{"id":4419,"date":"2011-03-15T09:06:45","date_gmt":"2011-03-15T13:06:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/?p=4419"},"modified":"2011-03-15T09:07:04","modified_gmt":"2011-03-15T13:07:04","slug":"watching-god-at-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/2011\/03\/15\/watching-god-at-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Watching God at work"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Mike<\/a>
Mike with baptized Ese Ejja believers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

How easily do you get distracted?<\/p>\n

Still with me? Good.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to get distracted in ministry, just as it is in life. Mike and Cher Riepma recently shared that they\u2019ve been so focused on the big goal of establishing a mature church among the Ese Ejja people of Bolivia, they almost missed what God is doing.<\/p>\n

“God is working in individual hearts one at a time,” the Riepmas wrote.<\/p>\n

Goster grew up as best friends with Mike and Cher’s son, Jared. He heard many Bible stories, “but he never saw his personal need of a Savior,” the couple wrote. He got married, had several children, and lived like those around him.<\/p>\n

But one day his 8-year-old son asked, “When are we going to believe in Christ? I know God is real and our teacher says He is coming back soon.” That simple faith got through to Goster, and he and his wife, Yania, soon came to Mike and Cher asking to hear God’s plan of salvation again.<\/p>\n

Both trusted Christ, and Goster has been challenging other families in his village to come and learn about Jesus.<\/p>\n

Maira impressed Cher by intently listening to each word whenever the ladies gathered for Bible study.<\/p>\n

Maira grew up in church, but one day her dad decided he didn’t want to follow any longer. “Maira always knew deep in her heart that God’s Word is the truth and the key to having a meaningful life,” the Riepmas wrote. So after she got married she started to attend Bible studies again, even though her husband — who had previously placed his faith in Christ — was uninterested.<\/p>\n

“One day all the teaching came together for her and she understood why Christ had to come and die,” the Riepmas wrote. “Her husband could tell there was a change right away and this caused him to recommit his life.”<\/p>\n

Maira is growing in the Lord and her relatives are noticing. She had also been asking to be baptized.<\/p>\n

So last month, she and Goster and Yania were baptized, “with each one giving a clear testimony of their faith in Christ before their peers,” Mike and Cher wrote. “God is changing hearts one at a time.”<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a lot of good stuff going on in ministry. There are goals and objectives, and it\u2019s good to aim for something. If you aim for nothing, you\u2019re likely to hit it.<\/p>\n

At the same time, we all need to look around and see what God is doing in the lives of people. God changes the world one person at a time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

God is changing the world one person at a time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1422],"class_list":{"0":"post-4419","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-ministry","7":"tag-encouragement","8":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4419\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}