Thur. For Missions: Guy Muse and Manuel

Guy Muse is an IMB missionary in Ecuador. I love reading Guy's blog because he is neck deep in church planting. He very graciously writes about real struggles and real "Case Studies" about his attempt to be God's catalyst for a church-planting movement in Ecuador. For example, he publicly wrestled with how much to work with another leader who doesn't believe in the security of salvation.

Recently he wrote the story of Manuel. Go read it. Manuel is a follower of Jesus, (photo from Guy's site) not just a Christian. Here's a teaser:

Manuel owns a nice piece of land in Churute. By the carelessness of a neighbor, "Don Carlos", Manuel's land was set on fire. Everything was burned to the ground...including his valued Mango trees. The whole community was prepared for a tense confrontation, and possibly violence due to the indifference Don Carlos had showed towards Manuel's property and his total economic loss.

Manuel was of course quite distraught by what had taken place and was unsure of how to proceed. Get the police involved? Sue the neighbor? Demand restitution? Confront the callous neighbor and give him a good tongue lashing? Before doing anything, Manuel decided to pray for a week seeking God's mind on how he should proceed.