“Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.”
~ James 5:16
Hi James and Ellen,
Your grandmaa and grandpaa now minister in the office of Adventures in Mission. One of the gals who works in the Adventures in Mission’s office has TB (tuberculosis). Abbe possibly contacted TB during the time when she was the administrator of an orphanage near Nairobi, Kenya. Abbe – along with another young gal, went yesterday for lunch with your grandmaa and grandpaa to a nearby pizza buffet. Abbe will need to take daily until October this prescribed medication to get rid of the TB infection. It takes time and the conscientiously taking of a prescribed medication to rid an infection – such as TB. Another gal who had TB – who your grandmaa and grandmaa knew, was Eulalia de Arandia. Eulalia’s husband – Julio, was a student at the Centro de Capacitación (Center of Training) that your grandmaa and grandpaa implemented in Concepción, Nuflo de Chávez in Bolivia. Julio and Eulalia were from Pailón. Pailón is a small town that is located about thirty miles outside of Santa Cruz. Your grandmaa and grandpaa lived in Santa Cruz when they arrived in Bolivia to join the South America Mission field missionary team. Your grandmaa and grandpaa would take South America Mission summer teams that they led by train to Pailón at the end of the first week after a summer team arrived in Bolivia. A summer team of mostly college age guys and gals would spend between seven and eight weeks in countries such as Bolivia. Julio and Eulalia were somewhere in their mid-twenties and had a couple of kids when your grandmaa and grandpaa first met them. Eulalia was a shy, sickly looking young gal. Julio was a happy-go-lucky kind of guy. It was not easy to get to know and understand Eulalia. Everyone enjoyed Julio and his upbeat attitude. Because of Eulalia having TB, Eulalia and Julio were told not have any more kids until Eulalia had completed taking the TB medication that had been prescribed for her to take. In spite of this warning to not have any more kids until . . . Eulalia and Julio were about to have another kid when your grandmaa and grandpaa – after a yearlong furlough in the United States, returned to Bolivia and to the rural resident Bible education and leadership training center in Concepción. During the yearlong furlough that your grandmaa and grandpaa spent in the United States, Julio was invited to study at the Centro de Capacitación. A South America Mission field team missionary couple lived at and administrated the rural resident training center that was in Concepción during the yearlong furlough that your grandmaa and grandpaa spent in the United States. Per what was told to your grandmaa and grandpaa when they returned to Bolivia and to the rural resident training center, there had been a number of stressful situations at the rural resident training center that finally led to the missionary couple meeting with the Centro de Capacitación students and their wives. Apparently – per what was told to your grandmaa and grandpaa, it became a time of sincere reconciliation. Because Eulalia had to go to the clinic that is located in Concepción for her daily TB medication and because Julio would take Eulalia to the clinic on one of the Centro de Capacitación’s bikes, neither Julio or Eulalia were in this meeting. When Julio and Eulalia got back to where the rural resident training center is located, they found the Centro de Capacitación students and their wives praying and crying together with the missionary couple. Julio – per what was later told to your grandmaa and grandpaa, after he had joined the meeting that the Centro de Capacitación students and their wives were having with the missionary couple, began to also cry. Your grandmaa and grandpaa first heard this story from Meri Pedraza who told them that Julio – after he had cried for a short period of time, turned to her and asked her why he was crying. To personally know Julio and the way that Meri told it, makes this episode an endearingly, very funny anecdote. Do you know anyone who has TB?
Delightful, humorous stories should follow Christ-follower guys and gals. James penned in James 5 that dire, miserable sagas will follow wealthy non-Christ-follower guys and gals. James denounces non-Christ-follower guys and gals who invest all their time in accumulating wealth. James says that accumulated wealth will only rot, a closet full of unused clothes will be eaten by moths and saved up gold and silver will simply corrode away. A guy or gal who lives out his or her life in luxury and self-indulgence from misusing his or her employees and from murdering innocent guys – per James, will end up with absolutely nothing and with no hope.
A guy or gal who is a Christ-follower – per James, thinks about his or her future very differently than what a guy or gal who is a non-Christ-follower thinks about his or at her future. A Christ-follower guy or gal will have a Job’s perseverance. A Christ-follower guy or gal knows the Lord to be compassionate and merciful. When a guy or gal who is Christ-follower is in trouble, he or she will pray to God. A guy or gal who is a Christ-follower will be happy and he or she will sing songs. When a guy or gal is who is a Christ-follower is sick, he or she will ask to be prayed over by Christ-followers elders and anointed by oil in the name of the Lord. Verse 16 is a clear mandate for guys and gals who are Christ-followers “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” Your grandpaa thinks that as a guy confesses his sins – or his faults, to another guy, this kind of transparency pleases God and He answers the prayer that is being prayed. To be healed from a TB infection takes time. To be healed from a sin affliction takes time. Your grandpaa thinks that the most underutilized antidote for curing sin is persistent prayer against a lingering sin.
James 5 (826)