A year and a half down... 6 months to go

It feels like just yesterday I was writing my struggles of moving to a foreign country, learning a new language and making new friends. A year and a half later, Ecuador feels more like home than anywhere on earth. It is so easy to go through life pleading with God to "do something" and then forget to thank him when he does. So I want this to be a time to look back and remember some of the key moments the Lord stepped in for me this past couple years.
I remember May of 2007 when I had just stopped working for Prince of Peace, was working at Starbucks and felt like my life had no direction. I clearly remember telling the girls in my Bible study that I was probably just going to die because God didn't have a plan for me (dramatic, I know :)). When I finally decided to let it all go and let the Lord do what he was going to do was when the opportunity came up to go with SIM to Ecuador and work in a coffee shop, the exact thing I really wanted to do.
I remember October of 2007 crying out to the Lord asking him what I would do if I could not converse with the people I so desperately wanted to minister to. I remember clearly that he told me to move forward into this abyss called "learning another language" and even if, by the end of 2 years could say no more than two sentences to someone, I was doing what he called me to do and that should be enough.
I remember starting a Bible study in the first 3 months I was here, even though I felt like my Spanish was like that of a 4-year-old. I watched as the Lord took my limited vocabulary and His Word to change the lives of the girls in the study.
I remember being asked to take on the managing position at the cafe. I remember telling the Lord I was not equipped for this... that my Spanish wasn't good enough, that I was too young, but the Lord told me to take it anyway.
I remember being asked to lead a short term team of a church I did not know for people who were twice my age. The amount of excuses I came up with as to why I COULD NOT do it are immeasurable. But again, the Lord took it, used them, used me and turned it into something beautiful. (I can't wait to see what he has for this team THIS year!)
As I write all of this, I smile to myself remembering the fear and doubt I felt in my heart each time the Lord asked me to do something too hard for me to handle alone. I smile because if it weren't for these hard times and difficult experiences, I wouldn't know the sufficiency of the Lord as well as I do today. Thank you Jesus for walking with me in the happy, sad and the difficult. A year and a half down, six months to go... may the Lord bring himself glory through my time here.

Did it get lost in translation OR did you just make ALL that up to fit in with your message??

One of the reasons I started going to my church here was because of the lively worship and joy that they all seemed to have. I enjoy people who are not afraid of worshiping their God (this is my youth group on the right...)

BUT some days things aren't so right on when it comes to theology. This week we had a guest preacher who started off by telling us that we were going to talk about prayer and then spent the next 30 minutes talking about basically nothing as an intro. (Most people would be annoyed at this point, but this is just a weekly experience for me) The NEXT part was the part that really got me. He had us all turn to 2 Kings 13:14-20. If you haven't read this chapter recently go and take a look.
I read it to myself as he was rambling on about nothing again and thought, 'What in the world does this have to do with prayer?'
I'm not kidding, I was actually impressed that this guy could write his entire sermon and then randomly said "Hmm what chapter should I use? 2 KINGS!"
The chapter is about how Elisha is about to die and the king at the time went to get his last words of advice before he dies. Elisha tells him to take a bow and shoot an arrow through a window. Elisha places his hands on the kings as he shoots and then Elisha says, "The Lord's arrow of victory" and tells the king to strike the ground with the arrow. The king does it, but only three times and Elisha gets mad and says, "You should have struck the ground five or six times; then you would have defeated Aram and completely destroyed it." And then Elisha dies. (Really I'm not doing it completely justice... go and read the passage!)
Here are the points that our guest speaker had as he went through the passage.(It took notes because I was so impressed with how he got something that wasn't there!)
1. Crying is good as long as its real. Fathers listen to their crying children.
2. Bows and arrows are like prayers against Satan.
3. Pray is like incense that is a beautiful aroma to God.
4. The king did not have direct communcation with God, so the prophet had to help him.
Which means that we must teach new believers how to pray.
5. If you ask wrongly (meaning doubting and without faith) He will not answer your prayers.
6. Pray with windows open towards Jerusalem (he gave Daniel's example how he prayed 3 times a day, windows open toward Jerusalem).
7. Prayer without passion does not have power. If you do not hit the ground (like the king struck the ground with the bow), Satan wins.

Here is the thing with some of these points... they are not necessarily WRONG. Yes, we must teach new believers how to pray. Yes, prayer is how we fight against the Devil... but here is what truly saddened my heart. This man is taking any old passage of Scripture and making it say exactly what he wants it to say without any regard to context... and the people of the church are eating it up.

My desire for the church is Loja is that the believers in it would learn to study the Bible for themselves. I long for them to know the truth of the Word and that would set them free from legalism and fear. Please continue to pray for the pastors and believers in Loja, that they would peach the truth of the gospel boldly and correctly.

The Boy of Many Questions...

David is Melissa (one of my employees)'s cousin. He is 14 years old and asks a TON of questions.
-What are you doing?
-Why do you do it that way?
-Why are you here?
And my favorite lead in questions...
-Why aren't you Catholic?
This question led is into lots of other questions.
-What's the difference between Catholics and Protestants?
-Do we have the same Bible?
-Why don't you pray to Mary?
All of these questions led to the Bible. We pulled it out and started answering his questions. We talked about how salvation was by grace through faith in what Jesus did for us on the cross and that there was nothing that we could DO that would be good enough to get us into heaven. We talked about how Mary was an amazing woman, but that a relationship with God was only obtained through Jesus Christ. He nodded along like he understood all this, though still thinking it was quite unbelievable that I wasn't a Catholic.
And the final questions:
-What would I have to do if I wanted to be a Christian? Is there some ceremony you have to do or something?
I had to hold back a small grin at the last question. I showed him in Ephesians 2:8-9 how it says that it is only by grace we are saved through faith. And then we looked at John where it says whoever believes has eternal life.
All this was met with puzzled looks and a slight nod... then it was time for him to go. David still has a lot of questions, but one thing is for sure... he is searching. I love the passage in Jeremiah that say, "You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart."
My prayer is that he keeps asking those questions and finding his answers in the Word of God!

You never know when it'll be your last...

We were getting ready to leave for Cuenca on Friday night when Tabitha called me. “Jose Gabriel died.” If you don’t remember him from about a year and a bit ago, he was the kid that I listened to one day as he poured out his heart (If you wanna read the story from last year, click here). He told me about his family situation and how his dad had lived in Spain for more than half his life.
He had not just made friend with me, he had also made friends with Tabitha, one of the missionary kids. Last week Tab met with Gabriel and as they talked, she just laid it all out for him. He claimed to be a believer, but he just wasn’t living like it. Tab told me later that she had never been so blunt with anyone. She spoke the truth fearlessly into his life… and that was the last time she ever talked with him.
Gabriel’s friend, a fellow believer was the one who told me about the whole incident. He said that that conversation with Tabitha was the best one of his life. Gabriel said that she challenged him to get his life together and start living for Jesus. The Friday night before he died he told his friend that he had a dream that a man in all white came to him and said, “Don’t be afraid. Come to me.” His friend told him, “Jesus is calling you! Run to him!” But what he didn’t realize was that Jesus wasn’t just calling him to walk with Him, but to come home.
That Sunday night, Gabriel’s cousin went to his house looking for help. The cousin wanted to commit suicide and Gabriel was trying to talk him out of it. He was telling him how life was worth living. They were on the fourth floor balcony of Gabriel’s house when the cousin tried to jump. Gabriel grabbed him and while pulling him back grabbed an electrical wire electrocuting himself and vaulting him off the balcony. They rushed him to the hospital, but it was too late. He was gone.
As the girls and I were talking about what happened this weekend, we started praying for the cousin whose life was saved by Gabriel and I started thinking, ‘This cousin now has an obligation to live his life to the fullest because its no longer his, its actually Gabriel’s… which was taken from him.’
And then I realized that this was a new picture of what Christ did for me. He allowed himself to be killed so that I wouldn’t have to die.
Someone gave their life for you… its as if you are living the life that SHOULD have been theirs. You are not your own. You were bought by someone else’s life. Honor Him with all you are.
I think about Tab’s last conversation with Gabriel. She spoke truth deep into his soul. She held back nothing. I am amazed by her courage and the way she allowed the Lord to use her. You just never know when a conversation you how with someone will be their last. Make it count.

My only hinderance...

Master-workman surely has the right to use any tool he pleases for His own work, and it is plainly NOT the business of the tool to decide whether it is the right one to use or not. He knows, and if he chooses to use us, of course we will be fit. And in truth, if we only knew it, our chief fitness is our utter helplessness. His strength is made perfect, not in our strength, but in our weakness. Our strength is our only HINDRANCE.
- Hannah Whitall Smith

Don't settle!

At this moment, I have three very dear Christian friends who love Jesus that are dating people that don't (and several others that are considering it). I don't know if I can fully explain how burdened this makes my heart. They all try and tell me that that doesn't mean they won't MARRY someone who loves Jesus (and that this person is OPEN to God)... but its much more likely that they will end up with someone who does not point them toward Jesus. One of my friends who is in this situation had her 6 year anniversary of being a believer today and I just thought to myself... you DESERVE a man who loves the Lord with all his heart!
I have been struggling all week about how to talk to each one of them. I desperately want them to know the truth and at the same time know my love and that this is not coming out of judgment. I have too many friends and know too many women who are married to good men who don't love Jesus. Each one of them would tell you that every day they plead with the Lord for the salvation of their husbands so that they can serve the Lord together. THIS is what I don't want for my friends, though it is very common here in Loja due to the lack of strong godly men (and women)walking with the Lord. I believe it is one of Satan's biggest lies to Lojano believers: if you wait for someone who loves the Lord, you will be single forever! (Which is one of their biggest fears).
Please pray with me for my friends and the other believers in Loja who are settling for LESS than God's best for them.

I KNEW they would make good friends!

When I first met Melissa, I didn't realize that she was only 17 years old because of her maturity level. She wasn't like most of the 17-year-old girls around here constantly screaming about some boy and breaking a nail. She has goals and dreams and desperately desires those to be met. This was definitely a different "type" of girl from the normal Lojana I am used to.
There is another girl that I know who is that same boat, Tabitha. She is a 16-year-old missionary kids living here in Loja who loves to play soccer and isn't bothered by stupid boys or petty drama. She has a heart for missions and desires to see people know Jesus. The problem is, that doesn't mesh very well with the 16-year-olds here.
Several months ago I thought to myself: 'They would make great friends!' And I kept trying to set up ways for them to be able to hang out, but it just never happened. Recently a super short termer named Holly came to visit and the three of them started hanging out constantly! They are becoming GREAT friends... Holly and Tab invited Melissa to youth group and to hang out after. This Sunday we started a Bible study with the three girls and Mesissa's counsin Anita. They all seemed to really enjoy it and are super excited to keep going in the book of John.
God continues to teach me that it is ALL in his time and his way. Melissa is moving closer and closer to a personal relationship with Jesus. I believe with all my heart that these girls will play a huge role in her coming to know Jesus. Please keep this little Bible Study and four-some of girls in your prayers. (Above Picture: Melissa and Tab are fighting over a game of spoons :))

Hope's here to stay...

I am so blessed by my volunteers. I just think they are amazing. There are two girls in particular that I have become more attached to in the past month. Karen (on the right) and Valeria (on the left). Karen came to me from the English club. She wanted to practice her English because she is moving to the States in August. Valeria is a girl from my youth group who is best friends with Karen but has never shared her faith with her. Valeria decided that she was going to come on the two days that Karen helps me to build the spiritual side of their friendship.
This past week, in English club, my friend Paula was able to have a conversation with Karen about her relationship with Jesus and she stated that she just wasn't ready yet but she had been thinking about it a lot. And later that night Valeria invited her to youth group with us. She declined due to some homework, but we haven't given up yet.
Here's the even cooler part... Karen just found out that she is moving to Arkansas for her exchange program and will be staying with a PASTOR! She will be doing everything the family does, including going to church and being involved in youth group.
There are no such thing as coincidences. God has a plan that would blow our minds away if we truly understood the full extent of it all. Please join me in praying for Karen that she would accept Jesus as her Savior... if not here in Ecuador, in the United States. Pray that the family she is staying with love Jesus and would continue sharing the good news of the gospel with her.
THE LORD IS MOVING IN LOJA!!

Challenging Moments

This is not the first time (nor the last time) that I have talked about Maria de los Angeles. As some of you know, she recently went to Bolivia to do her thesis. As many do not know, she had a hard time from the beginning. She was supposed to be living with the nuns in a convent and then decided that that would not be best for her spiritual walk and bailed out to live with the rest of the students.
This caused her problems on two ends… the nuns decided that they did not like her because she bailed and the students decided that she was a “nun” because she was supposed to live with them. This was just the first of many things that have happened to Maria in the past couple of months with the most recent being problems with the university she is working with. She was meant to go and help teach some of the poorer people in the area how to produce and sell their own food, but is currently teaching Biology and Chemistry instead. Needless to say, she is very frustrated and I received an email a couple weeks ago telling me she desperately wanted to come home.
Yesterday I was able to chat with her on-line and was overjoyed by what she told me. Not one of her circumstances has changed… she still doesn’t like her job and things are still very difficult, BUT because of all of this she has grown very close to the heart of God. She told me that HE has been the one sustaining her through all of this.
As I inquired as to what she had been studying (since there isn’t a Christian church in her city, to my knowledge) she said she was studying Romans and that she LOVED it. As we talked she asked about a passage in chapter 10 that was confusing her. I looked at the passage to see if I could shed any light on it, but found myself also quite confused. So we looked at it together and came to an answer… SHE challenged ME and I learned something new about the Word that I had never seen before. How awesome is that?! The Holy Spirit is teaching us both through his Word.
I miss her desperately (me and the girls took the above picture to show Maria where she “should have been” at a recent birthday party :)) but am so excited to see what the Lord is doing in and through her life. He has awesome plans for her there in Bolivia and one of them is definitely to grow closer to Him.

Manwellcito...

Manwellcito… he hates it when I call him that. But I have grown to love this kid like he is my little brother. I have been amazed to see where God has brought him in the past few months. I don’t know if I can do his story justice, but I will try…
When I came back to Loja in January he was not doing good. My roommate Nicole told me that he had been drinking pretty much every weekend since Christmas. As you can imagine this hurt my heart. One night when we were all out, Nicole and I saw him pretty wasted and here was the thing that really got me: when I’m just hanging out with Manwell in the coffee shop he’s happy, laughing and fun. When he drinks, he is quiet and down. I thought to myself, ‘Why would he want to be THIS Manwell… I like the other one better.’
A couple months later he told me, “I feel like I’m always wearing a mask for people. I have to be this happy, fun guy when really I feel miserable inside.”
I remember one day looking over at the couches and seeing Manwell and Carolynn in a very intense conversation. Later on Carolynn told me that she has never been so bold with anyone. She just asked him straight up what he was doing and where he was in his walk with the Lord. She challenged him to read a book called, The Jesus I Never Knew by Philip Yancey.
It was amazing to see the transformation that took place in Manwell’s life throughout the next month. He told Nicole and Carolynn that he was afraid to be honest with God because God was so big and powerful. About a week after that we were talking and I asked him about that comment and he said, “I used to be scared to be honest with God… like I had to wear a mask for him too, but now I’m not. As I was reading that book I realized that Jesus can handle my junk.”
Carolynn just recently went back to Australia and Manwell told me, “If I was the only reason that Carolynn came to Ecaudor for the past 3 years, it was worth it because of how God has used her in my life.”
God is still working in Manwell’s life and it is amazing to see what He is capable. Keep praying for Manwell that he would know the amazing Jesus who desperately wants to know him.