We sat at a well worn wooden table in a dimly lit house sharing with two Mapuche women. Angelica is the mother of a student from the school where I teach religion class and the other is her neighbor Felicia, who accepted Christ last year. Both are very interested in studying the Bible with us but their husbands are a different story. Our focus is to reach families and not isolate individuals in the Christian life thus, the approval of the husbands is very important to us. Friday ,when we went to ask if they had talked with their husbands, their discouraged faces showed the answer. Neither husband was interested and Angelica's husband had firmly told her "No." We talked for a while and agreed to pray with them about the situation. We also said we would be back to visit on Monday (a holiday) with the hope of personally meeting the husbands.
Monday when we arrived, Angelica was chopping wood and Felicia was in the house. Felicia motioned from her kitchen window to come in. She welcomed us in but her husband was out by the river cutting fire wood. She prepared coffee and served us a boiled egg and fried bread. As we ate we talked. Her eyes sparkled with joy as she talked about God. She said it is common for people to talk about everything except the most important thing, God. Her husband returned with a wagon full of wood and Chad went outside to help him unload it. He returned with 4 more loads and Chad helped every time. He wasn't much into talking but appreciated Chad's help as they worked side by side. Relationships are started with simple acts of kindness.
Afterwards, we visited Angelica's house. Her husband also was taking advantage of a day without rain and was off cutting fire wood. She shared that she had been listening to the CDs we had given her. The CDs had 21 New Testament stories. She loved them and wanted to know if we had anything else she could listen to. Her husband normally will change the radio station from Christian programming to something else when he enters the house but for the last few days he has been listening to the Bible stories with Angelica. As a result of this, he has given permission for Angelica to study with us and he might be willing to listen in. The power of prayer!
This Wednesday we visited Felicia again and what a great visit! Monday we had left a copy of the God Story DVD in Spanish and in Mapudugun. By today, she has already watched it with her family and shared it with 2 others and sent the Spanish copy to school with her daughter so they can watch it there! She told us, "I have so many neighbors I want to share this with. If I am saved and I don't share the gospel with others that are lost, what is that worth?" We left a cassette copy of the book of Mark in Mapudugun. She was thrilled. "I am first going to share this with my mother-in-law. It is hard for many to understand the Bible but this is in Mapudugun. She will be so exited to hear it!"
Please pray with us for this new community and for the teacher and students at the school. Please pray for Angelica and Felicia and that the hearts of their husbands will be softened to the evangelical message. Please pray for their family and their extended family that all live near by. Please pray for Margarita, an elderly neighbor, with no family that stops by each time we visit. She is very hard of hearing (nearly deaf) and has an ear infection in her better ear. Pray for healing and that she will be able to hear the message of Jesus. Pray for transformed lives and transformed communities through the Discovery Bible Study that we hope to start soon.
Thank you for your prayers and partnering with us.
Chad and Ruthanne Lynch
