By Javier Rios, coordinator of a Samaritan’s Purse household water filter project in Beni, Bolivia
I went to the house of Don Ramón and Berta as I returned to America, a small community in the Bolivian Amazon, to monitor the use of the household water filters we had left there some time back. The couple was very happy to receive me, and they were also very thankful for the filters.
After completing the survey, I prepared to share God’s Word with them. As soon as Berta saw me getting ready, she quickly walked away. She seemed upset.
Don Ramón stayed by my side as I talked to him about God’s love and how Jesus Christ came to die on a cross for our sins. He listened carefully and told me that a number of priests had come to visit them awhile back, but that their presentation of the Bible had been somewhat unclear and unloving.
Perhaps that was the reason Berta was so reluctant to come near us. I told Don Ramón that what really mattered was who the Bible said Jesus was, not what other people made him out to be.
Berta was looking at us from a distance. She was listening to everything we were saying, yet she seemed a little shy.
I asked Berta if I could pray for her and her family, and she accepted. When we finished praying, she cried with her husband. I looked at them and asked if they wanted to pray to receive Christ as their Lord and Savior. They both responded that they did. We prayed right then and both were very happy.
I invited them to participate in the discipleship meetings we were going to start in the community. They told me that they didn’t know how to read or write but that they would love to come and listen.
There is nothing more encouraging than seeing God work in the lives of our beneficiaries, opening their eyes to the truth of His Word, and giving them something much better than they have ever known—real life in Jesus Christ.
