From Jason:
The time spent in Camaron Arriba is full of interesting stories. It was amazing to see all the small details of each day develop into one amazing experience.
One thing that I have noticed the Lord using our team for is to encourage other believers we interact with. I think it is awesome to be able to stir other peoples faith just by having conversations with them. One of the young guys with the medical team was struggling with his beliefs encountered the Lord in a real way and it was an answer to prayer.
During the process of talking to him about his experience we took a walk to talk more in detail. While walking I heard chanting coming from the hills and it was quickened in my spirit to pray against witchcraft and idolatry. I felt that it was important to gather a group of people that where willing to pray and go back out to proclaim the kingdom of God over the community. After a night of diligent and intense prayer/worship one of the guys from the other team and I spent some time in the word reading through 1 Thessalonians. One thing that stuck out and spoke to me fittingly in the situation was in 5:6 – “So be on your guard not asleep like the others. Stay alert and be clearheaded. Night is the time when people sleep and drinkers get drunk. But let us who live in the light be clearheaded, protected by the armor of faith and love, and wearing as our helmet the confidence of our salvation.”
The following day a small group from our team went on a hike with Susi to photograph some people in the community at their homes. On the way, after deciding to go a different way than originally planned I noticed a hut in the hills that fit the location of where we heard the service the night before. After the hike I talked to Sye a fellow prayer warrior that was involved the night before and told him what I had seen. He talked to pastor Rafael who is familiar with the Ngobe culture and he confirmed that it was indeed “mama tata” worship that we heard. Later that night we decided to take another prayer walk and get closer to the hut and really contend for breakthrough. Two people from our team, two from another and pastor Rafael came along. When we got close there was no one around and we where able to actually go in the hut and pray. Pastor Rafael confirmed once again that it was used for “mama tata” and told us that the mama tata worship is similar to witchcraft and also involves the worship of idols. It was so cool to see how the Lord worked and spoke to me the night before.
After praying in the hut for about an hour and a half a local man showed up saying he came to hear the blessings we where lifting to the Lord. As we continued to pray he and Rafael conversed in spanish and ngobe. Rachel was able to translate from spanish to english for us and it was a huge blessing. The man ended up asking us to come to his house with him.
Being it was 11p.m. it was really dark and we had no idea where we were going. While walking on pitch black jungle like trails the girls realized the guy was not a christian and fear began to over take them. Sye and I prayed against the spirit of fear and broke off any schemes of satan to stop us from going. I remembered the scripture from the night before and declared that we where protected by the armor of faith and love, and wearing as our helmet the confidence of our salvation. Shortly after we arrived at the mans house. He brought his whole family out to receive prayer. His wife and two daughters woke up to a bunch of foreigners at the door ready to pray for them. They asked us to pray that they would receive Jesus in their hearts. After reading some scripture and praying that they would experience the love of the Lord and various other prayers the night came to an end around midnight.
I feel that it was a divine appointment arranged by the Lord for us to meet those people. I am so thankful for the opportunity to pray for the family and express the love of God by being there at such a late hour. The Lord in his unfailing love brought us all the way into the hills of the jungle to express his love to a family that needs to experience it first hand.
What an incredible story Jason. How encouraging to see His hand clearly in the series of events.
BTW, thank you for such a detailed writing to fully convey all the circumstances of the situation.
Great stuff, thanks Jason. You are a warrior!