We got to Amengual and it was just raining a little bit. I carried my tracts in a plastic bag so they wouldn't get wet. A lot of times when I go to a another town with gospel tracts I try to make it to every home in the village before leaving. I have a vision to evangelize every creature in our region and I believe the best way to do that is through every home. In my mind, the first phase is to take a gospel tract to every home (in a blitzing fashion where we just leave them under the door or on the gate), and then the second phase will be to slowly knock on every door in the region. Both of the phases will serve as a way to practically train Chilean men (along with academic training in a local church Bible institute) who will hopefully start churches in every concentrated population of our region (whether that is 50 or 15000 people). I say all of that, not necessarily to share my vision, but rather to say why Amengual was different. It was different because it was raining and I didn't want the papers to get wet. That isn't usually a problem because people always deliver things to homes by sticking them on the gate and then those things are collected everyday by the family (so weather is not really a concern as long as it isn't raining that specific day). So what we did in the homes of Amengual was call the people out to receive the tract. I don't remember anybody turning it down. There were probably about 100 inhabitants in the community. They also had a very nice gymnasium that seemed to be used for anything the community did. I believe it would be simple to freely use that gym for a night and have an evangelistic meeting. You could very easily promote the meeting and I actually believe that 75-100% of the town would come if not because they want to then strictly out of boredom. What an opportunity!
From Villa Amengual we headed towards La Tapera. I don't remember how long the drive was to each location. In La Tapera is a community of about 200 homes that is very isolated. You have to take dirt roads to get there and it isn't very far from the Argentinian border (nothing in Chile is for that matter). We took gospel tracts to every home while we were there. I split up with Yerko and Andres like we did in Amengual and took one side of La Tapera. While I was going door to door I met a kind old man named Lorenzo. Lorenzo is 94 years old, and he did not know what it was to be saved. His eyesight was so bad that he could not read a gospel tract. He insisted that I come inside and so we sat together and I asked him if I could explain what it meant to be saved. I spent about a half hour preaching to him the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. Here is a picture of him.
Men like Lorenzo...who will care for their soul? Imagine going somewhere in the world where you are so far isolated from everything else. That is where we are, we are in Coyhaique. In our region, Coyhaique is not isolated. On the contrary, Coyhaique is practically a metropolitan compared to the rest of our region. Now I know that 50,000 people (the population of our city) is by no means a metropolitan, but when typical communities in our region are closer to 500 or less inhabitants then Coyhaique is huge! Keep that in mind. Imagine now a man who lives in a community that is isolated from Coyhaique. That is Lorenzo. Lorenzo lives in a place that is isolated from isolation. Who will care for people like him? Did not Christ include Lorenzo when he said "preach the gospel to every creature"? You and I need to quit messing around and get the job done for love of Christ and for love of souls. I am definitely not the best example, but I am trying to do my part! Won't you join me by doing your part in your region? If you would like to read more of my thoughts on the evangelization of every creature in our generation then check out this entry on my other blog: http://goyeintoalltheworld.blogspot.com/2013/02/a-possible-command.html
Wow, what a vision. Praying for Lorenzo.
ReplyDelete-Ricki