Amazonian Wednesdays 🌴
Today’s edition is from November 2020. So glad to be past those times!
*************************************
Their jaws dropped in astonishment. Jorge gazed at his family, exhausted. He had just walked through the door. Up until that moment, they had thought he was dead.
Jorge’s story will give you an idea of the surreal chapter we have been living through. He was in our local hospital, gravely ill with Covid. It was the peak of the calamity. The bodies of the deceased were lying in piles, unidentified. The hospital staff was overcome by the horror of it all. Too afraid to approach those lying dead, they left hundreds of them with no death certificate.
En masse, these bodies were loaded onto trucks. They were taken to a common grave and left there. Among them was Jorge. As the others, he was stuck in a garbage bag. The thing was, he was still alive. In the chaos of the overflowing hospital, his barely breathing frame had been mistaken for dead.
Somehow, Jorge found strength to keep fighting. He climbed out of the grave. Struggling for breath, he stumbled home by foot. Today, stunningly, he is alive and recovered from the coronavirus.
Like Jorge, our entire region is recovering from trauma. Iquitos is the capital city of Loreto, which spreads over the Amazon Jungle of Peru. An estimated 10,000 people died of Covid here over the last seven months. Based on a recent sampling, our health department calculates that up to 93% of our population has had the virus.
As a result, we have reached herd immunity here. There are very few new cases occurring at this point. We are officially the safest place to be in all of Peru.
We are profoundly grateful to testify: none of our church members has died during this pandemic. A good 90% of them got sick, but every one of them recovered. Over and over, they have expressed their gratitude. “In this church, we learned to fast and pray. We learned that God heals the sick. Because of His great power, we are alive today!”
Now for some personal sharing. When the pandemic started, we, too, were attacked by fear. Lily was in a coma just last year with severe respiratory issues. We feared, would she be more vulnerable to the virus?
Father God gave us a word. He told us that our home was sealed in like Noah’s ark. Even with the storm raging all around, we were safe. His promise banished fear from our hearts. Peace came in like a shield around us.
He does not lie. Here in Iquitos, the storm has passed. Sickness has not touched our beautiful little girl.
Whenever you face a storm, ask your Abba Father for a personal word. He will give you one. And that word will sustain you through the dark night. He will be your strength until the tempest is over.
“O God, in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge, till the storms of destruction pass by” (Ps. 57:1, ESV).
Always remember, you are His deeply loved one. God’s got you under His wings.
Feeding On Jesus 