Some of you know my mom and dad, Jack and Jo Popjes. His latest book was just published and it covers our family’s life with the Canela people in the Amazon Valley area of Brazil. He tells of a letter they received in 1967 from Ireland when they were just starting their work.
“Dear Brother Jack and Sister Jo,
I just heard that you were assigned to translate the Word of God for the Canela people of Brazil, and I am so happy to know this! In the 1920s, I was a young missionary travelling from village to village, evangelizing the Portuguese-speaking Brazilians. One day my companions and I stumbled on an indigenous village we had not known was there. We couldn’t understand them, nor could they understand us. Moreover, they were a fierce-looking group, carrying clubs, spears, and large bush knives. We didn’t want to stay the night there. So, we travelled on and slept in the jungle.
Later, I discovered that this group was called the Canela. God moved me to pray for those Canela people, and I have been praying now for forty years without ever getting any news about them until I heard you were there. I will continue to pray for the Canela and your translation ministry with them.”
“Just think,” I said to Jo, “this man started to pray for the Canela ten years before we were born! No wonder we are making such good progress in language learning, and in being accepted by the Canela, even being adopted into their families. God is so good. He has been answering that brother’s prayers.”
Wow. Forty years of praying without getting any news! This Sunday Kurt and I will be teaching from Luke 18:1-8 on the parable of the persistent widow. It’s really the story of the power of persistent prayer! I don’t know about you, but I could use some help when it comes to this. I think you’ll be challenged, encouraged, and even a bit surprised by the story of this widow who used the only agency she had – “to cry out day and night…”
In Christ,
Valorie and Kurt
P.S. If you’d like to get my Dad’s new book, I have a few copies and it’s also available on Amazon here.