Ashaninka volume 15

Tonight was a night of firsts.  Lydia is 40 years old and has never seen a Bible in her own dialect, Ashaninka.  We have been talking about finding some Bibles for a while and were surprised tonight when Emely came, proudly carrying an Ahaninka New Testament someone had given her mom.  Lydia started reading it immediately.  I couldn't believe how big some of the words were, some with more than 20 letters in them!  Lydia used it to follow along in Matthew where Brent was reading in Spanish.  She said she was going to pepare herself by reading it and comparing it to Spanish and try again to share the Gospel with her family.  She is also excited to read it to her mother, who does not speak Spanish.

Another first for Lydia tonight was when her 2 year old little girl, Katerine, climbed a large orange tree!  Our study was interrupted by a call for help and we all ran over and there was tiny little Katerine, way up in the tree.  She was stuck but didn't seem the least bit scared.  Her mother, however, was!  Giant Brent was able to reach her and get her down and everyone was happy.

Also a first for the 3 adults was that the "Lord's Prayer" is only a model given to us by Jesus, not an exact prayer we need to repeat over and over every day.  The Catholic church teaches people to repeat this prayer, either as a way to show your desperateness to get something or your sincerity in repentence.  The idea that it is a prayer Jesus used to teach us how to pray and not a magic prayer, was new to them.  I think they understood.

A first for me was to learn that if anyone in this communtiy is caught stealing, child or adult, he is beat with a thorny vine from a certain tree.  The thorns were described as needles that release a poison that numbs you as it goes in.  Yikes!  Safe to assume thieves are as uncommon there as are doors and windows!

Not a first for us, but still so sweet, were the kids picking fruit off the trees and offering it to us as a gift.  They never want us to leave empty handed and it just shows their heart of thankfulness and humility.