Turning the Hearts of the Fathers

God has been speaking to me about so many things and it has been overwhelming. I have spent most of the last 30 years involve in ministry to kids in some fashion. At times I helped with youth ministry. Other times I led youth ministries or worked with CYCM to reach the kids in the community. In Guatemala, we worked a lot at our schools in Membrillal and Zapote and I got to build a lot of relationships with kids. I have loved every minute of ministering to kids even when they were angry or hard to deal with. I always believed that what I was doing had eternal value and even if I did not see fruit today, God would use my effort. I still believe that but God has been changing my thinking and what I see as the most important aspect of youth ministry lately.

While in school John Arnott spoke about the lack of fathers being the largest problem the world is facing. The likelihood of growing up in poverty and of becoming a criminal goes up drastically when dads are not present. Drug use and alcohol abuse are higher among kids from single family homes. Depression is higher for this group also. In every measurable and observable category, children without dads in the picture are more at risk. This does not mean that every dad is good to be around their kids or that every single mom is doing a horrible job. What is does mean is that kids take a lot of time and energy. One person, no matter how loving and diligent they are cannot do the job as well as two loving parents. God designed kids to have two parents because that is what it takes to give a sense of security and identity.

Many of the kids I have spent my time with over the last few years come from single parent homes. I am not pointing fingers or assigning blame on anyone. I have not lived in their homes. I also recognize that it would have been better for those kids to have 2 loving parents looking after them. That is not to say that their parents were loving, just that it would be better if they had been and that they were present and involved. That is a hard position to come to because there are so many variables that we have no control over. We can want that for kids, but we cannot make it happen.

What God has been speaking to me about lately has been dads. They are crucial to kids growing up and having a sense of identity and worth. We live in a society where even our last name comes from our dad. That speaks right to the heart of our identity. Unfortunately, many kids say their last name with shame or humiliation. They are not leaving a legacy or a good family tradition for their children. Many of the kids I know are just angry with their dads, and rightly so. What is the solution?

In 2 Cor 5:16-21, I think God addresses that very clearly. 2Co 5:16-20 ESV 16 From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

God sees things differently. He sees people through the cross. Their sin and brokenness do not define people to God. He created them with purpose and destiny. He saw them and knew them before the foundation of the world. He is telling us to see people through His eyes. He wants us to see what He loves about them and cause us to love that about them also. When we do, He gives us a ministry of reconciliation. As we begin to see the truth of a person, from the perspective of God, we can call them into a relationship with Him.

There are a lot of parents, dads especially that have been living with an ungodly view of themselves. They may have never expected a pregnancy. Maybe they were not stable or secure in their identity when children started coming. For whatever reason, they bailed out on their family. Somehow, they got the idea that they would all be better off going separate ways. They have not been there for their wives or girlfriends and they have not been there for their children. This becomes a never ending downward spiral. They start to blame their growing kids for not wanting to spend time with them and being disconnected without acknowledging that the process started with decisions that they made. There is plenty of pain and anger to go around. Finger pointing is the norm in these families, but it does not fix anything.

I believe God is saying it is time to start recognizing the real culprit. The devil hates you. He hates your kids. He hates your family. He will do all that is in his power to destroy you. He has limited authority, but he knows you and has seen who God created you to be. He has struck at the core of our identities. The kids are being targeted but it starts by attacking the identity of their dads. We need to start going after the hearts of the dads and speaking the truth of God to them. They are not the enemy. They are victims of the devil’s war on their family. They made bad choices but they were influenced by a crafty and smart enemy. They were not prepared to stand against an attack that they were not told was coming. The devil attacked their children by lying to the dads and pushing them away from their families.

It is time to say "no more". We must learn to see dads as God sees them. Their role in the family and in society is too important. We have to proclaim their God given identity at every opportunity. It is the one their families need them to live in. It is also more true about them than any other identity they may have adopted because it is the only one rooted in the truth. God sees them through the cross. In His eyes, they are already reconciled to Him.  He has a new identity and a new name to reveal to them. That does not mean they are saved or in relationship to Him, only that from His end, everything is in place for that relationship. Their sin and rebellion against God are all built on lies. He wants us to expose the lies and call them into life.

As the Church starts walking out the ministry of reconciliation and dads see themselves as God sees them, they will want to return to their families. They will want to look after the hearts of their wives and their children. They will live out of an identity that they will want to pass on. Children will understand that they have a heritage and an inheritance. Our job is to minister this reconciliation. It is to proclaim the truths of God. For too long, we have tried to shame men into being dads but that has backfired. They have felt the shame and run away. It is time to say that there is no more shame, only repentance leading to healing for dads and for their families. The cycle of lies and defeats is coming to an end because Jesus is pouring love into their hearts. They are DADs.

Pastor Mario's granddaughter Dulce. 

The better model of youth ministry God has been speaking to me about is wholistic. Kids are not whole while their families are broken. When dad is not there, a piece of their puzzle is missing. When we minister to kids, ignore the family and then send them home, we only create a sense of confusion for many of them. God loves me but my family is a mess. How do they reconcile these two contrasting ideas? The answer is that we run after the absent father, even the abusive father and we speak to them about the real identity that God has hidden in them. It has been stolen by a devil that hates them and by the blinding enticements of sin that entrap them. We proclaim the freedom that Jesus has purchased for them. We allow God to speak new identity into them even when nobody can see it because it is pushed so deep below the surface. We pray for insight and wisdom into the true identity God has and wants them to receive so that they can be godly dads. Lastly, we pursue the hearts of dads without fear or hesitation because we know it is the heart of God for them. 

Healed dads will begin to lead healed families. They will have children with identity that can walk in the purpose of God. They will be able to love freely and have deep, intimate relationships because God has set them free. Hiding and shame will no longer be part of the family life. Children will walk in destiny and become all God has for them to be.

Many of you are skeptical. You do not believe that God can, or that He desires to heal these families but Jesus, repeating the words from Malachi said that He would come and turn the hearts of the fathers to the children. Mal 4:6 and Lk 1:17. Lets pray that today He would do that now and then run after the absent, broken, addicted and lost fathers so they can be the dads they are called to be.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Edl-2HUZYSQ Listen to this on YouTube and let God begin to reveal the depths of His love for you and for every person that you encounter.

What I Have Learned in 7 Weeks

I have been in school for a few weeks now. As a matter of fact, the classroom time is almost over. We have on week of classes left. It has flown by. We have been frozen at times as the temperatures indoors hovered just above the freezing mark and other days we have endured sweltering heat, both indoor and out. We came here a group of students and staff that did not know anybody and we have grown to love each other and be family. In less than 2 weeks we head to Morelos for the Heidi Baker outreach then 5 of us split off from the rest of the class and go to Juarez for 2 weeks of outreach and ministry there. It will be a hard day when we start separating but I have a suspicion that it will not be the last time I see these people. I believe that many of them will be popping in and out of my life for many years to come.

When I came to Reynosa, I had not idea what to expect. I knew the reputation of the city but that was it. The school is brand new and we are the first class here. It is similar to other Iris schools but has a little different flavor because of location. I knew that there would be lots of time in the classroom and suspected that we would do some outreach but everything has gone so much different than I would have imagined. It has truly been a life altering experience. That phrase even has taken on a new depth and richness to me. It really does mean that our lives are on the alter and waiting for the consuming fire.

I assumed that we would spend hours and days being saturated in Scripture and truth and that did happen but that was only one part of the equation. The truth is that each of us was here to have our hearts broken, to see our own brokenness and hurts, to experience the forgiveness of God, be delivered from shame and be free to let the Holy Spirit lead. I have learned how limited that I was by things that I did not even know I carried. I was guarded and protected myself at the expense of fruitfulness, life and joy. In order to not be hurt, I closed off areas of myself to people and used humor or withdrawal to protect myself from entering into the hurt and being free. I hid things in my past because of shame. I carried so much that it kept me from living the abundant life that Jesus promised.

Over the first months of the school I spent more time crying on the carpet than anything. People would give a teaching and God would just gently say “This is for you. Let me free you.” Every time that I responded, He touched me and healed another are of my life. He set me free and replaced my guilt, sorrow and shame with love, forgiveness, life, peace and joy. It was about a month of this cycle repeating every few days. I would hear, God would call, I would respond and He would bring life to a barren place. I was beginning to wonder if that cycle would ever end but at the same time loved the new freedoms that were coming and learned that confession really is good for the soul It is scary but it kills the flesh and grows the spirit.

This last week has been quite the opposite in many regards but has been just a continuation of the process. Last Friday night we traveled to a town called Sabinas Hidalgo to work with a couple of Churches and our missionary family from Nuevo Larado. There was a presence of God that was tangible from the very beginning. People there were hungry to see God move in their lives, their Church and the city. That hunger brought such a charged atmosphere, like God was just waiting to reveal Himself, and that He did in power and glory. We prayed for people and He brought freedom but in the middle of praying for a man, God asked me about the gold in my own heart. He asked me if I had considered the need to mine the gold in me, to let Him reveal what of Himself that He had put in me at creation. About that time, one of our long term missionaries started praying for me to experience the presence of God in a new way, in His power and freedom. My life has been so different this week that I see the presence of God and hunger for Him increase each day and I see Him coming to meet that hunger every time. He prayed and I had a hard time staying on my feet for the next 2 hours. When I was standing, I was dancing. I do not like to dance but I have been doing it a lot in the last week as Jesus keeps bringing more freedom and joy.

After that, things got really crazy. I have been experiencing new levels of joy. I have had a desire to pray in tongues and began to really see how God uses that to break down our barriers to pray impossible prayers and set people free. I believed in the gift and have experienced it but did not see the daily benefit of using it. Now I understand that God uses it to declare things into ourselves and others to break chains off of people’s lives. He prays through us. When we give Him our mouth, He fills it with His purposes and us speaking it is entering agreement with Him even though we do not necessarily know what we are agreeing about. It is just giving Him our consent to do what He wants to do. He does not need it but He still often waits for it anyway. As I pray for people, I see chains come off. I see them filled with life, laughter and joy. God is just releasing Himself to them and I get to stand in the middle and see it happen.

I also am hearing the voice of God so much more clearly and seeing His activity much more clearly. He desires to show us what it is that He is doing and He shows whenever we will watch. The key is learning to discern what He is doing and being willing to obey whatever He shows us to do. I used to think I needed to remain in control, to be dignified to not bring dishonor to Jesus. Now I realize that the only way I can dishonor Him is to hold on to control and guard myself from pain. I can enter into pain because Jesus is there. I can feel joy because I am open to wherever He leads. I can live life because I am becoming fearless.

We need to be rooted in the Scripture. It is our guidebook for life. Truth is revealed to us in it and cannot be ignored or neglected. At the same time, if we are not walking continually in encounter with Jesus, we do not have a relationship with Him. We only have knowledge. They are not the same no matter what we want to believe. Knowledge is necessary but so is experience. It is when we experience Him, surrender to His love and set our will to obey that His power begins to flow through us. As I pray for people, I am expecting freedom and joy to come. I am seeing it right in front of my eyes as people’s faces change. God is good and He is love. He is filling me with joy and it is pouring out to others.

I will be back in Morris soon and would love a chance to talk to you. If you are in Guatemala or somewhere else, feel free to contact me through Whatsap, facebook or email me at thegeokr@yahoo.com. I welcome questions or look forward to talking anytime.

2 Weeks In

I am just writing a short blog post to let you know what is going on with me and the school. The first two weeks have been amazing but not necessarily in the ways that I expected. God has been dealing with some deep issues in my heart, a couple that I knew and several that were hidden even to me. He has been showing me wrong motives in my heart, wrong understandings of who God in and wrong understandings of my place in His heart. As we have talked about, prayed through and seen God bring healing and new insights into these things, it has been very freeing.

The thing God has spoken to me most is that He really loves me. I, like most people would have always said that I knew that. I have read the words and believed them yet I often lived contrary to that. I based my sense of worth on accomplishment and felt like that is what God demanded. Jesus set a high standard for living in the Kingdom and then said the Church would do the things that He did and greater. That is a lot of pressure if you feel like it falls on you to make it happen. I was used to being the constant server. Whenever there was a need I felt like it fell on me to do something to help with it. My value in interpersonal relationships came from how well I served people. This made me tired and easily frustrated with people. I have done all of this and they don't appreciate it or me. I would never have voiced these things but in my heart it was a hidden stronghold. Fortunately I have a discerning pastor in Life Church Morris that knew I needed to be away in a place that God could deal with things in my life.

I have been learning the value of serving with Jesus and a place of confidence in going with Him as opposed to doing things for Him. One makes me tired. The other allows me to always be in a place of rest and lets me obey the call of Jesus to abide in His love. When I serve just from a need to serve, for whatever reason, I am not in a place of being empowered by God. I begin serving from my own strength and that is a finite resource. If Jesus could only do what He saw the Father doing, how much can I accomplish? I am learning to never do anything that takes me out of the place of rest in Jesus. If He is doing it, that rest will go into the work but if He is not, it will just be work.

I m hoping by now that you are questioning your motives for serving God. Are you walking in close relationship daily with Jesus? Are you seeing Holy Spirit actively moving in the work you are doing? Do you sense His peace or do you feel a need to make things happen? Are you content if God leads you to just spend a day, a week or a month waiting in His presence and doing nothing else? Do you get easily upset when nobody joins you to help in what you are doing? Do you need to be recognized for your work, knowledge or accomplishment? I answered most of these things in a way that made me realize I was trying to gain my identity by how much I did for God. There was no rest or peace in it and there was little fruit because it was limited to my strength to produce.

I think that it is good to examine where we are every once in a while and let our motives and heart condition to be exposed. I often do not like what is pulled up but I know this, I want to live as a son of God more than anything else. I want it more than personal accomplishment, acknowledgment, money or even ministry. I am happy to be in a place that is helping each of the students to walk through this process. If you think that this process is something that you might also need to go through in order to learn to live as a Child of God, let's talk. He loves you and wants to take you along on His adventure. He does not expect you to figure out your own. His is big enough for all of us.

A Parting Note

I wanted to quickly share a couple of thoughts with you and ask you to be praying about them as I head to the school in Reynosa. I will be in class until March 20 and then outreach in Mexico City and Juarez until April 12. Then I will fly back to Chicago for a few weeks with lots of exciting stories to tell of how God moved.

I am not sure about you but when I hear great stories about how God is moving, I am often excited but that excitement is tempered wit ha healthy dose of skepticism. I long to see God move in these ways and do believe that He desires to move also. So, why do we not see it? Why does our "normal" Christian life so often look as powerless in the face of dire circumstances as the world looks? If God wants to heal, deliver and set free, why does it not happen? Why does half the Church point to Jesus' rebuke of the Pharisees as they sought a sign for the answer to this question and then come to the conclusion that sign and wonders are for a different time? They would often even say that we were wrong to look and ask God for signs and miracles. I have come to a much different conclusion lately though.

I believe that my tongue and my mindset are the two biggest reasons that I do not see God move more in signs and miracles. First I say the tongue because I realize that I so often use it for exactly the opposite of what God tells me to use it for. I easily fall into grumbling and complaining when things are not working to my satisfaction. We are told to praise in all circumstances. We are told to be thankful when we lift our requests to God. Too often though, I find myself complaining about how things are going or whining because they are not progressing according to my plan. My tongue is a battleground and I forget that it needs to be conquered to live in step with God's purposes. It can do more damage than I can do with my physical strength.   

[Jas 3:5-6 ESV] 5 So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! 6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell.

Whining and complaining go along with a wrong mindset. I often feel the need to control circumstances. I want to dictate how things are going to happen to God instead of trusting His love and goodness to do what is best. I want my way. I do this because, in my mind, God is often too small or too uncaring to be trusted with the outcome. I have set myself up to judge the motives of God. Not only is that pride, which puts me at odds with God but it is also a lack of faith because I do not trust Him to be Lord of every circumstance.

As I go to the school, I am asking God to reveal and break every area of pride from my life. I am asking that He help me repent of a desire to be in control and the tendency to grumble and complain when things are not going my way. Most of all, I am asking Him to help me see the sufficiency of Jesus and His surpassing goodness in my life. I want to know Him as enough, as my true reward. I want to know what it means to be completely surrendered to Him without worrying about the cost. I want to live a life in love with Jesus so that others can see Him in me. I want a heart full of praise and gratitude as I learn to spend time gazing on the goodness of God. I want to learn to cease from my own striving to learn to rest in Him. Finally, I want to live in a place where people encounter Jesus because I have spent time in His presence and been fully transformed. 

I am praying these things for myself and ask you to pray them for me. I believe that we serve a God who wants to transform the world with His love and He wants us to walk that out with Him. We have a Father that loves His children. We have a groom that died for His bride so that He could lead her into life and inheritance. We have a Holy Spirit living in and on us so that we can discern the leading of God and be at rest in Him. Please pray this for me when you think of it. 

See you in the spring as I come to share new life and rebirth with you all.

Take Time for What Is Important This Season

When God speaks, often it is easy to miss what He is saying. We get busy and lose confidence in our ability to recognize it is Him speaking. Fortunately, He cares for us and is faithful to repeat Himself in many ways because He wants us to know Him and His voice. God is faithful to nurture what He has planted in out hearts until it begins to produce fruit, and even beyond. The last two months have been one of those places for me and I want to share what He has been speaking. I pray that in the middle of the busyness of Christmas, He speaks to you and gives you His rest and peace.

The thing that He has been speaking to me quite clearly lately is my complete lack of ability to accomplish anything for the Kingdom apart from Him and that I can only move with Him when I allow myself to know His rest and peace. It is easy to look at all of the needs that surround us and feel pressed to do something. I have spent much of my Christian life that way. See a need and react. Sometimes it has produced okay results and other times it has fallen far short of expectations. Either way, I often came away feeling burned out, tired, frustrated or discouraged. Often I felt like nobody cared if they did not jump up to support my idea. God has been showing me that this is not a good place to minister from.

Over the last two months, I have had little responsibility and been able to spend a lot of time reading. That is good because I have 8 books that are required for the Iris/Kaleo School of Ministry I will be going to next month. Normally when I look at a pile of books that I have to read and want to finish them in a short time, it feels stressful of I feel guilty for reading when there is so much else to do. For the last month, I have been at perfect peace while I just sit and read for an hour, two or even more. Through it all, I have realized that this rest is the starting place for all ministry. It is the place where God can most clearly show us what He is doing and we can hear His invitation to join Him. A lot of us tend to jump in to meet a need before we hear the invitation. That becomes counterproductive to ministry and harmful to our personal lives and relationships. It is easy to become consumed with making a thing happen and completely missing the way that God wants to work in a situation.

In my time of reading, it really struck home that Jesus only did what He saw the Father doing. He did nothing on His own. He was far more wise than I yet He did not initiate anything on His own. He waited and moved only as He saw the Father moving. Jn 5:19+20 and Jn 8:28. If Jesus needed to hear and see the Father before He moved, how much more is that true for me. I hear people say to just obey the Bible and you will be fine but Jesus is the living Word and He only moved in step with the Father. People will often say, "But I don't hear God". If we do not hear Him, how do we think that we can do anything for Him? Jesus called the disciples friends because He showed them all that He was doing and I believe that is still His heart today. He wants to show us His activity and invite us into it. He does not want us running off after everything that seems like a good idea but He wants us waiting on Him.

In Heb 4, we are told to strive to enter the rest of God and that we fall into disobedience when we do not enter it. You ask how we can strive to enter God's rest. That seems like an oxymoron; striving to rest. For most people, staying busy is a prerequisite. They cannot imaging life without some productive activity. That is partly how we are made but since the fall, it has unfortunately also become the seat of our identity. If we are not working and accomplishing things, we have no sense of worth. To determine to just be quiet, rest and let God speak seems unnatural. We give it 15 or 20 minutes, feel like we have done our duty and then jump into work. It is difficult to determine to sit and wait until we know the move God is making and then step with Him. That really is a challenge for most of us. It is one that I faced in October when, for the first time in years, I was healthy and had no responsibility. I just had the opportunity to read, seek God, put worship music on and just soak. It was an incredible, refreshing two months for me.

I can hear many already saying, that sounds amazing. I wish I could do that but I have kids. The ministry would collapse if I took time away. People would suffer if I am not there. For every reason that I can give why you should find time to rest in Jesus with no other agenda, people can find 10 reasons why it is not possible. The truth is that you probably cannot spend 2 months just seeking God. You might need a weekend, an extra hour in the morning or evening while everyone is sleeping or a day just to be with Jesus. I know this though: You need intimacy with Jesus if you are going to do anything of value for the kingdom of God. Your time spent separating yourself with only Jesus will make you more peaceful and more fruitful. It is the key to living a fulfilled Christian life. I am praying that you will find a way do be able to get quite with God and hear His call for today.

As I have said before, I am looking for ministry partners. I am less concerned about finances than I have been at any time in the past. One of the benefits of spending this time listening for God's voice is that I have a new confidence in His ability to meet my every need and a security that His love for me motivates Him to do that. I am looking for partners because I believe God is getting ready to do some amazing things and I want you to be able to join in. I am looking for 30 people to support at $25 a month and 2 or more Churches at $100 a month. I am also looking for these people to commit to praying for what God is doing and to also join in by coming, seeing and working in the future. Please pray about this.

If you would like to support, you can send checks to;
Life Church Morris
P.O. Box 679
Morris, IL 60450
Write: Mission San Lucas on the memo line 

If you are going to begin supporting, I ask that you would also drop me a quick note and let me know at thegeokr@yahoo. com. I am beginning to plan a budget for next year and would like an idea of what that will look like. Thank you all for your faithful prayers and support for the last 5 years.

Time to Train

As many of you know, I will be going to Kaleo School of Missions in Reynosa, Tamaulipas Mexico in January. It is a three month school that has the first 10 weeks in a classroom and local outreach in the Reynosa area. After that there is an 18 day outreach. My outreach will be to Juarez, a border city opposite El Paso Texas. This School is part of Iris Global Ministries. I cannot say that the school was all my idea and I may have even been a little reluctant at first to apply. It means that I will not be in Guatemala for 4 months or even more with Christmas in the States. I love San Lucas and where I am living. It justs seems like I am getting settled into the new place and it is time to leave. As I have been going through the process, I have realized that the best thing I can do is get myself strengthened in the Lord and trained for the next stage of life and ministry and this school is the best place to start.

For the last month, I have been doing the prep work to go to the school. What that means is I have spent a lot of time reading. There are 7 books that are required for the school and many others that are recommended reading. I have read 6 of the 7 and will be starting on the recommended books soon. They ask that the required books be read before you come so that you can enjoy the free time and group activities in the afternoon. That seemed like a good plan to me so I have been reading. My eyes are sore but I have been having great insights into God's heart for us.

In the books, I have been reading about God's provision, His desire to love through us and His supernatural protection in the most dire of circumstances. These have all been good reading and they have helped me focus on purpose in ministry and in life, as well as know the confidence we can have in any circumstance. These have been areas of struggle for me. I have often found it easier to just join in someone else's work than to launch into where God is leading. I have worried about finances and safety as well as my leadership abilities. In the books, along with my quiet times and Scripture reading, I have felt the confidence of God more and more each day.

I am coming to realize the truth of a message that I heard many years ago. "There is always time to do it right". No matter how urgent the need or how big the problem, there is always time to deal with it God's way. He has the perfect plan and He knows what we need to do to walk with Him in the midst of the situation. Sometimes we need training. That is where I am at right now. Other times we need to sit quietly and let God speak. Other times He leads us into action. But always we need to know where God is at and how He would have us to move, even if it is just one step for now. We should never be willing to run ahead of God just to try and help and we should not lag behind Him and miss out on what He wants to do through us. I am learning to move at God's pace.

These last two months have been good for me in many ways and I am excited to see where the next 4 months will lead. I am expecting to be challenged and changed while I am in Mexico but most of all, I am counting on coming out with fresh vision and a Godly empowerment for the work that He is preparing for me in the future. I am beginning to get a more clear idea of what that will be but it is too soon to share it. I have been talking to Patricia about it some and also a little to Tono and I know that it will involve kids and helping them to find identity in Jesus rather than all of the identities that the world tries to hang on them and as I think about it I get excited. I wish that I could say more but it is too soon.

As I prepare to leave for the States and then Mexico, God has been showing me His faithfulness. He has provided for the next 4 months and I can go to Mexico without worrying about haw to continue paying for my rent and other expenses in Guatemala while I am gone. I know that He also has a plan to provide for the future. I am looking for 30 people at $25 a month and 2 Churches at $100 a month to become partners with me in the ministry here in Guatemala. As of now, I am only looking for these partnerships to cover my personal expenses. I will be looking for ministry partnerships also in the future but that will be sent through and organization and directed by a board and not me. If you believe in what God is going to do and would like to join in, you can send support to

Life Church Morris
P.O. Box 679
508 W Illinois Ave,
Morris, IL 60450
In the memo line write Mission San Lucas

I want to thank all of you that have supported me this year and made it possible for me to do all that I have been doing and I look forward to sharing with you in the near future what will be happening going forward. I will be in the States for about a month so if you would like to talk to me or would like me to talk to a Church or small group, get in touch with me at thegeokr@yahoo.com .

The Father's Heart

Have you ever felt completely inadequate for the things you feel like God is placing before you? Do you feel like you are being called to things that are so far beyond you that they are impossible? Do you sometimes feel like an impostor in your Christian walk, like if others knew the real you, you would be finished? I think that all of us have faced these insecurities at one time or another, maybe it was not in the Church or ministry. Maybe it was on the job or in an area that you volunteered. There is a common theme that seems to run throughout our inner narrative. "Am I good enough? Do I have what it takes?" I think that this inner dialogue may be one of the most destructive things in our lives. After all, how we think about ourselves goes a long way in determining the limits we will self impose. I hear many people say that they are not called to missions but what most of them really mean is that they feel inadequate for that task. The truth is that all believers in Jesus are called to missions, for some it is in their neighborhood or workplace, for others it is in their local Church and for some, it is far from home, friends and family. The other truth is that none of us is capable of fulfilling the task, but the Jesus living in us is more than able.

I have been thinking about this a lot over the last few months. I have considered the different ways that a appraise my own value and usually I measure my worth in the ability to accomplish though I might never admit it to others. (until writing this) My pastor back in the States has been challenging me on this. He has been encouraging me to find my identity outside of work and achievement and to rest in the work of Jesus. Also he has been encouraging me to be in a place of receiving ministry rather than feeling like I need to work and give all of the time. Because of this, you may have noticed an absence of blog updates for the last 2 months. It seemed that while I was in the States, I spent much time looking for tasks to finish while there and he spent time reminding me of my need to receive.

The task that I see next on my plate is much bigger than me. God has continually been reminding me of the widow and the orphan. We are called to reach out to them with the love of Jesus and help them find identity and family in Him. As I have talked with friends and listened to their hearts, I am realizing that his task is much larger than I would have ever thought. While the number of actual orphans may or may not be accurate as the U.N. reports, the number of children and adults living as orphans is huge. There are millions of kids growing up without any real nurture from parents or a responsible adult. It is common in many places for children to be seen fending for themselves at 5 years old. Parents, dealing with the difficulties of a life of poverty often choose survival over nurturing. This is not to condemn the mothers. They often are doing all they can just to provide a little food and a place to sleep. This is the place that we, the Church are called to step in.

The task is huge. The number of latchkey and unattended kids is beyond our ability to comprehend. There are millions in the world, thousands in Guatemala and they are growing up, at least the ones that do not die in infancy, to at best work menial jobs for little money and repeat the same cycle of poverty. At worst they are becoming the gang members, drug dealers and prostitutes that are behind much of the crime and violence that have become common. People that have grown up with no sense of worth will look for significance wherever it can be found. Unfortunately they find it in sex, money, drugs, violence, extortion, intimidation and murder. The gangs are full of people that were recruited because they were easy targets. Nobody had told them that they had value and now someone is offering the money and respect on the street. All of a sudden they have significance and an identity.
Fortunately, God loves them and the message of salvation is for them. The best way to end gang recruitment and dry up membership is to introduce potential members to a loving Father before they join. I believe God is just looking for people that will say yes, we will carry His love to them and help them to find their true identity.

I have spent  much of the last month resting, reading and focusing on who I am in Jesus, the identity that He wants me to carry into the world so that He can be seen. I have now applied to Kaleo Iris School of Missions in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Mexico, on the Texas-Mexico border. It is my desire to learn to minister the heart of a Father to the orphans and the orphaned hearts of the world. I also realize that I cannot do that effectively without and close intimate relationship with God. Only as the perfect Father fathers us can we share His heart with others. Only as I learn to really walk in the identity of sonship will I have the confidence to be who He is calling me to be. This school lasts for 2+ months and then there is an 18 day outreach into Mexico. My intention is to return to Guatemala after this with a fresh view of Father's heart to minister here.

I applied to this school because I believe God is calling me there. I see the need to be prepared and to have my life so deeply rooted in the love of Jesus that I can be fearless wherever He may lead. My deposit has been sent in but now I have to send in another $3,600 by Dec 13 and I have to buy plane tickets, continue to pay my health insurance, rent and other bills in Guatemala and cover all of my personal expenses for the next 5 months. I am praying for $8,000 between now and the end of the year so that all of the expenses can be dealt with before I leave the U.S. This would be a huge miracle to me but I know God is fully able to provide every need. At the same time, I am praying for the provision needed for 2018 so that finances never burden the work that God desires to do. I am asking that you would pray with me and ask for God's provision and for His blessing on everything that He wants to accomplish in the coming year.

I am excited for the next chapter. I do not have a clue as to how God is going to move in my life but I know that He is looking for available vessels to reveal His glory through. He wants people to encounter His love and I want to have greater encounters with Jesus so that He can use me to show Himself to the wounded and broken, to the orphan and widow.  I want to be able to be fearless and even reckless  in my pursuit of God and then to be fearlessly and recklessly available to Him as He desires to make His love known.

If you would like to help support me and the plans I feel God is leading me into you can send checks to the address below.

Life Church Morris
P.O. Box 679
Morris, IL 60450
Write Mission San Lucas in the memo line, not my name

If you would like to know more, feel free to contact my by email, What'sApp or Facebook.
Thank you