I Hate To Do This to You...

Yesterday morning I was awakened by dogs barking and basically going crazy at the front window of our house. Even though I heard it, I just laid there like I didn’t hear a thing (don’t tell MJ- she just thinks I’m a heavy sleeper). Someone was at our house. MJ was already up and in the kitchen making coffee and I could hear that she had gone out to see who it was. After a few minutes she came back in the bedroom (where I was fake-sleeping) and said, “I hate to do this to you... but” and then she went into the story.

It seems that the principal of the Elementary School was at our house. Not because one of our kids had done something wrong (they’re not enrolled yet, otherwise that would be a strong possibility) but because she needed our help. Her husband is an alcoholic and is also very abusive. I had actually prayed for her a couple of weeks ago (that’s us in the picture praying) when we were ministering at the school and now she was here and in desperate need of our help. She wanted us to go get Brad (my brother-in-law) and for all of us to go with her to her house and pray for her husband who went on a drunken rampage the night before. He had hit her and had supposedly thrown some furniture around and she didn’t know what to do next.

So I got up out of bed and put pants on (because pants is usually recommended for this kind of stuff) and went outside to see her. And all before my 1st cup of coffee... awesome: )

When I got outside I hugged her and she just held me tight and wept. You could definitely feel her despair. We talked for a few minutes then we called Brad on the radio and he came to pick us up. We travelled off our mountain, down the highway, and onto another mountain. As we travelled deep back into the jungle we were amazed at how many houses and people lived there. We had never even known that this part of Terra Boa even existed. More people to reach... yesss!

When we got to her house her husband had barricaded himself in the bedroom as he was trying to sleep off his drinking binge from the night before. She proceeded to break into the room while we sat there. The house (actually it was a shack) was very small and unsanitary. We were all just looking around at everything (I was actually looking for an escape route in case he came in with a gun or something) and trying to take-in the environment while we prayed quietly to ourselves.

She was eventually able to get him up and into the kitchen where we were waiting. He was very reluctant to speak at first because he thought we were the police. But after we talked for a while (and after his 100th cigarette) He seemed less irritated. Then he offered us coffee in these little mason jars. As soon as he handed it to me Brad and I looked at each other and I know we were thinking the same thing... “oh crap! Do we have to drink this?” So I just looked at Brad and said out loud, “and if they drink anything deadly it shall by no means harm them” (see how I snuck in the Mark 16 reference? pretty spiritual, huh?) and then down the hatch it went. For all we knew this guy could have been mad that we were there and this could have been his way of retaliating... kill the missionaries with liquid “whatever-that-stuff-was.” That’s over the top, I know. Sorry, my mind tends to wander.

We spoke to him for another hour about Jesus and the Gospel, prayed over him and then left. Even though no decision was made by him to follow Jesus, I know for certain that God was and will continue to pursue and wrestle with that man. Please pray that He will.

The thing that stuck with me about the situation though is the fact she came and wanted “us” to help. And it’s not like we’re easy to get to either. But she knew that we were there and would be willing to help. Brad and Carolyn (my brother-in-law and sister-in-law) have definitely done a great job, over the last 2 years, of building a great reputation for the Kingdom here in Terra Boa. It’s really an honor to be here. Seriously. As much as we complain and as difficult as it is, we wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.

UPDATE

A few weeks ago we shared with you, here on the blog, about the ministry facility that we’ve been given here in the town of Terra Boa to start a church in. Well, it’s been raining for over a week so construction came to a screeching halt until the rain passed. But now that it has, the inside has been completely gutted, a new roof is going on today, and hopefully the bathrooms and a new floor will be poured with the next 2 weeks. It’s getting close! Keep praying for us because this will be the 1st evangelical church planted here in this part of the mountains of Terra Boa. It's still blows my mind to think that of all the people in the world... God chose our family to be the ones to do it (The Dunn's-Atkinson's & Moore's). Amazing: )

We Love You Guys!

Jim and MJ