Devotional

Preaching Friday night, teaching Saturday morning, a week long class next week, the schedule keeps on piling up. The difference is, I’m not the one who’s dealing with it, it’s Kelly. Being invited to preach in a youth service, leading a Saturday Morning Kid’s Service, and teaching during our church’s Vacation Bible School has kept Kelly occupied, planning and preparing. So much so that I’ve decided to take some flying lessons. No, not that type of flying.

Actually, flying is a clever way of talking about housekeeping that Marla Cilley a.k.a “the FlyLaydy” invented to encourage those who would like to keep a clean house, but were never “born-organized” to achieve that dream. With my Kelly out of the picture for long stretches, I needed a little bit of motivation to help me pick up the slack around the house. So I turned to the site for tips and routines that would help me keep the house up, while enabling me to devote time my kids, who just got out of school last week. Fortunately, although FlyLady.net is definitely geared to the feminine audience, I found lots of time saving techniques that have helped me to let Kelly devote herself to her preparation, while keeping me from a nervous breakdown.

In fact, as I have been swishing toilets and scrubbing pans, I found myself thinking of the spirituality of it all. No, I’m not saying that doing the dishes is helping me get closer to God, but switching roles has helped me understand a bit more about ministering as a missionary couple. Ephesians 5:22-33 is the classic passage on the husband and wife relationship. Wives are to submit, while husbands are to love. What many of us miss, however, is that Paul, in verse 21, commands all to submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Now, I am not saying that Kelly is now ordering me around or leaving honey-do lists on my pillow in the morning, but what I am saying is that there are times in ministry, and I could say in secular life as well, that the husband is up front, doing the public relations and making the decisions. There are also times when that shoe is on the other foot, and the wife takes the lead. Perhaps this is what Paul was saying when he recommended Phoebe to the Romans saying, “After all, she has proved to be a respected leader for many others, including me.” (Romans 16:2 CEV)

So this week, Kelly has become the face of our public ministry. She’s been the one up front, going to meetings and making the decisions, and that’s a good thing. I’ve submitted to what the Lord is doing through her during this time knowing that He’s called us both to serve Him here in Mexico.

Speaking of what the Lord is doing, I’d like to request that you say a prayer for Kelly this weekend, and if you can, remember her throughout next week. I’m sure she’d appreciate that, and while you’re at it you can pray for me as well–dishpan hands can be really annoying.

It’s a common scene, actors, tears streaming down their faces, holding their award, reciting the list of people who contributed to their success, and although recent years have seen limits placed on award acceptance speeches, we’ve come to expect the laundry list of names; we’ve come to think of it as a natural part of graciously recognizing that one’s accomplishments are not achieved without the contributions of others. It’s funny though, when we think on special occasions, like the Father’s Day that we just celebrated last Sunday, we tend to bask in the attention and forget those who’ve made us the fathers that we are, our kids.

As I woke up Sunday morning, on the breakfast table sat the new desk set that Kelly had purchased for me–a letter organizer, a pen holder, and a nifty paper clip dispenser, but what gave me pause was a picture frame holding the image that you see above. Immediately, it put the day in perspective. If it wasn’t for my kids, I wouldn’t be a father. So permit me to brag on them a bit in this post.

Rebekah our oldest, aside from being the beautiful 9 year old that she is, is a voracious reader and extremely intelligent individual. When it comes to trivia, she loves to be right, and usually is. Not limited to book knowledge, however, she’s amazingly creative and has style all her own. She’s a lover of animals like her mother, especially horses, who she hopes to treat one day as a veterinarian.

Joseph is our dreamer. He’s got big plans and the persistence to achieve them, but he doesn’t just have his head in the clouds; he’s firmly planted on the ground, often on all fours inspecting the latest insect that has caught his eye. We expect him to take up a career as an electrician, planning skyscrapers or as a biologist studying the nature that he loves.

Jonathan, our youngest, is a happy-go-lucky kind of kid. He knows no strangers and is quick to converse with whoever might be around. He has a natural kindness and an attention to detail that enables him to know just when to use it, be it to give the timely hug to lift a parent’s spirit or the well placed comment to receive the sip of juice or cookie that he’s had his eye on. We expect him to take up a career in public relations.

Yes I’m a proud father, and although it’s come with it’s challenges I’m thankful for the ones who have made it possible for me to be called Dad. And while I have them with me, I’m intent on enjoying every moment.

I just finished up another evangelism conference, this marking my sixth opportunity to hold such an event here in the Yucatán. With more experience comes more confidence in sharing the material, but that experience also brings a certain familiarity with the topic–an anticipation you could say of the inquiries and the reaction of the audience, but during class this last Thursday, a question was asked that I hadn’t anticipated.

We had been studying Mark 6:30-44, the account of the feeding of the 5,000, and contrasting the disciples’ reaction to the crowd’s needs with that of Jesus. Analyzing the context, we concluded that the disciples’ inaction and Jesus action was related to a key element, compassion. Jesus saw the plight of the crowd and the compassion that he felt moved him to action even though he was in the midst of extreme personal sorrow. The disciples, coming off of a successful preaching tour, failed to react because their lack of compassion.

Usually, the anticipated question is “How do we learn to react in the way Jesus did?” a question that I anticipate and answer within the lesson follow-up, but this time an unanticipated question was raised; a student asked: “Should we act compassionately first and then preach, or should we preach first and then display acts of compassion?” Caught off guard, I had to think a bit about the question. I wanted to know what it was that this student was trying to clear up in his mind. His clarification clued me in. Some organizations emphasize compassionate acts, feeding programs, rehabilitation centers, and medical clinics while others emphasize teaching and preaching engagements. This student was trying to understand what stance we should take in the debate between presenting evangelism as a moment of decision or what what some call the “social gospel.”

The question illustrates the danger of thinking in predefined categories. It can cause us to limit our outreaches to traditional activities like preaching, teaching, and passing out tracts while avoiding food distribution or medical clinics in an attempt to show our emphasis on “telling the good news,” or it can cause us to add mandatory evangelistic events to our “social outreach” in order to justify the undertaking, a practice that can lead others to criticize us as evangelicals for opportunistic proselytizing, or can lead to the phenomenon of “Rice Christians,” those who confess Christianity as long as the hand outs keep coming.

Separating compassion and preaching/teaching into separate categories should make us ask the questions: “Is our preaching without compassion?” and “Is social outreach condemned or considered second-class by scripture?” Obviously the answer to both questions is no. The real question, therefore, should not be, “How should our evangelism look?” but rather, “How should our evangelism be motivated?”

Returning to the passage in question, we see that Jesus taught and fed the needy crowd. There was no separation of his actions into evangelistic and social. Rather compassion motivated him to meet the need before him. Jesus wasn’t checking off items on his list; he was instead showing us that the compassionate response considers its recipient as a whole person.

Interchanging the word compassion for love can perhaps clarify the point. Paul, in trying to settle church division in Corinth, culminates his argument for unity with the famous love chapter of 1 Corinthians 13, which he introduces as “the most excellent way.” In his opening words, he lists both “spiritual” (prophesy and tongues and the practice of faith) and “compassionate” (giving to the poor) acts as worthless without love. It’s little wonder then that 1 John 4:12 says that we would be known to be true, not for our excellent Bible teaching or for our hospital building, but rather for our love, and this is fitting because love when perfectly applied led to eternal life. (Jn 3:16)

Reaching out to a lost world in love then enables us to push past the categories and throw away our checklists. Ultimately it allows us to utilize the appropriate means to communicate God’s love, be it through a cup of cold water or an offer to pray the sinner’s prayer.

Learning and encouraging the most excellent way here in the Yucatán,

Dave

I have the pleasure of reading some excellent blogs about missions and discipleship. Recently, I came across this excellent post from Guy Muse a Baptist missionary to Ecuador. He writes:

Everyday for the past two weeks and continuing for two weeks more, our team has been teaching groups of fifteen pastors who are coming to Guayaquil from all over the coastal region of Ecuador. They are being introduced to our COSECHA (Harvest) discipleship/church planting training materials that will be used to reach the goal of 1-million disciples in one year.

The heart of the training is making disciples. The only way to win/disciple a million in a year is to begin making disciples that make disciples. Nothing new. But are we doing it? Am I doing it?

If we are out there everyday exhorting everyone about the priority of making disciples, who am I discipling? My biggest fear everyday in the trainings is that someone will bluntly ask me who I am discipling!

These strong soul-searching words hit home. We solicit funds saying that we are going to reach the lost, and yet, as we look at our schedules, our calendars are full of spiritual retreats and Bible conferences. Our to-do lists include research for Bible school classes and fund raising for church projects, but discipleship, defined as reaching and training followers of Christ, seems surprisingly absent. If we were to truly provide evidence of meeting our goals of reaching the lost based on our professional activities, it is highly possible that we’d come up short.

But why? God forbid that we would have intentionally mislead churches into thinking that we were doing something that we are not. I think that we hit the ground intending to see lost people saved and an impact made in the community where we live. So what keeps us from being able to see the results that we so desire?

One reason I believe that this happens is because of our dependence on the local church as we get our “feet on the ground” in ministry. As we arrive in the community where we minister, we look for people to help us establish our lives in the foreign context. We need everything from furniture to handymen to help us to get started and build a secure environment for our families and a base from which we can work. Being representatives of a religious organization, more often than not we find that help coming from Christians.

This in itself is not a bad thing of course. There are few things more assuring to a man or woman who is dealing with his or her second complete move in a year to two separate and absolutely foreign environments than to be able to delegate important tasks to another believer who will treat him or her honestly and amicably as the missionary stumbles through cultural adaptation and adjustment. However, the downside to all of this is that we begin our experience in that new culture by building a cloistered environment for ourselves that keeps us from relating with neighbors who do not have a relationship with Christ and may be seeking the message that we came to share.

Further complicating the matter is the fact that these Christians generally introduce us to other Christians who then invite us to address any number of groups and participate in any number of events generally frequented by other Christians. Before we know it, we are deeply entrenched in a Christian culture and, although busy, have severely hindered ourselves from having a real first-hand impact on the predominantly non-Christian world that we live in.

Now don’t get me wrong, I believe that those of us who serve a predominantly Christian audience, doing leadership training and pastoral conferences, do a great deal of good. Nevertheless, there is a question that haunts me: Does my professional schedule exempt me from fulfilling the Great Commission?

Another often repeated concept is that most of what is learned, that is what is transferred and actually applied to a person’s life comes through the teacher’s ability to model what he or she is communicating. In other words, that which is learned is more often caught than taught. This serves as well to make the reality all the more convincing, we as missionaries can’t just train disciplers we have to be disciplers ourselves.

But how? How can we who have been caught up in the busyness of the ministry refocus our lives in order to prioritize discipleship ministry? I have a few ideas:

1. Don’t stop preaching discipleship. Our continued involvement and reflection on the theme will continue to motivate us to “practice what we preach.” It will also enable us to explain our inability to fulfill expectations that others may try to place upon us that do not enable disciple-making ministry to take place
2. Expand our circle of influence intentionally to include non-Christians. This requires an honest look at our lives in order intentionally create relationships with those who do not know Christ. Are we truly like our Master who was known as a friend of sinners?
3. Look for opportunities everywhere. Discipleship opportunities can take place over a play-date with the kids or a late night greeting across the street. But we need to look out for them, recognize them for what they are, and utilize them to bring seekers closer to a relationship with their God.
4. Be in constant prayer. When I prepare for a meeting or a teaching, I can control the elements. I pick the theme, the illustrations, and the length of time that I am going to speak. As a discipler, I don’t have these luxuries. I have to rely on the Holy Spirit for direction and clear insight into the matter at hand. Hearing his voice is only enabled as I practice acknowledging his presence in every moment.

These things are coming to pass in our lives as we have evaluated our ministry and daily life here in Mérida. I’m happy to report that we can count many non-Christians now as our friends. Pray for us as we engage ourselves in their their lives and adjust our schedules to keep discipleship a true focus of our ministry.

Many thanks to all who were instrumental in prayer during this trying week. Kelly and I were both down dealing with different sicknesses. Hers was an amoebic infection while I was flat on my back for many days as the doctors tried to determine which antibiotic was going to vanquish my dreaded nemesis, the sinus infection. We are both back on our feet again, the blessed recipients of the care and concern, (thanks Kazims), prayers (thanks especially to Carlos who called and prayed with me), and the understanding of 3 wonderful kids (thanks Rebekah, Joseph and Jonathan.)

During my convalescence, I had little to do save read, and read I did, voluminously. My most profound experience came through the words of Philip Yancey in his book “The Jesus I Never Knew.” It is an excellent work on the Jesus that came near, analyzing his personhood, teachings, miracles, and legacy.

A concept in this book spoke to me as I lay there waiting for my body to respond to treatment, waiting for my healing to come. There were moments of despair, frustration and to be sure pain. I was “in-between.” I had been given what I had needed in order to heal. I had the promise of health from the doctor, I just needed to wait. However, as the moments stretched to hours and the hours to days, the waiting was difficult, tedious, dreadful. I was tired of the delay.

We who hope for redemption are in this state of “in betweenness,” the time between Christ’s ascension and His return. Yancey says it is a sort of Saturday. He states that both the other two days, Good Friday and Easter Sunday have names on the Church calendar. But we who live in this time live on Saturday, the day with no name, the time between the promise and the fulfillment, and to be sure we fret, and become frustrated, and we despair. All around us are the signs of the decay of this world–sickness, corruption, poverty. Even our own bodies remind us that, despite our struggle to overcome, we’re made of the stuff of this earth. Yancey explains:

What the disciples experience in a small scale–three days in grief over a man who died on the cross–we now live on a cosmic scale. Human history grinds on, between the time of promise and fulfillment. Can we trust that God can make something holy out of a world that includes Bosnia and Rwanda, and inner-city ghettos and jammed prisons in the richest nation on earth?

And I ask myself: can I trust that God can make something holy out of my setbacks, my failures, and even my infections?

It’s Saturday on planet earth; will Sunday ever come?

Yet in the same way that three days of grief came to an end that Easter morning now over 2000 years ago. Our promise too will be realized because:

Easter opened up a crack in the universe winding down toward entropy and decay, sealing the promise that someday God will enlarge the miracle of Easter to a cosmic scale.

My waiting of sickness is over. My body has responded, I’m recovering, and thankfully, so is Kelly. Still, in the meantime we wait; we wait for all to be set in order, we wait for our final redemption while we hold out hope to a world increasingly reluctant to respond. But we know, despite what Paul calls our light and momentary troubles, our waiting is not in vain. Our King will come!

Photo by jaqian

Even after a year and a half here in Mérida, God still finds ways of stretching us. In January, while chatting with pastors before a sectional meeting, our president asked if I played an instrument. I responded that every now and again I played the guitar, while I had considerable experience on the drums. He followed up that question with a request that I lead worship that meeting. Now, I had lead worship in the past, but always in English. (I think the number of choruses that I know on the guitar in Spanish could be counted on one hand.) Therefore, I did what any self-respecting perfectionist would–I put him off, until the next month.

I used that time to gather the some more choruses, practice, and pray. (It’s amazing how the weeks fly when you’re anticipating something like this.) Of course, I second guessed my decision. I almost breathed a sigh of relief when I thought that perhaps the meeting had been canceled for the month, but, regardless of my doubts, the event came. The end result this last Monday certainly wasn’t perfect, but it was a beginning. I was able to sing (staying on key for the majority of the service), play the guitar, and I actually felt that I had led others in worship.

When I began my Spanish classes, I looked forward to the day when I would be able to do this very thing, but for one reason or another, I had put it off. Not enough time, other responsibilities more pressing, the list could go on. Isn’t it great that God doesn’t forget those dreams? In fact, I’ve found He sometimes uses others to push us into realizing them.

“Leave if you can!” That is the translated name of Salsipuedes one of the two towns that we visited on our medical relief trip to Tabasco. The village of Salsipuedes is situated on the Grijalva River in the Centla of Tabasco, a wetlands region of the state that’s three hours from the capital, one hour on good roads and two on what many would consider “off-road conditions,” but even more overwhelming than the distance to reach this place was the need that we met when we arrived. Sandy Kazim, the organizer and one of the medical providers of the trip told us that for much of the time she felt as though she was running an ER instead of a medical clinic. Four children in the same home with bronchitis and a woman who had recently miscarried were some of the most difficult cases, but case after case of skin infection and other diseases kept the medical providers working long past sunset, the time that we were told we had to leave for the sake of our personal security. Equally as tragic was the spiritual condition of the site. There were reports of active witchcraft taking place and a general look of hopelessness on the faces of many. “Leave if you can” –the name seemed to fit.

Still, that’s the funny thing about the God that we serve. Of all of the needy places that we could have gone, He sent us to the town of Salsipuedes. I think perhaps it was because, even though others had given up on that “Godforsaken” place, He hadn’t. He sent us there as an extension of His love in a tangible way.

I had the chance to enter into homes with several of the students of the Bible Institute while the medical team treated the sick. And as we passed from house to house, entering into their world, I thought of what Christ did for each one of us. He left His glory to live among us, to experience what we experience and to give us the hope that comes from a relationship with God. We in turn were serving as his representatives, offering the same hope that we now enjoy in a place where hope seemed for many to be a distant memory.

I spoke to many and told them that, although they might not have expected it, God had sent us to them specifically to let them know that He had decided to stay in Salsipuedes and that he was looking for hearts in which he could live. We prayed with many as they wrestled to take those first steps toward a relationship with their Creator.

What will happen is hard to determine. The routine of the life poverty has a grip that is relentless. C.S. Lewis once said it this way:

Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.

So is the work in Salsipuedes; the population is run down, too tired to hope, too tired to dream of something better, and perhaps easily placated with the counterfeits that false religions or momentary escapes like drugs and alcohol can provide. Still, I believe that something began in the heart of those that we touched on that Friday. They received a taste of the love of God, and I believe that through the persistence of the pastor and the congregation that is serving that town, together with the regenerative power of the Holy Spirit, the very character of that town can change. In fact, I’m looking forward to the day when they invite us to the official name changing ceremony.

We’ve returned from our 3 day trip to Tabasco, the region of Mexico that had experienced devastating floods in late October through early November. We loaded up two SUV loads of toys, vitamins, diapers, and powdered milk and drove the 8 hours from Mérida, Yucatán to Villahermosa, Tabasco to bring relief to families, especially those with small children.

Entering the city, we found that life had returned to its hectic pace with people and cars everywhere. The only visible remains of the inundation was the construction taking place to repair and clean roads affected by the floodwaters. Still, the stories we heard were incredible. People told us that many had remained in their homes, thinking this to be just a routine occurrence during the Tabasco rainy season, but that, as the floodwaters rose, they found themselves waiting on rooftops for helicopter rescue. The pastor’s home where we stayed took on more than 5 feet of water. He and his family stayed in the upper level and were able to save the majority of their appliances and furniture, but mold on the walls and ruined tile floors spoke of the work ahead to restore what the flood had ruined.

The countryside surrounding the city was a different story as floodwater remained on the roads and in the low lying areas that surrounded the houses. While no longer threating homes and schools, the stagnant water poses a health threat especially to the small children who choose to play in the contaminated pools and through mosquito borne illnesses. This is where we focused our efforts.

Entering Tabasco on Thursday night, we pooled together with Pastor Ruben, his family and several members of the church to put together relief packages with food, vitamins, diapers, milk and other essentials for the residents of these needy areas. It was touching to see the desire of these people, who were themselves victims, giving of their time and effort to help those who had needs greater than their own.

The following day, we handed out the supplies and toys to the children and their parents. It was for them clearly a “big deal” as at one point we were accompanied by one of their local government representatives. We were given complete access, even the ability to interrupt the activities of a elementary school to meet with the students.

Food was distributed, toys were given away, and much needed supplies were handed out, but something much bigger was accomplished. These victims received a much needed infusion of hope. They received it realizing that they were not alone in their struggle.

There is something amazing in the fact that God touches people to go and share his love with those who most need to experience it. At one point in the distribution, Paul Kazim, a fellow missionary, prayed. I think it was then that the reality of what we were doing came into focus: Jesus ministered to the people in Mark 6:30-44. He did that even though he was experiencing the loss of his cousin and herald, John the Baptist. He did it because he had compassion. In Tabasco, fellow citizens were putting their lives on hold, lives that had themselves been completely changed by the floods, to reach out to those with greater needs. What was the reason? I believe it to be nothing less than the same compassion that Christ portrayed to the 5,000 that were fed in the Galilean countryside.

We’re planning to go back to Tabasco January 10-13 to provide medical treatment and spiritual counseling to the needy suffering in Tabasco, to the people now being overlooked as efforts are being made to restore a sense of normalcy in the region. We as missionaries will take part, but I think the most effective counselors will be those who have lived through these floods. Those who, because of the compassion that only God can provide, have thought of others as better than themselves.

(You can see more of our recent trip by clicking on the picture above or through this link.)

I understand that those who frequent disciplemexico.org are not necessarily interested in baseball, much less in the outcome of the American League Divisional Series. For that reason, I’ve tried to steer clear of baseball subjects throughout the life of this site. Nevertheless, there are several out there who know that I am an avid Yankee fan, and as you can imagine the events that have happened in the course of the past week have left me feeling a bit numb.

Yes, the Yankees lost again. This time manhandled by the Cleveland Indians, a club who just last year wasn’t even sniffing the post season. This of course has had me spending some time looking for ways to deal with another October sans Yankees. You can imagine my surprise when an email from my mother-in-law helped me to put things into perspective.

An avid student of Jewish culture, she came upon a video blog from aish.com titled Isn’t losing wonderful?. In it Rabbi Yaakov Salomon comments on the loss of our beloved Yankees (and the Mets for good measure), suggesting that while “victory teaches you nothing”, “losing can teaching you everything.” He goes on exposit Proverbs 24:16:

for though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again, but the wicked are brought down by calamity

He states that Jewish interpreters of this proverb suggest that it is not in spite of the fact that the righteous man falls seven times but it is because of the fact that he falls, and the lessons that he learns in the failures, that he rises again.

I think many of us are examples of this interpretation. I know that I, for one, rarely reflect on my victories, but the pain of failure that the sense of loss that follows drive me to determine the source of my defeat and resolve to come back stronger the next time.

So encouragement can be found in the lesson of losing. Of course, now that the Yankees have fallen seven times, I fully expect victory in 2008!

September marked for us the end of one year of ministry here in the Yucatán, and to celebrate, we brought back a best of disciplemexico.org so that you could revisit some of the highlights of our journey thus far:

1. Day of the Dead–Written as a response to a request of an friend, this post is by far our most popular post of the past year, and, with the celebration of this event less than a month away the hits are building again. This piece reveals the difficulty that we have as we try to understand the culture of the Yucatán and their ancient traditions.

2. Oh the Humanity!–is a piece I wrote about how God uses our humanness, something very evident to me as I suffered through a prolonged sinus infection, to reveal his perfect power.

3. Like riding a bicycle–is a family update/reflection on what it is that we do as missionaries. By the way, mastery of the bicycle is something that our kids are still working on. Come to think of it, we’ve still got a lot to learn about missions as well.

4. Topes–Life has a way of springing surprises on you, much like speed bumps that seem to appear when you least expect them on roads here in Mexico, but, as this post suggests, the jolts bring with them valuable learning experiences.

5. Coincidence or Confirmation?–This post about our providential guidance on the way to Mérida generated some lively if not completely related discussion.

As I look through these posts, one thing becomes increasingly clear. The job that we have been called to is not an easy one, but the God that has called us continues to guide and form us so that we can accomplish His work.

Need. It confronts. It demands to be met. Take for example a stone in our shoe. Even the tiniest pebble can cause reduce our gait to a hobble. What’s the response? Well, it’s impossible to negate, and limping to avoid the stone usually only lasts a few steps. Basically our feet demand that we sit, take off our shoe and get rid of the stone.

Here in Mérida, poverty is a need that demands to be met. The poor stand in doorways and wander the streets looking for those who will help them out of their situation. Even those that do work are trying to make ends meet on $5 US each day, and unlike the tourists in the picture above, we can’t leave their need behind when we return to our hotel or board our plane.

After my run in with the Ronald, the con-artist that took us for $8 in Costa Rica, I searched for a way to avoid the needs. I believed that a policy would help protect me, or maybe I would be able to direct people to ministries that could lend them a hand in their situation. Still, the need kept nagging.

Reading the Bible didn’t help either. Jesus, when confronted by the clamoring masses, would usually reply, “What is it that you want me to do for you?” He had no policies, no list of places to which he could direct them and wash his hands of their problems. He was personally involved–feeding, healing, touching.

Today, I was on a search for some items to get our house finally set up. Taking the wrong way to get to Home Depot, I stopped at a local hardware store. In the parking lot, there stood Raul, a disabled, middle-aged man, who, along with his wife, had been looking for garden work so that he could pay for his kids’ school supplies and uniforms. He asked me if I could help him. My schedule was free, but my impulse was to say that I couldn’t. After all, I had just cut my lawn the day before, and my ministry is equipping not compassion. Still, his need was clamoring for attention, and the example of Jesus from my devotionals was fresh in my mind. “What do you want me to do for you?” I asked.

I decided to get personally involved. I talked to him and called one of the references that he had given me. Then I spent the next 30 minutes praying and driving them to the places that they needed to go. As we said good-bye I gave him about $20 towards the uniforms and some dry goods that we had been carrying in the car so that his family would have food to eat. He gave me his address and an invitation to visit him.

Did I do the best thing? It’s hard to tell. I would rather have taken him to buy the shoes and uniforms that he needed, but at that moment I couldn’t. So perhaps I settled, or perhaps I was used as one response to the prayers of a desperate couple with a need that wasn’t going away.

Photo Credits: “Left Behind” a photo taken by gerriet available at: http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=43491111&size=l and used under a Creative Commons License

For two Mid-Atlantic transplants living in the Midwest, hurricanes were at most a thing of curiosity. They were the stuff of late summer Weather channel reports. Devastating and cruel to be sure but never in our version of reality. They were events that happened to others. All of that is changing in the face of the now Category 4 Hurricane Dean.

As I am writing this update, Hurricane Dean is now bearing down on Jamaica, and all of the projections place its trajectory directly across the Yucatan Peninsula and the city of Mérida. The entire state of Yucatan is under yellow alert meaning that preparation on everyone’s mind as shoppers filled the supermarkets stocking up on canned food, water, and medicine.

Here in our new home as well we are preparing–determining areas of safety, and trying to make our plans, but even as we plan, we are faced with a mountain of uncertainty and where there is uncertainty, not far behind we find fear.

In all of this I am reminded of that tumultuous voyage of Jesus’ disciples across the Sea of Galilee in Mark chapter 4. There there were being tossed about, grown, sea-hardened fishermen uncertain if they would live or die. As they woke Jesus, who had been sleeping on a cushion, they wondered aloud if he even cared about them. In their fear, they’d failed to recognize that he was the one who had ordered them to set sail in the first place. The storm, more than the setting of a miracle, was their opportunity to recognize that, even though they went through the valley of the shadow of death, they had nothing to fear because with them was their shepherd.

Pray for us friends. Pray for our safety and for the safety of friends in harm’s way. Pray too though that we won’t fail to recognize the presence of our Good Shepherd as we wait here in the gaze of Hurricane Dean.

The close of June brought about the end of ISUM, the month-long ministerial advancement seminary held here in Mérida. As we near mid July, I’ve had some time to reflect on the experience and think about my re-entry into the normal missionary life.

ISUM is known by it’s grueling schedule and intense homework. The deadlines seemed to stack on top of each other as we prepared for 5 class periods each evening. Exhaustion was our common enemy as we fought back sleep in order to complete all of our tasks. Still, the struggle had a comfortableness about it. Being a to-do list writer, I found great satisfaction in marking off each assignment as I completed it, and although I routinely hit the pillow around 1:00 or 2:00 AM I did so with a feeling of accomplishment.

The return to normalcy, although less demanding on the schedule, didn’t come with the neat guidelines. A team to receive in late July, finding a house to move into by the middle of July, a youth retreat in August and the accumulation of work needing my attention while I was in ISUM each bring conflicting priorities and a collective clamoring for attention. There are no convenient class plans to follow and no instant feedback in the form of quizzes and tests along the way. These realities pose a problem for my order hungry mentality.

I would say that this may be the life that we all lead. We shout for independence as a youth, but we long for the simplicity of our childhood as adults. We have arrived at the place where we are free to determine our lives but we tire of the responsibilities, the leadership, and the need to hold everything together, and we long for someone to just tell us what to do.

And yet, this is our situation in our walk with the Lord. We face difficult decisions daily. We pray with fervency for direction, but rarely does the answer come in the form of a carefully worded class syllabus or a turn-by-turn Google Map. It’s then that we need to apply the knowledge that we’ve learned in the School of the Spirit of God’s Word, when we need to move from the parable to the person on the street, and that is where we most often fail.

The disciples coming off of a successful tour of ministry, casting out demons and healing the sick, failed the test of the Lord when facing the need of the multitude. “You give them something to eat,” he said. They reached for their calculators instead of their faith. Lk. 9:13

So is our daily struggle, rarely hectic to the point of the exhaustion of ISUM, but rarely as neat and tidy as the daily plan of activities that we received for each class. Still I’m glad we serve a patient Lord. Jesus did come through for the disciples. And, as we continue in our daily training, being formed into more into the image of our Master, I’m glad to know that our rate of success increases.

I’m prefacing this post by saying that I’m not one of those people who routinely says “The Lord said to me…” In fact, even when I feel that God is impressing something on me I like to start with the words, “I feel that the Lord is moving me in this direction..,” or “I feel that the Lord would have us…” It is something that Edgar Lee taught us in seminary as a way to offer up our words for the biblically mandated scrutiny of the church, or as the case may be, my wife. So when we experience “coincidences,” I like to offer it up for the opinions of others, in other words, I’m fishing for a few comments.

We had little choice in where we would end up in Mexico. We are first-termers and AGWM, our missions organization has taken to the practice of mentoring all new missionaries. This involves pairing the missionary with another veteran in order to assist them in the transition and the development of their ministry on the field. Because education was to be part of our portfolio, we were paired with Paul and Sandy Kazim.

Paul an educator with 10 years experience in Latin America, was stationed at the time in Villahermosa, Tabasco, but was looking to relocate when he started his new term. There were several options available. Butch Frey, our Area Director had mentioned Veracruz, while Paul and Sandy were looking as well at Mexico City and Mérida, where we are currently.

Paul had discounted Veracruz from the beginning. He didn’t feel that the city was where they needed to be. However, Mexico City was, for him, a viable option. The city was easily accessible by plane, and his travel plans for his upcoming term made this a desirable feature. Of course, there was the problem of what to do once you’re off of the plane. Two hour cars trips as a regularity didn’t excite either Paul or me. On top of this concern was Joseph’s tendency toward asthmatic symptoms which made Mexico City’s famous smog look indeed like a gray cloud on our horizon. Still, we were determined to see God’s direction in our location.

Then Kelly talked to me about a premonition that she had had. It wasn’t a dream or a vision per say, more like a feeling. She told me that she saw us working with indigenous people. Those whom we in the US popularly refer to as Indians. Mérida, one of the famous ancient centers of the Maya civilization, was filled with such people. I filed this in the back of the mind, but I also mentioned that we would have to reach an agreement with the Kazim’s when it came to the place that we would select.

Still, an opportunity came to talk about this premonition that Kelly had. Over the phone with the Kazim’s, Paul resonated with what Kelly was saying, and, adding this to items we were considering, the scale tipped decidedly in Mérida’s favor.

Now, three years later, we find ourselves here in the White City of Mérida, but the surprises didn’t end there. As I was researching information for a response to an email asking for the history of the city, I happened upon a bit of information.

Many cities select sisters cities in other countries, these are connections that are established in order to foster cultural and economic exchanges. For some time, we were aware that our home town of Erie, Pennsylvania had such a relation with Lublin, Poland, as we would hear several reports of student and governmental trips between the cities. However, I was extremely surprised to find that, listed alongside Lublin, was the White City of Mérida.

What are the chances? Sister Cities International the organizer of such relationships reports on their website that there are over 800 communities internationally participating in this program. Assuming that the selection was done completely at random, it would appear that the odds would be about 17 billion to one. Granted, such selection isn’t done at random. but think about the implications of such a number.

So, was it coincidence that our hometown of Erie would have such a relationship with the city in which we are currently ministering, or is it a confirmation of a divine plan? Whatever the response, it seems fitting that a relationship set up to foster cultural and economic benefits would be expanded to offer spiritual ones as well.

I spent the last half of last week at the Yucatan District council. This 8th District Council in Ticul, a city about an hour south-east of Mérida, included three days of meetings featuring a missions night, where we saw reports from two of the three Yucatan missionaries either on or headed to the field, and the discussion of many items of business. One of those items is pictured above, the election of our district superintendent, assistant superintendent, and treasurer.

I was selected to sit on the “Mesa de Escrutadores” (Table of Vote-Counters), a group of ten pastors and officials that separated and counted each round of votes. I snapped the picture in the middle of the process. Serving as the head of the table was our national secretary, Samuel Vázquez, who is also the son of the senior pastor of our home church. In a fairly tranquil process that lasted only through one morning, we saw all of our current officers re-elected with little to no competition.

While it was good to see our current leadership back in office, it was a bittersweet taste that the council left in my mouth. On the last day, after Silverio Blanco, the director of the Bible Institute, issued a challenging message on the continued need for evangelism in the Yucatan and beyond, an initiative from the District Evangelism Department was struck down. The motion would have appropriated resources to gather information from each municipality in the state, presenting the reality of Silverio’s message and giving the information necessary to strategically target the areas of need. Unfortunately, because it also suggested the investigation of other parts of Mexico, Latin America and the world, perhaps as a comparison, the pastors voted the measure down. Without this initiative, our district may be condemned to fighting blind, seeking to make progress, without touching the real needs.

I think the failure of this motion reflects the failure that we often see in our lives and ministries. Congruence, the correspondence of our thought, speech, and action, is so very difficult to achieve. We say we desire the advance of the kingdom, but we fail to appropriate the time, effort, and resources to go about doing it. We say we want the lost to come to know Jesus, but so often we loose contact with them in our daily lives. We say we desire God’s power, but our prayer lives, weak or perhaps even non-existent, tell a different story.

God help our district, and each one of us in turn, to prioritize your plans, to be the people the you have called us to be, and to truly take an interest in the Great Commission–to go in your power and make disciples of all men.

The roads in Mexico are a pleasant surprise compared to the deteriorated byways that we had gotten used to in Costa Rica. We have a wonderfully paved road outside of our home, and it has been some time since I’ve had to swerve like a slalom skier to avoid ramming one of our wheels in a pothole. However, what makes the Mexican driving experience unique are the “topes” (pronounced tow-pays)

Topes are the Mexican version of speed bumps, although an American speed bump can’t hold a candle to a tope. Usually taller than they are wide, they’ll give you a bone-shattering shock if you happen to hit one unawares, bringing about a tongue-lashing from any passenger who just might be in your car. Believe me, it only takes one or two of those experiences to learn to slow down when driving, especially through small towns and neighborhoods.

The big problem with topes is that they are usually in the oddest places. From time to time, you can find them before a busy intersection or at a school or church crossing, but often they’re in the middle of nowhere, and the diamond shaped indication signs usually only give you a few feet of warning before your vehicle crashes into the unforgiving mound of resistance.

Topes, though, have a much larger meaning for the missionary or ex-patriot. The tope signifies the unexpected resistance that we experience as we continue in our work of cultural assimilation. Cruising along a comfortable speed, making strides in language, food, and relationships, inevitably we face topes that remind us that the land that we are in, although each day more familiar, is truly foreign.

We’ve been in Mexico almost 8 months now, and we are comfortably eating the yucatecan food, speaking more aporreado (what is referred to as the yucatecan accent), and building friendships with people in and outside of the church community, but we still experience our topes. Mine most recently has been in the form of our front yard.

Formerly working an 8-5 job in the states, I prided myself with the ability to keep up my front yard. I mowed regularly, trimmed the bushes and spread fertilizer in the spring and fall. Not given to excesses, except one post-season when I mowed the Yankees interlocking NY in the grass, I still felt satisfied in having a green, presentable garden.

Remembering all of this, I fell in love with the small, manageable green space that our current house gave me. I had visions of “working the land” again, and looked forward to the wealth of sermon illustrations that this labor of love would afford me, but the more I got involved in the day to day hustle and bustle of being a missionary in Mexico, the less and less time I had to devote to keeping up the garden.

So, by chance, I happened to find a gardener who could help me at least trim our trees. At less than $17 American, it was a deal that I couldn’t afford to pass up. Then came the tope. Unable to find the same gardener, I asked for a recommendation from our landlord. I contracted one of the two he recommended to trim our trees, this time for what I thought would amount to about $20. The bone-shattering shock came, however, when I realized, after the work was done, that it was to be $20 for each tree. Ouch!

Determined not to fall into the same mistake, but still needing a gardener more than ever, I contacted one after comparing the quotes of our neighbor’s gardener and one other who works in the neighborhood. We were needing help for our heat suffering grass and weed infested flowerbeds. After having negotiated what I thought was a good price, I let him go to work, but soon into the labor, I began to find the hidden costs, $20 more for extra insecticide, $70 for more plants, etc. Can someone say “TOPE!”

We expect blockades in ministry. We anticipate the frustrations that we may have to face in communicating our heart in a foreign tongue, but I guarantee that problems with the care of my front lawn never even entered into my mind. Like topes these complications hit me unexpectedly.

Still, I have to say I’m thankful for my tope experiences. Although they’ve been painful, they’ve slowed me down enough to think about my life and work. They’ve proven to me time and time again, that Dave Godzwa alone can’t get the job done. There needs to be someone else involved with a higher perspective, one who can guide us through even the unexpected situations.

So, although I’m sure that I’ll continue to feel the bumps along this road of cultural assimilation, I’ll thank God for them because I know that they’ll slow me down enough to refocus my vision on Him–the one who’s mapping my course, and who just happens to know where those topes are.

Photo Credits:

In article description: A photo of a common tope warning sign.

We are continuing an ongoing series following the experiences of our first missions team here in the Yucatan

Monday, March 12th

Monday arose with a day of work planned. We were to paint the pastor’s home as they were preparing to tear down the old house standing in the way of the construction of the church. The paint was bought and the team, using rollers, brushes, paint, elbow grease, and Christian camp songs began the work. Little by little the rough walls began to take on their new look. Here you can see Kelsey putting on the first coat. (Unfortunately for us, the paint we used on the first day was totally incorrect, leaving us to repaint what we had done over again, but that is for another post.)

The highlight of the day actually came from a darkened room. An off night of ministry for us, we gathered with the congregation for prayer in their traditional prayer service. When we arrived, however, we were a bit confused. The lights in the church were off. We had thought perhaps that service was canceled. Looking for direction from those in the pastor’s home, we were told that it was the custom of the congregation to pray in this manner. So we entered in to join the many who were already seeking God.

What resulted was impacting. Mike, my brother, mentioned his impression later in this way: When I felt that I had prayed enough, I looked up, expecting perhaps that the congregation would have finished as well, when I realized that they hadn’t, I continued in my prayers the darkness helping me to maintain my focus and the time allowing me to connect with God in a way that our busy distracted lives don’t often allow.

What an irony, that in our week of finding (remember from our last post that our theme was Luke 15) we could actually encounter God in a new way by turning off the lights! We learned in that evening to set aside our i-pods, our power point presentations, and movie clip sermon illustrations for awhile in order to allow God to speak to us in a totally unscripted, unorchestrated way. We also learned that missions trips are not only about giving, but receiving as well. So are you interested in finding God? Try turning off the distractions for a moment and letting Him speak.

It’s very rare that a movie gives me pause for thought, but those that do usually keep me thinking for some time. That is what happened last night as we settled in to watch a library-borrowed copy of The Bicentennial Man. The film, starring Robin Williams, starts off as a whimsical story of the adjustments of one family to their android helper “Andrew.” However, it takes a dramatic turn into realm of the metaphysical when Andrew begins his quest become human. The interesting point of the movie is that the immortal, self-maintaining Andrew does what most would seem to think ridiculous. He decides to make himself mortal in order to truly share in the human existence and embrace those that he has not only served, but come to love.

Of course, the Christian parallels are obvious. Christ himself shed his omnipotence in order to die in the the place of those that he loved, but I was moved to think from the other perspective. My humanness of late has been real drag. Since we’ve made it back from Mexico City, I have been struggling with a sinus infection, my personal nemesis. I have tried to take care of my work responsibilities, my correspondence, and keep up with my kids, only to see my energies wear out long before my list of to-dos. The aching head and stuffy nose seem like anchors against which I have to struggle an inch at a time. There have been many times when I wished that I could trade in my faulty pieces for robotic upgrades.

Still though, it is funny how God chooses to use our imperfection, our humanness, to work our his purposes through us. I was at the Salvador Alvarado stadium, watching our kids in the track program, when I struck up a conversation with an externally happy but definitely hurting parent. Our conversation started with the everyday, but moved quickly to his disintegrating marriage. He told me that he was hanging on only for the sake of his kids. Reflecting back to the pain that I felt in the midst of the divorce of my parents and the way that God has helped me to recover and rebuild my life helped me to offer him help in finding a way forward through his pain. God used my dysfunctional past, my human experience, in order to minister in this man’s present situation.

How often are we touched by the testimony of determination through pain, triumph over adversity, or recovery against all odds? I am personally encouraged as I watch the progress of Joel and Amy Maxwell, friends who through the grace of God has been overcoming what many would say impossible odds. Parents of two, they are renewing their lives after their humanness led them through business failure and personal debt to Officer’s Basic Training, military deployment and renewed purpose.

The power is not in our perfection, nor in the facade that we might choose to display. It is in the intersection of our imperfection, our weak human condition, our story, and God’s amazing grace that power is displayed to those around us. Like Paul says in 2 Cor. 4:7: we have this “treasure in jars of clay.” We show the reality of God’s power through his redemption of our brokenness, and, as we continue to allow him to work in our lives, he takes our brokenness and makes into something beautiful.

I don’t know how this sinus infection is fitting into God’s plan just yet, but I am certainly glad for the chance to reflect with thankfulness on God’s intervention in my humanness. I guess I’ll delay that order for those artificial lymph nodes.

Looking out across the blog sphere, there are a lot of people currently writing about habits. My brother, Mike, is talking about his running and how that relates to keeping New Year’s Resolutions. Jim Cottrill, the host of missionary-blogs.com, himself a missionary to Mexico, is talking about Tim Horton’s and the coffee habit. With this “great cloud of witnesses,” writing, I too felt the inspiration to write about habits but not necessarily those habits that we see in our daily routine. Instead, I’d like to talk about those ways of thinking that routinely determine our attitudes and actions as we go about our daily lives.

I tend toward an anal retentive personality, a tendency that has seemed to grow stronger over the years. One case in point: As we were decorating for Christmas, Kelly had purchased stockings for the kids. They were hung from our railing that leads to the upstairs bedrooms. (No need for a chimney here in Merida!) The railing has a design of bars and decoration along its span. When the stockings were hung, I noticed that we could use the design of the railing in order to space the three stockings evenly. For even spacing there was something like 5 bars between each stocking. So, I moved the stockings so that they would reflect this evenness. This of course prompted each of our children, partly to annoy and partly to exert their own sense of style, to rearrange the stockings themselves, resulting in a game that lasted until December 25th.

This tendency of mine also bleeds into other areas of my life. I tend to spend hours cleaning up the details in order to present a cleaner kitchen, a tidier garden or perhaps a more complete presentation. Still, although this attention to detail has its benefits, there are detriments as well. Like the despair that I can face when I lack the time or the resources to make everything come out the way I want, or perhaps the inertia that I have to contend with at the start of a project when I feel that my efforts might not be up to the task.

As a missionary as well, this habit of mine can cause far reaching problems: J Oswald Sanders, the author of the Book Spiritual Leadership reported that the leaders of one mission asked that their missionaries be more coaches than players, modeling and teaching rather than taking up front roles in the work. This kind of thinking is difficult for people like me to live out. Sometimes I find it hard just to let our children undertake a simple task like set the table. How much more difficult will it be for me to hand over a job with eternal consequences, especially if I feel that I am the most qualified to do it. I have heard others say that they’d never hand their work to a national believer. They have their reasons, some of them very good, but if we are truly to fulfill the Great Commission, do we have the luxury to hold on in this manner?

I think that Jesus can be a model for people like us. Himself perfect and surrounded by perfection, he decided to live here on earth with a group of 12 fishermen, zealots, and tax collectors who routinely failed to live up to his expectations. No one would have faulted him for abandoning this bunch at the first chance for some more promising candidates, but he pressed on with them–teaching, modeling, and giving them hands on experience in what it meant to work with God. The 120 in the upper room on Pentecost Sunday might have seemed to be a paltry showing for three years of arduous ministry, but these would prove to be the first-fruits of the church that would go on to affect the entire known world in the span of a generation. Could we hope to accomplish anything greater than this?

Habits. We try to create good ones and destroy bad ones. This New Year this missionary will be trying to conquer my perfectionism, my desire to be in control of the results, and dedicate myself, like Jesus to raising up men and women, disciples, that can carry on the work and in fact have a greater impact than I could ever imagine. Pray for me. I just added spell check to my website. It doesn’t seem to be a sign that this change will come easily.

Guy Muse who writes the M Blog, has started a series on what God is teaching him these days. In part from his inspiration, and in part from the events of this past week, I’d like to chime in and share what God has been sharing with us these days.

Sometimes it takes more than one teaching in order to learn a lesson.

Jonathan went to the hospital last October in order to correct a congenital hernia. Those of you who have been reading this blog may remember this post about the event. He had the operation which corrected the problem, and one would think that we wouldn’t need to revisit the situation again, right? Wrong. This week we found that he had a hernia on the opposite side as well. He went in for the additional surgery yesterday. (He is recovering well. Thannk you to those who prayed.)

To us this has been an example of how, in the same way Jonathan needed two surgeries in order to correct his problem, we often need more than one teaching in order to learn the life lesson that God is trying to teach us. Kelly had the opportunity in Thursday’s chapel to share this reality. We think that we understand how to abide in Christ, and yet God reveals to us that we have much to learn. We feel that we have a handle on how to be a humble servant, and yet we find ourselves in the painful circumstance where we need to humble ourselves in front of others.

Is it some kind of terrible game that God plays with us? Although it feels that way sometimes, I would say no. I guess it is more like what Aslan revealed to Eustace Scrubb in the Chronicles of Narnia book, the Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Converted into a dragon because of his lust for treasure, Eustace found himself alone and pitiful until he had an encounter with the lion Aslan. Aslan took Eustace to a pool where he told Eustace to “undress and wash.” There, in front of the pool, Eustace found that he could shed the dragon skin. So he peeled it off of himself in order to wash in the pool. To his horror though, he found that no matter how hard he tried, the dragon skin would always reappear. It was only when Aslan “undressed him” with the deep cuts of his claws did Eustace find that he was truly free from his dragon skin and the isolation that it had brought upon him.

I believe that God teaches us his lessons in an ever deeper way, so that we too may shed the “old man” the natural, selfish mindset that keeps us from reflecting Christ in this life. His teaches often hurt, wounding our pride and self-reliance, but the product is always worth the price because, in the end, what remains is less of the corruption of this world and more of purity that reflects the kingdom of God.

In the photo to the left, you see our children, Rebekah, Joseph, and Jonathan smiling. They are smiling, because they believe that the cookies in front of them are going to be eaten in a few minutes after they are placed into the oven. But, you see, these are special cookies, Resurrection Cookies.

This year, Kelly felt it important that we do something more tangible to celebrate Easter with the kids, so using a recipe from the ladies of Calvary Christian A/G in Springfield, MO we introduced Resurrection Cookies to them. These cookies are made in such a way as to give children visual, hands on representations of the passion, death, and resurrection of Christ. Reading Bible verses to accompany each step in the process, we made cookies, but we also reflected on the reasons why Jesus had to die, and the manner in which he suffered for us. Crushing almonds signified the beating that Jesus took on the cross. Vinegar represented the gall that Jesus was offered, and so on until the process was completed.

In all I think the part most significant in the process was the sadness of closing the cookies in the oven for the night and going to bed. As we taped the oven shut, sealing the “tomb”, the children complained. They wanted to have a taste of the cookies before bed, but we wouldn’t relent. Besides there being raw eggs in the mixture, we felt that it was important for our children to experience in a small way, the disappointment that the disciples felt as the tomb of Jesus was sealed shut, as all of their hopes and expectations of something great were dashed. Our three saw their treats being taken away from them, the disciples, their very lives.

The joy and the excitement of Easter morning couldn’t have been more real then as the seal of death was broken and the tomb was empty. Jesus was alive and hope was reborn. Our children weren’t expecting to go to bed in disappointment, but they will wake up tomorrow to perhaps an unexpected sweetness. In the same way, Jesus didn’t fulfill the earthly expectations of his band of followers, but the new life that his disciples tasted on that Sunday morning could not have been more sweet.

The wonderful thing is that all of us get to share in the benefits of the finished work of the death and resurrection of Christ, and the flavor that forgiveness can bring to life cannot be compared!

The missionaries of today are quite different from those of the past. Single-minded laborers for the Lord, they loaded their belongings in caskets, headed for far off regions that they were sure that they would never return from. Today, we are usually only a plane flight or two away from our home country, and the technology that we enjoy has us linked through the telephone and the internet in such a way that many of us can enjoy a connectedness with our families that few ever even imagined in the past. Some of us are even blessed to receive visits from family as we are enjoying now: Kelly’s parents David and Kim Yaple, along with her brother Micah have been here since last Thursday night, enjoying the Holy Week school break along with us.

Still there are events that remind us of the miles. We had a few that have happened just this weekend. The first was the birth of our latest nephew Levi Christopher this weekend. He’s a 9lb 1oz cutie that is currently 2,050 miles away as the bird flies. The second was the death of my uncle David Regan. Suffering from cancer, my uncle succumbed the day before Levi was welcomed into the world. With the desire to be there strong, but the realities and expenses of travel being as they are, suddenly the world has gotten much bigger. And when we hear of loved ones being sick or churches struggling, we long to be near, to be able to comfort with a touch or simply our presence but we are unable.

These are the times when the calling has to be sure. The times when we reflect on the reason that we have left the United States in order to work on the mission field, and the answer is not because there is a need, but because we are called. So we offer up our prayers for those who are far from us. Prayers of thanksgiving for those events in which the Lord has blessed, and prayers of peace and comfort for those who have suffered loss, and we take confidence that the Lord who has taken us away is big enough fill the space that we leave behind, be it in the celebrations or the sadness.

Kelly and I were on our way out last Thursday for a rare afternoon date, when we were greeted by a well dressed man, named Ronald, who claimed to be looking for fellow students, David and Carolyn Huneycutt. Thinking him to be a pastor or friend of David and Carol, we proceeded to listen to his story:

He was a new Christian, with a sick wife, children to care for, and a job to go to, but with no one to leave his children. His mother-in-law could care for them, but insisted that he bring the children to her. However, he didn’t have the money to pay for the bus fare. He had sought help from the church, but he told us that he had been turned away because he didn’t have an appointment.

Thinking it terrible that this man would have to deal with this problem by himself, we wanted to help as best as we could, since of course he was some acquaintence of a fellow student, so I asked him how much the bus fare was. He told me for the trip there and back I would cost somewhere around $8. Feeling that we couldn’t watch his children for him, I asked Kelly for the money thinking that it was the least that we could do. She gave it to me, but was a bit suspicious of the whole situation. I handed it over and prayed for the man, knowing that time was becoming scarce and believing that we would be providing a tangible proof of the love of God.

We went away happy to have helped Ronald, but questioning our action. Was it the right thing to do? I had satisfied myself with the fact that Jesus himself had gotten involved with physical needs of the people. But we found out the next day that Kelly was right to have been suspicious. In all of our mailboxes was a description and picture of Ronald. You can see the notice by clicking on the picture to the left or clicking here. The suposedly “new Christian” in reality had been hitting the missionary language schools (CINCEL and ILE), preying on students goodwill and desire help out a brother in need. The man probably had robbed several of hundreds of dollars of money with his story, as several fellow students had explained to me that they too had believed his story.

I sat through that moning worship service in disgust. Thinking, “How could a man do such a thing?”, but later disgusted with myself thinking, “How is it that I believed him? Aren’t Christians supposed to be more discerning?” I thought of ways that I could proctect myself in the future, like vowing to never give money to a stranger again, and that might be the course to take, but something inside me hesitates. Shouldn’t we be willing to be vulnerable to those in need?

I think my conclusion, is that giving money, without also being willing to be involved in a relationship with the individual is always a bad policy. If we had offered to watch the man’s four children, we would have had to possibly rearrange our schedule, but we would have called his bluff. Still, if the man had a real need, we would have been able to meet it in a more practical and caring way, and perhaps even seen another family being drawn closer to our Savior.

This interaction has left me with much to think about, and the realization that I have much to learn about being a missionary here in Latin America. I’m thankful that God gives on the job training.

In the past weeks I have joined a sort of community of evangelical missionary bloggers whose blogs can be found at www.missionary-blogs.com. I felt that this was a wise move as I wanted to be exposed to what the evangelical community is doing as a whole in regard to mission, and be able to communicate to a broader range of missions prayers, thinkers, and doers (sic.).

Of course part of being in a community is one’s participation in that community. That being said, Jim, the coordinator of the effort has asked us to write about a Bible passage that has been particularly significant in our lives. This is part of an effort to encourage our readers with the Word. Therefore, I have decided to write about Galatians 2:20:

“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (NIV)

There are several reasons that I love this verse:

1. It speaks of the crucifixion, one of the central messages of the Gospel. The Son of God came to earth to die, taking our sins so that we could be acceptable to the Father. No matter how much I reflect on that concept, it never fails to move me.

2. It speaks of the newness of my life in Christ. It is no longer David Godzwa, the angry, hurt, young man, dealing with the pain of a split household and his own feelings of inadequacy who lives. That boy has died with Christ. Alive now is the man who has found his identity in knowing God and being known by Him, and the peace and security of a relationship with God has allowed me to move in forgiveness, and to live a life that seeks the good of others instead of operating from the pain of past wounds.

3. Finally, it reminds me that, although God’s love is big enough to embrace the whole world (Jn. 3:16), it is also specific enough to touch each person exactly where he or she might be. God loves me. Yes, “For God so loved the world…” but God loves me. I might be insignificant in the eyes of those around me, but God thought that I was important enough to die for.

Tarea (f)

Homework has been the key word for the past few weeks here in Costa Rica as we continue through our second trimester at CINCEL. And as you can see from the stack of books, there won’t be any let up in sight for a while.
This picture represents the books that we are using during our courses, and each comes with it’s own particular set of tarea. So in addition to the 4 hours of class time that we have each day, we have been working with at least that amount of homework. Add to that the time that we have to spend talking with people on the streets of San Jose, and that makes for a full day!

But this isn’t a post to complain, no it is much more to express our gratitude for the deadlines that God gives to us. I have found that we have a tendency to work better when there is a time frame set in place. So it is with Spanish study. There have been several times in our lives where we have wanted to involve ourselves in learning Spanish. The desire was real, but the deadline was never set. Now here in language school we have the motivation and, for sure, the deadlines. The wondrous thing is, with God’s help, those two elements have combined to result in some tremendous progress. Now for certain, we have far to go, but to be able to understand and to be understood in a foreign language is indeed a tremendous blessing. So the next time that God assigns you tarea don’t look at it as a time to cringe, but rather as a time to grow!

It’s 2006, a new year, the time when we naturally turn inward, reflect on our past and resolve to change for the future. Those resolutions then usually take the form of two or three goals that we set to accomplish or habits that we seek to build into our lives over the coming 365 days. This year I didn’t want to do that. Instead, I wanted to break down my life into its respective parts in order to establish values and then set reasonable goals that will enable me to live out those values. My desire is to move from the most fundamental areas and build upon those in order to form something of a personal treatise. I post it here because I realize that I am often myopic and I need the input of others. I also hope that this, in a small way, may serve as an inspiration to others.

1. I am a human being. This is the most fundamental aspect of my being. All other activities of my life are built upon this truth. I have body that has physical needs. If I neglect these needs I will pay the consequences of that neglect in both long and short term ways. Some of those needs are:

• Adequate rest
• Proper diet
• Physical activity
• Mental stimulation

In order to meet these needs I plan to:

• Get a proper night’s rest, by establishing a pattern to my day and blocking out adequate time in order to allow my body to get the sleep that it needs.
• Eat a balanced diet, with an emphasis on foods that will give me the energy to accomplish my daily activities, especially fruits and vegetables.
• Commit myself to planned, intentional physical activity that will enable me to stay fit and healthy throughout my life.
• Determine to choose my leisure activities with an aim to stimulate my mind be it in learning a new skill or information through whatever medium I choose and to resolve to never stop learning.

2. I am a child of God. I was created by my loving heavenly father, first to have a relationship with him and to live my life in light of that relationship. Because of this I commit to:

• Conversing daily with my Father that I might hear his voice and know his direction throughout my day.
• Reading and studying his written will for all of his children, the bible, and establishing this as the basis of my thought and activity.
• Investigating and practicing the spiritual disciplines in order to gain new insight and achieve balance in my relationship with God.
• Allowing my life, my relationships, my family, and my career to be directed by the above habits.

3. I am a sinner redeemed by Christ through the price that he paid on the cross. His purchase has freed me from the bondage of sin which leads to death and has conscripted me into his service, the work of life. His goals are my goals, his aims are my aims. Therefore:

• Soulwinning is not an option, it is an activity that flows naturally out of my debt of love to Christ
• I am a part of Christ’s body, and therefore my life is available to all who make up his body. Their needs are my needs as well.
• As part of Christ’s body my life is open to the input and correction of others as they are charged with the building up of the believers who make up this body. I have a responsibility to speak into the lives of others as l am lead by Christ.
• I have a responsibility to pray for my fellow believers, that through Christ’s body, God’s love might be shown to the world.

4. I am a husband. I have made a commitment of love to Kelly, my wife, to protect, love, cherish, and to be completely faithful to her in thought, word, and deed. Therefore I commit to:

• Becoming a student of my wife, finding out everything I can about her, the things that she likes and dislikes and the way in which she feels love, and live out my relationship with her in light of this information, seeking her best above my own.
• Becoming her companion in all aspects of life physical, mental, and spiritual.
• Being accountable to her in my thoughts and actions each day.
• Praying for her and with her as I pray for no other that Christ would meet her every need.

5. I am a father. I have three children who need me in order show them tangible love in the ways that they can understand so that they can live secure stable lives now, and to pattern my actions with them in order to help them grow into adults who love God and people, have a sense of worth and purpose, and seek to use their lives as a tool to serve God and others. Therefore:

• I commit to spending time with each of them in order to know them and their needs.
• I resolve to respond to their needs appropriately to nurture, to protect, and to teach them.
• I commit to persevere with each one of them in every circumstance of their lives regardless of the situation.
• I resolve to pray for them that Christ would guide their lives and overcome my limitations as a parent.

6. I am a relative and a friend. There are people in my life that are attached to me beyond my immediate nuclear family. They are a part of my life and I am responsible to them. Therefore I commit to:

• Staying in contact with them on a regular basis.
• Celebrating with them their important days and accomplishments.
• Being available to them as they have need.
• Praying for them and believing for God’s best for their lives.

7. I am a missionary. I have a divine call upon my life to a specific people group, sent by ministry partners to live among this people group, speaking their language and participating in their culture, through the power and direction of the Holy Spirit, so that I might influence some for Christ, introduce some to him, disciple some in the way of life, and partner with some in ushering in the kingdom of God among them. Therefore I resolve to:

• Becoming a student of the language and the culture of my host culture, knowing that without an understanding of these items, I will never gain entrance into their lives or their hearts.
• Allowing the culture to influence the method but not the message of my ministry, striving to prevent my North American mindset from creating roadblocks to what Christ would want said or done.
• Developing real relationships with the people of my host culture, as relationship is the foundation for sharing the message of Christ.
• Committing myself to excellence in ministry by doing all things as unto Christ and constantly learning and applying new tools for more effective ministry.
• Praying for my host culture that Christ might multiply and work beyond my methods that the culture might truly be effected by the gospel.
• Committing myself to a positive relationship to my ministry partners, both churches and individuals, being sure to communicate both my activities and my thankfulness for their partnership, praying for God’s best for them, and being available to them as they have need or desire to speak into our lives.

Christmas was different this year. Usually, we have our schedules full of family events, bouncing back and forth between Kelly’s family and my own in a dizzying array of dinners, shopping events, and get-togethers. This year, we’ve pretty much stayed put, and aside from sharing Christmas Eve and Christmas Day dinner with our missionary family here in San Jose, we’ve been in our house catching up on some cleaning, snatching time to play games with the kids and of course playing with those cool presents that we got each other.

My present this year was yet another coffee maker. If you know me (Dave), you know that coffee has been a hobby for me, at times bordering on an obsession. I roast my own coffee as well as prepare it in a number of different ways in a number of different coffee makers. This l