Another Update

Wow…. Four and a half months have passed and I can hardly believe how the time has flown. Hmmm sooo much life has transpired it hard to think about.

Yesterday my facebook informed me that two years ago I had written
“starting my first year of real normal school… well, as real and as normal as Word of Life can be”

one year ago it read...

“Spanish not yet great, learning very slowly, but hey I’ve been to Buenos Aries twice and that’s pretty cool!”

Now I am starting my year on staff at Word of Life Florida, a completely different chapter that looks entirely different... full of new blessings and challenges.

But so many things have happened along the way, it would certainly be impossible to catch you up on everything, but however I do feel like if you have been supporting me with your prayers and you care enough to try to keep track of me, it’s safe to say you deserve an update.

Since you received the last update and prayer request…

My last two and a half months in Argentina were such a rich time of blessing. By far my favorite of all the time I spent in Argentina when I got involved in my local church every weekend and got to see the small church grow and new kids hearing the gospel. By God’s grace, I grew so much more confident with my Spanish in that time and the Lord grew me so much in a lot of ways. I was able to open the word with the youth group from time to time and continue in a handful of discipleship relationships. Just to see the beautiful and very imperfect bride of Christ functioning, I truly fell even more in love with it. God continued through my last few months to grow my heart toward church planting although I do not know what the Lord has planned, I am truly excited to see Him work.

“For his thoughts are not our thoughts and his ways are not our ways”… I’m excited to see it.

I made some dear, dear friends that I hated to leave behind in the Bible institute there in Argentina. We grew together as brothers in the body, learning from our differences: different stories, backgrounds, personalities, cultures, and languages...but all brought together in Christ.

“The ground is level at the foot of the cross.”

I ended up leaving Argentina two weeks early to take part in a mission’s trip with Student Fusion (a short term missions branch of Word of Life) but wanting to finish the course well, I crammed, studying my last week in the country to take a couple final exams on classes I had yet to take…. It was a fun week =]

Goodbyes were in a sense a blessing. How rich we are to say we have people we miss and who will miss us as we part. I was so struck by the generosity of my brothers I meet as they were quick to try to give me anything I had complimented.

“Everyman is my teacher.”

I had the strange and wonderful opportunity to attend a pastors conference during my last weekend before I left Argentina. It was put on by Woodstock Church of Georgia, which Ironically was the same church putting on the conference in the Dominican republic the night before I made the decision to go to Argentina. Johnny Hunt had spoken and God really broke me. Now sitting at another conference, in another country, Woodstock randomly came. It was a church planting seminar and through the different speakers God took me through the last few years of my life and gave me the huge blessing of allowing me to see His guiding hand. ...that perhaps He truly does have a plan in all He has been working in my life. How silly that we forget so quickly the truths like, “I know the plans I have for you says the Lord.” I was filled with so much encouragement to see a little of the plan He is working as He forms me. I was blessed to meet and get to know the hearts of a very mixed group of different men of God, called from very different places to very different things, but all for the glory of God and all striving for faithfulness. The possibility of working with the Spanish ministry in Woodstock was mentioned to me, and it is something I would like to look into. So please join me in praying for that.

“I know the thoughts I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Jer. 29:25 (the mixed version of my mind)

The next step of the journey took me to El Salvador where I took part for two weeks of a evangelistic missions trip. I love very much  the team there in El Salvador, dear people, who are a lot of fun and love the Lord and have a vision for their country. I worked with the local Word of Life missionaries, Word of Life’s 2010-2011 ensembles, and some new friends from a short term missions group called Student Fusion for high schoolers, and my wonderful big sister. I was blessed and encouraged by basically everyone on that trip: the passion of the BI students, simply the loving friendship I share with my sister, the openness of the high schoolers

Ps 119:125

...back to America. I was headed for 4 days off in New York City before heading to the Island summer camp to be a counselor. A Volcano erupted in Chile stranding my New York friend in Argentina. So, I became stranded without a plan and without a phone at JFK International Airport. I started meeting great people and borrowing their phones. My wonderful mother helped greatly. Through that I got some wonderful witnessing opportunities, and I got to see God’s provision... (although I don’t recommend traveling without a backup plan).. ended up in Pennsylvania, and it was a blessed time of rest. Also, a visit to a local church again reminded me that is where my heart is. =]

“all things work together for good…”

I worked the next 5 weeks on the Island as a counselor, got to see some great old friends, and make new ones. I probably worked with about 100 campers over the course of the summer getting to know their stories, trying to meet them where they were at and encourage them toward the next step. I love camp. It is like biblical church discipleship but in very weird turbo strip format. Loved my ministry, loved my campers, met some great Koreans, and wonderful Spanish people.  Being in camp ministry again did again leave my heart longing for the more “normal” and long term relationships that can take place in a local church; its hard to let them in, love on them and see them go in a week…. Week after week…

But the lesson in this time came in the fact that my heart wasn’t right. I think I had left it in El Pastito with my friends in Argentina and in El Salvador with the missionaries there, and as the homesick 13 year old crying over missing his dog… I didn’t have compassion.  And God convicted me. Sure the faces of needs in the United States take different faces  from some of those in other countries, but the spiritual needs are just as great and at times harder to get to… God convicted me through Romans. If this is where he has me there is a purpose. These are after all those for whom Christ died…

“…for obedience of faith among ALL nations, for His name…” Rom 1:5

And now I’m here… in Florida. I now work with Word of Life Florida as one of the Assistant Deans, which may sound impressive perhaps, but is really just like a year long counselor.  =] But God is honestly growing me through it. So many of these student are going through so much,... come with such complicated and broken stories. Praise God that the gospel is sufficient to reach and to save any because surely here my wisdom is often lacking in how to help these students other than learning to earnestly pray for them. Pray for them please. I have started to attend a Spanish church to learn about what that ministry looks like here, I will be here till May at the very least… God knows, we will see.

Please pray wisdom for me.

“Over pray things, Don’t over think things”