Stories from Kody Kostenko at MOVE
dateline 02/15/18
“I still can’t believe that there is an Adventist church in Chan Pine Ridge!”
His comment caught me by surprise. I had met him for the first time at the church in Chan Pine Ridge that very morning, and now we were enjoying a fellowship meal at the MOVE campus.
“I used to colporteur in Chan Pine Ridge and the people were really closed-minded and even downright rude!” the brother continued. “In fact, there was a group that tried to hold evangelistic meetings there, but they got sabotaged. Someone even rubbed Pica Pica on the upholstery of their vehicles!”
“Wow, what’s Pica Pica? Sounds like something itchy!”
“Yes, it's a poisonous plant with hairy pods and it gives a terrible rash! Besides that they would disrupt the meetings and even cut out the lights. The heckling got so bad they ended up suspending the meetings! So how have people been treating you?”
“Quite well actually! They haven’t chased us out of town yet! We’ve experienced some prejudice from a few families in they way of suspicious glances and comments like “we have our church” when we try to visit them. We’ve also been insulted by a couple of drunks, but many of the people are actually quite receptive!” I replied.
The work in Chan Pine Ridge began to gain a foothold a few years ago when Miguel and Vilma Chavez, former volunteers at MOVE, felt a burden to take up the work in that community and they began regular house-to-house visitation, community service projects and small group meetings. An evangelistic series resulted in 14 baptisms and the group acquired land and began building a church. Unfortunately, somewhere along the way, most of the new members fell away. When the Chavez family received a call to Guatemala, Yaneth Robles and Ray and Phoebe Sikidge continued the visitation in Chan Pine Ridge and advanced the church construction. Ray and Phoebe were called to the Philippines about the time Lyli and I arrived to MOVE.
About this same time, Yaneth was praying fervently that God would send reinforcements: permanent Adventist members from the local vicinity to help raise up the church. God has been answering that prayer in extraordinary fashion. Four families simultaneously began to attend regularly. First there is the Bochub family: Sister Eva Bochub and her husband Agusto and their three children, Abdi, Isis and Uziel have been a tremendous blessing to our group. Brother Bochub has given the sound system, electric fans, and made a beautiful pulpit. They also regularly pick up those who need rides and bring them to church. Sister Eva is full of energy and hospitality and is active in visiting the sick and ministering to the needs of others. She teaches our primary Sabbath school class. The Bochub family has an extraordinary testimony that I will share in a future update.
The Tosh family also joined our group. Grandpa Margarito or his son Alberto drive the red work truck, and the rest of the family packs together in the cab and on wooden benches in the back. Margarito told his testimony how God saved him as a young man from falling into a life of drug trafficking. He later accepted the Adventist message after listening to a complete evangelistic series and Fatima bring a number of grandchildren, and Alberto and Lucy come with their two children, Donovan and Keila and some other cousins as well. Alberto grew up Adventist, but when his first wife died, he fell into drinking. At the bar that he frequented, he met Lucy, who worked there as a waitress. When they got married, Alberto decided it was time to quit drinking and began to study the Bible with his wife and two stepchildren. Last November they became the first to enter our church baptistery!
Dateline 04/06/18
Thank God, faithfulness is contagious! As you may recall from my February report, sometime last year, Alvina Valencia and her two children, Marina, 12 and Isaac, 4 began attending our church. At prayer time, Alvina would ask for special prayer for her husband, Luciano. Once in a while he would accompany his family to church, and last November we had the privilege of holding a worship service in their two-room house (see attached photo). In January, Luciano quit drinking and started coming to church regularly. In February, he started Bible studies.
“I’m so happy because God did a miracle in my life with my daughter”
Mr. Luciano’s smile spread from ear to ear. We were about to have our second Bible study together, but I wasn’t about to miss this story!
“Tell me about it!”
“My daughter Marina was an average student. She was getting by like scrape dog with 72%.”
“Scrape dog?”
“Yeah, that’s how we call it here when you barely pass. And along with all the rest of the barely passing students, the teachers make her go to extra classes and pay $6 every Saturday. I think it’s just something the teachers do when they need a little extra money.” He laughed.
Here in Belize not even public education is free, and many families make big sacrifices to try to give their children a good education.
“At first she started going because that was the only day they gave those extra classes and she needed it to pass.” Luciano continued.
I well remembered when Marina had begun to miss church. Lyli and some of the other missionaries had spoken to her, encouraging her to be faithful and to be an example and testimony to her family. Now I learned that Mr. Luciano, who grew up Adventist himself, had been inspired to encourage his daughter at home as well.
“I told her, ’You have from Monday to Friday to learn it.’” Luciano continued. “‘Pay attention and learn it. The teacher can fill your page with demerits for not going to school on Sabbath if she wants to.’
“I gave her 50 cents every school day to buy juice and chips at school. I told her to be faithful to God and pay her 25 cents of tithe each week. I don’t know how it happened, but it’s like a miracle! When she stopped going to reinforcement on Sabbaths and started paying her tithe, her grades went up from 72% to 88%!” He beamed. God’s faithfulness to Marina when she decided to be faithful to Him has obviously encouraged Luciano to be more faithful too. Praise God for His great faithfulness and that He is willing to make us faithful too!
“Since I stopped drinking this new year, there is so much more peace in my home.” Luciano told me. “I don’t fight any more with my wife. I want to be a good example for my kids. The other day the police raided a house on our street, and took the young man away in handcuffs. Isaac asked me why, and I told him because he was doing bad things like selling drugs. Isaac said, ‘I’m so glad my Daddy doesn’t do bad
Dateline Aug 5,2018
“God’s Hand Still Intervenes”
The title of this mission report is adapted from that of an old book by W.A. Spicer and Helen Spicer Menkel published back about the time I was born. The book tells 27 incredible stories of God’s miraculous intervention that surpass the wildest tales you’ve heard on Television, or the sensational facts and stories you may have seen in collections like Ripley’s “Believe it or Not”. As I read the astounding descriptions of God’s saving grace in action, I was struck with the thought that, if we are faithful, one day we shall all read from the records of our own lives in the heavenly registry, equally miraculous and epic accounts of God’s direct intervention. We may not now be often privileged to trace His providence in the details of our daily lives, but there are still times when the eye of faith captures the movements of His ever-present fiery hosts, just as Elisha’s servant saw them on the hills of Dothan.
About two weeks ago, Lyli and I returned to our mission post in north-central Belize to help staff a five-day summit for missionaries from a number of different projects across central and South America. Jeff Sutton made a flight south in the Conquest to pick up eight of our visitors in Bolivia and Colombia, but suffered a series of setbacks ranging from the red tape of international aviation to malfunctioning hydraulics on the landing gear. Their prospective Wednesday noon arrival turned into Wednesday evening, then Thursday morning.
“Please pray for the mechanic who is helping Jeff work on the plane” one of the passengers, our friend Jenny Cardoza messaged Lyli. “He has an important test today and he sacrificed his study time last night to help Jeff.”
Just before breakfast on Thursday, we learned the plane was still grounded in Medellin, Colombia. I knew Jeff would be spending a lot more time working on the plane, and maybe it was the message we received the night before, but I felt impressed that God had more important plans than ours in all of this, and it could very well have something to do with this mechanic. As Lyli and I prayed, I felt compelled to ask for something specific.
“Lord, please give special wisdom and patience to Jeff as he works on the plane, and despite the stress, frustration and discouragement he surely feels, help him not to miss any opportunities to witness that You may put before him. As he works with the mechanics, may they be open to receive truth, and may Your name be glorified. You know we would like the plane to get fixed and be able to come today, but we want Your will to be done and we leave everything in your hands.”
It was hard to plan or decide how to proceed with the summit. Everything was up in the air, except for the mission plane and our would-be travelers, of course. More complications postponed the group’s prospective arrival to Thursday afternoon, and then pushed it back again to Friday morning. The needed tools to flare the tips of a piece of aluminum tubing were nowhere to be found in all of Medellin.
Meanwhile, here in Belize, Keila decided to begin the summit activities with the half dozen or so missionaries who had arrived from Mexico. By Friday afternoon, Jeff’s last-ditch effort to liberate the plane and make the final segment of the journey before Sabbath, fell through, and at least it was now clear they would not be able to join us even for the weekend.
Oh, I should mention that the name or our mission summit was “By Many or by Few,” (taken from the words of Jonathan to his armor bearer before they launched their two-man attack on the Philistine hordes.) It would seem God was testing our willingness to put our theme into practice, as we watched our planned attendance dwindle away like Saul’s army.
Interestingly, one of the purposes of our mission summit was to encourage unity and teamwork between mission projects. God took that in hand, as few things unite people more than to pass through trials together! The stranded missionaries prayed together, shared food and resources, and no doubt bonded in ways they never could have simply through our summit meetings and activities!
Sometimes it’s hard to understand why our carefully laid plans and best efforts end in apparent failure. Especially when all we want to do is something good in the work of the Lord. But it is a beautiful thing to know we can trust God anyway. I love that quote from the chapter “Help in Daily Living” in the book Ministry of Healing.
“Often our plans fail that God's plans for us may succeed.[…] Even when called upon to surrender those things which in themselves are good, we may be sure that God is thus working out for us some higher good.” {MH 473.3-4}
We had the privilege of seeing at least part of that higher good in this case when Keila shared an exciting piece of news with us.
“Guess what! The mechanic who helped Jeff is quitting his job and coming to MOVE to take the next course!”
In a matter of three days, Sebastian Diaz, a 22-year-old aeronautics mechanic working for Avianca airlines, quit his job, sold his motorcycle, got his passport, packed his suitcase, and boarded the plane with the other missionaries, occupying the seat vacated by a missionary who was forced to stay in Colombia because of the delays.
As it turns out, Sebastian was the same mechanic our friend Jenny had written about and who we had prayed for! What a thrill to be allowed to participate in God’s plans even in such a small way! On Wednesday, August 1, the mission plane arrived in Belize.
Over the last few days we have had a rerun of our mission summit with the second batch of missionaries, and I have been able to piece together a little more of Sebastian’s story. His parents separated before he was born, and his aunt, who is the only Adventist in all his family, raised him until the age of eight years. He credits this early upbringing as the reason he is an Adventist today. After a couple of years wandering in the world as a teenager, he was reconverted, and felt God calling him to mission work. By this time he had completed most of his studies as an airplane mechanic, but had been unable to get the internship that he needed in order to graduate and obtain his license. For quite some time he was without work, and he began to study the Bible and the Spirit of prophecy three hours a day.
“That was when I read Counsels on Diets and Foodsand God convicted me I needed to change my diet.” Sebastian told me. “I quit eating meat. Then I quit eating animal products all together. When God shows me something, I like to implement it right away! I became very active working with the local church. All the while, my conviction that I must go to the mission field deepened. Somehow I found out about a mission aviation project in Guyana. I was so excited! I didn’t even know that such a thing existed! Since I couldn’t get an internship to finish my mechanic’s license, I decided to apply for every mission project that I could find that had anything to do with airplanes. Out of a half-dozen applications, not one responded. So I prayed and said, ‘Lord, I don't understand! If you want me to go to the mission field, please let one of these projects contact me! If you have other plans, at least help me get an internship so I can finish school and get my license but please don’t leave me hanging here with nothing to do!’ After that prayer I miraculously received an invitation from a company to intern with them without the arbitration of the mechanic’s school on my behalf. Usually the school finds internships for their students, but they had been unable to place me, and now I got an internship out of the blue without their intervention. I took that as the answer to my prayer, and started work with the company. Not long afterward, I received a response from one of the mission projects, and I had to tell them that I was finishing my certifications now, but I would be available in a year and a half, as soon as I had my license.”
During the first three months of his internship, Sebastian faced tremendous pressure to break the Sabbath.
“I knew that eventually the test would come where I would be forced to choose between getting my mechanic’s license and being faithful to God regarding the Sabbath, and I prayed that God would strengthen me to pass the test when it came.” Sebastian told me. On multiple occasions he was disciplined with pay cuts and was given the worst shifts and the dirtiest work for his refusal to work on Sabbath. Eventually the company gave him an ultimatum:
“If you don’t work Saturday, the next day you come in you will be fired!” they threatened.
“My family told me I was a lunatic, and that my church had brainwashed me and that I was going to lose everything I had worked for. But when I went back to work after keeping Sabbath, no one at the company said anything to me. Somehow they never followed through.”
Then one day the licensing school called.
“We’ve been receiving a lot of complaints from the company about you. If it were anyone else we would have expelled you from our program long ago, but you have been one of our top students with exemplary conduct and service! We just don’t understand what is going on! The time has come for you to make a decision. Either you work on Saturday, or we will have to cancel your transcripts and your scholarships”
“Cancel them” Sebastian replied without delay.
“Are you sure? You can’t be serious! You will lose everything you have worked for up until now!”
But Sebastian’s mind was made up.
“I literally felt a hand on my shoulder as I made my reply, and it was as if a voice in my head said, ‘you did the right thing.’ I have never felt such peace and assurance as I did at that moment” Sebastian testified.
God worked miraculously on behalf of His faithful child. Not only did Sebastian not lose his internship, but he finished with decorations as the best intern the company had ever employed. Of the three interns who finished simultaneously, he was the only one to be offered employment within two days of receiving his license. Not only that, but he had Sabbaths off!
“Even though God blessed me so much with such a job, I knew that I must still go to the mission field, but I didn’t know when!” Sebastian continued. “My coworkers pressured me to join them in their materialistic and worldly pursuits, and I vowed that after two years I would quit my job no matter what, because I was afraid that in my present environment I would lose my vision. Then Genith, a friend of mine, called and said that a mission plane would be passing through the airport where I worked if I wanted to see it and meet the pilot. That’s how I met Jeff. As we talked, I felt the great desire to go with them on that plane and take the course at MOVE, but I was sure it would not be possible. When I watched the plane take off, I thought ‘at least now I can forget about it.’ I was so surprised when Genith called me again a few hours later and said the plane had returned because of the problem with the landing gear.”
Besides helping Jeff work on the plane, Sebastian ended up spending Sabbath afternoon with the mission group. When Ruth, one of the traveling missionaries told Sebastian that she would not be able to leave with the plane because of the delays, she told Sebastian, “That seat is for you!”
And you already know the rest of the story! “God’s hand still intervenes!”
P.S. Let me know if the pictures don't come through. Attached should be a picture of Sebastian and the plane as well as a group shot of Jeff, Sebastian and all the missionaries.
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Kody & Lyli Kostenko
Date Line Feb 14/2019
“If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another. And the blood of Jesus Christ His son cleanses us from all sin” 1 John 1:7
Lyli and I are back in Belize after a month stateside where we saw God’s hand over us again in powerful and personal ways. Lyli endured a series of trials in which she faced three of her greatest fears: flying, public speaking, and oral exams. God gave her grace to overcome in every occasion. She survived multiple flights in bumpy winter weather, shared her testimony in two different churches, and passed her civics and language exam and is now a U.S. citizen! After almost two years of processing we are thrilled to have that taken care of! Thank you all who lifted her up in prayer. God also provided for our needs above and beyond what we expected through a number of kind family friends who shared everything from their car to medical exams and lab work.
This week has been a busy round of staff, and starting today, student orientation activities. We have also taken time to pray together and have been inspired to monitor our spiritual orientation and constantly reset tracking to True North. We cannot afford to be guided by our own multi-polar thoughts. That is not a good way to live (Isaiah 65:2). We need to stop listening to ourselves so much and start back-talking that tyrant called Self with the Word of God. Did you know that talking Scripture to yourself is a sign of the Spirit-filled life? The apostle says “…be filled with the Spirit; speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord” (Eph 5:18-19). So when self takes the helm of our minds, we must commit auto-mutiny. God has given us the power to decide what we will think! Let us surrender those selfish thoughts of anger, bitterness, pride, fear, lust, complacency or whatever it is that is rotting out our soul, and let the abundant life of Jesus flow through us in ever-richer currents!
Most of MOVE’s 11thgroup of missionaries in training has arrived now, this time, from Mexico, the U.S., Colombia, Venezuela, Spain, Costa Rica, and right here in Belize. For worship the last couple days they have been telling how God has worked in their lives and how He brought them here. Amazing stories. I’m recording them this time, and Lord willing I will get some of them sent to you soon.
Our theme this year is “Move in the Light,” which has been food for deep study and thought. (Enough, in fact, for several sermons, but I summarized some of the highlights for you in a poem which you can find attached.) We feel a deep urgency both personally and as a school to make every moment count for eternity. As the moral darkness of the world around us deepens daily, we need serious upgrades in current wattage, both intensity and volume. For that, the cables of our faith need to thicken. Everything about moving in the light speaks growth. I like how Proverbs puts it: “But the path of the just is as the shining light that shines more and more unto the perfect day” (4:18).
We don't know how much longer we will have to work with the ease and freedom we enjoy right now. Pray for us, that we will be more intentional, more efficient, more courageous, more Spirit Filled, and that we will in His strength be strong.
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Kody & Lyli Kostenko
Dateline Nov 8, 2019
I have more things to say then there are minutes in a day, but though I find myself writing this message at the 11thhour of the night, I will try to keep this report to the most essential for now. I will say that there are exciting things happening in this 11thMOVE class session. This group has dubbed themselves the “11thhour workers.” These are golden moments to work while it is day. God knows our sitting down and our rising up. May it be a lot less sitting and a lot more rising up! God is calling us, He is calling you! He still has something for you to do, even at this late hour. It’s time to be more intentional, more sacrificial, more bold, more faithful, more ingenious and more tenacious for the everlasting gospel of Present Truth. God cries out:
“Who will rise up for me against the evil doers? Or who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity?” (Psalms 94:16) Remember, God does not call those who believe themselves qualified, but he qualifies those who believe on Him and answer His call! I love the promise of Isaiah 28:5-6:
“In that day shall the Lord of hosts be for a crown of glory and for a diadem of beauty, unto the residue of his people, And for a spirit of judgment to him that sitteth in judgment, and for strength to them that turn the battle to the gate.”
This last week a simple question to my local pastor about global youth day turned into an unexpected opportunity for me to share a plan for involving all the Adventist youth in Belize in continual, ongoing evangelism during the next year. (See attached document if you desire). Please pray for the awakening of our church here and all around the world, that to finish the Father’s work may become even more important to us than our daily food, just as it was for Jesus! (John 4:34).
We have a family of travelers staying with us since last Sunday when they met one of our missionary volunteers in a divine appointment in Carmelita village. Igor is from Latvia and his wife Tamar is from Argentina but they are both of Jewish decent and grew up speaking Hebrew. They live in Israel where they met while studying in the university. Now they are driving an RV from the U.S. to Argentina with their four adorable children ages 4-10. I sense that they are seekers for truth. They are full of questions, but they are skeptical of God and religion in general. They have been participating in many of our activities though, and tomorrow I will invite them to join us for church and singing bands at the hospital in the afternoon. Please pray for our witness.
I also want to solicit your prayers and support for three missionary families that have been struck by tragedy during the last two weeks:
Alla and her daughters Elizabeth and Eva lost their husband and father Christopher when he fell down a one-hundred-foot precipice in the mountains of Guayana about two weeks ago. Captain Lincoln Gomez, a friend and fellow missionary of ours from our time in Bolivia now working in his native Guayana was flying out Christopher’s body when his plane ran out of fuel just before reaching Georgetown and he was forced to make an emergency landing in the jungle. God was merciful, and he and the police officer flying with him both survived the crash, but Lincoln is facing a long and painful recovery and staggering medical bills. Right now he is being monitored for numbness. The airplane motor and perhaps some instruments will be recoverable as I understand, but the plane won’t fly again. If you wish to help Lincoln and his family at this time you may do so through GMI, making your donation to “Guayana Indigenous Aviation.” You can also send money through Paypal. In your Paypal account:
1. Click on Send and Receive payment
2. Then click send money to friends and family
3. Put into box timt@gospelministry.org
4. On the next page, put in your amount and in the optional note box write: for Lincoln Gomez family "Guyana Indigenous Aviation"
5. Then click next
6. Then it will ask for name and residence, type in: Tim Tillman, USA
Finally, please pray for another missionary friend of ours in the Philippines who is very shook up over the sudden loss of his brother to suicide.
Pray for us too, and don’t stop! We sure need it!
Maranatha!
Hi everyone. As usual, I am behind in my reporting. The following story is from last month. Also, I have attached a link for the March newsletter. We have a student in charge of preparing a monthly newsletter, which I supervise and edit. Usually our student newsletters are only in Spanish, but this session we have one in English as well! The April newsletter should come out some time next week, and I will try to get it to you in a more timely fashion. Oh, if anyone would like the Spanish one, let me know and I'll be happy to send it to you as well. (It's content is different than the English newsletter).
The Smoke of our Torment. 4-18-19
Lyli and I arrived from evangelism and visitation late Sunday night, and as we cut across the grass toward home I caught a whiff of something raunchy.
“Something stinks! What is that?” I wondered out loud.
“Maybe it is the sugar factory” Lyli ventured. Although it is several miles away, it is not unusual for strange smells to visit us from Belize Sugar Industries.
As we neared the entrance of our driveway, however, the stench worsened.
“It smells like something burnt!” I exclaimed.
“Ooh!” Lyli inhaled sharply. “The lentils!”
Sure enough, during our rush of activities before getting out the door we had forgotten to turn off the burner. The pot on the stovetop was black as tar, and even the trim on the neighboring countertop matched and was too hot to touch. Inside the kettle was a smoldering mass of roasted lentil crisp, as black and porous as volcanic rock. I carried the whole molten lump out and away to the garbage pit.
If only the smell were so easy to take away! Caustic smoke seemed to saturate every molecule of matter in every article in every nook and cranny of our abode. All things fabric had wicked up enough odor to out-stink an apartment of chain-smokers. Worst of all, not even a puff of a breeze did blow, and the smoke hung over and around the house like a pall.
We opened all the windows and doors, turned on the fans, boiled vinegar, set out backing soda and slices of onion, took down the curtains, and started scrubbing doors, walls and windows, but it was already late, and we finally fell into bed exhausted, only to have our noses sting and our scratchy throats gel over with mucous, and good sleep flee as from a burning. “The smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever, and they have no rest day or night” Revelation 14:11 thundered through my head. If nothing else, this experience definitely reaffirmsmy decision to never worship the beast or his image!I thought wryly. I’d rather keep the commandments and have the faith of Jesus by God’s grace!
In which case, you had better not complain, had you,another internal voice seemed to chime. For the faith of Jesus would joyfully trust that this trial has been allowed for your growth and benefit. Besides, this trial is merely smoky. You’ve seen nothing yet of the fiery trial that is to try you! I had to concede on that one, and praised the Lord that our house hadn’t burned down. Otherwise our pot of lentils would have been almost as costly as Esau’s!
In the morning we went back to cleaning. In between classes and other responsibilities, we washed clothes, scrubbed walls, and put the mattress and furniture out to air, but the house still reeked like scalded lentils all week long! We pitched our tent in our front yard for two nights. Sleeping on the ground was still much more restful than breathing smoke all night.
So, whatever you do, don’t boil things when you’re in a rush to leave the house! Also, when you smell something terrible, be careful what you say: you just might be the culprit! You might be trying to do great things for God, but don’t neglect the little things. The damage of one moment’s forgetfulness and negligence may take many days of hard work to undo!
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Kody & Lyli Kostenko
ADVENTURE ON THE WATER Belén Gonzaga On the weekend of March 22-24, we went on our Survival Camp. It was total adventure! The Lord blessed us a lot because no one was hurt. Before starting the adventure, we had to complete some challenges. The number of challenges we successfully completed determined how much food we would get. It was a total success! We got everything except for one can of beans and an orange. During the journey we stayed together and everyone worked in unity. We were able to arrive to our first destination where a bus was waiting to take us to the shore of a lagoon. From there we had to swim to the island where we would camp. We also had to find a solution to get our luggage across. We were allowed to use a big blue barrel where we placed all our personal belongings that couldn’t get wet. (Continue in page 2)
The adventure continues…(from pg 1) Three people took the barrel to the island and came back to help others cross to the island. One backpack did not fit in the barrel, so we tried to build a little raft out of wood but it didn’t float very well and the backpack got wet. During the crossing we lost a boot and a hat, but everyone made it safely! It was an amazing experience! The survival camp was a weekend of searching for things: We had to find our food, our group rendezvous, a missing puzzle piece, and Keila´s glove. The good thing is that we also found some more things to polish in our characters. Every experience is an opportunity to grow but all growth comes only through the power of Jesus. We must learn to be careful in the little details. Because of our carelessness our matches got wet and we had a hard time starting our fires! Our spiritual carelessness can also make kindling a revival an impossible task!
A Container full of Blessings! A container arrived to MOVE all the way from Tennessee, USA, with many donations. There were several complications and delays, but after two weeks it finally arrived. The greatest challenge was to unload the backhoe! Thanks God for Mr. Perry (one of MOVE´S founders) who was here visiting. He is an expert heavy equipment operator and he drove the backhoe to get it down and out of the container.
Student Presentations During the week of April 8-18 each student gave a 25-minute Bible study on one of the topics we have been studying in evangelism class, such as: the law, the Sabbath, the investigative judgment, the sanctuary, the Spirit of prophecy, and hell. Every day at 5:30 pm there was a drawing to choose the students and topics for that day, and then the chosen ones had only one hour to prepare. After each study, the staff members ask the students several questions related to the topic. All this is new for many and a challenge for others, but we know it is our duty and a blessing to be able to learn and to share our beliefs with others more clearly.
IN THE LIGHT APRIL 2019 The Light of His face, Judgment, and the Latter Rain editorial 2 splendor of His face that discovers our destitute condition also contains the restoring vitality that we so desperately need: “In the light of the King’s countenance is life; and his favor is as a cloud of the latter rain” (Proverbs 16:15). Through the agency of His Spirit, Christ himself “… shall come down like rain upon the mown grass: as showers that water the earth. In his days shall the righteous flourish; and abundance of peace…“ (Ps 72:6-7). The crab grass of my character must be cut down and laid in the dust so that I may be fit to receive the latter rain. As we respond to the dew of the Inspired Word, we grow more each day in the light of His grace and after the pattern of Christ until the Holy Spirit downpour arrives at last to ripen the world’s final harvest (Deut 32:2, 2 Cor 3:18, 2 Pet 3:18, Eph 3:17-19, and 4:13, and Joel 2:23-32). The footprints of Jesus “Many feel that it would be a great privilege to visit the scenes of Christ's life on earth, to walk where He trod, to look upon the lake beside which He loved to teach, and the hills and valleys on which His eyes so often rested. But we need not go to Nazareth, to Capernaum, or to Bethany, in order to walk in the steps of Jesus. We shall find His footprints beside the sickbed, in the hovels of poverty, in the crowded alleys of the great city, and in every place where there are human hearts in need of consolation. In doing as Jesus did when on earth, we shall walk in His steps.” {DA 640.2}
1 Our theme this year of “MOVE in the Light” has been rich food for thought. It is fascinating that the light of God’s countenance is very connected to judgment as well as to the special outpouring of the Holy Spirit: “You have put our iniquities before You, our secret sins in the light of Your countenance…” Psalms 90:8 The current reality of the judgment is that every detail of our lives is made manifest by the light. As He did with Adam and Eve, God comes near to us in investigative judgment, giving us the opportunity to recognize our sin in the light of His face and to confess and be reconciled to Him. As the prophet Isaiah puts it: “…for when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness” (26:9).
4 IN THE LIGHT APRIL 2019 Man’s Extremity is God’s opportunity 2 experience it for yourself! Josué lima Martínez (MOVE graduate and missionary now working for Perú Projects as a pioneer church-planter in villages along the Amazon.) Prayer requests: − We need resources to build a church. − Also, please pray for the work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of the villagers in Bretaña. − We also need computers for our misión Project
We have gone from house to house in the community of Bretaña, applying only Christ’s method of labor; showing sympathy and meeting the needs of the people, all apparently to no avail. All until one week ago when we met Ruth and her husband River. River was paralyzed on one side of his body due to a stroke. As we listened to his medical history, we realized that his bad eating habits were the primary culprit for his ailments, and so we spoke about health principles and how God could heal him through natural remedies. They seemed interested, and so we administered some message and hydrotherapy. Before leaving, we also left a list of foods that River should eat, and we prayed and set a date for a followup visit and treatment session. I must confess I had doubt in my heart about what we had just done, but my partner and I decided to pray every morning for Ruth and River. Three days later we returned and found a family radiant with smiles along with the next door neighbor who had been waiting two hours for our arrival. God had shown his power, and River had restored mobility and touch sensitivity, and he exclaimed “I am ready to play soccer again! Please continue to treat me!” The neighbor lady who was a devout Catholic confessed that in the past she probably would not have received us, but she was now a witness to the power of God in River’s life. She thanked us profusely for the work we were doing in the community, and invited us toe at at her house. And so it was that we went toe at with her and pray in her home. God loves to put us into extreme situation so that he can prove to us His power! God is real my friends! I invite you to Pastor Byard Parks from the Adventist Frontier Missions tentmaker program was here from Nebraska along with his family to conduct a special week of pray for us on March 11 to 15. He told many exciting stories of God’s power in the mission field, including a modern-day manifestation of the gift of tongues, and a miraculous healing. His main emphasis was that we walk in the light so we can be like Jesus. On March 13 Perry and Laura Karges (Grandpa and Grandma) also arrived along with their friends Erika and Perla, all the way from North Dakota. We really enjoyed having them!