Reflection from Chavina - Love is Patient

Chavina

During the month of March I travelled to the village of Chavina with brother Jim Wells, a young pastor from northern Florida and Ana Javier a Peruvian sister who has given up the next year to do mission work. Chavina is a much bigger village than Lahuaytambo and it is a valley, or 30 minutes, away from a big city called CoraCora. The churches from the states that have adopted this village/area have been present here for about 3 years now, so the people in the village are very accustomed to seeing and interacting with “Gringos” and Christians. The churches have built some very awesome, strong relationships there with the people. Jim has also lived and worked in Chavina several times as the churches are his home supporting churches, so the people were very warm and welcoming to him and to us two girls.
Our first day in the village we were greeted by one of the believers in the village, Brother Mario. We ran into him in the plaza and he bought us ice-cream! Jim later told us that the last time he saw him, he was not sober nor a believer and now he has been sober for a year and seeking the Lord with excitement. He was very thrilled to see us, and we spent much time during the month helping Mario in his field, milking his cows, and spending time with his wife, Aquilina, who is very ill.
There are about 6 known believers in the village, including Mario, Julia, Gaudencio, Kathy and Julia (Kathy’s mom), therefore we immediately went to their homes to let them know we were in town and that we wanted to spend time with them, to help them in their fields, and to encourage them in their walk, to study the Word of God. So, we had Bible studies almost every single night and each night one of them would show up, a few times more than one of them happened to show up. They all seem to have such a strong desire to learn but it is a slow and strenuous process for them. Life for them is the fields! Sure they attend school when they are young, but school is not very important and they go to the fields before and after classes. And when they finish schooling they will normally return to take on their parents fields. Therefore they have a very low literacy level and learning is very challenging.
Julia is married and has 3 daughters all older and married as well. Her husband is not a believer and does not desire to hear anything about the Lord, but she continues to read, pray, and seek the Lord. She owns a store and she attended the Bible studies several times. Her constant smile and endless friendliness was such a joy and blessing to work with.
Gaudencio was by far the most challenging brother we had the opportunity to work with, but also the biggest blessing. Gaudencio has an extremely gentle, kind heart and welcomed us into his house several times. Furthermore, Gaudencio has a Burning desire to learn and understand more about the Lord about his Word; however, he has such a strong desire that he is willing to listen to anyone, from any religion that speaks of Jesus, including Jehovah’s Witnesses. There is a Jehovah’s Witness church in CoraCora and Gaudencio has begun looking to their leaders to teach him. He believes the Bible is the Word of God and truth, but he does not really understand how to read the Bible and outside sources influence his understanding of what he reads negatively. We were given several opportunities to talk to him about the Trinity and try to see the importance of reading the Bible in context and verse by verse.  There were many frustrating moments, times when we, in our flesh, wanted to get angry and give up, but God would not allow it! The Lord used this difficult situation to teach us patience, gentleness and endurance.
Kathy is a young mother of 2 and has a very incredible testimony which she shared with us. Jim hardly recognized Kathy when he first saw her because she had put on some weight; the year before she was VERY ill, deathly ill, and she was dangerously skinny. Through the duration of the last year the Lord had healed her. The Lord opened her eyes to see the truth of the Gospel during her sickness and began DILIGENTLY reading the Bible and PLEADING with the Lord in prayer. God used the testimony of Kathy to reach her mother, Julia. When Julia saw the extreme change in Kathy’s life, she too began reading and searching for truth and the Lord opened her eyes. Kathy’s past life still haunts her from time to time tempting her to return to her old, unhealthy, sinful habits.
This month was a month of learning how love, TRUE love is patient! Patient…patient…patient! In 1 Corinthians 13:4, the famous passage about love, what is the FIRST characteristic of love that Paul names, “Love is PATIENT”.  What is patience? Some synonyms: endurance, tolerance, persistence, and serenity. It may be easy to be patient when you are waiting on your mother to cook you favorite meal. But how difficult is it to be patient when the driver in front of your car is sitting at the green light instead of driving? How difficult is it to be patient when you say let’s get together at 7 and they don’t show up until 9? At times it is easy to be patient, other times, not so much. But love is patient in all circumstances. James 1:2-4 says, “Count it all joy, my brethren, when ye fall into multiple tribulations; knowing that the establishment of your faith brings patience. And let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and entire, lacking in nothing.”