Paula the Buddhist

Today I had lunch with a good friend who is the president of Amazon Outreach. It's a mission organization that leads mission trips up and down the Amazon river on two river boats they have purchased and staffed. My friend, Jed, is a great guy, but we haven't spent a lot of time together in a few years.

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My last trip with them to the Amazon, sadly, was almost 10 years ago. On that trip we flew into Manaus, Brazil and went up river from there to work in a number of villages along the Amazon river. Because of the language difference we needed translators. There is a large Presbyterian church in Manaus that provides the translators for our trips. On our trip they ran short, so one of the girls asked a friend of hers to come along and translate. Her name is Paula. Paula was a Buddhist. There was some concern over this, but I told Jed to give her to me as translator. She may not be a believer, but she will translate the gospel for me 50 times or more in a week and the Lord will have to do the rest. We had a great week and Paula did a great job for me. We also had several very good visits about faith. Since that day I have prayed consistently for Paula's salvation, but never knew of her fate.

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So, we come back to present day over lunch and as we talk about the good old days I asked Jed, "So, what about Paula? I've been praying for her all these years. What do you know about her." Jed smiled and responded, "She a Christian now." My heart leapt! I had shared my faith with her, prayed for her all these years, and now find that God had indeed sought her and saved her. I was and am most excited. I'm most excited that Paula the Buddhist is now a child of the King of heaven!

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