Spiritual Hunger Finds Spiritual Food

Last week, David travelled out to the Mucubal communities with our team leader Dan and his father, Dan Sr. They picked up Isaac, our friend and Mucubal translator, who’d barely arrived from another trip himself! The group visited four communities that we’ve come to know well. What follows are just three of many stories that we could tell you from their time.

Traveling Hope

Meet Esperança (Hope in English), a 12-14 yr old girl from a town called Cainde. Cainde is situated a good distance from where we were, but she was there staying with her father and siblings. She had heard that we were talking about Jesus and sharing from the Bible. She came to hear the stories, bringing her siblings along. Esperança spoke excellent Portuguese and followed along in the Mucubal language as well, often translating for her siblings. David spoke about how Jesus was “The King of the Impossible”. He asked if anyone had impossible things in their life. Esperança related how she feels it’s nearly impossible to control her emotions when people speak poorly of her. She feels like she has to speak poorly of them in return, but doesn’t want to. When David related how Jesus fed 5000+ people, walked on the water and called Peter to walk out on the water by the power of His word and call, she was excited. She realized how what seems impossible to man, is more than possible through Jesus! When given the opportunity to submit to Jesus and follow His ways, she quickly responded “EU QUERO!” (“I WANT!”) The elder there and her siblings followed suit!

Orange Seeds

Dan shared about John 12:23, where Jesus said that a grain of wheat must die before it can produce much fruit. Dan used the analogy of an orange and its seeds. He asked,  “If an orange seed is planted, what will grow?” They all decided an orange tree would grow, and produce fruit after its own kind. Dan asked if the fruit would be of the same quality as the seed, and they struggled at first, but decided that it would. Antonio perceived that when Jesus was talking about the grain of wheat, He was talking about Himself. He said that we would be the fruit of His death, in as much as an orange tree and oranges are the fruit of the orange seed. He also said that in the same manner that Jesus died to produce much fruit (us), we also must then do the same to share the Gospel and produce fruit as Jesus did.

“Why the Devil?”

The next morning in Kuiti Kuiti, 11 adults and 2 kids showed up, and as they hadn’t been meeting to study the Bible during the dry season (they were all scattered pasturing cattle), we decided it would be good start this up again. Isaac, our Mucubal translator, ran the study in the local language. Everyone was very focused on Isaac, and they discussed amongst themselves what these scriptures meant for them and their lives. One of the men asked Isaac, “If Huku (God) is the creator of everything, then why did He create the devil?” This was a great question, which Isaac asked David to explain. David recounted how the devil was once the greatest angel in heaven, but wasn’t satisfied with that. He wanted to be God. By deceiving a third of the angels, he went to war with God, and God cast him out of heaven. It was when God created man in His image and likeness that the devil became angry. He hated man, because man was created in the image and likeness of God, who he had wanted to be! So he set himself to the task of destroying that which was like God, namely man. This set the stage for the fall of man, and the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus. They all understood the explanation of this, and said they would continue to meet to study God’s word.