I know I haven’t kept the blog too updated with what I’ve been doing, sorry to all of you who are only following via this site! If you’d like to be updated more regularly on my “status,” contact me via the link on the bar above. Once I get home, I’ll be sending out occasional updates on my process to going back to Colombia full-time.
God is moving all over the world, did you know that? I’m beginning to realize that part of God’s purpose for me on this trip was to help me understand that HE is doing HIS work in the way that HE desires. I can choose to either join up with that work or try and do things on my own.
I have a greater understanding of the work that’s happened in Córdoba, Colombia since G has been there. When I see what has happened in the past 7 years, I am amazed. Progress with the Embera-Katios, churches being planted, disciples made… wow. He can do a lot in a short time.
I’m humbled by the fact that leaving Lima next week, I will have shared meals with pastors representing at least 10 distinct Lima churches. I will have visited at least 12 churches. Some of them have over 1,000 members, and some of them are very small. But either way, He is raising up His church.
I was disheartened (though not surprised) reading a statistic that from 1988 to 2008 – the first 20 years of my life – there was a 45% decline in the number of full-time workers being sent out of the US . However, in just 10 years, (1996-2006) the number of workers sent from Latin America, Spain and Portugal more than doubled!
The 1.5 days I’ve spent here at the gospel conference in Lima have encouraged me. These people are pumped about reaching the nations – not only the ethnic groups all over the world, but the people groups within their own boarders (Peru has 104 distinct people groups, Colombia has 94).
Two Summary Points:
1. This is not, and never will be, about what we can do. It’s all about being available for Him to use us where and how He desires. I appreciate what G mentioned in a teaching: With God, there are no boarders of country or nation. He wants to redeem His whole world and He will use us wherever He sees fit.
2. God will accomplish His plan, with our without us. The way things our looking, the Latin American church will soon surpass the North American church in sending. Will we be part of the statistics, or will we be willing to give up our independence, comfort and self-will to do what He has called us to do?
My final challenge to those who are considering gospel work as a career:
Seek God’s face. If you discover He has called you to stay, immerse yourself fully in His will. If you are confident of His call to go, GO. As you go, though, don’t expect it to be like your short-term experience. I see all the more clearly, now, though I’ve yet to experience it fully: Full-time, long-term work requires a complete renunciation of independence, pride and self-will, so that Christ can be completely incarnated into you, allowing you to share Him with others.
It wouldn’t be a bad idea for all of us to renounce ourselves and invite Him to live through us.