praying for the amazon
 
In July 2004, I saw the Amazon River. After 24 hours in airplanes and airports, I landed in Manaus, Brazil along the main channel of the Amazon. Growing up in Western Kentucky, I knew rivers with the Mississippi, Ohio, Tennessee, and Cumberland all close, but the Amazon Basin is nothing like those rivers. The main channel is twenty-times as wide as the Ohio and three hundred feet deep. If one exits the main channel, one could get lost in the maze of river passageways that crisscross through the jungle like streets in a major city. What I saw was the most beautiful place on earth. The stars shine brighter in the Amazon, and the sun rises and sets with more brilliance than you can imagine possible. But the Amazon is one of the most spiritually devastated places on earth. There are about 400 different people groups that live in the Amazon Basin. 270 of those people groups are less than 2% evangelical Christian. 85 of those people groups live isolated deep in the jungle; some have only beenseen by satellite, and we have 0 IMB missionaries serving among them! I call you on May 11th to commit yourself to prayer on behalf of the people of this region. Paul teaches us that “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” “But,” Paul adds, “how are they to call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?” (Rom 10:13-14) The hard truth is that the friendly, beautiful people living in the beautiful land that we call the Amazon are slaves to their sin. We have the freedom of Jesus Christ. We must send the message to them! But how? We must pray that the Lord of the Harvest will send out laborers. We must be ready to obey by giving more of our resources. Some of us may have to give our lives or our children’s lives as missionaries either for a short 2-year term or as a life commitment. God will provide if his people pray in faith. Bro. Josh Elk Lick News
May 2008