The Life Lately Update

I was just reading in my quite time in chapter 4 of Philippians. As Paul thanks the church in Philipi for their support, he speaks of how fruit has been added to THEIR account. Pondering on the thought that those who send and support in prayer are equally a part of the work and fruit, I wanted to thank all of you who have kept me in your thoughts and prayers. Also, this morning it’s raining, and here when it rains life kinda stops. I guess that is the natural response in a culture in which walking, not cars, is the way to get from point A to point B especially when you work with the church El Pastito, (literally-little grass), which the members affectionately call El Barito, (literally – little mud pit), after a good rain fall.

So where have I been?

Let’s see, I have finished the summer camp ministry during which I was a pot washer. It was so exciting and encouraging to hear the testimonies and end of summer review, and the numbers and numbers of campers who had, at the very least, the Great News, and many of which expressed a desire to accept it personally.

During that time I was in my Spanish class, where we were cramming together the last chapters trying to complete the key Spanish concepts before the Institute 2011 started. After camp we had one month to fit it all in. Praise the Lord it is over, and we aren’t still studying Spanish grammar. Praise the Lord I passed. And praise Him that amongst all that time of study and work we found a week to goof off for vacation.

For vacation we packed up 28 of the 31 PBB’ers (that’s what those of us who are trying to learn Spanish are called. You know how Christian ministries love acronyms) with which we started the year into a large blue bus and headed on a 22 hour bus ride to south west Argentina to the province of Neuquen where Word of Life has another property.  They run a ministry similar to The Inn of New York, but in the Andes Mountains. That time in God’s creation, to see how far He had brought me in this journey, was such a blessing. It was also there where I got to share the gospel by my-self in Spanish having confidence I was being understood. God is growing in me slowly but surely more boldness in sharing the gospel, especially in Spanish. In English I always had an arsenal of excuses why it wasn’t best for me to share with this person. But now, here, I always have the thought, “Well this is why I learned Spanish for crying out loud!”  pushing me to talk with people. If only I had learned sooner and applied that this is why I have breath in any language.

                “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord”

Please be praying for me that the Lord would make me bold, wise, and innocent in sharing the Gospel… always.

Once we finished Spanish classes, we had a week and a half in which we all were free to find ministries in which we could involve ourselves.  We sent out across South America. Some spent the time in Bolivia, others Uruguay, and others went back towards Neuquen on different evangelism campaigns. I had the pleasure of getting to know a small church in Buenos Aries named Hiacaninda (if you can’t pronounce that don’t sweat it. It’s really hard for me, and I’m almost certain that is spelled wrong. It’s a tree name that is all you… well actually you don’t really need to know.) There God gave me my first opportunity to preach in Spanish to the youth group in a lock-in event. (I preached at 3 in the morning… Spanish is hard at 3 in the morning.)

It is only by the grace of God I can speak and communicate in Spanish somewhat efficiently. (I proved my language aptitude where I barely passed level one Spanish at Centreville, and by the fact I landed in Basic one Spanish here in PBB- which basically says, “Why the heck do you live in Argentina?!? You have no idea what you are doing!”) But God meets me every time there is an opportunity I have the blessing of being part of. Generally, the next few days He reminds me that I have SOOOO much to learn when it comes to Spanish. (Who knows, maybe in that regard the Lord is still working in the gift of tongues. joke joke…kinda =])

The next experience was an evangelism campaign in which Bethel Baptist Church of Virginia came to canvas the neighborhood, preaching door to door. I went as a translator. (I was skeptic of my ability to translate and little nervous, but confident that God provide all at the same time.) So, a whole bunch of gringos hit the neighborhood with full force, some of them being lead by other gringos, (almost the blind leading the blind). But the Lord, in spite of our limitations, brought forth fruit and blessing from that week.

I developed a friendship with the Pastor and the church, and they were generous enough to invite me to do my weekend ministry at their church, (because I’ll be leaving Argentina in just two months, something the institute normally doesn’t allow, making this a answer to prayer).  And like that, I ended up here at El Pastito for my weekend ministry. I am working with the youth group organizing Bible Clubs and starting discipleship relationships with the students.

Oh yes, and in the mean time we have started classes and are in full swing at the institute. Next week is out first exam. and my first Bible exam in Spanish…. You can pray if you want =]

For the ministry here at El Pastito I ask you to be praying for three people in particular. 


Christian – a young man who has stated he is a Christian however is just recently leaving the world of drugs and crime. Now to leave behind his addictions and be a light in the neighborhood where he has robbed various members of the community is quite the task that lies ahead of him. I simply want to see him growing and not fall back into where the Lord is pulling him out of. 


Alexis- a young man I met during the campaign and was able to help one of the young people from Bethel share the gospel with. He understood much of the gospel and has expressed a sincere desire to know more. He is attending a church however, that preaches a work based salvation and the concepts in his mind our mixing. 


Cariña- is not a believer, and is greatly struggling with a problem with drugs but has expressed what appeared to me a true desire to change and asked for prayer. ...really hope to see her family reached through her… first she would have to be reached. Such a sweet young person so hurt by her sin.

So on so forth we live out the time here in Argentina. I can’t believe there are less than two months.


The 26^th of June I will already be loading up on a plane leaving Argentina. I won’t be heading directly back to the states. I have a 2 week layover in El Salvador, =] ...also know as a missions trip. I am truly very excited. The idea is I will be going to help out with translating. Be praying for my Spanish to continue to grow and progress. In El Salvador I will be joining up with the ensemble from WOL FL and possibly my lovely sister.

After those two weeks in El Salvador, it will be off to New York where I will work the last 5 weeks of summer camp on the Island as a counselor. At least that is my current plan, desire, and plane ticket.

As far ahead as I can tell for now, the following fall I will be working in WOL FL on their Dean Staff as an assistant dean continuing to learn, discipling students, pouring into an important relationship in my life, and starting to pay off my student loan from my first year with WOL in FL.

Be praying for the continued guidance and provision from the Lord throughout this journey of life in the steps I have daily. Most of all pray for consistency and faithfulness to be grown in to my life and character that I may not be easily shaken.

Thank you so much for taking the time to remember me. I am praying for you as well.  God bless.

P.S.  I am praying for your comment to be as honest as possible. So aside from the general prayers for loved ones and my church family please feel free to share as well with me.  I don’t promise to respond quickly to messages, but I do purpose to be praying for the senders as I receive notes.

Boulders of Misconception

I was sitting in this year’s first “UME” meeting (UME is Students United for Missions… but in Spanish so it’s actually an acronym) listening to various people share from the mixture of countries represented about the spiritual needs of the countries. The idea is to have the students band together with people with similar burdens on their hearts for varying countries and to pray. Also, they organize offerings and missions trips and thing of that sort. The way it has often played out in years past is many students choose to actually work in the field they have been praying for. Just like that some timid Bolivian can end up boldly preaching the gospel to a closed country in the east… that is the idea, and it actually has a tendency of happening...which is cool.

So, I sat in the commencement of said meeting as we sang songs about the needs and the going.  I thought once again “I wanna go. I wanna be a goer. There are so many needs, and I want to reach in so many places and I wanna go. If only I was in such and such a place really doing something. If I had…”

So our thoughts can flow. Mine flow from time to time in that manner. ...starting in a good place, but as they flow down the rolling hills of my mind, they hit some boulders of misconception. Sending my little thought river down some mistaken path, ending up making some turgid swamp of thought, discontentment, and inactivity that never should have been, tucked away in some corner of my mind.

(Did you follow that word picture? I hope so. I had fun typing it.)

The boulders of misconception? What are they? Don’t know them all. But in my mind there are so many to choose from. Here are a few:

-The will of God is a place. (which I will be located someday, but sadly not where I am located now)
-Once I make it to said will of God-land, things will be better. (things will be right, I will be the man I am supposed to be, and be ready)
- I’ve just gotta make it through this place which is a little bit less interesting exciting and
spiritual than what I’m really made for. (expecting too much in life, or ministry)
-Thinking I am the one Christian God just isn’t that interested in walking with or using today. (expecting too little in our spiritual lives or ministry)

Well, I don’t exactly voice it like that because if I did (or we did) I (or we) would have to accept the fact that my (or our) reasoning… is off.

As I stood in the meeting singing and thinking, “I wanna go, I wanna go, I wanna go, just send me somewhere. I’ll be faithful. I promise.” I had the delightful realization… “You’re somewhere, now be faithful.”

In Matthew 25: 14-30 the Lord gives a parable (I think you should read it… maybe the whole chapter just for fun) but the thought is this:

We must be faithful in the little, and He will entrust us with more.

I live in Argentina and study the word of God every day. I leave every weekend to work in a ministry in a young church in a poor neighborhood. I pass by people every day...Christians that need encouragement, and lost who need to hear.

Here is another thing I am sometimes wrong in thinking:

                -The will of God is a full ministry schedule. (what I do.)

But his will is more about who we are day by day and how we live, than about what we do, or where we are.

“This is the will of God, your sanctification…” I Thess 4:3

(or 1 Thess. 5:18, or start looking through the word of God on your own for what is the will of God for your life. Because He has actually told us! Which is really, really cool!)

Exciting news! As a child of God every day I have the opportunity to do the will of God, as I live in obedience to Him.

Exciting news, if you are a child of God, you do too!

You live in ___(insert  country, state, town here)____. You can study the word of God every day. You have ___(insert church or other ministry option you have in front of you there)___ to serve God in and grow through in ___(your town again)___. And you pass people every day, Christians that need encouragement, and lost ones who need to hear. And God wants to use you. More than he wants to use you He wants to know you and have more intimacy and have us be more sanctified and “set apart” unto Him.

This thought has been in my head awhile. I love you all so much. Thank you who are reading this from home, thank you for taking interest in my life and lifting me up in your prayers. So many people have been an encouragement and examples to me, and are being spent where God has placed you.

Some of you have said to me, “I’m so proud of you. I’m so glad you can follow the Lord like that and go to another country.”

I want it to be said. I am not necessarily in the will of God by being in Argentina. I have an everyday every moment the opportunity and option to obey God. I just chose this year because I felt like it was a great opportunity in which I felt that I would grow, be better equipped, and the Lord could be pleased. I feel like His provision has been an encouragement it was a pretty good choice.

But this is just what God is doing in my life right now. He has me in Argentina. And he has you in ________. If you are supposed to be in Argentina or another place why haven’t you left yet? But if the Lord  isn’t calling you to another place and you’re not fighting Him on something like that. Where does He have you? And why?

I feel like as Christian  we have a tendency to waste a lot of time thinking of what our life with God could and would be like if… . As if those missionaries in a foreign country have a little advantage before Jesus and because they are one of a special few who really, really get to follow and know Him.

When in reality that is the desire of the Lord for each one of His children.

Will we say “Here am I Lord send me” and then realize we have already been sent. "Go ye into all the world and make disciples of all nations."

How does the great commission look in my life? Today?

P.S. (I'll talk the next time I get a chance to write a bit.  I'll try and make it sooner- to update you all a little on the whos whats and wheres of my life right now, and in the near furture)