I have not written in a while because I was beginning to feel that the updates were trivial. The Holy Spirit has been challenging me a lot lately. As you may or may not know, before I came to Ecuador I sold the majority of my belongings. After over a year of knowing what God was pushing me to do, I finally got to a place where I had allowed God to change my heart enough that I could do it with joy. The point was not that I needed to sell my stuff, but that I needed to give God a seat on the throne of my heart. My self-worth was so absorbed in the things I had collected that I thought, subconsciously, that I would be less valuable as a person without the massive collection. Before the change occurred I knew that if God were to tell me face-to-face, sell everything and follow me, I would not be able to do it. I would leave distressed and torn. Thanks be to God that I am changed. I actually feel a huge burden has been lifted from my back by selling all that stuff.
So all the stuff was gone, the Lord provided more money, and I was able to leave to Ecuador and begin my internship which I thought I was ready for. Turns out that God had some serious plans for me over the next two months. The first month was very slow. I taught one English class per week, got settled in, helped where I could, and waited for the summer to begin. In July I started an English class specifically for youth and I was excited to be busy. During this time it came to my attention that there was talk of closing the children’s ministry in a poor area to the south of Quito called Paquisha. I was supposed to be going out to help with the kid’s club once a month, but due to lack of funds and lack of personnel to work on the community (which doesn’t have a single Christian church in it) it didn’t seem that God was holding the door open for Action Ecuador to continue working there.
The news sat very heavy on my heart. Here was an entire community of people who have no spiritual guidance and now the only ray of light was about to be snuffed out. This was when God started to push me again. As I prayed about it and thought about it, I saw the Spirit guiding me to work in Paquisha on a more permanent basis. What got me to respond? I remembered the reason I sold my things; I wanted God to take the throne in my heart. Now I realized that this involved much more than being willing to sell a bunch of things. What was holding me back from heading out to Paquisha immediately was my desire for comfort. It would be easier for me to stay here and live in my cozy apartment, eat the safe food in familiar restaurants, and teach English in a Missionary training school. But God was asking, “if I asked you to get really uncomfortable and do something that seems way beyond your abilities…would you do it?” I was scared. I felt so inadequate. Then I realized how vain I was being. The work in this community has been planned by God ahead of time, all I had to do was show up and be willing to obey, and God was going to do the work through me.
I talked to the other missionaries, and it was decided that I would begin an after-school program beginning in September. This will involve a Bible teaching, games, and daily lectures to help the children of this community better their lives. Many cannot read so that will be where I have to begin. I am also going to teach English and basic computer skills. My hope is to also spend the mornings helping various families in the community go about their daily lives with more ease. Ultimately, I am seeking God’s guidance in this work because He is the one who is going to do it. Please bring this before God. This work needs the power of God behind it.
This is my favorite part of the story. This past Thursday (July 21st) we had a medical caravan from California that wanted to go to Paquisha to do general check-ups and eye appointments. As we prepared for it we talked with the president of the community to ask his help with publicity and to see if we could use the community building do host the caravan. Being that he is Catholic, I was surprised to learn that he was fully behind it AND the ministry that we have with children. What happened in the past is amazing. 5 years ago, when the priest in the community found out that an evangelical children’s club was beginning he immediately started a club on the same day to out compete it. Shortly after that, he died, and his club right along with him. A new priest was assigned to Paquisha and the president of the community really doesn’t like him. So, because our work in the community makes the priest mad, the president wants us there working.
So in comes the medical caravan. They would see people, send them over to get their free medication, and then send them to counselors who presented the Gospel to them in small groups or one-on-one. Over 400 people saw doctors that day (and many were turned away when they ran out of supplies) and about 120 people made confessions of faith. The counselors from the caravan were unaware that there was no church in the community and they thought that the community building they were in was the church building. They were inviting people to come back on Sundays and to talk to the pastor in the community. I was worried about the future of these people being that there was no pastor and the community building was not the church until I heard the amazing way God had planned this all from the beginning. One of the people who came for medical attention and then accepted Christ was the president of Paquisha along with his wife and children!!! Then he invited the missionaries from Action to begin a church there and to use the community building as the church! The way God works is more amazing than we can imagine.
After all of this I am reminded of some of the huge and important lessons that God has been teaching me over the past couple of years. The most important lesson is that that God needs to have the throne in my heart. When He is in control then the work I am involved in has fruit. We need to ask ourselves “what would I be willing to give-up for the sake of Christ? My money? My time? My things? My comfort? My life?” If we are unwilling to give anything and everything we have for the sake and glory of our Saviour, then where is God in our lives? Why are we confused that we do not see God working in and through us in amazing and glorious ways? In the end we are all going to die, stand before our Maker and give an account for the way we used the things that He gave us. We forget that everything we have is a gift from God and doesn’t belong to us. They are gifts that are to be invested into the Kingdom, not for our glory, but for the glory of God!
I am not trying to say that we all need to sell everything we have and go and live like nomads, doing nothing but preaching the Word, but I am trying to push a message that calls us to be radically different than we currently are. In our culture we are totally blind to the suffering of the world. We feel bad for children in World Vision commercials. We give 10% of ‘our’ money so that we can do what we want with the rest, and we don’t allow the Spirit of God to lead us to do whatever HE wants with all that we are!!! Jesus didn’t come to teach us how to get by, but to teach us what love and sacrifice really means! What did Jesus give for us? Everything! He paid for the sins of people that deserve nothing but destruction! He bought me with His blood. I am no longer a slave to sin, but a SLAVE to Christ. Everything I am and have is His and my job is to invest it in His kingdom. Don’t be confused by the word slave. We are slaves to Christ like a fish is a slave to water. It is through this slavery that we can truly live! We need to STOP making excuses. We need to stop looking for the minimum to get by. Following Christ demands every part of us. If we are unwilling to give it all for God, then where have we put God? Remember that we have an eternity to face with Him, and this short life is all we get to serve Him. Let’s not waste it.
