Entrusted with the Gospel

Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised:

This entire blog is one huge praise report about my friend, Brooklynn. She got to hear the Gospel and now has a Bible! Read below to find out more.

Prayer Necessities for the Skimmers:

1. Continue to be in prayer for Brooklynn, that she would read her Bible and that the Holy Spirit would continue to draw her to Himself.


2. Pray for us as we finish up our time of Quechua study here in Cochabamba and say goodbye to those with whom we´ve developed relationships here (pictured here are Bea and Annie, believers from Sweden with whom we became good friends). We will be leaving here Wednesday to return to our home in Sucre. Pray that we will "make the most of every opportunity" and would be wise with the time we have remaining.

3. Pray for us as we prepare to make a short community trip after Christmas. Pray that God would give us wisdom in choosing the parts of His Word to share in a community of people who are believers but without access to the Bible, and pray for the people there, that they would be doers of His Word and not hearers only.

Inquring Minds Wanna Know (Bonus for the Readers):

As I was reading the book of Jude this morning, I was struck by the great responsibility with which we as believers have been entrusted. This verse really hit me:

"Dear friends,... I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints." (Jude 3)




This week, God gave me the most amazing opportunity, and it can be directly attributed to your prayers. I´ve been asking you to pray for Brooklynn, the Belgian-Canadian woman with whom I previously got to share my testimony. (She´s pictured here with Misty, me, and Amy.) Well, this week, I got to talk to her even more in-depth, and it was certainly a God-ordained appointment.





We had learned that Brooklynn would be returning to her home in Belgium this past week, so I asked her to have dinner with me before she left. Being from Canada originally, English is her first language, so I was excited to be able to talk to her more about Jesus with no language barrier at all. I´ve so come to appreciate that!

God had prompted Leah to give a Bible to Brooklynn, so I took that with me to our dinner, along with a list of stories from the Word for her to read. I was hoping to get her to see the big picture of the Bible, culminating in the Gospel, without being intimidated by the sheer size of its 66 books. And, during the dinner, it was my hope to be able to share something of the Good News with her.

Have you ever tried to share the Gospel with someone who has very little or no background in Christianity? If so, you know how difficult it is. Even if the person has had some exposure to our faith, we often do them a disservice by just presenting a cursory Gospel presentation and pushing them to a quick decision. Following Christ is hard, and Jesus Himself told us we need to count the cost of being His disciple (see Lk. 14:25-34). This is how Paul described what it means to truly be His disciple:

"I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead." (Phil. 3:10-11)

If we just show that He is all joy and love without describing the demands of discipleship, we wind up with people who fall away from Christ at the first trial. And what´s worse is that they think that, because they once prayed a three-part prayer over a Gospel tract, they now have eternal life, though their lives show absolutely no evidence of that. These are the people to whom Christ will say, "I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness" (Matt. 7:23). And how much of that blame for that must be laid at my own feet?

So I really consulted the LORD about how to lay the foundation for the amazing Truth of the Gospel in this young woman with very little understanding of Who Christ was or why He came. How exactly does one explain thousands of years of the history of sinful man and the prophesied, personfied grace of a redeeming God in the span of a dinner?

But the LORD gave me the opportunity and the words. Brooklynn listened as I talked about Santa Claus and how I´d always wanted that to be true, for there to be someone out there who is so good that he brings gifts to all the children of the world, regardless of who or where they are. But then I´d realized that we have a "fairy tale" that is honestly true in that we have a God Who freely offers us salvation and the opportunity to know Him, even though we´ve been nothing but naughty for our entire lives.

When I explained that Jesus had come to earth with the express purpose of dying and that all of our sins, both before and after coming to Christ, were nailed to that cross with Him, she was excited. She explained that she had known about Jesus´death but that she had never before understood why He had to die.

When I told her that she had many people praying for her and that God was calling her into a relationship with Himself, she was moved. "Really?" she asked. She couldn´t believe that so many people who didn´t know her would be praying for her, and she was overwhelmed by the idea that God was pursuing her.

But this girl is not one to just blindly follow without questioning. She wanted to know why God would cause certain people to be born into such abject poverty when she and I have both had such great financial riches. She wanted to know what happens to those who will never hear about Jesus.

Was I bothered by her questions? No way! I actually welcomed them, because it meant she was actually considering whether what I had told her was really true. She wasn´t blindly believing me in the moment, only to fade away from the faith at the first sign of struggle. She was counting the cost and, if she does choose to follow Christ in the future, I have no doubt that she will know what she´s getting into.

As we said goodbye to Brooklynn this week, it was sad for all of us. I will truly mis her. But I am encouraged that she carries back to Belgium with her in the Word of God the same power that transformed my own life, and I take great delight in knowing this Truth:

"For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there without watering the earth and making it bear and sprout, and furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; so will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; it will not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it." (Is. 55:10-11)

Please join me in praying that Brooklynn would be like the Bereans of old:

"Now the Bereans... received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true." (Acts 17:11)

Pray that she will one day be able to proclaim with the Samaritans:


"They said to the woman, ´We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.´" (Jn. 4:42)

Two rainbows over our school in Cochabamba, Bolivia

Making God Big

Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised:

Our Quechua has improved tremendously during the seven weeks that we have been here. Thank you so much for your prayers, and I hope that you will continue to pray for us in this area of great need!

Prayer Necessities for the Skimmers:

1. Please continue to be in prayer for Brooklynn (pictured here with Amy). She is leaving to return to Europe this week to spend Christmas with her family. Pray that God would continue to work in her life to draw her to Himself.

2. We have only 1-1/2 weeks more here in Cochabamba and will return to Sucre on Dec. 23. Pray that we would finish our time here well, with remaining focused on language learning and with saying goodbye to different friends we've made here.

3. Continue to pray for our men's team - Efrain, Javier, Roberto, and David - as they investigate new areas in which to work.

Inquiring Minds Wanna Know (Bonus for the Readers):

I started reading the Bible in Quechua a couple of weeks ago, and it was pretty intimidating at first. Aw, who am I kidding? It still is. :)

But it's also really enlightening to read the Bible in another language. To my ethnocentric, "English is best" way of thinking, I ought to be able to get everything that I need from the Word of God, and I never thought it would help to read the Bible in any other language. Why would I ever need to do that?

But then I read John 14:6 in Spanish, and it blew me away. In English, Jesus says in that verse:

"I am the way and the truth and the life."

Pretty straightforward, right? But it's even greater in Spanish. There are two verbs in Spanish that can translate the English verb "to be." One is used to describe temporary states like illness or location, but the other, the one used to translate "I am" in this verse, is used for things of permanence, for inherent characteristics like your gender or nationality. So the fact that Jesus IS the way, the truth, and the life is not just some fleeting thing that could easily change. It is an inherent part of Who He is, and it is not going to change. Very revealing.

So, when I started reading the Word in Quechua, I was excited to see what new things I would learn. I started in Luke, and it didn't take me long to find this one. In the English NIV, it says this:

"And Mary said: 'My soul glorifies the Lord.'" (Lk. 1:46)

In its context, this begins Mary's hymn of praise to the Lord when she goes to visit Elisabeth after being told that she will give birth to Jesus. In Quechua, the word used to translate the word expressed by the English word "glorify" here is the verb "jatunchay." I know that doesn't mean anything to you right now, but let me break it down a little further. The Quechua word "jatun" word means "big," and "-chay" is a suffix that means "to make someone or something do something." So the literal translation of "jatunchay" would be "to make big."

Have you ever really thought about what the word "glorify" means? I don't think I had. I've grown up in church, and it's been a part of my churchy vocabulary since I was a little kid. "Let's glorify God this morning by singing hymn number 166!" Or "To God be the glory." I'm not making fun. I'm just saying we throw a lot of words around without really thinking about what they mean. Words like "glorify" and "exalt" and even "church."

So it hit me like a ton of bricks that Quechua translates "glorify" as "to make big"! Mary was saying that her soul was making God big. It was doing everything it could to make Him seem bigger in the eyes of other people.

I realized a few years ago that my purpose on this earth - and the purpose of every other person and thing that God has created - is to glorify Him. In essence, my purpose is to make God big.

Because He is.

We so often make Him so small. We try to fit God into a one-hour time frame on Sunday morning when He should consume our entire lives. We offer up a beautifully worded prayer asking Him to fix our problems but then immediately forsake following His ways as we try to solve them ourselves. We sing, "Wherever He leads, I'll go" on Sunday, but we're quick to doubt His power when He leads us down a road of suffering on Monday.

But He's the same BIG God today that He was when He parted the Red Sea. He's the same BIG God Who sent fire from heaven to consume Elijah's offering and all the water that drenched it. And He's the same BIG God Who raised His only Begotten from the dead.

And yet, somehow, He's still big enough to dwell inside you if you're His follower. Now, if that's not a reason to shout His praises in the streets, to make Him big before everyone you know, I don't know what is!

The old King James version of Luke 1:46 actually translates the verse much better:

"And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord."

To whom will you make Him big today?

A man drinking from a dumpster on the streets of Cochabamba

Calling Them to His Marvelous Light

Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised:

In the midst of great economic uncertainty, our organization is making some significant changes, and the likelihood is great that those changes will soon impact the ways in which our team works here in Bolivia. But it is amazing and comforting to know that we have a God Who is completely unsurprised and unaffected by any financial problems. We can rest securely knowing that He has promised to provide our needs if we seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness (Matt. 6:33)!

Prayer Necessities for the Skimmers:

1. We are going to meet with our European friend Brooklynn again tonight. Please be praying that the Holy Spirit will continue to provide us with opportunities to share His Truth with her and that He will grow the seeds that have been planted in her.

2. Please be in prayer the upcoming Lottie Moon Christmas Offering and for the IMB´s wisdom in its use of these funds. Every penny of this offering goes to support missionaries on the foreign field.

3. Pray for our men´s team, as they are currently scattered through various Quechua communities doing investigation and discipleship. Pray that God would give them His wisdom to know where we are to work next and to know how and what to teach to immature believers.

Inquiring Minds Wanna Know (Bonus for the Readers):

One of the major advantages of our language school is that each of our teachers has at least some indigenous heritage and, as a result, we are able to learn about the Quechua culture as well as the language. To read some of the myths and legends of this people group has been enlightening, and reading about their customs has really taught me a lot.

This past week, I was able to have a prolonged conversation with one of my teachers, and he explained to me much about the history of the Quechua practice of the San Juan (John the Baptist) festival in the Bolivian community of Acacio.

The celebration begins with a bullfight on the eve of the holiday, with the winning bull and his owner both being showered with chicha (a corn-based alcoholic beverage that is a staple of every Quechua celebration).

The following explanation is a description of what happens on the San Juan holiday itself. I realize this is not the best English grammar I´ve ever posted, but I´ve translated it as best I can from the original Quechua, so I hope you´ll forgive me if there are some mistakes:

"From the sunrise, all of the people from Acacio and the surrounding villages come to the large, wide street in the plaza. Some of them arrive to fight again, still drunk and dripping blood [there were also a variety of drunken fights the previous evening], bellowing like a bull, and others are playing the charango [an instrument something like a ukulele].

"In order to fight, in that moment, they put on well a helmet, and they tightly envelop their right hands with something like a belt to make a good fist. To fight, they begin bellowing like bulls. And then, suddenly, jumping, they kick, they beat with their fists, and some fall to the ground. And when those are on the ground, the others kick heads, stomachs, or wherever.

"In that way also, sometimes the women defend their husbands. Sometimes the women fight among themselves while they carry their children on their backs; they hit each other with their shoes. Sometimes their families and those from their communities enter the fight. In that way, they have a big fight.

"Then, some of them stand up covered in blood, their heads cut, their noses broken, their mouths swollen. And, being like that, they are, of course, drunk.

"Like that is the San Juan festival in Acacio.

"But it is said that there is another, bigger festival in the month of September. Taht festival is called Exaltation [a celebration of another Catholic holiday]. In that festival, it is said that there is a bigger, uglier fight. Sometimes, it is said that they kill one another. ´If a man dies in the fight, the fields will produce well for the following year; and, if no one dies, the fields won´t produce well,´ they say.

"Like that are the customs in Acacio."

If this barbaric behavior disgusts you, good. I hope it makes you feel the darkness in which these people daily live their lives. I hope it makes you realize how DESPERATELY they need your prayers. Without them, the Quechua will continue to live in the bondage that tells them the blood of another human spilled in their fields will cause them to produce more crops, rather than knowing the Truth of the Creator God Who put a curse on Cain for spilling another´s blood:

"´Your brother´s blood cries out to me from the ground. Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother´s blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.´" (Gen. 4:10-12)

It breaks my heart to think of these people living in such abject darkness rather than in the marvelous light in which I walk. What a blessing I have received:

"But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy." (1 Pet. 2:9-10)

Won´t you please join me in praying that, as we continue to declare His praises, these people walking in darkness will see that Great Light?

"The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned." (Is. 9:2)

The Cure for Cancer

Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised:

Yesterday at school, I got the opportunity to have an in-depth spiritual conversation with one of my teachers, Gladys. She was very receptive and curious as I shared the Truth of Christ, and I´m hopeful that God will use those seeds planted in her and will give our team more opportunities to share with her.

Prayer Necessities for the Skimmers:

1. Pray that the Lord would move in the hearts of Brooklynn and Gladys and that He would continue to draw them both to Himself.

2. Continue to pray overall for the Quechua of the Chayanta province. As I learn more about this culture, it is so easy to see how the people have been frightfully deceived by our enemy (I´ll be sharing more about this in the next blog). Please pray that God would open their eyes to the Only Truth: His.

3. Back in Sucre, we just had four new believers added to our number by baptism. Praise the LORD that we have three new brothers and a sister, and pray that they would come to know Him more deeply and to serve Him in obedience.

Inquiring Minds Wanna Know (Bonus for the Readers):

I´ll go ahead and tell you now that this blog is difficult to post. The topic might be controversial for some of you, but I hope you´ll listen anyway. Here goes:

As most of you know, I used to be a pediatric cancer pharmacist. I loved the people I worked with, my patients and, most of the time, the job itself. :) As part of my training for my profession, I spent a year at St. Jude Children´s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. It was a great experience that I´ll never forget, though there were more than enough sad days.

The other day, I was sitting at a restaurant here in Bolivia, and it surprised me to look up and see an ad for St. Jude on the television screen. Seriously, who knew that even Bolivians give money to St. Jude? And all of that just got me thinking.

St. Jude is an amazing place. It´s a hospital for children with cancer and other catastrophic illnesses, and the ads are true: No child is ever turned away because of an inability to pay. Every child there receives whatever treatment the doctor deems necessary, without a question of how it will be paid for. The health care professionals there are among the best in the world. And the research done there has dramatically improved the cure rates for childhood cancers. There´s a reason the name "St. Jude" is world-renowned.

And, basically, the majority of that comes down to money. St. Jude´s fundraising personnel are also among the world´s best. No expense is spared when it comes to research or the provision of care for children with cancer or other catastrophic diseases... nor should it be. The hope is always to find a cure.

Are you wondering where I´m going with all of this? Well, let me tell you.

Last year, the International Mission Board´s Lottie Moon Christmas Offering fell $29 million short of its goal. As a result, the IMB cut its short-term (2-3-year) mission programs completely and has reduced the number of long-term personnel being sent to only those who meet particular strategic needs. The Board has delayed or turned down numbers of people who are called and willing to go... simply because they don´t have the funds to send them.

Now you tell me: Which one is more important?

Please don´t misunderstand me here. My brother died from cancer at age 17. I spent nine years working with children with cancer, and I´ve seen many of them lose that fight. It breaks my heart every single time. There aren´t may things I´m more passionate about than helping kids with cancer.

But I am more passionate about taking the Gospel to the nations.

Why? Because finding the cure for cancer won´t give anybody eternal life, but giving them the Good News of Christ will. Because finding the cure for cancer may give a kid fifty more years on this earth, but it won´t keep him from eternal death. And because finding the cure for cancer may let a kid experience adulthood, but it won´t let him experience real joy.

I´m not telling you to not give to childhood cancer research. To my way of thinking, there´s only one cause around more important than that one.

But the Gospel is eternally more important.

The cure for our real illness has already been found. Don´t let the poor economy keep you from getting it to those who need it.

.

The Work Begins... (8/29/09 - 11/10/09)

Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised:

Our European friend Brooklynn took a walk with me the other day and, in a completely God-ordained appointment, I was able to share my testimony with her. She was very interested and asked some excellent questions. She is coming to our house for dinner next week, so please be in prayer that God would give us continued opportunities to share His Truth with her.

Prayer Necessities for the Skimmers:

1. There have been quite a few distractions for us this week, as both Amy and Misty have had to deal with the health problems of relatives at home. Please be in prayer for their families and for them, that God would guard their hearts and minds with His peace that transcends all understanding and that they would be able to keep their eyes fixed on Him.

2. Pray that God would improve our Quechua so that we can share more of Who He is with our teachers. We have gradually improved but still only have minimal conversation skills. If not in Quechua, please ask that God would enable us to share Truth with them in Spanish.


Inquiring Minds Wanna Know (Bonus for the Readers):

I finally arrived in Bolivia in early September, and it was a joy to be reunited with my team again (I´m pictured here with Misty and Amy). My fellow team leader, Leah, and I spent a few weeks furnishing our house (my not-quite-finished bedroom is pictured below) and getting to know people and places in Sucre, our new home.

Sucre is in the foothills of the Andes Mountains, a city of about 250,000 people with an elevation of about 9000 feet. Though it has no American restaurants, there are plenty of modern conveniences, including a movie theater, a supermarket, and a small store where we can regularly get Reese´s Cups and Almond Joy (something that makes me very happy! :)). We have a washing machine, hot water, and high-speed Internet at our house (though "high-speed" is a relative term, so don´t go comparing it to your instantaneous YouTube downloads in the US :)). We are very grateful to the LORD for His provision and to Southern Baptists for allowing Him to use you to supply our needs.

In early October, Leah and I had to write up a master plan outlining the vision God has given us for the women´s team and how He has shown us to accomplish that vision. Writing that document really helped to clarify our work for us, and I hope that my sharing a little of it with you will help you to see and understand more clearly God´s work among the Quechua using our team. I pray that God will enable you to catch the vision for seeing this people group come to Christ and that you will be on your knees regularly begging the LORD to spread His Word like wildfire among them.

In order to engage a Quechua community where there is no evangelical presence, the plan is that our women´s team would enter that place after our Xtreme men´s team has already established a church there. But, because the Quechua are distinctly separated among gender lines, the likelihood is high that the women of the community will have never heard the Good News that the men´s team has brought.

The girls will make month-long trips into the communities, then return to Sucre for one-week rest breaks. While they are in the communities, they live and work with the women, seeking to develop relationships and to discern those who have an interest in the things of God.

They will share stories, in chronogical order, memorized in Quechua directly from the Bible, with the goal of having the women with whom they share the stories memorize them as well. Because the majority of the people, and especially the women, are unable to read, hiding the Word of God in their hearts through memorization is the only way to ensure they have it. (Incidentally, it´s the best way for you to have it, too!)

Our plan is to share 20-30 stories in order to evangelize the women. Then, once there are baptized female believers, we will share 10-15 stories in order to disciple them, teaching them to obey all that Christ commanded and what it means to be the church.

From the start, they will be encouraged to share the stories they have learned with others who have not heard them and, once they have become baptized followers of Christ, that will be an expectation. If you learn a story from God´s Word, you share it with somebody who hasn´t heard it. Simple as that. You fulfill the Great Commission from the start.

We hope that, by implementing this "sharing God´s story" mindset in these new believers from the beginning, the LORD will call out missionaries from among those young churches to go to other Quechua communities and share the Gospel there. Because they don´t have to learn a new language or culture, we think the Quechua themselves will be far more effective ambassadors for Christ to their own people than we will ever be.

Are you wondering what your part is in all of this? Well, let me tell you. :)

In order to reach for Christ the 93,000 Quechua in our province alone, we need the help of Great Commission-minded believers in the States as well. We´re hoping to find seminary and university students willing to participate in summer or semester missions. We also have ideas for short-term volunteer trips which, though they would require great sacrifice on the part of the volunteers, would offer huge benefits as well. If you know of anyone who might be interested in directly participating in God´s work here, please e-mail me.

And, of course, the most important aspect of your involvement in the work here is your prayers. Please be lifting these people up to the Lord of the harvest.

"Then he said to his disciples, ´The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.´" (Matt. 9:37-38)

Opportunities Everywhere (8/7/09 - 8/28/09)

Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised:

The LORD has given us some amazing opportunities during our time here in Cochabamba for language school. In particular, we have met one young lady named Brooklynn, an 18-year-old girl from Europe. She is not a believer but, when we asked about her spiritual beliefs, she expressed that she was definitely interested in hearing about Jesus. We plan to have her over to our house this week to discuss things of the LORD. How exciting!

Prayer Necessities for the Skimmers:

1. Please be in prayer for Brooklynn, that her heart would be receptive and that her eyes would be opened to the Truth.

2. Pray for our team´s unity. While we are in language school, the four of us are living together in a small apartment and, of course, there are minor conflicts. Pray that we would learn to love each other selflessly and that we would serve one another in a way that would continually bring glory to Christ.

3. Continue to be in prayer for the Bolivia men´s team, as they begin investigating other communities in which to begin work. Pray that God would go before them and reveal where He wants them to go next.

Inquiring Minds Wanna Know (Bonus for the Readers):

In August, I went on a European vacation... Johnson style. And, if you know my family at all, you know that´s very similar to National Lampoon´s Griswold family verson. :)

My parents currently live just outside London so, when my Xtreme Team training was completed, I took a few weeks to visit them. We spent half of that time in the UK and the other half touring through different places in the Czech Republic, Austria, Italy, and Germany. I even got to see my old friend Adéla in Prague (she and I are pictured below). It was fantastic, as you can tell from the pictures!

But the point of this blog is not to make you jealous, I promise. :)

Ever since I attended orientation with the mission board, I have been constantly reminded of the importance of knowing the worldview, the fundamental beliefs, of the people among whom I´m working. From there, I can address the barriers that keep them from coming to Christ.

For example, most Quechua have an animistic worldview. They believe that everything - people, animals, plants, rocks - has a spirit and that everything is a spiritual matter. They believe that there are good spirits and evil spirits constantly acting upon them and that, ultimately, evil is more powerful than good. Therefore, if anything bad happens to them, they must somehow affect the balance of power in the spiritual, either by appeasing the spirit they have angered or by acquiring the help of a more powerful spirit. As you can probably imagine, all of this leads to a superstitious and fearful people who live a life of bondage.

But the European worldview is vastly different. Their fundamental belief system is called postmodernism, and it´s one of the most difficult to overcome.

Basically, most Europeans are too "smart" to believe a God even exists and, if He does, He is irrelevant. Their intellect demands that they reject the very existence of a higher power in favor of scientific explanations for spiritual phenomena and, while they can see value in some religious teachings, they don´t really claim to be followers of any religion. Centuries of apathy and blatant corruption in both Protestant and Catholic churches across their continent, followed by decades of Communist-mandated atheism in certain parts of it, has led to disbelief in a holy and all-powerful God Who transforms lives.

But, while I was in Europe, God gave me various opportunites to demonstrate Who He is to the people there. I wanted to share about one encounter in particular because it still resonates with me now.

My mom and I were waiting for a bus one morning when we struck up a conversation with a British lady named Bev. When Bev discovered that I lived in South America, she was fascinated and asked why I had moved there. I explained that I was a missionary called there to share the love of God with the people.

Bev thought about that for a moment, then said, "I think that´s wonderful. The people here are too smart for our own good. We don´t believe in anything but ourselves. We don´t believe there´s a God, nor do we think we need one. But we´re all just terrified of death. We haven´t figured out what to do with that one."

Wow. The entire postmodern worldview, concisely summarized in five sentences, straight from the mouth of a postmodern. It was enlightening... and it made me terribly sad.

But the most telling part of what Bev said was at the end. Postmoderns haven´t figured out what to do with the problem of death, and they walk around terrified because of it. Just like the Quechuas, who also spend their entire lives in bondage to that same fear. Maybe the two worldviews are not so vastly different after all.

And that realization brought to mind this passage:

"Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death - that is, the devil - and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death." (Heb. 2:14-15)

The whole reason Jesus came is to free all mankind - the Quechua, the British, the American - from that fear of death and the bondage that comes with it.

Rejoice, O Christian! The grave has no power over you! You have been set free!

Learning to Lead (7/10/09 - 8/6/09)

Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised:

Our whole team is making excellent progress in our Quechua studies, though we still have a long way to go. We have only been attending classes for two weeks, but we can speak in increasingly complicated sentences and understand a little more each day. The One Who knows all languages deserves all the praise!

Prayer Necessities for the Skimmers:

I want to try to give a quick summary update on Quchumi. After discovering how the men there were taking advantage of our guys´ team, their team leader, Trent, along with Simón, a Quechua believer, went to speak with the men of the community. They carefully explained that the guys were there to work but, more importantly, they were there with something far more precious, the Word of God, and that the people of Quchumi were refusing to listen to it.

Initially, the men of Quchumi were repentant and asked for the guys to stay, saying that they wanted to listen to the stories. But Trent asked them to think about it without the guys there and gave them a calling card so that they could call to ask the guys to return if they really wanted that.

The men have not called to ask for our team to return, so Trent and the guys have made the decision to investigate other communities in our province and to begin working there. This has been highly disappointing, but God has been faithful to encourage the men´s team and our team as well through this very difficult time. I am convinced that He is not done with Quchumi, but we do not know if we will be involved in the harvest there.

1. Please pray for continued encouragement for the guys´ team and their leaders. Pray that God would grant them wisdom on the next community where He wants His Word to go.

2. Pray for wisdom for Leah and me as we plan the next step for our women´s team as well.

3. Pray for God to continue to work among the people of Quchumi, particularly the women. Because of distinct gender separations in Quechua communities, most of the women there didn´t get to hear the stories our guys´ team shared. As a direct result of the men´s rejection, these women have not had the opportunity to hear the Truth. Pray that God will take His powerful Word to those women.

Inquiring Minds Wanna Know (Bonus for the Readers):

I´ve been a leader for as long as I can remember.

I´ve held offices in various organizations. I´ve directed my high school band. I´ve led band groups in college.

Over the course of twenty years of employment, I´ve also done lots of things that made me a leader. I´ve been a manager and a teacher. I´ve supervised employees of all ages. I´ve taught all kinds of medical professionals. I´ve precepted students who wanted to learn what I had to teach and students who didn´t. I´ve made decisions that could improve or worsen a patient´s health.

And, for the last three years that I spent in the US, I had the privilege of being a Sunday School teacher. Each week, as I shared the lesson, ten to twenty women listened to what I taught and, hopefully, used it to apply God´s Word to their lives.

So I know how to be a leader... at least according to the model I´ve always seen. I just never realized how far that corporate American model of leadership is from the example Jesus gave us.

It´s funny to me now how ready I thought I was for this job. I do believe God used those past experiences to prepare me, but I learn every day how inadequate my methods are for His work.

A few years ago, the LORD taught me a very important lesson. He had laid a particular section of Scripture so heavily on my heart that I prayed over it for twelve hour straight, but I had no idea how to implement the things I was studying. I said, "LORD, this is all well and good, but I don´t know what You expect me to do about it."

What He told me was profound: "What I expect is for you to obey Me and to teach others to o the same."

Oh. That sort of made the task manageable. Obey God, and teach others to obey Him. Sure, it would be difficult but not impossible. God doesn´t call us to an impossible task.

That still sticks with me, even though it´s been three years since the LORD revealed it. And I thought I was doing a pretty good job at it while I was in the States. But then I moved to South America, and the LORD showed me just how far I had to go to become the kind of leader He wants me to be.

When I got to know the women (pictured above) who now comprise my team, I began to struggle with being their leader. I mean, REALLY struggling. Because I realized that I had always tried to lead in a different way than Jesus taught and, after 20-plus years of that, trying to conform to a Biblical model was just flat-out HARD.

But I continue to learn daily how He wants me to lead, and I pray that He uses my life and my feeble efforts to bring Himself increasing glory. Here are a few of the lessons I am learning:

1. My primary responsibility to those I lead is to serve them.

"Jesus called them together and said, ´You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.´" (Mk. 10:42-45)

I have always had authority by virtue of a title - manager, pharmacist, teacher. Even here, my title of "team leader" gives me authority, and the LORD showed me how I was lording that authority over my team, demanding their obedience with my words and not with my actions.

But Jesus´ approach was entirely different:

"Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples´ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him... When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. ´Do you understand what I have done for you?´ he asked them. ´You call me "Teacher" and "Lord," and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another´s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.´" (Jn. 13:3-5, 12-15)

The very God of all creation washed the dirty feet of twelve nobodies. Why? To set them an example. If I want my team members to obey what I ask of them, I must serve them. I must first be slave of all.

2. Being a leader does not mean being perfect.

I know that sounds like a no-brainer, but just hear me out. How many of you have put on an act when you went to a church service? Seriously, haven´t we all? I remember so many days when I drove home after being with the church, and I was just exhausted from my Miss Perfect Christian act. I mean, I was a Sunday School teacher. I HAD to be perfect, or I might lead someone in my class astray.

Then I moved here, and I lived with these women on my team... in the jungle... 24/7... for months. There was no hiding the fact that I wasn´t perfect.

But do you know what happened? I began to realize that being honest with them about my struggles gave me a level of accountability that forced me to submit to the LORD´s work in those sinful areas of my life. And that ultimately made me a better leader... and closer to that perfect believer I had always pretended to be.

"We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ." (Col. 1:28)

3. Every member of the body truly needs every other member.

"Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others." (Rom. 12:4-5)

Just because I´ve been given a title of "team leader" does not mean I´m more important, and it doesn´t mean that I should never follow the example of the young women on my team. Just because I have the spiritual gift of teaching does not mean I have all the answers or that I can learn nothing from the others.

"But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be." (1 Cor. 12:18)

God has designed our team exactly as He wanted it, and each of us needs all the others in order to complete what God has called us to do. If I could just get over myself and realize how desperately I need the others, we´d all be a lot better off.

I hope these lessons I´m learning will be beneficial to you as well. Do you realize you´ve also been given the command to obey and to teach others to do the same? We call it the Great Commission.

"´Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surey I am with you always, to the very end of the age.´" (Matt. 28:19-20)