Spiritual Harvest in Peru
Pedro Ferraro, the father of the national Peruvian prayer movement and a highly respected Christian leader in the country, made a very powerful commentary about our team. He said the team had done more good for the national evangelical movement in their country than we could ever know. He said because our team of Native North Americans had presented such a clear, credible and unique perspective of the Gospel of the Kingdom at the highest levels of national government leadership, the cause of Christ was strengthened at a very deep level in his country.
One evening in Cusco, a group of revolutionary militants clad in army fatigues came to our evening meeting, unknown to us, to disrupt and prevent us from making our presentation. However, as they saw us welcomed and honored by the president of the regional tribal leaders association and me honoring her with an eagle feather from my dance stick and then gifted with a beautiful pipe by Karen Cummings, the Holy Spirit touched their hearts. That night we shared the stage with a traditional Quechua dance group and then taught them the couples “Two-step” dance. There was a lot of joy that night. As a part of my message, I affirmed our support for the struggle of the tribal people of Peru for dignity, respect and liberty and shared that Christ was our only hope. The Spirit of God moved powerfully and four hundred people responded and embraced Jesus as Savior. Afterward, the revolutionaries all wanted their pictures taken with us and the next morning two leaders came and did an extensive interview for their national paper with Bryan Brightcloud, David Gomez and myself. We shared our testimonies of how Christ had set us free from hate and bitterness to love those who wounded us. Again, the Sprit of God touched their hearts and they expressed their heartfelt gratitude for what we are all about.
I have been saying for several years that when we, as First Nations believers, would respond by faith in obedience to Christ’s command to go, that He would prove Himself strong in our weakness. The Father gave us such undeserved and exaggerated favor in the land, accompanied by an abundant harvest, that more than ever I am committed to see our people become engaged in world missions!
By God’s grace, Wiconi International is now going to establish a First Nations International Outreach School to train, equip and send our people to fulfill the Great Commission to go to the nations. Not only short-term helps/training teams, but long term Native church-planters and pastors. We need to see an Indigenous Church Planting Network established throughout the Americas. This is our time! Yes, we have huge challenges among our reservations and Native communities across Turtle Island, however that does not dismiss us from obeying the Lord. While there remains a mountain of work to be done here at home, let us not mistakenly make it an “either or” dilemma, but a “both and” dynamic of extending Christ’s Kingdom among us.
We have numerous invitations from Indigenous community leaders in Peru who desperately want our help training/equipping their leaders. In many tribal situations our problems here at home pale by comparison to what our Indigenous cousins face every day. There are less than four million Native North Americans in the U.S., Canada and Alaska combined. However, there are fifty-five million in the “Americas.” Nearly half of Peru’s population of 28 million is Indigenous Native peoples. The Quechua Nation, spread out between Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia, is nearly 20 million. The scripture declares, “Give and it shall be given to you, pressed down, shaken together and running over, shall people give back to you.” I believe we owe a spiritual debt to now serve and assist our Indigenous cousins that remain captive under the oppressive subjugation of Spanish and Catholic systemic colonialism.
Category: Living the Faith
Followers
Fans
