I´m a Sheep (7/4/09 - 7/9/09)

Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised:

While the work in Quchumi has been tremendously discouraging for our men´s team lately, we are so grateful for the way the LORD has encouraged us recently. He has used some recent happenings in that community to draw in more prayer partners and, in particular, He has kept reminding us of Isaiah 55:10-11:

"As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it."

Praise Him for how He is faithful and true to His Word and for how He has the saints interceding for this tiny Quechua village!

Prayer Necessities for the Skimmers:

1. Please continue to pray for those in Quchumi. The people there have been taking advantage of our guys in only wanting to use them for their work in the fields, rather than listening to the far more precious gift of God´s Word that they have to offer. Pray that God would prick the people´s hearts with the Word that they already have and that they would hunger and thirst for more of Him.

2. Please be in prayer for us as we begin Quechua language school next week. Pray that we would be diligent to study and to practice the language, even though it might be difficult.

3. Pray that God would give us opportunities to make disciples here in Cochabamba over the next six week and that we would recognize and take advantage of those opportunities.

Inquiring Minds Wanna Know (Bonus for the Readers):

On the day before our hike into the camp, Jeremy presented us with a surprise: Two sheep (pictured here). There was one male and one female, and we were to herd them the ten miles to camp with us.

Heh. Yeah, our boss has a really sick sense of humor.

We named the sheep Jay (after our boss, whom we thoroughly despised by that point :)) and Bella (after Jezebel in the Old Testament). Believe me, they deserved those names. :)

When we first saw Jay and Bella, I thought of this passage:

"The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep. The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger´s voice." (John 10:2-5)

I envisioned us leading the sheep down the highway, calling them by their names and gently coaxing them down the road to the safety of our camp. Of course, they wouldn´t follow a stranger, but they wuld certainly follow us because we were their shepherdesses.

That thinking lasted for maybe fifteen minutes. After that, all bets were off.

See, those sheep wouldn´t obey us for anything. We were walking beside a busy highway with any number of vehicles going at high speeds but, if we let go of them, they immediately wandered into the street. We couldn´t get them to follow us, no matter what we tried. I finally resorted to dragging Jay by the rope around his neck and, honestly, by that point, I didn´t really care if I killed him. I just figured, if that happened, we´d have good meat to eat for our first few days in the jungle.

Even once we arrived in our camp, the sheep were the constant banes of our existence. They would bleat if it rained, but they would fight us if we tried to move them to a dry place. They would bleat if they exhausted their food supply in a spot, but they would try to go in the opposite direction if we tried to lead them to a place with lush pasture. They would bleat if they got tangled in the ropes with which they were tied to the jungle trees, but they would try to run from us when we approached to try to free them, only succeeding in entangling themselves further.

I´ve heard all my life about just how stupid sheep are, and I suppose that´s true. But the part that frustrated me the most was not their stupidity. It was their willful rebellion and complete lack of willingness to obey, even though we were trying to do what was best for them.

I´m sure the metaphor here is not lost on you. It wasn´t lost on me either. I fully understood that I was just like those sheep. I just didn´t like it.

I don´t like that I whine and complain when my situation isn´t to my liking, yet I fight the LORD when He tries to change it. I don´t like that I don´t trust the One Who laid down His life for this stupid sheep to lead me to green pastures. I don´t like that I get tangled and, rather than relying on Him to free me, I get myself even more bound up because I try to get myself out. And these are lessons I´m still learning daily, even though Jay and Bella are no longer with me.

But what strikes me even more than how much of a sheep I am is the incredible patience of my Shepherd.

After fifteen minutes with them, I was dragging our sheep through the jungle, not caring whether they lived or died. And, though I helped care for them during the next two months, I did it out of obligation rather than any genuine concern for them.

But I´m so thankful that Jesus is an infinitely better Shepherd than I will ever be. His Word says this:

"I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd who owns the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the

sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me - just as the Father knows me and I know the Father - and I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd." (John 10:11-16)

The LORD deals not only with my rebellion and murmuring and constant lack of appreciation for Him but with that of all of His sheep. Yet He loved us enough to lay down His own spotless life for those same stupid sheep.

Jeremy gave me a very fitting nickname that is preserved for life on the back of my Xtreme Team jersey: "I´m a Sheep." But Jesus gave Himself and even more important nickname that is forever immortalized in His Word.

The Good Shepherd.

Isn´t it good to be His sheep?

Bearing One Another's Burdens (6/27/09 - 7/3/09)

Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised:

October 15 was my first anniversary of my arrival on the mission field. God has been so faithful through the victories and trials of the last year, and I can't wait to see how He will continue to be so during the years to come.

Misty and Amy will be able to attend Quechua language school for six full weeks, thanks to the generous support of several of you. We are all so grateful for your generosity in these uncertain economic times!

The girls just arrived back in Sucre today after spending the last two weeks with other believers in a Quechua community about five hours away. (They are pictured here in their full Quechua attire, along with Leah, me, and our dear friend, Daria.) They had a difficult but fulfilling time as they spent time encouraging the body of believers and learning how to do many things they had never done before. We are so glad to have them safely back with us!


Prayer Necessities for the Skimmers:

1. All four of us will travel to the city of Cochabamba next week and begin language classes on October 26. Please pray that we would be able to learn Quechua quickly and efficiently and that we would be diligent to study and to practice the language.

2. Please pray for our upcoming Xtreme Team training, which begins November 22. This training is to teach Latin and North American missionaries how to reach some of the most unreached peoples in South America with the Gospel. Pray for wisdom for the trainers and for a willingness to learn on the part of the students.

3. Pray for the Lord to give us opportunities to make disciples during our time in Cochabamba. Pray that we would be able to share the Gospel with those who have not heard and to spur those who are believers into a deeper relationship with Him. Also, please pray that we would be able to recruit some of those believers into His service among the Quechua in our province.

Inquiring Minds Wanna Know (Bonus for the Readers):

"Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ." (Gal. 6:2)

One of the purposes of our training - and probably the main purpose - was to teach us how to truly be the body of Christ. In order to plant churches that look like the New Testament model, we first have to learn how to be that ourselves.

It's funny that I thought I already knew what that meant. Boy, how much I still had to learn!

From the start, we were learning how to be unified. I mean, the Bible says we're supposed to do that, right? In fact, Jesus Himself prayed this for all of His future disciples:

"'My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.'" (Jn. 17:20-23)

OK, so we're supposed to "be brought to complete unity." But what does that even mean? Well, thankfully for us, Jesus defines it for us. It means to "be one." He uses that phrase twice in this passage.

The Bible never uses words lightly. It always means what it says.

And it says we are to be ONE.

Just think about that for a minute. No, really, stop RIGHT NOW, and think about it. What does that mean? What it doesn't mean is living our lives separately as a group of individuals who may spend a little time together every so often but, in reality, just look out for ourselves. What it does mean involves doing whatever it takes to preserve what we have within the church... regardless of how much sacrifice is involved. It means ensuring that your brothers and sisters stay on the right path, confronting them with their sin even if it means offending them and listening and accepting when they confront you with yours. It means giving up the time that you wanted for yourself in order to encourage and comfort a hurting brother. It means forgiving your sister when she wrongs you and allowing nothing - not pride, not hurt, not anything - to disturb that unity. That ONEness.

On the very first day of our training (pictured here), we had to hike ten miles to our camp. In the pouring rain. That was bad enough, but Amy had no rain gear. The good news? Jeremy brought plastic to keep her from developing hypothermia in those conditions. The bad news? The plastic had a price. 200 push-ups, which could be paid by one person or divided up among all of us. Because he had begun the day by quoting Gal. 6:2 (remember that whole "carry each other's burdens" thing from the beginning of this post?), we chose to divide up the push-ups and do fifty apiece. But, as I got on my face in the mud, I have to tell you I wanted nothing more than for Amy to do her own push-ups.

But we were only beginning to learn this lesson. Jeremy had told us that we would each be the burden in some area, and that was so true.

In some areas, I was the strong one. For whatever reason, God has gifted me with the ability to memorize very easily, so it didn't take me long to learn our Bible stories. I could memorize a story in a few hours and have it down pat. But Lori struggled with it. She would spend hours each night trying to learn just a few lines but, despite the difficulty, she persevered.

And we were learning to carry that burden along with her. Sometimes that meant listening to her tell a story we'd heard a million times before, just to be sure she didn't forget it. Sometimes it meant rehearsing a new story over and over with her. Sometimes it meant doing the physical labor in camp so that she could have time to work on the stories on her own. Yes, it was a burden, but it would have been impossible for her to do it by herself. She needed us, or she wouldn't be able to complete the task to which God had called her.

As I watched all of that, I began to realize that this was the way God wanted it to be. None of us is an island. We all need each other, or we won't be able to fulfill the purpose God has for us, either.

But I'm hard-headed and often don't learn the things the Lord wants to teach me quite that easily. See, I didn't like being on the other side of the coin. I hated being the burden. Carrying other people, though it was hard, was much easier than being carried. My pride didn't want to be the one who had to be carried. I wanted to be the strong, self-sufficient one, the one who helped others but didn't really need help myself.

But the Lord wanted me to learn that lesson, too. It was probably the most important one He had to teach me.

I've mentioned several times that I hate running, and I'm not good at it. At all. But because I knew it was one of the requirements for the team, I trained nearly a year in advance to be able to run the four miles necessary. I ran three and four times a week to work my way up to that goal, and I eventually made it.

But then Jeremy decided to change the rules. We ran a shorter distance, but we had to run it in the time he set. If each person didn't meet the goal, everyone had to run an extra lap.

Now I should tell you some things about my teammates (Lori and Amy are pictured here, center and right, respectively). Amy was a cross-country runner in college, Leah did cross-country in high school and had been running for years, and Lori could just run like the wind. Me? Well, let's just say it was a rare day that saw me meeting the goal. But running an extra lap was no problem for any of them. They didn't mind it at all, but it drove me crazy, because it meant I was the burden they had to carry.

Then God helped me to realize that my desire to be self-sufficient, to not need anyone else, was exactly the sort of rebellion He detests. Independence is telling Him that we don't need Him either because we can run our own lives.

Are you hearing me, Church? We need our brothers and sisters in Christ. We cannot survive without them. We are not individuals; we are ONE. Or, at least, we should be. And the fact that we're often not is the reason Christ is not glorified.

How sad that we drag the unspeakably beautiful name of Jesus through the mud for the sake of OUR independence. How it must grieve His heart.

I know it does mine.

Let's change that. Whose burden will you help carry today? And who will you allow to help carry yours?

The Power of Discouragement... and How to Beat It (6/20/09 - 6/26/09)

Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised:

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)

Lessons from a Fast (6/13/09 - 6/19/09)

Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised:

This weekend, I am traveling to Europe to visit my parents for the next few weeks. It will be my first time to see them in person in over a year, so I'm very excited about that! We're pictured here at Christmas in 2007.

Prayer Necessities for the Skimmers:

1. Please continue to pray for our visa situation. We continue to await the verdict of the Bolivian consulate on whether or not our paperwork is acceptable. Please pray that, when Misty and Amy return to the consulate tomorrow, there will be a favorable response.

2. Pray that, once we are in Bolivia, God would bring into our lives women with whom we can develop relationships. Pray that He would call some of those women into mission work among the Quechua of southern Bolivia.

Inquiring Minds Wanna Know (Bonus for the Readers):

We had a class (pictured to the right) on fasting this week and, a few days later, the LORD told me to put it into practice. I'm hoping we don't have any classes on running marathons. :)

During the class, Jeremy (pictured below in the little car in which he normally came to our camp) explained to us how one of the purposes of fasting is to reveal our sins to us so that God can work in that area of our lives. And it occurred to me that the entire five weeks we've spent in the jungle has been a fast... from everything. From the foods we enjoy most, from English as we've had to speak exclusively in Spanish, from the Internet, from communication with family and friends, from indoor plumbing, from almost every comfort to which we're accustomed. But I realized that the hardest part has been a fast from my freedom. Jeremy gave us property boundaries that we can't cross without his permission, so this jungle has become something of a prison to me.

But that fast from liberty, which is something I didn't even know I valued so highly, has shown me so much about the sins in my life. At times, it's almost overwhelming to face them, but God is ever faithful to encourage me just when I need it and to forgive me and cleanse me from all unrighteousness (1 Jn. 1:9).

After these revelations, the LORD told me I needed to fast until He told me to stop. The next morning, I was praying and asking Him if He wanted me to continue fasting. He didn't give me an immediate answer, so I started talking to Him about leaving the jungle. Honestly, I was just tired of being in training and really looking forward to all the comforts of Lima, which will be our next stop. And, in the midst of my complaining, the LORD spoke to me very clearly: "Kelli, if you were in Lima, you would disobey Me in this fast."

I tried to argue, but He responded, "You're having a hard time fasting here. With all the temptations of Chili's and Papa John's in Lima, you would definitely disobey."

Can you believe I kept trying to argue with Him, reminding Him of my great willpower in losing sixty pounds several years ago? That's when His voice got a little sharper: "Are you listening to what you're saying to Me? I don't need you to offer Me anything that's done in your own strength. You have nothing to offer Me!"

OK, so that finally shut me up. Because I realized that I had been doing just that my whole Christian life. I was constantly offering to God my absolute best efforts with all my strength and constantly feeling burdened as a result. But He had said His yoke was easy, and His burden was light (Matt. 11:30). And I had never before understood why I felt a hard yoke and heavy burden.

Later that same day, I went before the LORD again to ask if He wanted me to continue fasting or if I should eat dinner. And He asked me: "Why do you want to eat? Are you hungry?" I had to admit that I wasn't, that I really just wanted the satisfaction of putting food in my mouth. But Jesus had told us this:

"I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry." (Jn. 6:35)

And the Bible also says this:

"Man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD." (Deut. 8:3)

Through this fast, the LORD was teaching me that He alone is more satisfying than any food I could ever want. He's sweeter than the juiciest New York cheesecake or the creamiest banana split I could ever ask for. I miss Taco Bell and Cracker Barrel, but the temporary physical satisfaction of the best meal from there can't be "compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord" (Phil. 3:8). It's actually ridiculous to even write that sentence because the comparison is so absurd.

Finally, after two days of fasting, the LORD told me I could eat the following morning. But, before breakfast, we had to run 1.5 miles, followed by doing 60 pushups, 75 situps, and 45 lunges. After running, I almost cried. I had no energy. I just couldn't breathe, and the idea of doing all those exercises seemed impossible.

So I offered the LORD my body as a living sacrifice (Rom. 12:2). I told Him, "Father, You know I can't do this. I just don't have the strength. But You have no problem with any of this, and 'I can do everything through him who gives me strength'" (Phil. 4:13). I continued, "I don't know what it means to do things in Your strength rather than my own, but I want to learn. Please help me to finish this."

I hope you won't be surprised to hear that I did finish all of my exercises that morning. It wasn't easy, but His strength was sufficient.

This is only the beginning of correcting a lifelong problem of trying to follow Christ with my own efforts. I certainly don't have it all figured out, but I'm grateful for the lesson and can't wait to learn more from the LORD about it. And I wanted to share it with you because I know I'm not the only one who has this problem. I hope you'll also share with me how our great God has taught you!

Walking by Faith... Literally (6/6/09 - 6/12/09)

Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised:

While in Lima, we were able to have some documents officially translated in only one day. This process involved obtaining an official seal from the United States embassy, getting another official seal from a Peruvian government office, and finally having it translated into Spanish. As you might imagine, this can be a time-consuming process, but the LORD went before us and accomplished it quickly and efficiently. These documents will be necessary to obtain our visas, so we're very excited!

Prayer Necessities for the Skimmers:

1. Continue to pray for favor with Bolivian officials during the visa process. Tomorrow, we will begin this process in the Bolivian consulate in Puno, Peru.

2. Pray for my partner, Leah, as she has returned to the jungle in Iquitos, Peru, to complete her responsibilities as team nurse. During this time of separation from us, pray that the Father would sustain her and and that He would use her in the lives of Zalmith and Ruth, some women we have befriended in Iquitos. Pray that they might come to know Who Jesus is by watching Leah.

3. Pray that God would give us opportunities to share the Truth of Christ while we are in Puno.

Inquiring Minds Wanna Know (Bonus for the Readers):

Before I begin this week's blog, I thought you might like to see some more of life in the jungle. The first picture is a shot of me "supervising" the repair of our roof on our jungle home. And the second is me teaching the story of Joseph to the girls (note my sleeping bag on the ground to my left, which was used as his coat of many colors). Towards the end of our training time, we were learning a Bible story about every other day. And by "learning," I mean that one person would teach the story to the others verbally, using actions and props as learning aids, and we would go through it several times until each person had it memorized. By the end of our training, we had learned 16 Bible stories, all of them directly from the Scriptures.

I spent two days in a jungle community this week and, wow, what a ride it was! 2 Cor. 5:7 tells us that we are to "live by faith, not by sight," and I got to really put that into practice. The times when you put all your faith in God are the times when you find out Who He really is, and I'm still amazed at Him! But let me start at the beginning...

I was partnered with one of my journeygirls, Amy, and all our boss told us was this: "You'll leave by 9:00 Sunday morning. When you get to the gate of the camp, go left. Follow the teaching of Jesus in Luke 10, and come back to camp on Tuesday."

Yep, that was all we got and, as we read the chapter to which he had directed us, we were even more scared. In Luke 10, Jesus commissions 72 of His followers to go out two by two to preach that the Kingdom of Heaven is near. He starts by telling them this:

"Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves." (Luke 10:3)

Granted, that is not a comforting thought, but we know that we also had the Presence of our Good Shepherd with us. Yet, regardless, I was terrified. There was ZERO about this situation that was comfortable for me, but I couldn't get away from the fact that I had to obey. As God's slave, I had no choice.

Amy and I began talking through what to take with us: Extra clothes, our Bibles, my water filter, toiletries, sunblock. Really, we only wanted to take the bare necessities and, though our boss had offered us money, we had decided to try to trust that the LORD would provide for our needs. But the more we read Luke 10, the more clear His will became.

"Do not take a purse or bag or sandals..." (Luke 10:4)

And the parallel passage in Matthew told us:

"Take no bag for the journey, or extra tunic, or sandals or a staff, for the worker is worth his keep." (Matt. 10:10)

We knew we were supposed to take nothing.

I did take my Bible, my lamp, one liter of water, and my machete, and Amy took only her machete. And I prayed for much of the night, wondering if I was crazy. We were leaving our camp with no idea of where to go and taking almost nothing with us. It was the first time in my life I'd ever really relied on God to provide my food, and I was absolutely petrified.

But we obeyed and turned left at the entrance to our camp. I had awoken that morning knowing that we were supposed to go to a certain road and turn right, but we had no direction beyond that. We were very literally walking by faith.

With every step, we were praying, and we spent our time telling each other about how the LORD has worked in such mighty ways in our lives. As we talked and reminded one another of how the LORD had always been faithful in the past, I grew more excited to see how He would work this time, and the fear was slowly replaced by a growing confidence in the Holy Spirit.

Following the Spirit's lead, we were directed to rest at a house beside the road, and the family there gave us some fruit to eat. So we asked the family if they knew of anyone with whom we could stay for a couple of days. We told them that we had no money, but we wanted to get to know the people and the culture and that we hoped to work alongside the women of the community in exchange for food and a place ot stay.

The family pondered this for so long that Amy and I were discussing whether we should leave. But suddenly, a woman walked up and began talking to the lady with whom we had been speaking. After a few minutes, the woman came up to us and explained that she had a house where she lived alone. She was a Christian and was willing to take us to stay at her home. Wow! We were blown away by the LORD's provision!

This lady's name was Elisabeth, and she lived in the nearby community of Shushuna. She took us to her home and made us a wonderful meal of chicken and rice. We spent the rest of the afternoon getting to know her and her daughter and granddaughters who were there for a visit. We were so excited that we could settle in Shushuna for a few days.

But I don't think the LORD likes for us to get too comfortable. At 4:00 that afternoon, He decided to test our faith once again. Out of the blue, Elisabeth told us that she would be leaving for the city early in the morning and that we would need to find another place to stay. Needless to say, we were pretty confused and, honestly, I'm still unclear whether it was the language barrier that was the problem. But I do know that the LORD had other things to teach us through this trip, and this was His doing.

So, with only a couple hours of daylight left, we were back at square one, and we wandered back out on the street with machetes in hand. When we reached the center of the community, there was a volleyball game going on, and we sat down to watch. But, though Amy tried to start conversations with several of the women nearby, none would give more than a monosyllabic answer or really even give us more than a passing glance. With the pressure of impending darkness weighing more heavily on us all the time, we were at a loss. So we decided to pray.

A verse I had read just a few days earlier became the theme of our prayer:

"We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon you." (2 Chron. 20:12)

We just confessed that we had no idea what the LORD wanted us to do but that we needed His guidance and wanted to do nothing without it.

We then returned to the volleyball game and, for a time, nothing seemed to change. Amy tried again to talk to some of the women... to no avail. But the LORD just calmed my spirit with this verse:

"Be still, and know that I am God." (Ps. 46:10)

Though we were antsy, we knew He was telling us to wait.

Eventually, the volleyball game ended, and one of the ladies asked Amy and me to play with them. It was the icebreaker we needed. They laughed at our poor play and, afterwards, we talked to the pastor of the nearby church and his wife. When we told them we were missionaries who were learning how to go into jungle communities, they were thrilled and offered to let us stay in a vacant house that belonged to a family member. Once again, God had provided!

As they took us to the house, it was just beginning to get dark, and we were truly overwhelmed by how quickly the LORD had provided. A few minutes later, the pastor's wife handed me a cold bottle of Coke, and I wanted to cry with gratitude. Not only was it the first Coke I'd had in almost a month, but it was COLD! It's awesome how our Father blesses us with little extras to please us when the basics would certainly have been sufficient. He truly "is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine" (Eph. 3:20).

God miraculously provided for us during our time in Shushuna. He gave us three meals a day during our time there when we were accustomed to eating only twice a day in our camp. We had meat with almost every meal, whereas we never ate meat in camp because it was just too expensive. And they gave us hammocks to sleep in, when we were accustomed to a mat on a hard wooden floor. And we even got a ride back to our camp on Tuesday morning, when we were all set to walk. Surely I have learned the truth of this familiar verse:

"The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not be in want." (Ps. 23:1)

I could give you so much more detail about how the Father provided for us, but I hope this will encourage you that our God truly can be trusted. His Word is true, and "no one whose hope is in [Him] will ever be put to shame" (Ps. 25:3). For the first time in my life, I actually put my faith in Him to provide my daily bread, rather than saying the words but, in reality, putting my trust in my own bank account. And, while it was scary at first, like the disciples in Luke 10, Amy and I "returned with joy" (Luke 10:17)!

I've read missionary stories like this in the past and always thought of those people as great heroes of the faith. But those of you who know me at all know I am not a hero of the faith. I'm nothing beyond an ordinary person, but I do serve an extraordinary God, and He makes all the difference!

More than Numbers (5/30/09 - 6/5/09)

Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised:

During our time in Lima, the Father has really worked out some details on things that only He could have done. I am so thankful that His sovereign hand has been at work here!

Prayer Necessities for the Skimmers:

1. Please be in prayer for Lori, as she is no longer a part of the team. Pray that the Lord would have His way in her life in every way and that He would use her to glorify Himself.

2. Continue to pray for team unity as we draw close to one another in this time immediately following the loss of a team member. Our remaining team is pictured at the bottom of this post, with me and Amy in the first photo and Misty and Leah in the second.

3. Pray for favor in the Bolivian consulate in Puno, Peru. We travel there this weekend to officially begin the visa process. Pray that the Lord would pave the way and that we would be allowed to enter the country quickly and efficiently.

Inquring Minds Wanna Know (Bonus for the Readers):

As Americans, we love numbers. Sports scores, school grades, statistics. We use numbers all the time to measure results. By the way, did you know that 82% of Americans use statistics on a daily basis? Nah, I just made that up, but I think you get my point. :)

Baptists love numbers, too. We take the attendance in Sunday School each week, we count the number of contacts we make to church prospects, we keep a record of baptisms. All of that is meant to determine how successful we are in doing the LORD's work.

Even missionaries have their numerical goals. When I was in the application process, I had to keep a record of the number of times I had shared the Gospel in the last six months. During my orientation, we were required to share our faith at least three times a week. And now I also have different goals to meet, but the purpose is the same: You need to reach this number.

Don't get me wrong: I, too, like to measure life by numbers. I was a pharmacist, for goodness' sake! Give me a calculator and a patient's lab results, and I can correct an abnormal electrolyte value in no time. Numbers make sense to me.

But God doesn't measure success by numbers. First of all, our feeble human efforts - whether it's in how many times we've shared the Gospel or how many baptisms our church has had - have NOTHING to do with how well His work is done. God is God, and His will is accomplished perfectly with or without us. He doesn't need our help to do anything.

Secondly, my success as a believer in Christ does not depend on how much money I give or how many times I go to the church building each week or how well I sing the songs. It only depends on my obedience to the LORD. If we truly want to measure success, we should look at that number: How many times today was I obedient to what God told me? I wonder how many of us would want to know that particular statistic.

And, finally, the LORD looks predominantly at the number one. When the shepherd had 99 safe sheep, he still went to search for the one that was lost (Luke 15:3-7). When the woman had nine coins, she still cleaned the house to find the lost one (Luke 15:8-10). And the father, though he had a faithful son at home, still yearned for the prodigal one and rejoiced when he returned home (Luke 15:11-32). God cares more about developing the relationship to win that lost son than He does about our mathematical attempts to win thousands.

This blog is really a conglomeration of my thoughts in response to the words of my boss this week. In preparing us for our first visit to a jungle community, he asked us our goal. Of course, we responded like good little missionaries and said, "To share stories from the Bible." That sounds pretty great, right? What a noble goal!

So we were really surprised when he said, "No. Your goal is to obey the LORD in whatever He says. If that's sharing stories, you do that. If it's cutting grass with a machete, you do that. If it's playing football [that's soccer to those of you in the States! :)], you do that. You are there to serve the LORD by serving these people."

Wow. That knocked my missionary halo down a notch or two. But it was so freeing! I'd never realized the amount of pressure those numbers put on us. If I don't share a Gospel tract with everyone with whom I come in contact, am I a terrible Christian? Not if I'm not being disobedient. Sometimes the LORD tells us to share, sometimes He tells us to serve, and sometimes He tells us to do neither. But "there is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven" (Eccl. 3:1).

As you go, obey. Seek to build relationships with others, both believers and non-believers. And see how God uses your obedience to build His kingdom and to make you into a successful disciple!

Obedience is not an Option (5/23/09 - 5/29/09)

Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised:

I am so thankful for all the lessons the LORD taught me through our time of training. Read on to find out more!

Prayer Necessities for the Skimmers:

1. Pray for unity for our team, as our enemy is trying his dead-level best to tear us apart. Pray for wisdom for Leah and me as team leaders as we think through some difficult decisions regarding the team.

2. Pray for favor with the Bolivian government, as we travel from Lima to an embassy on the Peru-Bolivia border to begin the resident visa process.

3. Pray that God will begin to prepare the hearts of Latin and indigenous women with whom we can develop relationships. Pray that He will call some of those women into missionary service with us in Bolivia.

Inquiring Minds Wanna Know (Bonus for the Readers):

God has opened my eyes just a little to the depths of the wickedness in my heart and, while it is hard to look at, to be forgiven and cleansed of that unrighteousness is so liberating. I feel like a 20-pound burden has been lifted!

One of the girls on my team used the analogy of a well to describe the sin in our hearts. She talked about how she wants God to dredge up some of that black muck at the bottom of the well and pull it out so that the water in the well will be a little more pure. During this week, He dredged up some of the muck that has been in my heart for 25 years, and I now feel like the water is a little more clear.

For your benefit, I won't share all of my sins with you. (Yeah, you'd be here for the rest of the year reading that!) But I will share one very powerful thing the LORD did in my life this week.

During a conversation with my boss Jeremy, he told me that he and his wife had been praying for me in regards to my attitude and how I cling to my rights. He told me that, not as a judgment, but with humble sincerity in an attempt to help me. But my initial response was, "What?! I have come down here and done everything you've asked of me, but you think I'm demanding my rights?!"

But that night, the LORD woke me up thinking about that, and He opened my eyes to how I was doing exactly that. I was clinging to my rights as an American, and I had convinced myself that I was really entitled to that life I had once had. I was entitled to the car I drove, the TV I had, the food I ate. I deserved all of that. (Here are pictures of what we ate before training and getting ready to eat after training started.)

And, though I had not really realized it before that night, I had kept in the back of my mind the idea of completing three years as a missionary and then returning to some sort of position as a pharmacist in the States, one where I could live a life of comfort once again. After all, I was entitled to that life I'd had before, and surely the LORD would be adequately pleased with those three years of sacrifice.

But God reminded me of something Jeremy had said. He had explained how the New Testament in the original language frequently uses the word "doulos" to describe followers of Christ. Many English versions of Scripture translate this word as "servant," but the English word that is actually an accurate translation is "slave." The difference between a servant and a slave is that the servant can quit his job, but the slave has no choice but to obey.

When I was in the process of applying to be a missionary and struggling with the seeming nonsense of giving up my career as a pharmacist, God confirmed His calling by leading me to the passage where the prophet Elijah anointed Elisha as his successor. Elisha asks to go back to say goodbye to his family, and what happens next is interesting:

"So Elisha left him and went back. He took his yoke of oxen and slaughtered them. He burned the plowing equipment to cook the meat and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he set out to follow Elijah and became his attendant." (1 Kin. 19:21)

God reminded me that there was no turning back for Elisha. When the LORD called him, he killed his oxen and burned his plow; there was no returning to his old way of life.

It is the same with me. I am a "doulos" of Christ, and obedience is not an option. My Master is gentle and good, but He's still my Master. Whether I'm a missionary for three years or thirty is solely dependent on His direction. I am entitled to nothing but to follow Him. And to do so gives me everything!

Leah and I after speaking at Eternal Life Christian Mission in Iquitos, Peru