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WELCOME TO OUR MINISTRY UPDATE
The Thurston Report
August 15, 2000
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I killed the missionaries
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| Mincaye, the Auca Indian,
who killed Nick Saint with Jim. |
The world was stunned in 1956, when five missionaries were speared to
death in Ecuador by the Auca ( now called Waodani) Indians.
Movies, dramas , and books have kept the story alive. Over the years many
of the tribe became Christians. Mincaye, a man called “grandfather,”
one of only two men in the Auca tribe who has ever left Ecuador, and was
actually one of the Indians who speared the missionaries to death was in
Amsterdam giving his testimony of what happened. I was moved by this
story while in college and you probably were too. I was finally
able to meet him and sit down to talk with him for about twenty
minutes. What a story that shows Christ’s power to change a life!
As I told you in the last news letter, I had been chosen as one of the
Chilean delegates to attend the Billy Graham Evangelism Congress in Holland.
Twenty-eight thousand applied to attend, but just over 10,000 were given
the green light. As a delegate they paid 85% of our expenses including
food, lodging and plane fare. It was a wonderful time and I was able
to meet old friends from all over the world. It was a transition
time as Billy Graham put on his last international event, Bill Bright retired,
and one of the leading evangelists in Latin America, Paul Finkenbinder
also retired. It will be interesting to see whom the Lord will begin
to mightily use as the torch has been passed on.
According to the BGA, Amsterdam 2000, is the most internationally representative
gathering, secular or religious, in history, and attracted 10,287 participants
from 209 countries and territories. The conference featured 900 plenary
and teaching sessions conducted by some of the world’s top Christian leaders.
It united people of different cultures and backgrounds in one simple purpose:
to prepare them to use new and more effective ways to present the Gospel.
Lina is continuing to prepare her international women’s conference Sept.
27-29. Women will be coming from the USA, Bolivia, Argentina, Uruguay,
Peru, and Paraguay and of course Chile. She asks for your prayer
for this event.
In my last report, I told you about a similar event. Just before leaving
to Europe, I talked to a girl on our website from Panama, who at that very
moment had a knife in her hand ready to commit suicide. Her dad started
to molest her when she was six and she now was in her teens. That afternoon,
she found out that she was pregnant. She said if her father found out,
that he would kill her. So she said it would be easier for her to take
her own life. After talking to her, she changed her mind and went to seek
local help. Praise the Lord for the Internet ministry. Your love and gifts
saved another life.
The later part of October, it looks like a team from Bellingham will
be coming to Chile and help remodel the kitchen and completely repaint
and wall paper our home. This is a great blessing as our house is
getting old and run down. With so many meetings and people coming
through our home, it takes a beating. We will also have a single
girl coming down in October, Teresa Spicer from the Auburn area to help
in the office.
The Lord has given the needed money for Mary Jane to attend the evangelistic
Olympic out reach in Australia. She leaves Sept 6. We
would appreciate your prayers for her safety and out reach. She thanks
all those who helped make her trip a reality.
The churches are alive in Chile and God is greatly blessing.
To give you an example our yesterday Sunday service lasted four hours and
still the people didn’t want to go home. A few weeks ago it was four and
a half hours long. Both times it could have easily lasted
another two hours. The people are excited about Jesus. . Latin
America will soon be the major missionary sending force.
Truly, our Father is on the throne. For the LORD is great,
and greatly to be praised: He is to be feared above all gods. Psalm 96:4
Thank you for your love and prayers.
Love,
Jim and Lina Thurston
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