My experience in the mountain town of Lechuza last weekend is something I’ll never forget. Lechuza is a small village of people from the Ngöbe (Noe-bay) indigenous group. It is the most numerous, poorest, and least reached of the 7 native groups in Panama. YWAM teams from our base have led multiple medical outreach teams and other trips to this area in the past years.
The Identity Restored (click here for more info) documentary production team had planned on going to Lechuza for some more footage and interviews. 10 degrees colder than where we live in Panama, Lechuza is literally situated on the ridge of a high hill. Beautiful scenery and amazing interviews with the people there.
Documentary
My day started with a short hike to the house of one of the members of the church in Lechuza. I asked a few questions for our documentary. This led to some conversations with this elderly man who gave his life to God after being miraculously healed. He also uses a combination of prayer and traditional remedies. His kind of an indigenous healer for Jesus!
Sinner’s prayer-baby dedication
This man then, introduced me to his son, who’s wife gave birth to their first child at 2:30 in the morning that very same day, right there in the little shack shared by at least 4 other people. They brought me this precious, tiny little girl, Nola, and asked me to dedicate her to the Lord. But before that, the baby’s father wanted to give his life to Christ. So he repeated a sinner’s prayer with me, I then dedicated baby Nola to God (all of this is so new to me). What a privilege! Sol, a young YWAM missionary woman who has worked extensively with this group in Lechuza, informed me what an honor it is that they asked me to do such a thing. How amazing!
“Preach it brother”
Later, that chilly evening, during the nightly church service, I was asked on the spot to give a message from the Word (this is very typical of indigenous churches, it reminds me to “be prepared in season and out of season”). I preached a short message on worshipping God with our lives and not just our words. I was filled with boldness as preaching is not part of my personal missionary activities.
We then met with the small church leadership team. The pastor is a grassroots local who got saved and wanted to spread the Gospel to the whole valley that he lives in. He is not part of any denomination. My friends and I can vouch for the messages we heard preached in the services, they are the most right-on doctrinally than we have ever heard in any other indigenous community! He has started 5 other small outreach congregations, many a 3 and 4 day hike away.
These outreach congregations didn’t just come of out of nowhere. His wife, baby, and he spent many cold, rainy nights outside of the village, rejected by the villagers themselves. They spent days, hungry, with no food until they returned home. They are still about this mission to “Go into all the world”, preaching the Gospel. Everything about this church reminds me of something straight out of the book of Acts.
The leadership team thought up a strategy to fund their “mission trips” (ie. food for the mission journeys). This is a self-sustaining enterprise comprised made up of a tomato patch, raising chickens, and a snack shop. With the profits of these ideas, they will continue to raise up new leaders and new works for the Kingdom of God in their mountainous corner of the world.
Song-writing workshop
Out of our conversations with the pastor, he agreed that an evangelistic outreach to the community, where they would play music that was written in the traditional Ngöbe style, with the traditional Ngöbe dances, and with some traditional Ngöbe food and drink would be a great idea! We planned a song-writing workshop for the beginning of December. What a great opportunity for Project Sounds of The Jungle! We will try and record many different traditional Ngöbe songs, written to praise the True God of the Bible. These songs will then be performed for the community some time after that! Praise the Lord!
The Henry’s
Click here for pictures of the trip.
