WE´RE BACK!!!

Well guys, Sarah and I have officially arrived in Nauta. We got here yesterday afternoon, and we have been reaquainting ourselves with our old friends, the kids, and the mosquitos!! Nothing has changed here, and it feels as if we never left. Last year, we lived on a street called Amazones and we had neighborhood kids that we knew very well. This year, we live really far from them. As were travelling up to the house today, we look and see three little girls on our steps.... Jeryli, Lains, and Norma! What a blessing it was to see them! The first thing lains looked at was my head bands...and to any of you who do not know what I am talking about...I was weak last year and gave all my head bands to these girls. No worries, I stood my ground this time!

Since we have been here, we have found out that we will be working with the American team that will be in Nauta in one week. We will also be able to go down river with them into the jungle to do work. We will also be working with a pastor here who is discipling 3 youth and one man in his 40´s. They have been learning some of the same truths in scripture that Sarah and I have been learning in the states. To be a disciple of Christ, if we really want to follow him, need to deny our fleshly desires and pick up our Cross to follow Jesus. He has not necessarily called us to live a easy, comfortable life. Even here in the midst of poverty, these guys are learning the same truths. They are learning to be bold in there faith, knowing that there is a world dying without Christ, headed to an eternity in hell.

God puts people in our paths for certain reasons, in his sovereingty. Just this morning, Sarah and I were on our way to wash our hair in the local well area. We left our buckets so I ran up to get them at the house. While I was gone, Sarah met a man who was asking her why she was in Nauta. He knew we were living with a missionary so he continued to ask Sarah if she was a believer in Christ. Sarah said yes and asked him the same question. He responded with, NO. Although, he believed in God and that the words in scripture were beautiful, he just had not had hismoment! Sarah asked him why he had not accepted the Lord and challenged him with the thought that he could possibly die today without knowing Christ. On our first day here, and God has already opened doors to present the gospel and challenge people when it comes to knowing Christ.

As I mentioned earlier, we moved to a new house across the river. This is house is very tiny. It is only one room, with three people living there. Our ¨toilet¨ is a hole in the ground down the hill behind our house. This is quite the experience. On a more awesome note, we have the most beautiful view of Nauta. We woke up this morning to a beautiful rainbow on the Marinon river. Last night as sarah andI were sleeping. I began to hear something quite large flying around. I simply prayed that it was outside our mosquito net and then proceeded to cover my face with a blanket. This morning, Sarah told me that a huge beedle landed on her last night, and had to throw it out of our bedding area. Praise the Lord I did not have to touch it. The house has very large bugs, oooo the experience!!!! haha I am pretty positive I have WELL OVER 20 bug bites, and I am still counting!

BUT God is good. In this tiny bit of suffering, we recognize our need for Him, and our need for the Spirit to truly lead our lives in everything we do. I love the simplicity in life here, and there is no great hold on material possessions. It makes me think of the passage in Hebrews 11 where it talks about how we are searching fora better homeland. We recognize that this world is not our home, and we should not live with ties to this world. There is so much freedomin Christ. He has called us to love unconditionally and to serve with our arms and hearts wide open.