All the members of our women's team have now received the preliminary paperwork required to enter Bolivia. We still have a long way to go to receive our resident visas, but this first step was a big one. And the LORD is the only reason we are all here! (Well, all except for Leah, who will arrive later this week.)
Prayer Necessities for the Skimmers:
1. Please continue to be in prayer for the visa process. Our visa runner is excellent and knows every step of the process inside and out, but the LORD's favor with the government officials is essential.
2. Please pray for all four members of our team as we begin learning Quechua. Pray that the LORD would grant each of us a language helper, a native speaker with whom we can practice language and learn culture. And pray that we would quickly and efficiently learn the language as we begin Quechua school in Cochabamba, Bolivia, in the next few weeks.
3. Pray for the men's Xtreme Team here in Bolivia (pictured below, with the team leaders, Trent and Kay Jones, in the center). Currently made up of three young Latin guys, the men's team is close to planting its first church in the community of Qhochumi, where they have been working for more than a year. Pray that Javier (from Peru, second from left in the photo), Efrain (from Colombia, second from right), and Roberto (from Argentina, far right) would be encouraged in their work and that they would stay the course as they return to this community soon.
Inquiring Minds Wanna Know (Bonus for the Readers):
After my first trip into the jungle community of Shushuna (see the blog from 8/2/09 here), it was surprisingly difficult to return to our camp, but the excitement of getting to share the victories we'd seen made it a little easier. But, after my second trip out to a community (this time with my partner, Leah), with some of the newness of seeing those victories having worn off and knowing I was just returning to the same old camp life, I found myself trudging down the road feeling more and more discouraged with every step.
By the time Leah and I were reunited with Lori and Amy, all I wanted to do was get out of the jungle. Amy and I had to go to the market to get our food for the week and, on our way into town, I heard about the trip she and Lori had. Unfortunately, their community time did not go well, and it was evident that the enemy was at work. By the time she had finished sharing the story, I was thoroughly discouraged, and all I wanted to do was go home.
Then, adding insult to injury, when we got back to the camp, we got some punishment because we hadn't been devoting as much time to memorizing our stories. Jeremy told us to start running and to not stop until he told us to. Let me tell you, that was the closest I came to quitting the Xtreme Team. As I've mentioned before, I hate running. With every fiber of my being, I loathe it. So to be told we had to run, on top of already feeling so much discouragement, almost did me in. I'm not kidding when I say I was planning my plane flight home.
When Jeremy finally left, all of us sat around the camp not saying very much. Every last one of us was discouraged and wondering why we were there. Some of us were in tears, others were angry, but all were ready to quit. We were just over it. And the really bad part was that none of us could encourage the others because we all felt the same way.
Do you see how crafty our enemy is? If he can get one person down, great. If he can get two down, even better. If he can get an entire body of believers down, score! There's no one left to encourage anyone else, so it's just a vicious cycle whereby the hurting church becomes more disheartened and less fruitful. And, when he's gotten us there, he's won.
Jeremy returned the next morning, asking questions about what was going on among us. And we finally asked him how to get out of this discouragement funk. How do you get encouraged when every single member of the body is discouraged? His answer? The Lord's Supper.
Now there's nothing magical about the bread and the wine (or grape juice, or Kool-Aid, or flavored water, or whatever it is you have to drink with it!). It's not some magic spell that does away with discouragement and makes everyone happy again. The power that the Lord's Supper has in dispelling discouragement is in its object: Jesus.
What I learned about discouragement is that its source is self-focus. If we start thinking about us, we start to wonder what we're doing. If we don't see immediate results, we start to wonder what we're doing wrong and thinking maybe we need to be doing something else.
So how do we combat that? By putting our focus where it belongs. On Jesus! My favorite verse of Scripture tells me this:
"Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." (Heb. 12:2)
The way we practice the Lord's Supper here is to make it a part of a normal meal, but the only subject of conversation during that meal is to be Jesus. There are no complaints, no small talk, no conversation about anything but Him. And, as you pass the cup, the person holding it can say anything they want to say, as long as it's about Jesus. Do you realize how amazing that topic is? You can't possibly remain discouraged when you're constantly reminded of the author and perfecter of your faith!
So let me do some encouraging of each of you right now. I want to remind you of just a few of the things the Bible says about the One Who gave His body and blood, and why we are to eat the bread and drink the wine in remembrance of Him!
He is...:
..."your shield, your very great reward." (Gen. 15:1)
..."I AM WHO I AM." (Ex. 3:14)
..."a faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he." (Deut. 32:4)
..."the great God, the great King above all gods." (Ps. 95:3)
..."a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering" (Is. 53:3)
..."he who made the earth, the LORD who formed it and established it" (Jer. 33:2)
..."one Teacher, the Christ." (Matt. 23:10)
..."the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" (Jn. 1:29)
..."the bread of life" (Jn. 6:35)
..."the gate for the sheep" (Jn. 10:7)
..."the Resurrection and the Life." (Jn. 11:25)
..."the way and the truth and the life." (Jn. 14:6)
..."our peace, who has made the two one" (Eph. 2:14)
..."in very nature God" (Phil. 2:6)
..."the image of the invisible God" (Col. 1:15)
..."the head of the body, the church" (Col. 1:18)
..."that great Shepherd of the sheep" (Heb. 13:20)
..."the Lion of the tribe of Judah" (Rev. 5:5)
