lives for CHRIST
by Miss Milre Lisso, Latin America Mission
I a m a relatively new missionary, having been on the field in Latin America but one term. When I left home I had rather fixed ideas as to what a missionary is—also how to be a good one. But, since I have looked over the Latin American field at close range, and have returned to the States, I am afraid I have had to change my former ideas radically. Do you know what made me change them? It was not resultant of what anyone had told me; or even a deeper study of the Word; but, just seeing some real missionaries in action. And I would like to bring to you some of the impressive acts and methods in the ministry of these missionaries. Early in 1960 I had the distinct pleasure and blessing of going into some of the backwoods jungle areas along the coastal line of Colombia. All of us are somewhat familiar with much of the severe persecution and hardship suffered by our brethren there in the past several years. However, it seems that the church is growing as nowhere else in the world. God is doing a mighty work without much aid from foreign missionaries or any kind of outside help. During the time that I was giving classes to new believers, I met many missionaries—two of whom, while very
genuine and effective, are quite color ful and have an unusual interest to us as we look at their work. They were not missionaries, in our sense of the term. They had never been to a service of worship; had never sat under Sunday School teaching, nor had they heard a minister of the Gos pel. Without any evangelical influence around them, God, through the Holy Spirit, moved into their lives. Perhaps we had better look at Olinda and her life as it grew into fruitful service. Five years ago when Olinda was only seventeen, she found a strange booklet, done in Spanish, lying in the dirt path. She had a fourth grade edu cation, and since books were very hard to secure out there, she took it home and read it with great pleasure, it was the Gospel of John. As she read and reread it, the Holy Spirit spoke to her heart. While she had no background for this sort of reading, she began to see immediately that God had done a great thing for her—He had sent His Son into this world and He had died for her sin, and by the simple act of believing she would receive eternal life —a precious gift from Him. She did believe! The Lord did a marvelous thing in her life for she turned immediately to tell others. Naturally, her first concern 6
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