Whose mission are you subject to?

The volcano at the left is Fuego at dusk on a very active day. We drive right around it to get to Zapote.

I am in Illinois and reflecting on some things from the last few years of ministry. There is one thought that stands out and I wanted to share it with you. We are all called to a mission. The church and each person has a call from God to make Jesus known and to make disciples. Each of us has a unique role in that call and for each of us, our role falls under someone else's supervision. Our calls are layered and one person's call is built on another's. None of us has a stand alone call.

Because we are not called to an individual call but to a unique role within the corporate call, we are also called to submit our place to the larger vision and to the people that have responsibility for shepherding that larger vision. There are people that have a larger responsibility and an understanding of the bigger vision than we, as individuals have.

When I am in Guatemala, I work with a team. That team is led by Pastor Merari and more directly in the field by his brother Tono. These two men have received a clear vision from God for how they are to proceed to work and reach the people of the communities that they work in. I have been given a love foe Guatemala, the team that I work with and for the communities that we work in. I know that I have several roles and they vary based on the need of the moment. Some of the tasks that fall to me I love. Some are just work and I wish someone else would do them but they are mine. The work needs to be done for the overall goals to be achieved and I am the one that needs to do them. I remind myself to ask God to keep His plan and the bigger picture in front of me at the times that I am doing these things.

Two girls at a school assembly in Membrillal

I am not writing this so you will feel sorry for me. I am writing them because I need to confess that when I am feeling these things, it is my attitude that is wrong, not the task. I agree that God has called me to serve the people of Guatemala and that He has called me to do in under the vision of Pastor Merari and Tono. They are the ones that have been given the larger picture that my calling fits within. I cannot fulfill the role God has called me to without being submitted to the mission of another. My place falls within their                                                                                                            mission.

Fairhaven team in Membrillal

I hear many people that come on short term missions and they have a plan. They have decided  what they will do without ever having talked with the people that they are coming to serve. I see it in Churches also. People decide when they come to a Church that their role will be X without ever having talked to leaders and hearing the vision and direction of that particular congregation. They want to serve their vision and call but they never ask how that fits into the bigger picture. It is common in this time when we personalize everything to miss the bigger picture. It is easy to reduce the whole thing to the role that we feel called to fill and miss out on the bigger picture.

Girl playing at the clinic in Zapote

Today, I am asking God to expand my heart and to break it over the selfish motives that I so often feel. I am asking Him to help me go back and trust the people that He has entrusted with the bigger vision. When we build houses, paint a building, build a stove or shovel gravel, I want to see it as serving the vision God has given for discipling communities. I want to honor God by honoring those that have been put in positions of authority over me. I want to see God's visions fulfilled by doing what He has called me to do inside the mission that is bigger that He has called others to as well. I do not want to be solely subject to my own mission because I want the greater vision to be accomplished. I am ready to go back to work but not just to serve my own plans.

I am exited to see where Zapote and Membrillal will be in 5 years, 10 years and way out into the future. I am excited to know that I have a role in it but mostly I am exited to know that my role is only a small part in the grand scheme of God. I pray that you too know you are called to go and to serve. Even more, I pray that you know you are called to find where your call fits into the bigger picture and you are able to gladly subject yourself to the ones give responsibility to lead in the bigger picture.

Pharmacy at the clinic in Zapote

Boxes of medicine for the clinic.

Registration/triage

Waiting to see the doctor

Finding the Motivation

I have been planning to write this update for over a week but my days got longer than I anticipated. Late nights do not make for good writing. Sorry for the delay but I hope that you are blessed by it.

A couple of weeks ago I took a few members of our team from Ohio to Zapote. Most of the team had been there numerous times and opted to stay and work in Membrillal but  a few had never been and wanted to go see the Church and school.A few others came to take care of a few things that they needed to do. I was helping Steve Smith work on a pump that he had recently replaced. After they completed the things that they came for, the group went on with Carlos Fernandez to see the work that he is doing in Tabacal. Steve and I finished our work and I struck up a conversation with  a new worker at the school in Zapote.

She was telling me about her experience in coming to Zapote. When she was first made aware of the need, she said no, She was not the one to fill that need. She was woken up the next morning with a question resonating inside her. "Why not?" As she struggled to answer that question she knew that she was supposed to say yes, she would be the one.

Many of you have had similar experiences. You have been asked by God or, more likely by people to do a task that was completely beyond you. It was not just out of your comfort zone but completely unrealistic, a pipe-dream at best. You had to say no because it was the only reasonable thing a person could do. How would you raise the funds? What about your job? Who would take over your responsibilities in the Church? Your family is depending on you being there for................ For every reason I could give you to say yes, there are 50 reasons why it will never work.

I want to suggest something to you. When God allows you to become aware of a situation, it is your invitation to join Him in His work there. That is not to say that everything you hear is God's call but there are things that strike you at a deeper place. They are not just a thing that you have information about but they pull at your heart strings. The thought about them linger long after the conversation or presentation ends. This is God's invitation, His call to action. What will you do about it? If you reason it out, you will never do anything. If you just pray about, you will find that the urge will diminish over time. I want to ask you to consider another option.

When you feel the first pull on your heart, begin to pray but also begin to explore. Make plans like you are going soon. Get yourself in a position to go. Talk to people about what you are hoping to do. Learn about the culture and the difficulties of living in it. Talk to people that have been or are there. Write ministries working in that place. Keep taking steps toward going. Ask God to help you move forward. Keep going until you have a definite "why not". Let God close a door if this is not for you but until then keep pursuing. There is a reason that this particular thing connected with you. Keep going until you know what that is.

I did not come to Guatemala for more than a few weeks on the first time that I was asked. It was actually the third time before I committed to more than a short period. At the same time, I kept returning and exploring. My friends got tired of hearing about this place. While I did not relocate the first time an opportunity came up, I kept moving in that direction. You ask, why is it important that I go. God wants to bless you with the opportunity of partnering with Him. You probably are not called to Guatemala or Central America. Maybe you are not even called to leave the U.S. but I know that you are called to make an impact for the kingdom of God by living in obedience to Him.

The day after my conversation in Zapote, I was at the school in Membrillal. The students were doing a presentation for the team and it started out with Esdras and Brenda leading in worship. I looked up and saw a Third grade girl lost in worship. Many were singing but I could see she was captivated by Jesus at that moment. I do not know what her relationship with Him is like but at that time, she was experiencing fellowship with the Holy Spirit. God was real to her in that moment. I got to see it and be blessed by the work that God was doing in her life. My reward is that God is moving and I get to rejoice in being part of what He is doing. He is making Himself known in a rural mountain community in Guatemala and I get to see it happen because I simply said yes.

I love to spend time with the kids. I love that they hug and high  5 me on a regular basis but even more, I love that they are getting to know Jesus. They are being led into relationship with Him. God has brought pastors, teachers, administrators and school staffs to them to make Him known. He is building His kingdom in Membrillal and Zapote through the lives of the young people. He is doing it through people that have made themselves available to Him. I get to be a small part of that and witness His activity in their lives. That is worth more to me than any job I could have, any paycheck I could receive. That is something worth giving my life to.

These last two weeks we have been pouring columns and beams at the Church in Membrillal. We build 3 houses and 2 stoves in Zapote. One team painted most of the outside of the school in Zapote. We played games and had fun with the kids. All of that was just the icing in the cake. The most important thing that happened for me was that I got to see a 10 year old girl encounter God in worship and that makes it all worth while.
Soon I hope to post a page of pictures from ththe last 2 weeks..

Let me ask you: "Why Not?"

I am still in need of support for this year. I have about $5,000 left to go on my living expense goal of $12,000 for the year and I still need to raise $5,000 to purchase a vehicle. I have received about $7,000 so far this year. If you would like to help with these expenses, you can support me by sending a check to

Life Church Morris
P.O. Box 679
C\O Mission San Lucas
Morris, IL 60450

Thank you for your ongoing prayers and support.

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Ministry Only Happens With Love

When you hear the same message more than once from unrelated sources it seems appropriate to take note. That happened to me recently. In my home Church in the States there was a guest speaker on my last Sunday. He spoke on loving people well and his point was that ministry can only happen when we lay down our preconceived ideas about a person and let God love them through us. We have to be open to Him and intentional with them. I then returned to my Church in Guatemala and there was again a guest speaker. He spoke about loving God and receiving His love and then letting that love pour out onto the people that we want to minister to. If we do not have a heart filled with love, we have nothing that the unsaved would want.

In both of their messages it starts with being in love with God and letting that relationship overwhelm us and spill out onto our relationships with the people in our lives. The world needs us to receive what the Father wants to give us. The world is desperately in need of love and if we do not have it from the Father, we will not be able to give it to them. We can only receive His love and be confident to give it away by spending time with Him and allowing Him to speak with us.

I have been reading in Psalms the last few days and I was really struck by something. David is very much like everybody I know. He has some serious struggles in His life. There are times that he wants to die because He is so overwhelmed by the problems that face him or because he is ashamed of his sin. The thing about David is that he always returns to the Lord. He does not let his shame or inadequacies keep him from God. When I see my own shortcomings I want to run away and hide but he returns. Where does he find the fortitude or faith to continue to pursue God?

I think that the answer is hidden in a well known verse that we often skip right over. In Ps 23:4 David tells us that he finds comfort in the the Lord's rod and staff. The staff is to give direction but the rod is used for correction. David found peace and comfort in the discipline of the Lord. He received it as a sign of God's love. He knew the the Lord disciplines those He loves. David embraced the Lord's discipline and even looked for it in his life. He knew that if he received the Lord's discipline, he did not need to fear anyone or anything else in life. He was secure in the Lord. Love is more than just acceptance. It is also correction and redirection.

God wants us to receive His love but we have to also embrace His discipline if we want to really know what love is. In order to have confidence in our place in the Father's love, we have to embrace all that He has for us, including correction. We need more than just a nod of approval. We need to open ourselves to discipline and to allow our lives to be redirected. God will move us and place us where He wants us and where we can experience His love if we will be open to all that He has for us.

I want to be changed and transformed in every way. I want to embrace the Lord's discipline in my life so that I can be secure in His love and then I want to be able to give the love that I have received to lost and hurting people. I want people to come to know all that Jesus has made available to them because I walk in confidence. I want the Holy Spirit to be able to have full access to my life and to be usable by Him. I want to see the world transformed and people to know the love of Jesus. I do not just want to do things for people but I want to be an expression of God's love to them.

This is my prayer for my life this year, That I would know how high and how wide, how deep and how strong is the Father's love for me. That I would see His hand at work in every person I come in contact with and every situation that I encounter. I want to see the kingdom of God in everything this year.  I want to corrected when I need it and encouraged also. I want be available to the Father so He can use me as an instrument of change and lastly, I want to be free of the defeatist mentality that has so many in the Church living in fear of the future.
   

You Can Do It!

As I prepare  to leave in  a couple of days I wanted to say thank you to everyone that has prayed for me, encouraged me and supported me. All of these things are important to the success of the work that we are doing. Many of you have partnered with me and with Galilea in the ways mentioned as well as coming to work with us on projects. Because of your generosity and obedience, I have already passed the 35% mark for my funding goals for the year. I am able to leave without thinking about resources for the time being and I knowing that God is faithful to provide every need. Again I want to say thank you.

I also wanted to take the opportunity to encourage you all. I know that each of you carries a dream and a desire in your heart. God has put a seed of something in you that you desire to accomplish with your life and you do not know how you possibly could. You do not have the time, resources, knowledge or 1,000 other things that you think you need before you can launch out. I pray that you come to see the God that destroys our excuses. He makes a way for us where there is no way. He opens doors that we thought were sealed permanently. Most of all, He lift us above our failures to fulfill His purposes.

You say that sounds nice but..................................... My circumstances are special. I cannot right now because................................... I to can tell you many reasons for why I could not possibly go right now. I could point to circumstances that make it impossible. I am also sure that it will be more convenient later. I am going now anyway. God did not tell me to go in the future. He even called me to go at some of the craziest times in my life. He has called me to go when I had no funds, when I had cancer, when I had a host of physical problems, He called me to go.

I believe that God prefers to have us do crazy things for Him when it is most impractical, inconvenient and even impossible. When we do these things in His time and when it looks crazy to everyone, only God can get credit and glory for the success. He can be seen best when He works in spite of our inabilities and shortcomings. He uses our abilities but He glories in our weakness.

You ask how can I do these things. I believe the answer is found in Matt 6. Jesus told His disciples that the Father knew all of their needs but not to worry about them. Seek His Kingdom and righteousness and all of these other things would fall into place also. He is not saying just to look for His kingdom but to pursue it, hunt it down, run after it, turn our backs on all else for the sake of attaining it. When we do that He will bless all the things that He leads us to. When we loose ourselves looking for His Kingdom, we find our true identity. We find our purpose and we find our provision.

Today, begin to ask the Father to help you see the Kingdom at work in everyone and everything around you. Ask Him to show you how to walk in obedience to Him and pursue His kingdom. Let Him reveal the things in your life that block or inhibit you from chasing after His Kingdom. When you allow Him to show you how to follow and pursue the Kingdom, all of the other things in your life will line up with His purpose and call for you. You will have no excuses but lots of opportunities. You can do it! In the Kingdom there is success and victory. Pursue!

2016 Is on the Way

Dear Life Church Family,

I know that many of you read my blog but I also know that several are not on facebook and do not see when it is posted so I wanted to give you an update about where I am heading, what I will be doing and my needs for the coming year.

I will be leaving for Guatemala again on Jan 18 to begin work immediately. We will be hosting about 14 groups and working with 2 others this year. We have approximately 28 weeks of work on the schedule as of now and there are sure to be a few changes and additions as the year progresses. I will be returning home in late March most likely for about 3 weeks and then returning for 6 to 8 more months.

We will be doing much the same work as last year. We will continue with house and stove construction. We still have work to complete on both schools and the Church in Membrillal. We will continue to work on the Food Machine in Zapote. We will also work with medical teams as well in both villages. Our desire is to find projects that will help people become self sufficient and allow us to proclaim the Gospel to them.

We never know what a year will bring and there are always lots of surprises but we are looking forward with eager anticipation.

As for me, I am behind on my fundraising. I need to raise about $3,000 by Jan 11 before I leave to cover some expenses. I have received about $1,000 so far and half of that has gone to my initial airfare. I will also need to buy a roundtrip ticket in March before I return.  I have set a goal of $12,000 this year for my personal expenses. I set the amount at that because that is the amount needed for a resident visa. Though I love to come back here, it would be more convenient to do in my timing rather than the Guatemalan governments. I also am looking to raise $5,000 extra for a car. It would probably cost around $8,000 for a reliable vehicle and I figure that there should be about $3,000 that I could spare from the $12,000 because I do not have rent yet. This is the best year to buy a car because next year I will have the extra expenses of rent and utilities.

I am asking you to consider partnering with me in this ministry this year. In order to raise the needed funds, I am looking for 20 monthly individual supporters and 3 or 4 monthly supporting Churches. I also want you to consider Jean, Lauren and Annie and the work they too will be doing in Guatemala. If God leads you to support them instead, that is great. Mostly I want to ask you to pray for us and get involved.

 Thank You.


If you would like to help with my expenses you can mail checks to  
Life Church Morris
C/O San Lucas Mission    
P.O. Box 679                      
Morris, IL 60450

            For Lauren and Jean              
C/O Santiago Mission
                                 
For Annie                            
C/O Esther House

Always remain flexible

This week I started making preparations for my return to Guatemala. We have been anticipating a very busy year and so it was with excitement that I started looking for my tickets. I found a fairly good deal on United and bought them. I was not excited about the outbound flight time but I was very excited to get back to work. I am enjoying being home and seeing everyone but feel like it is time to be working again. I miss everyone here when I am gone but feel unproductive when I am here, even when I am working on things.

I bought my tickets and sent the information on to people in Guatemala so they would know my plans and about 30 minutes later I got our new schedule. In the last two days it has changed substantially. I will only have about a week in the States in May if I keep my current itinerary but I could come back a month earlier and have almost a month. There is now a group coming earlier in January and they will be there 4 days before me. I will not be changing that date because they are small and will get by without me.

You might be asking why I am sharing these things. I just want to let you all know that plans change. We like to get locked into something and force it to work on our timetable and God laughs at our stubbornness. We cannot see tomorrow but we plan like we have everything figured out. We are being blessed with more teams coming to us than ever. More work will be accomplished than we expected but we have to be flexible for it all to work out. We cannot predict what God wants to do in or through us. We can only remain pliable in His hands and receive the blessings that He pours into us as they come.

It is Christmastime and most will be spending time with family and friends. God wants to bless us with their presence in this season but many of us stress out because things do not go like we plan. We want to control how our days and our interactions go. We miss out on those blessings because we are not flexible. I want to challenge you this season to be flexible this season. Give the people around you the freedom to just live in relationship. Don't try and direct or control your relationships and your time together. Let God just bless you with presence this season. Thank Him for what He brings you and allows you to experience with your friends and family this Christmas. Determine in your heart to just enjoy Him, them and the holiday and not to let the things that come up or the plans that  change distract you from the blessings He is giving you this year.

I wanted to let you know that I will be leaving on Jan 18th and it looks like I will be returning for a few weeks at the end of March through the middle of April. I am still in need of financial support. I have talked to many people but nothing is sure as of yet. I need to raise $12,000 for living expenses and am praying for a $5,000 to $8,000 more for transportation. I have been limited by the lack of a vehicle for the last 3 years and I I am spending more time there it is becoming a major inconvenience. Please pray about partnering with me in the coming year. If you have questions about the work that we are doing or my role in it please feel free to message or call me. My # is 779-227-3812 or my e-mail is thegeokr@yahoo.com.

You can mail support to
Life Church Morris
P.O. Box 679
C/O San Lucas Mission
Morris, IL 60450

Thank you all and Merry Christmas