We
soon retired for lunch when we heard that Sunil and Joey had arrived from
Yarakita to check up on us and also to ensure that everyone's equipment
was working for the film ministry later in the night. Francis, Dalkeith
and Lindsay had wrapped up their leadership training sessions and we sent
up some foodstuff for the Pastor of the church to organize to have some
women from the church cook lunch for those who attended the leadership training
sessions. 
I
then had another opportunity to share with a young man whose name I can
barely even phonetically reproduce, much less spell now. He was a villager
from a nearby village who just dropped in to check on a friend in this village.
He was waiting on a visiting couple who arrived a few hours earlier by engine
boat to get a ride back to his village. In talking I realized that he wasn't
a christian. He believed in the basics of God creating man and sin separating
man from God. He believed and understood that we were all separated from
God - a concept that honestly I had found too abstract when I was younger.
I went on to explain God's plan for him to have an abundant life and God's
desire to have a relationship with him. I must say that I appreciated the
honesty of this young man as he shared with me different aspects of his
life and even when he went on to explain the democratic structure of his
village. When he came to explaining the different rules or laws that each
village has I used that avenue to ask him if he had ever heard the Four
Spiritual Laws. I went over them with him, (1) God loves you and has a wonderful
plan for your life, (2) We are sinful, and separated from God which is why
we can't know and experience that love, (3) Jesus Christ is God's only provision
for man's sin, through whom we can know and experience God's love and plan
for our lives and (4) We must each individually receive Jesus Christ as
Saviour and Lord, only then we can know and experience God's love and plan
for our lives. Most people choke at the last law. He acknowledged that it
will be a good thing but there were too many things he'd be giving up right
now if he had to become a christian. Even when I went over the benefits
with him, read the pray aloud and asked him if it expressed the desire of
his heart, he told me, "Yes, it did...but he didn't want to do it now".
I respected his decision, but I explained the consequences of this knowledge
to him, that he was now without excuse before God. There are only two choices,
to accept Christ or reject Him; not to decide is to decide. I trust that
God will bring this young man to Himself in time to come. I must admit I
was a little disappointed. No matter how many times I quote, "Success
in witnessing is taking the initiative to share Christ through the power
of the Holy Spirit and leave the results up to God", I feel like a
let God down a little bit. That second part of leaving the results up to
God is the hard part. 
The
young men had already begun playing cricket on their pitch which was located
on the hill directly above the school. The pitch was a patch of level ground
nestled in the undulating hills directly above the school we were staying
in. We'd brought cricket bats and a few wind balls with us and it was no
problem for us to loan them the equipment to play the sports. We'd thought
they'd be exhausted by the time we were ready to start our cricket with
them but these guys had energy for days. Francis offered to teach them a
new kind of cricket, high speed cricket, a game I still have scars on my
body from my old Victory Heights Camp days. The guys were very eager to
hear how were going to be playing this game. They chose two captains from
among themselves and reluctantly picked members of our team to join their
sides. It was just the first day and we hadn't gotten to know them by name
as yet so we didn't really expect them to be all too eager to have the outsiders
play on their sides. Once the game got rolling we had mixed teams Francis
was the umpire and I was the scorer/photographer. Shawn gave an amazing
gospel presentation using the three-ball illusion from Andre Kole Ministries,
which I borrowed from the Campus Crusade Campus Ministry team before this
trip. During the change of innings Shawn presented using the illusion and
gave an invitation to accept Christ. 
Although
no one took it up at the time, we made ourselves available for any one of
them to talk with us in the future; Dean had spoken with a young boy, Ricky,
earlier which was quite profitable as he prayed to receive Christ. God was
working through every situation and bringing unlikely people that day to
come to know him. We spent the better part of the evening playing cricket
and football with the young men. They especially enjoyed it when we fell
in the cricket. I was glad that we could provide some amusement. The guys
on our team we such sports as well. We weren't the best athletes - actually
we were terrible athletes but we gave our all in playing with these guys
trying to build relationships and bridge cross-cultural boundaries.
A young boy spent many hours building a little sailboat, crafting it down to the finest detail. He then took it to a nearby river to sail it. When he put it in the water, however, it moved away from him very quickly. Though he chased it along the bank, he couldn't keep up with it. The strong wind and current carried the boat away. The heartbroken boy knew how hard he would have to work to build another sailboat.
Farther down the river, a man found the little boat, took it to town, and sold it to a shopkeeper. Later that day, as the boy was walking through town, he noticed the boat in a store window.
Entering the store, he told the owner that the boat belonged to him. It had his own little marks on it, but he couldn't prove to the shopkeeper that the boat was his. The man told him the only way he could get the boat was to buy it. The boy wanted it back so badly that he did exactly that.
As he took the boat from the hand of the shopkeeper, he looked at it and said, "Little boat, you're twice mine. I made you and I bought you."
In the same way, we belong twice to Someone. He both created us and paid a great price for us. With the blood of His Son, we have been redeemed and reunited with Him. His Son gave His life to get us back, yet so often we show such little gratitude for what He has done for us.
This
was a significant breakthrough. The captain, who had struggled with alcohol
over the last few years, was now willing to give his life to the Lord. Even
that night you could see signs of intoxication on him, he stepped forward
to give his heart and life to the Lord Jesus that night. God was already
working and we were already seeing fruit. We came here not knowing what
we will be doing, whether planting a seed, watering the message or reaping
the harvest. To those who had gone before and the prayers of our supporters
who had been praying for these villagers at Hotoquai, we had to say, "Thank
You". Although it was just three persons who prayed to accept Jesus
that night, it was just a beginning and we could feel as though it was a
spiritual breakthrough. We had two full days ahead of us yet with these
villagers.