Tag Archives: CMA

Softening hardened hearts – Bolivia

 

 

Samaritan’s Purse tells the story of Luis, a young boy living in Bolivia. His mother left him with his aunt when he was only three years old. After that, he was passed around from one relative to another, often being left alone while the adults worked, or looked for work. He ended up living on the streets when he was 12 where he found trouble with disreputable friends. His seemed to be a hopeless life, hardened by tough circumstances.

 

We saw this story played out a hundred fold when we were in Bolivia. Young children were left in the care of barely older siblings or left all alone while the mother worked and the father, if there was one around, was off for weeks at a time working in the coca fields.

 

imageWe had joined the CMA church’s outreach program in rural Las Lomas (Ushpa Ushpa). It was a place of dirt and rocks, adobe houses with tin roofs and straw stuck in rafters to keep out the wind. Clothes were set on the few bushes to dry. Water drums set outside the homes as the only source of water, and an outside adobe artisan oven, the source for cooking. Many homes had only curtains for doors. But through the darkness of hopelessness and despair, shines the light of hope, Jesus.
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The children we worked with were eager to practice their math, reading and writing skills in their outdoor ‘school.’ We communicated in our broken Spanish, but for many, the presence of a caring adult who cared for them communicated a special language of its own.

 

In addition to their academic work, the children sang bible songs, listened attentively to the bible stories.

 

And they prayed so fervently in their own words when we invited them to pray for their families and their future.

 

 

Luis was one of the fortunate ones whose life was touched by those who poured themselves into his life.  He says, “I didn’t have a relationship very near with God. Now I feel very close to God. I feel he lives in my heart.”

 

Will you take a moment to pray that Luis and the GLOW ministries with the other lost children of Bolivia will continue to pursue lives that honor Jesus, and not be hardened by harsh circumstances?  And will you pray also for our return to the Bolivian mission field this year?  Your prayers matter!

 

 

Meet Thuong

Like many of the relationships God is building here at the hospital, we met Thoung on one of our daily walks. With her permission, let us tell you about this remarkable young lady. (I say young lady because she reminds us she could be our daughter! 🙂

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Here, Thuong is pictured with her new friend, Marcia. Here at the hospital, it seems I live in an, “Everyone Loves Marcia” world… Sometime I am sort of the “side kick with cancer.” Which is quite understandable because she is after all, so utterly amazing. 🙂

Our relationship with Thuong began with smiles in the hallway and thanking her for the important job she has delivering supplies to all the rooms. This simple gesture has resulted in numerous visits with Thuong. Through these we learned how she escaped communist Vietnam as a teenager, how she met her husband in a refugee camp in the Philippines, how she has grown into adulthood in the United States. We have learned about her family and she about ours. As we begin to share our faith, she kindly tells us that she is Buddhist. And so on this basis, we begin our friendship.

Thuong has actually been ministering to us this past week, bringing us two delicious home-cooked Vietnamese meals to our room. (I have been so touched and humbled by hospitality of others. It spurs me on to be more intently sensitive to others.) When she came back to our room today after her shift ended, we learned more about this incredibly brave woman who speaks of leaving destructive country specific customs and forging NEW relationship patterns. (It is interesting to hear this gentle Buddhist lady speaking of such basic Christian truth, that we are not bound to our past, that new beginnings, in Christ, are available to us now.) We talked about God’s plan for the sanctity of marriage, calling on the Ephesians 5 passage about the Love and Respect husband and wife need to demonstrate to each other.

Without this “extra month” in the hospital we may have not had the opportunity to discover this chapter in our relationship with Thuong. We are very happy to get to know this remarkably kind, generous, brave, and compassionate woman, and look forward to many more visits. I wish the picture conveyed the brilliance of her warm smile.

Postscript: I am old enough to have lived through a number of Evangelistic campaigns and methods. Sadly, many of these seemed to be more concerned with befriending people with the primary purpose to convert them, but not to really love them. If you are a nonChristian reading this, I am guessing you may know what I mean. Yes, believing Christians are motivated by the great commission call to make disciples, baptize, and teach everything Jesus has taught us…and to do so with urgency, because we are not guaranteed another day on this earth. We believe that the choices and relationships we make effect eternity. But. . .

. . . over the years, it has seemed to me that we should let the love us Jesus shine in and through our lives, and let HIM touch others through us. Some relationships will last for a season or for a lifetime. Others will last for all eternity. It is Jesus who changes others, not us. We simply are called to love Him and love others in His name.

I’ll close with a quote from an Anglican bishop who decades ago wrote a personal letter to me advising:

“Let us remember to hold hands
as we climb the mountain of God together.”