“May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance.”
~ 2 Thessalonians 3:5
Hi James and Ellen,
Are you praying every day for your grandmaa and grandpaa? Are you praying every day that the guys and gals who graduated from the two year rural resident Bible education and leadership training program that your grandmaa and grandpaa implemented in Concepción, Ñuflo de Chávez in Bolivia and from the forty course – thirty hours a course over two weeks, contextualized Bible education program in different communities in Guatemala will be able to freely and expeditiously spread the Good News message of what took place when Jesus was inhumanely hung and nailed to a cross until He died and then arose after being buried? Are you praying every day that guys, gals and kids who have accepted the Good News message through having made a decision of faith will always honor and obey the truths of God’s message of hope? A missionary – Tad Ramstad, who was a missionary with South America Mission for two terms with your grandmaa and grandpaa and who – along with his wife Carla, taught a two week module each trimester at the rural resident Bible education and leadership training program when your grandmaa and grandpaa were administrating it, sent an e-mail to your grandpaa last year to let your grandmaa and grandpaa know that per Miguel Ypamo – who is one of the first graduates and now a very respected Christ-follower fellowship leader in the Lomerío region, that because of the guys and gals who graduated from the rural resident Bible education and leadership training program that there are presently now at least 8,000 new Christ-follower guys and gals in eastern Bolivia. Are you praying every day that wicked, evil guys and gals will not be able to stop your grandmaa and grandpaa from doing what they are doing as missionaries?
As Paul finished writing the second letter that he sent to the Christ-follower community of guys and gals who were living in the town of Thessalonica, he asked the Christ-follower guys and gals – beginning with 2 Thessalonians 3, to pray that the message of the Lord would spread quickly and that he would be delivered from wicked, evil guys. Paul’s specific prayer for the guys and gals who were adherents in the Thessalonica Christ-follower fellowship is verse 5, “May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance.” How are you experiencing God’s love in your lives? How are you persevering today in the faith that you have in God – as God the Son? Are you feeling protected and strengthened by God – as God the Father, from Satan – who is the evil one? Are you associating with kids who are doing things – such as telling fibs, cheating on tests and/or saying bad words, which you know do not please God? It was very important to Paul that he always did what he thought was right to do – which included not being a burden to anyone. Paul made tents to earn money. Even though Paul wanted to be an example of a guy who was willing to work hard so that he could cover his own life survival costs, your grandpaa is sure that Paul accepted the hospitality and help of guys and gals who wanted to put him up in their homes and who wanted to help him with money gifts.
Do you know that what you are doing is always the right thing to do? When your grandmaa and grandpaa initiated the Bible education and rural resident leadership training program in Bolivia and when they helped to start up the contextualized Bible education program in Guatemala, your grandmaa and grandpaa did not want the guys and gals who were studying in the Centro de Capacitación program in Bolivia and the guys and gals who were studying in the Programa de Educación Bíblica in Guatemala to incur any costs. Your grandmaa and grandpaa wanted the Bible education programs in Bolivia and in Guatemala to be cost free for the guys and gals who studied in these two programs. Your grandmaa and grandpaa believed that the time that the guys gave up from doing work in their fields – or from doing other kinds of work, which kept them from earning money, was one way that the guys paid for studying in an intensive Bible education program. Your grandmaa and grandpaa also believed that the guys and gals who were willing to live at and study in the rural resident Bible education and leadership training program that was in Concepción, Ñuflo de Chávez in Bolivia and the guys and gals who are willing to study in the Bible education program that is in Guatemala were giving their lives as sacrificial gifts to God and that they were blessing gifts to your grandmaa and grandpaa for what they were doing. Because of the guys and gals who were and are willing to invest at least two years of their lives in intensive Bible education and leadership training programs to be enabled to be leaders of Christ-follower fellowship leaders of guys, gals and kids, there has been exponential numerical and spiritual growth in evangelical communities in Bolivia and in Guatemala. Your grandmaa and grandpaa believe that money is an accessible commodity for whoever wants or needs money while having an enabled Christ-follower guy to be a church leader – especially for rural communities in an emerging country, is a lot harder to come by to have. Your grandmaa and grandpaa are convinced that investing time and energy into lives of guys, gals and kids has infinitesimal more eternal value to God than investing time and energy into a material product that does not have any eternal value.
2 Thessalonians 3 (771)