Pray for Jorge!

I wanted to bring a gift to you from Peru, but I want it to be more than a gift. For the next three months, please place it somewhere that you’ll see it often and be reminded to pray for Jorge.

Jorge lives on a thickly populated road running up into the mountains overlooking Lima. His community is named La Candalaria. Three months ago, Jorge accepted Christ during a showing of the Jesus film. Last week we worked one day in Jorge’s community. He was one of the more mature Christians to go with us that day. The church there had only been established 10 days earlier and one women who visited with us had accepted Christ only that morning. (She didn’t know she had to wait for years to mature in Christ!)

Jorge was thrilled to receive a New Testament from me before we went visiting together. This was the first Bible he has ever owned. As the people of Candalaria are very poor and few people owned Bibles, we quickly ran out of our daily supply. During one visit there, Jorge gave away his Bible which he only owned for three hours. This greatly troubled me because I knew that at the end of the day, I would challenge Jorge to continue sharing the gospel after we left. I would give him the charge of reaching that “mountain” for Jesus. How could he do that without his own Bible to help him grow in Christ?

Later, I remembered that I did have one Bible left, a bi-lingual Bible that each of the team members had been given. As I would not be coming back, and maybe never seeing Jorge again, I knew that I was to give him this Bible. I asked my interpreter to write a message and a charge to Jorge in the cover of that Bible, which I dictated and then signed. It was a challenge to continue the work. I also thought this might keep him from giving away this Bible. After receiving it, Jorge hurried into his small, one-room house and came back minutes later with a gift for me to open after I left. Inside the wrapping paper, which appeared to have been recycled about four times, was a small, dirty, plastic-framed picture of Jesus.

Before we left that day, twenty-one people on the mountain had accepted Christ and Jorge had gotten to see how to witness. About fifteen of the new believers showed up for the discipleship meeting late in the afternoon and excitedly worked through the discipleship material.

As I left that day, I longed for a GPS reading so that I might at least find that area on a map, and maybe even make my way back there one day to check on Jorge. Then I realized anew that God knew exactly where Jorge lived, and He loved Jorge immensely and had sent Jesus to die for Jorge and all the people on that mountain that I would likely never see again. My trust would have to be in God to help Jorge continue the work there.

Please pray for the spiritual growth of Jorge and the new believers on that mountain. Pray that Jorge would fulfill the Great Commission on his part of the mountain, not only making new believers, but mature disciples in Christ.