehension checks soon. Verification is in process on the book of Exodus.

Praise: We are in Manaus, on our way to Kansas City to attend Kelly’s pinning ceremony at the end of RN training. We are going to be together there with all three of our girls, along with Kelly’s husband Andrew, and our grandson Xander. Xander will celebrate his 4th birthday while we are home. How cool is that? We will also be in NY for five days to visit my Mom and my brothers Les and Lyell and their families. Carol will also get to see her sisters and their families. Pray: that we don’t get hurt with all the hugging and kissing going on.

Praise: Barry and Denise, our coworkers, in our absence, are receiving a work team headed up by their son, Evan. The church group is coming from Wisconsin. They are going to build a system for pumping well water to our houses. Until now we have depended on rain water. Fortunately, since we live in a rain forest, we have seldom lacked water but we would like to be able to have a clean source of drinking water. Pray: for safety, that the team will adjust to the different climate and culture and that their interest in missions will be refueled by their experiences.

Pray: When we return to Brazil in mid-July, there will be big changes in store for us. Barry and Denise are going home to the USA on a one year furlough the end of this month. They are extending that by an extra year in order to help their youngest son Austin. During the next two years, his junior and senior years of high school, they will be helping him make the adjustments from being an MK living overseas with his parents to being an independent adult in the United States. We will have our own adjustments to make here without the Spors. However it’s time to rely more on the Guananos and time for them to rely more on the Lord. This will create the perfect opportunity for both of us to do just that.

Thank you for your participation in the Guanano work through prayer.

Guanano Church Planting Team: Lindy and Carol Drake, Barry and Denise Spor     September 2008

Praise

We successfully completed a 3 week course on Discourse Analysis along with many of our Brazilian coworkers. Why is this important? We want to tell God’s stories in the same way they tell their fishing and hunting stories. How do they differentiate between background information and the main point? How do they keep track of who’s doing what to whom? How do they keep the story moving forward without getting bogged down in unnecessary detail? How much new information can you introduce in each sentence without overloading? We have studied these things in the past. But this subject is so complex, we can always learn new things which will make us better Guanano storytellers.

Because of this course, we have been in Manaus since early August. This made it possible for us to meet the boat which brought 500 Guanano New Testaments which had been printed in Colombia. These New Testaments are a revision of the first version printed in 1987 and a result of the lifetime commitment and hard work of Nate and Carolyn Waltz of Wycliffe Bible Translators. We were able to pick up 30 boxes and move them immediately to another boat which will carry them upriver to São Gabriel. What a blessing these New Testaments will be to the Guanano church! What a tool God has put in Guanano hands to read and learn more about the wonderful God who loves them and gave Himself for them!

Pray

I wish we could live on the mountain top without ever coming down, but God’s people also walk in sad and lonely places. This past month, Delfina gave birth to a stillborn baby girl. They buried her right next to Paula, their 8 year old daughter who drowned last year. Moses and Delfina are struggling. They had resisted the advice of friends and neighbors to chant and blow tobacco smoke over the mother and baby to hide the birth from dangerous fish and animal spirits. Instead, they depended on the Lord, the Giver and Sustainer of Life. Now they will hear the harsh criticism that comes from the heart of Satan himself, "You killed your baby. It’s your fault. You should have chanted." We don’t know why the Lord would allow such a thing to happen. We have asked the Lord to show his awesome goodness and power to His Guanano people so that their faith (confidence in Him) is strengthened, and their roots grow down deep into his love. He has put Moses and Delfina on a platform for all the Guanano world to see. How will they respond? Will they cling to the Lord in faith in the midst of great pain and suffering? Will they demonstrate before all that they are following the Lord, not because of the good things they get out of it, but because He is God? How would you respond? Please pray for them.

The second act of this story is about to unfold. Mario and Nilsa are about to have their first baby. Nilsa is 15 and unsaved. Her entire family is unsaved. They are certainly expecting Nilsa to seek their help in carrying out the customary chanting and rituals during this time of childbirth. Mario is encouraging his wife to trust the Lord alone. What must they be thinking now? It certainly seems as if the Lord has undercut Mario’s position and made it impossible to defend. What will they do? Please pray for them.

We are heading home tomorrow. Lord willing, we will be with the believers on Sunday morning. We want to encourage them and strengthen them to stand firm against this onslaught of discouragement and unbelief. Please pray for us.

Thank you for your participation in the Guanano work through prayer.

Praise: A year has passed since Moses and Delfina’s 8 year old daughter Paula drowned while taking a bath in the river in front of our house. It was a horrible day for all of us, but especially for her parents. In church, Delfina gave this testimony: "As I stood by Paula’s grave, many thoughts came to mind. Sometimes I get angry with God for letting such a thing happen to us. We worship him, we try to do what he says, he is our heavenly Father, how come this happened to us? But then I remember his words to Adam. ‘Don’t eat the fruit of that tree. The day you eat it you will die.’ They disobeyed God, and just as he said, they died. Because of their disobedience, we sin, we get sick, we die today. It is happening just like God said. God doesn’t lie. In this world there is much suffering. And then I think of how God sent his son Jesus to rescue us from the suffering. The innocent one, bearing our sin, suffered so much himself. He was beaten, whipped, insulted, nailed to a cross, and as he hung there, they screamed at him, "If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross." He could have come down, but he didn’t. He suffered like that to rescue us from this world of sin and suffering, and to take us to a land where there is no pain, no hurt, no crying. When I think of that, my joy returns."

Pray: Delfina is about to give birth again. They don’t know if it will be a boy or girl. How nice it would be to have a little girl. Her two oldest are young ladies now, followed by 4 little boys. Please pray for a safe delivery.

Praise: Barry has been teaching 1 Thessalonians. According to the record in Acts, Paul was only in Thessalonica 3 weeks before riots forced him to move on to other cities. And yet Paul praises them in this letter, that despite severe persecution, their faith was real. Their witness of the Gospel was having an impact, not only in their city but in the entire region of Macedonia and Achaia where they lived. They had turned from their idols of wood and stone to serve a living God in the power of the Holy Spirit, and everyone was talking about it! The impact of their lives and testimony continues today, even on the Guanano church. The believers keep saying, "They accomplished all that, and they only had three weeks teaching? Certainly we can do more."

Pray: The Guanano believers have suffered little for their faith, other than some nasty comments from their relatives and friends. Even so, that has been sufficient for the most part to keep them quiet about what they believe. Please pray that they may be moved by faith and love for others, produced by the Holy Spirit, to become a dynamic witness for Christ in this town.

Praise: We sat down with some of the military commanders here to hear what their perspective might be regarding our return to Colombia. They were kind, professional and very helpful. They assured us they had no information which would make such a trip unreasonable. We have received similar news from friends who have interviewed Colombian military leaders as well. We are looking at an open door the Lord has set before us.

Pray: We aren’t quite sure how to organize a visit to Colombia while we are working full time in teaching and Bible translation here. We will need a larger boat and motor to carry the gas and a month’s worth of food and supplies. We will need to take others with us who know the river and how to get through the dangerous rapids. Who? What? When? How? We need the Lord’s help.

Praise: We have received word that the revision of the Guanano New Testament, done by Nate and Carolyn Waltz of SIL, has been printed and is ready for shipping from Bogota to Brazil.

Pray: The shipping process is a little complicated. Please pray that these new Bibles will be in Guanano hands soon.

Thank you for your participation in the Guanano work through prayer.

Praise: We have made good progress on Old Testament translation, mostly in Exodus with portions from Leviticus thru Judges. I am especially grateful for Mario’s daily help. He continues to develop a translator’s mind for detail. I would be lost without him.

Praise: We have completed teaching 1 Timothy. This month we will teach Titus. The emphasis continues to be on the leadership in the church: how leaders are chosen, what qualifications they need, how to honor them, how to discipline them when necessary. Pray: Please pray that God may engift various ones in the church to lead. We will need his help in leadership training. There is much to do in this area before we can call our work complete.

Pray: This past week I asked Mario to help me teach the book of Titus. We sat down for 3 hours, read through the book, and went over how we would teach chapter 1. Then he politely informed me that he would be glad to help me teach the unsaved, but he is learning these things for believers for the very first time, along with everyone else. He didn’t feel he could stand in front of everyone and act as if he knew this material well. Fair enough. It has been my experience in ministry that when the Lord puts his hand on someone to teach, he fills that man’s heart with His message and a burning desire to deliver it. We have yet to observe this kind of desire in anyone other than Gustavo. We need God’s help to identify the men he is preparing to lead the Guanano church in the future.

Pray: We continue to need God’s wisdom for a possible trip back to Colombia. The believers there are in great need of consistent teaching and discipleship. It seems that there is more liberty to travel in Colombia than there has been for many years. We certainly want to take advantage of this window of opportunity.

Thank you for your participation in the Guanano work through prayer.

We are teaching through the book of Titus. Tomorrow we will be in chapter 2 where Paul encourages Titus to instruct the various age groups in the church to live in such a way as to bring honor to the Lord and His teaching. What stands out in these particular verses is that the older ladies are encouraged to train the younger ladies how to love their husbands and children, to be pure, to work at home, to be kind, and to be submissive to their husbands. This stood out to me because you can’t train anyone like this without using the Word of God, and we don’t have anyone at this point teaching the word of God in public meetings, other than we missionaries.

So I suggested to the group of believers that we divide up into small groups after the teaching. I asked Moises to lead the group that doesn’t speak Guanano. Moises speaks Cubeo and Spanish. I asked Mario to lead a group of young men, and I asked Kiri and Delfina, Moses’ wife, to lead a group of ladies. I explained the purpose of dividing up would be to discuss what had just been taught, and to share personal prayer requests more intimately than we can in the larger group. I wanted to give Moses and Delfina, Mario and his sister Kiri some experience in actually using what they were learning from the Word of God to train and encourage others.

But it didn’t happen like I’d planned. When it came time to divide up into small groups, a major crises developed over where they would go. The problem, it turns out, was not that there was not sufficient space for three separate groups, but that they didn’t really want to divide up in the first place. The experiment wasn’t a total loss. Mario shared his testimony with the entire group: "For a long time my life style did not match what I was learning from God. I was a drinker and I caused my family much grief. I was embarrassed before the Lord because I knew things were not right. I prayed that he would give me the desire to be what he wanted me to be. God is answering that prayer. I am married now and very happy with my wife. I have experienced God’s work in my life. Like seeds planted in a garden finally produce fruit, I sense there has been some progress in my life."

Delfina took an original approach and with paper and pencil drew a sketch of what she was understanding from the teaching … how God taught Paul, Paul taught Titus, Paul left Titus on Crete to teach others, as soon as the believers there grew in God’s ways Titus was to appoint leaders and move on. You would have enjoyed seeing how she got all that into a picture she drew!

We are asking the Lord to raise up leaders for the Guanano church. This is an important step of progress in the growth of a maturing church. The book of 1 Timothy has been our textbook as we have looked at leadership in the church from God’s perspective. The believers are beginning to embrace God’s principle that how we live is as important as what we teach. When Paul says to Timothy that as a leader in the church he must be an example of LOVE, FAITH, PURITY, this message is beginning to resonate throughout the Guanano church. They have had the sad experience of trying to witness to their friends, but getting laughed out of town because they were still drinking in very public situations and failing morally on a frequent basis. Now they are growing in their awareness of how important the way they live really is. Regarding these things, Mario says, "We have never loved people before. And yet we find frequently in God’s book, the words, "Love each other." From the number of times we read this, we know it is important as far as God is concerned. And yet we’ve never had love like that. When someone else messes up, we say, "That’s his problem." We talk to each other any way we want without considering the consequences. We scold, we criticize, we yell, but we seldom love. God’s the only one who has the kind of love he’s talking about. He’s the only one who has that kind of purity. This is the only hope we have of becoming who he wants us to be. As we study His word, and obey and walk with Him, it becomes possible to us to have love and purity too."

We have a couple men in the Guanano church who seem to be qualified to be elders. They love God’s Word and his people. Their relationship with their wives is exemplary to all. But in the past, when they were young, sinning believers, they lived with other women. This is true across the board. How does God want us to apply his standard "husbands of one wife" as we think about appointing elders? Must we wait for this generation to pass, and a second generation of more obedient Guanano believers to grow up before we can appoint elders? This first generation is learning how to obey and walk with God for the very first time. They have had no previous examples to follow. It has taken many years for them to understand that God did far more when he saved them than just deliver them from eternal condemnation. He made them "alive with Christ" so that they might cherish what He cherishes and be part of his forever family. We need God’s wisdom to recognize who He is engifting and providing to lead the Guanano church. Thank you for your prayers.

Praise: Barry had a phone conversation with Gustavo. He gave us a very positive report concerning the work of God among the Guananos where we used to live in Colombia. Gustavo is now village leader, and he has encouraged the entire village, believers and unbelievers, to give up weekend drinking parties which are so deeply ingrained in Guanano culture. He says the village has been dry since December, and there are fewer inter-family quarrels since they started living this way. He is using the NTM From Creation to Christ curriculum in a Bible study for unbelievers. They are currently in the story of Joseph at the end of Genesis.

Pray: I can imagine how this change of lifestyle has impacted nearby Guanano villages and beyond. This has never been done before in a Guanano village. Everyone is certainly watching to see if this change is a good one or a bad one, whether it will last, or crash and burn. If the Lord saves more village members, and they join the small group of believers who are taking this kind of stand, then their position will certainly be strengthened against the weight of tradition and culture. Please pray that the Lord would protect this small band of Christ followers and help them to win and to hold new ground against the spiritual darkness.

Praise: We are teaching the book of Titus. The believers are growing. There has been progress in their understanding of how important it is to live the Gospel, not just believe it.

Pray: Soon we will be teaching 1 and 2 Thessalonians and then Revelation. God wants us to know what he has in store for us in the future and how his salvation story ends. He hasn’t taken all the mystery out of it. We can still study Revelation and scratch our heads and wonder, "What does that mean?" But the big issues are clear. Satan loses. We win, because we belong to Jesus. Pray that the believers will be encouraged in the midst of their daily struggles here. "Look up! Your redemption is near at hand!"

Pray: This past month was party month in this Brazilian town as many saints are honored on their special day. Delfina has two young teenage daughters, Maggy 13 and Irley 14. In school, all of their friends were super excited about getting out of school and going to a party with their boyfriends. One told Maggy, "It’s fun to drink with the others. It doesn’t matter if I get pregnant, my Mom will take care of the baby." Of course, Maggy and Irley received many invitations from their friends to get in on the fun. Tempting, but they came straight home. They talked with Delfina about what their friends were saying and doing. It was an opportunity for Delfina to reinforce for them what they already knew. She told her girls: "God has made a great difference in our lives. For many years we lived however we wanted and we suffered terrible consequences for it. Now we belong to God and he has filled our hearts with joy and purpose. The path your friends have chosen may look like fun, but it will only lead to disaster and painful memories. Let’s be strong and walk in the light!"

Thank you for your participation in the Guanano work through prayer.

We are asking the Lord to raise up leaders for the Guanano church. This is an important step of progress in the growth of a maturing church. The book of 1 Timothy has been our textbook as we have looked at leadership in the church from God’s perspective. The believers are beginning to embrace God’s principle that how we live is as important as what we teach. When Paul says to Timothy that as a leader in the church he must be an example of LOVE, FAITH, PURITY, this message is beginning to resonate throughout the Guanano church. They have had the sad experience of trying to witness to their friends, but getting laughed out of town because they were still drinking in very public situations and failing morally on a frequent basis. Now they are growing in their awareness of how important the way they live really is. Regarding these things, Mario says, "We have never loved people before. And yet we find frequently in God’s book, the words, "Love each other." From the number of times we read this, we know it is important as far as God is concerned. And yet we’ve never had love like that. When someone else messes up, we say, "That’s his problem." We talk to each other any way we want without considering the consequences. We scold, we criticize, we yell, but we seldom love. God’s the only one who has the kind of love he’s talking about. He’s the only one who has that kind of purity. This is the only hope we have of becoming who he wants us to be. As we study His word, and obey and walk with Him, it becomes possible to us to have love and purity too."

We have a couple men in the Guanano church who seem qualified to be elders. They love God’s Word and his people. Their relationship with their wives is exemplary to all. But in the past, when they were young, sinning believers, they lived with other women. This is true across the board. How does God want us to apply his standard "husbands of one wife" as we think about appointing elders? Must we wait for this generation to pass, and a second generation of more obedient Guanano believers to grow up before we can appoint elders? This first generation is learning how to obey and walk with God for the very first time. They have had no previous examples to follow. It has taken many years for them to understand that God did far more when he saved them than just deliver them from eternal condemnation. He made them "alive with Christ" so that they might cherish what He cherishes and be part of his forever family. We need God’s wisdom to recognize who He is engifting and providing to lead the Guanano church. Thank you for your prayers.