The view from Luz's apartment

For every battle, there is a winning side and a losing side.  There are soldiers who fight and are ready and willing to give their lives for their cause.  There is an enemy who is willing to go to any means to defeat these soldiers.

It has been said that spiritual warfare is more real in countries outside of the USA than inside of it.  I just never knew how real that was before arriving and living in Lima, Peru these past 8 months.  One thing I haven't forgotten since my Preacher quoted it several months ago, "The gates of hell shall not prevail."  That has become a consuming thought for me.  The Devil will never win.  Although it may seem like battle after battle after battle to gain a victory, we will get the victory.  No matter what the outcome, we are promised by God that we are on the winning side.

Many a battle appears as a small, ridiculous thing we must put up with: Traffic, long lines, weird-non logical ways of doing things, fees, etc.  Battles might be problems or differences we never had to deal with in the states.  The battle is becoming more and more real as the days go by.

On a day such as yesterday, I found myself thinking these thoughts... Welcome to my side of the world for a few minutes.  Ever since our last Bible study had ended, we had been praying that the Lord would direct us to the exact right location to begin another 11 week course.  The idea of the Bible study we are doing is to strengthen believers that have just been saved.  Through the help of our Evangelism Pastor, Junior Martin, my husband and was able to single out a lady named Luz.  Luz is a sweet lady who came to our church about a month and a half ago for the first time.  Since her first day with us, she's come back consistently.  She has two children, Nicole  (9) and Daniel (3).  Nicole recently got saved and baptized, and we have been praying for Luz's husband, Reuben to be saved for weeks now.

Our study was scheduled to begin March 7th.  For several weeks we had been working with two different families, (both had been in our previous Bible studies) who would help us to start this next Bible study.  (Once again, the idea is that these two men will learn how to teach a Bible study, so they can go out and teach their own soon.)  Around mid day on March 7th, one of the wives of these families called to say that their family couldn't come.  They had something come up last minute, and wouldn't be able to make it.  I became disappointed.  Blow #1.

We had scheduled our taxi to pick us up at 6:00 sharp.  Usually, the person who drives this particular taxi is always early to pick us up, but lately had become a little bit "hit and miss."  I called the driver at 4:00 reminding them to please pick us up at 6.  6:00 came... and no taxi.  6:05 came... and no taxi.  At 6:10, my husband said, "Let's start walking."  I grabbed my things and headed out the door with him.  We ended up walking all the way to the front of our neighborhood, and still no taxi.  Our neighborhood is not in town, so in order to get to town, we would either have to make a 15 minute walk through the swamp and jump on a bus, or find another taxi.  It was now 6:25 and we were late and stranded.  Frusration.  Blow #2.

Did I mention that while we were walking, an unfriendly dog walked up to us?  Wanting to be sure I didn't get bit by (I'm sure a rabbis infested dog- ;) okay, maybe not!) I turned around and watched it, so it wouldn't come up and bite me.  As I did, I accidently smacked my foot into the back of my husband's shoe, stubbing three of my toes.  Ouch! Blow #3

Once we finally got a taxi in our neighborhood, he dropped us off at the bottom of the hill where we were supposed to be meeting our families, to walk up the mountain together (safety is in numbers, and Peruvians here....)  To our dismay, the 1 remaining family who was supposed to meet us wasn't there.  Note- we were in a busy part of town, not the safest ;), and the sun was setting...(night is not the time to be out!) Fear~  Blow #4

Thankfully, my husband was able to get a hold of the other family, who had already gone up, but they came back down to guide us safely to the house where we had planned for the study.  Arriving at the house, I walked cautiously inside.  Nothing but stairs of bricks and cement awaited us, and we went up.  We walked right into someone's living room, and continued up more stairs to the third floor, this time the stairs were black metal stairs, again the darkness and dirt was everywhere.  Up at the top, we were greeted by the friendly face of Luz, and the excited smiles of her children Nicole and Daniel.  Trying to forget my battles I'd gone through to get there that day, I put on my best smile and greeted them.  They welcomed us to their front room, the living room/dining room/ kitchen, and there we began to converse.

"I think this is going to be all of us," my husband told me as we were about to start.  The only person, besides the family who came to help us that was there was Luz, and her two children.  "Ok," I told him.  Discouraged and disappointed that none of the others who had been invited came, I tried to smile at Daniel and gave myself the "never despise meager beginnings" talk inside my head. 

Just as we were about to begin, Miguel, Luz's nephew walked in the door.  He's 17, and brought a big family Bible to the study.  He was excited to come.  Carlos, my husband's helper moved to sit by Miguel to show him where the references were in the Bible.  As my husband began to teach, another lady came in with her little daughter.  Not long after, another lady and her 20 yr. old son walked in the door.  I smiled, now there were 4 new adults in the room and two new little ones running around.

The study finished up well, and then we divided up to talk to each one of the new people that came.  I got to talk to Rosa, and I'll never forget her answer when I asked if she wanted to accept Jesus as her Savior.  "Claro." She told me, which means, "Sure", or "of course" in Spanish.  At the exact same time that I began praying with Rosa, I heard Anna, Carlos' wife across the room praying with Maribel.  She also wanted to receive Christ as her Savior.  It was a very sweet moment.

Anna (left) and Maribel (right)

Meanwhile, across the room, Daniel and Carlos had sat down at the table with Miguel and Rosa's son to share the gospel with them.  Although Carlos had said he wasn't quite ready to share the Gospel on his own, Daniel shared with me later that Carlos kept finishing his sentences because he was so excited to get to share the Gospel with these two young men.

All four of the visitors received Christ as their Savior.  It was in the sweet moments of victory that I began to think back through my day.  Yes, there had been battles.  But now I knew why there had been battles.  Because Satan knew the potential we would have that night to lead 4 more people to Christ, and to start a Bible Study that would change more Peruvians.  For every battle, there will be a victory; and today's battles were more than worth the victory that followed. To God be the glory.  

My prayer has changed over these past few months.  It used to be, "God, please take away our problems.  Take away the fight and struggles we face daily."  Now my prayer is, "God, please help me to be the soldier I need to be to fight like you would have me, so You can get the victory."

Rosa is on my left, and Luz on my right.