Miguel and his wife Bertila, along with members of the Tarapoto congregations coloring posters for the natives and others to use back in their villages as visual aids in telling the Gospel story!

"Until we become children of God through faith, we are nothing less than children of the devil!" This biblical truth is preached to every one of the Amazon congregations. Until we are converted to faith in Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit, we remain in the devil's domain. Sometimes the change from spiritual darkness to light makes for a dramatic episode, as Miguel experienced.

Miguel is the 77 year-old father of Tarapoto-church-member Ramon, who plays guitar for the worship services. Miguel walks a bit bent over and has serious gaps between his last few teeth. His scratched-up eyeglasses with bent frames sit so askew on his face that he looks like he just came up out of a car wreck. Only a couple of years ago Miguel was a child of the devil.

From childhood through early adulthood Miguel lived in a small mestizo village along a river in the Amazon jungle. He grew up to become a renowned hunter in the jungle. Life in a jungle village can be crude and rough. Early in life Miguel learned to drink a lot.

Miguel's village had a shaman and the people were steeped in superstitions and witchcraft. Miguel learned all kinds of superstitious practices and charms, thinking it would give him a little extra protection when he hunted in the jungle at night. The villagers feared the deadly snakes, fierce animals, and evil spirits in the Amazon jungle.

Miguel in front of the congregation, singing the song he wrote for the second anniversary of our Tarapoto church building and Bible Institute.

Fortified with a magic native drink against deadly snake bites, Miguel would often set out by himself on a late night jungle hunt. Early in the hunt Miguel would put a half-smoked cigar on a high tree branch to appease the devil, who the villagers feared roamed the jungle at night. Miguel said that never once did he find this offering to the devil still there when he returned.

Years later Miguel moved into the big town of Tarapoto. He worked in a factory making cigars and later retired with a little pension. He now lives in a small, multi-unit plaster-covered cement-block house attached to his son Ramon and wife Socorro's house. Miguel also brought his severe drinking problem with him.

A couple of years ago Miguel's 70 year-old wife, Bertila, began attending adult instruction courses at our Tarapoto church at the invitation of Ramon and Socorro, the latter a Sunday School teacher. The Holy Spirit worked on her heart so that Bertila was most anxious to hear the good news about Jesus. 

Bertila's regular attendance at instruction class infuriated Miguel. Miguel would take to drinking heavily in the early evening when he knew she would have a class. In his drunken condition he would yell coarse insults and abuse that everyone heard every night Bertila left for adult instruction class.

Bertila never stopped praying that God would lead Miguel to know Jesus. Nearly a year after she began classes, Vicar Ronal and Missionary Terry Shultz asked some of our Chayahuita native leaders from the Amazon jungle to come to Tarapoto to study at the Bible Institute (see February, 2004 Sentinel, page 7). Naturally, the missionaries invited others from the Tarapoto congregation to sit in on the classes also. Bertila couldn't wait to come! 

The presence of Amazon jungle natives in Tarapoto was quite the extraordinary event for the neighborhood. Miguel (sober in the morning and with nothing much to do) figured he might as well go with Bertila to see these jungle natives close up. That little opening was all the Holy Spirit needed to go to work on Miguel!

There Miguel heard Missionary Schultz present the message of God's love for sinners and how Jesus defeated the devil and the evil spirits (always a topic of utmost interest to jungle-dwelling natives). Miguel came back the next day, and the next, and the next. He was soon nodding in agreement as the missionary talked about God's personal interest in saving all sinners, regardless of their past.

By the end of the week Miguel was quietly sitting beside Bertila with crayon in hand helping color posters and pictures of Jesus for the natives to take back to the villages for use in telling Bible stories. Miguel just seemed to chuckle once in a while, perhaps as surprised as the rest of the group at his participation.

Ramon, Miguel's son who plays guitar for our Tarapoto church services, Miguel, and Ramon's wife Socorro, our Tarapoto Sunday School teacher.

By the Holy Spirit's power, Miguel seemed to be vanquishing the demons that had plagued him for so long. Almost immediately his drinking and verbal abuse diminished. Vicar Ronal conducted individual counseling sessions and the transformation to a "new creature" in Christ continued.

In June, 2004, the second anniversary of the dedication of our Church building/Bible Institute occurred and a special service was planned. The service included presentations by the Sunday School Choir, Youth Choir, a theater piece by the youth, the Sunday School Choir from sister congregation El Eden, etc.

About midway through the carefully arranged program, suddenly Miguel shuffled up the center aisle of the church with a folded scrap of paper in his hand and headed straight for the microphone! At the microphone he announced that he would like to sing a song he had written to his Savior Jesus. With no accompaniment for his wavering, cracking, 77 year old voice, he sang a song of about six simple lines. Each line sounded like one in a different key from the last. Extra beats were needed as the old man tried to catch his wheezing breath. No matter. It was simply beyond belief. Old Miguel, a former drunkard and spouse abuser, now sang his own song to Jesus!

The song ended and there was a moment of stunned silence. Then the congregation erupted with applause! What a graphic picture of the Holy Spirit's life-altering power! Miguel headed back down the center aisle still holding his special scrap of paper, his gray head down, a smile of relief and accomplishment on his face. Missionary Schultz, who had been standing in the back of the church, dashed up to him in the middle of the isle and wrapped him up in a big bear hug, telling him that God was very happy with him for powerfully witnessing to his faith in Jesus. Miguel nodded in appreciation, then shuffled over to his seat and sat down. Bertila, tears running down her cheeks, quietly took his hand and squeezed it. A soft smile came to his face. Miguel had finally found peace with God.

This article is summarized by the editor from an email by Terry Schultz, an ELS missionary working in the Amazon jungle of Peru.