“He will be as a sanctuary, but a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.”
Isaiah 8:14
Over the past few weeks, I led a Global Infusion medical and evangelistic mission team to our newest country site, Peru. We lived and trekked in the Andes mountains as we worked to reach people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Since this was our first GI trip into this nation, I did not have all the information I would normally have about our mission. I did know one thing, that wherever we went, Jesus was at the center of all we do. To us, He is our Sanctuary—in Him we find refuge and strength, so we willingly place Him at the forefront of every ministry outreach. To the unreached people that we encountered, He is equally at the center of every conversation because to them, He is a stumbling block. They either had never heard of Him, or they have voluntarily refused to accept Him as their Savior.
Why is Jesus such a stumbling block to lost people? Does He represent a set of spiritual and moral rules that one must follow in order to be one of His followers? Or is it something far deeper? From my experience, it is because we are in a spiritual war. There is a battle for the souls of humanity, and while the end result might be obstinate rejection of Jesus, the root is the fact that a real enemy exists. The devil has duped billions, yes billions, of people. They believe they will get to eternity by worshiping a Hindu or Buddhist god, or by following the sayings of Muhammad. To believe that one can pray to accept Jesus Christ and call Him ‘Lord,’ and achieve eternity with God is simply unbelievable to most people. Unless you have physically traveled overseas into countries where a certain religion is dominating the people and culture, it is hard to visualize what I am talking about. People literally worship idols. They sacrifice their last dollar to appease a god. At their core, none of them actually tolerate Christianity, even if they say so with their own mouth. They want to go to Heaven, but they want to do it their way. They do not realize it, but they are like Thomas—desperately crying out for truth.
Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
John 14:5-6
Thank you to those who prayed for Global Infusion and my team as we went into yet another new country, to bring the people the Truth, and His Name is Jesus Christ. We treated 500 patients, reached several unreached villages, fed 450 people, and saw several salvations. We praise God for this opportunity and the fruit of our trip.
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| Team Peru (Medical) 2014 |
