Update on John

It has truly been an incredible journey and a miracle from the Lord to watch John grow in his faith. I have written about John before. He is the peruvian that came to know Christ last year and helps us out on our team now with Bible studies etc. Anyway, quick summary for about 6 months last year, we had a weekly discussion about Jesus. More like a fight with him getting very mad at me. Finally he came to know Christ right after our good friend Kelly Dillon had an amazing conversation with him. God used her in an incredible way. Anyway, even after coming to know Christ it has been a rough journey with him.

I obviously saw an immediate change in his life, but the gradual changes are the things that have been the most amazing to watch. I have watched him go through a horrible fear stage of letting others know about his faith, I have watched him go through an on-fire for the Lord stage, and I have watched him go through a very agrumentive stage with me even as a believer. I would actually dread him coming over to our house because I knew he was going to ask such hard questions and be so argumentative with me. My favorite stage ever though is right now. Finally, I got tired of having  theological debates with him because it was wearing me completely out. I think one reason he really did it is because he just lovees to argue. I was talking to my mom about the situation, by the way she is the wisest person ever....and anyway, she told me to just let him read the Bible and stop trying to take the Holy Spirit's job of explaining everything. After that, it is like everything changed.

One day, I just got tired and I said, "John, you are going to read the book of Romans today." You read it in the living room, and I will read it in my room and when we finish we will talk about it. Later he told me that process terrified him. I had come to find out the only books before that he would read from the Bible were the 4 gospels and the Psalms. Anyway, he absolutely loves the book of Romans now and learned so much. It gave him a true hunger for Truth. He also started to actually understand how to explain the gospel once he really started reading the Word for himself. It was incredible to watch. John had been living with a women for about 10 years and had 2 kids with her. This women is not a Christian. John, Nancy, and myself all had wanted them to get married. Recently though, Nancy really felt burdened to encourage them to get married. She bought the book the Love Dare for John. Witihin about 2 weeks God had been working on both him and his future wife's heart and they decided they needed to get married. They got married a couple of weeks ago. John told me today that getting married as helped him so much. I am so glad he sees directly the results of how obeying God is so much better than doing things our own way and living in sin.


Anyway, John is doing so good. He is also super pumped about leading 3 adults to Christ this past Saturday. I think those were the first people he has ever led to Christ. He is also doing a great job still teaching religion classes at the school. He is in the final last few weeks of the school year and is teaching  the life of Jesus. Please pray for his students that they will understand the gospel and accept Christ as their Savior. Please pray for John that God would give him the exact words he needs to explain the gospel to these precious peruvain teenagers. Thanks for all your prayers for John. God is answering them. All glory to his Name!