Multiply

Thank you all so much for your prayers.  God is SO FAITHFUL!!!  John 16:24 says "Until now, you have not asked anything in my Name.  Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete."  I have great assurance that as you and we join in prayer for SAM's English Village 2013, God will answer us.  And I am confident that He will answer us in incredible ways, beyond our expectations. PLEASE keep the prayers coming!!!  With extremely long and physically demanding days, our blog posts may be few and far between at best.  "Rise and shine" begins at 7:00 a.m., with a tutor meeting at 8:00 a.m., followed by breakfast at 8:30 a.m.  We have some breaks during the day (including a lengthier break of 1-2 hours in the early afternoon), but otherwise we keep going until 9:00 p.m., at which time the students are free to go, and the tutors group up to discuss the day and lay our requests before the throne of God.  For most of us, a typical day will look like going, going, going from about 7:00 a.m. until 10:00 p.m., and we will need the Lord's provision of strength and focus.  So despite the potential lack of updates, know that God is busy at work in and through us, and please be part of the team through prayer.  You are every bit as important in this trip as we are, our brothers and sisters in Christ!

Day 1 of English Village has come to a close, and what a day it was!  For the first time, we broke up into our tutor groups to practice English using Total Physical Response (which basically entails acting out words and phrases).  Each one of the tutors (the 11 GO Trip Team from Calvary Church and a handful of SAM missionaries) is tutoring 2-3 students, and the students assigned to each tutor are on similar levels in their English proficiency.  Some of us have very advanced students, and those groups are able to have normal conversations in English and can focus on more details.  Some of us have maturing students who need to start with the very basics.

I LOVE MY GROUP!!!  I am the tutor of two 20-year-old seminary students from Paraguay who want to be missionaries: Juan Angel and Victoriano.  They did not come to English Village with really any background in English, but they both have a great desire to learn, which is so encouraging.  Today, each student developed three learning goals for the day.  Each goal had to be Specific, Achievable, and Measurable (SAM).  Since Juan and Victoriano are friends, are staying together at the Baptist Mission (we have so many students that we could not fit them all at the SAM base), and are on similar levels proficiency we decided to have the same goals.  They were: (1) Learn 20 words about food and drinks, (2) Learn 10 action words, and (3) Learn 5 expressions for greetings.  Through a combination of pointing to food in the kitchen, of acting out words like "climb," "spin," "swing," and "kick" (the term "kick the dog" has become an "inside joke" in our group and makes for a good laugh every time...you would just have to see it for yourself), of shaking hands while greeting each other, we have been able to learn A LOT in one day.  We have A LOT of fun in our group...lots of laughs and lots of mistakes, which makes for a wonderful experience.  Some of my favorite moments with Juan and Victoriano have been seeing Victoriano and Juan learn new words and phrases, describing chicken and eggs by clucking around the table like a chicken and acting like a egg plopped out of my rear, Juan constantly pleading "SPANISH PLEEEASSSSEEEEE!!!!!!!, and learning how to say "Help! I need to go to the bathroom, please!  Where is the bathroom?  The bathroom is over there...run, run, run!!!"  : )  I am so excited to see how they continue to learn over the next 9 days of English Village, and perhaps my greatest prayer for us is that we would be able to, at some point, be able to talk more about our lives as Christians.  Since both are in seminary studying to be missionaries, I can only imagine how encourage I would be by talking normally with them and, hopefully, likewise with me.  Beyond the physical learning of words, which is SO important, it would be an amazing opportunity to share our hearts as fellow brothers in Christ and to be mutually encouraged!

It is a beautiful picture, this idea of English Village.  There are a handful of tutors (about 15) who are the "experts" in English.  It's our natural tongue, and we don't struggle coming up with words.  There are about twice as many students (about 30) who have varying degrees of proficiency in the English language.  A physical goal during the 10 days of English Village is to take one tutor who is proficient in English and use them to improve the proficiency of 2-3 students throughout the week.  What a beautiful picture!  Each tutor is only focusing on 2-3 students.  This is not a large number for each of us...this is not too overwhelming a task for each of us.  If we each had to tutor 20 students, there may already be tears streaming down from being overwhelmed.  But by focusing small individually, the group can have a significant impact on the students collectively.  

It's a picture of the Church...it's a picture of discipleship...it's a picture of intentionality...and when it is working, whatever the "it" is, it will MULTIPLY.

"So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up.  And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied." (Acts 9:31)

Please pray for us.  Pray that we would be bold.  Pray that we would have peace.  Pray that we would build each other up.  Pray that we would walk in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit.  Because when these things are true, there is only one result...and this result should be our one goal:

we must MULTIPLY

to reach a world in need...to demonstrate that our God is worthy to be praised...until all the world hears...all for the glory of God! 

Answer to prayers

     Before the trip I was completely nervous but excited. I have struggled with anxiety and health problems a lot the past four years. Since May I have been to the ER for health concerns twice almost three times. Fully surrendering, trusting God and not worrying has always been a major daily struggle. So far I have had it easy health wise. Praise God!
     Triggers for my anxiety include car rides, plane rides, huge crowds; pretty much every thing that we have encountered during this trip. The roads here are crazy busy, two lanes can turn into four. Our drivers are great and know there way around the city. Plane wise motion sickness has not been an issue. In La Paz, Bolivia my asthma was acting up making it difficult to breathe due to the altitude. There was 15 minutes of waiting for  a converter to use a machine. I was praying for God to help keep me calm during the time. When I was about to cry and felt like I could not wait, Sean poked his head out and distracted me. God is doing amazing things and I cannot wait to see what else is in store!

Unworthiness

"I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant..." (Genesis 32:10)

This is the first verse I wrote down in my GO Bolivia 2013 journal, and the more I read it, the more I raise an AMEN to what Jacob is saying and the more I am blown away by God's grace to me. The steadfast love and faithfulness that God has shown me is simply astounding.  His patience with me for the 19 years that I walked in complete rejection of Him is incredible.  His steadfast love for me despite my repeated failures in the 4 1/2 years since I began following Jesus is holy.  His faithfulness in always pursuing me gives me confidence that He will always be by my side.  He alone is the unshakable Rock on whom I can stand.  He alone is the protective Shelter in whom I can take refuge.  He alone is the mighty Tower of all comfort and strength.

I am not worthy of the opportunity to serve right now in Bolivia.  I am not worthy of the health I have to serve mightily.  I am not worthy of being called a son of the Almighty God.  I am not worthy of the love and faithfulness I have been shown.  No... I am NOT worthy!  But I know a Redeemer who takes unworthy subjects and delights in transforming them into instruments of glory.  I know a Redeemer who makes beauty out of ashes.

Tonight we had the blessed opportunity to spend a couple hours with Campus Crusade for Christ here in Santa Cruz.  During our GO Bolivia 2012 Trip, we also had the opportunity to meet with Campus Crusade for Christ, and what a story of God's steadfast love and faithfulness!  Reunions are SWEET!!!  Specifically, reunions with student leaders Marcos and Victoria were wonderful!!!  Victoria has been serving as a student leader with CRU for the past three years.  It's so refreshing to know that I have such a faithful sister in Christ serving our Lord in Bolivia...so far away from where I call home and in a completely different language, but serving the same Lord just the same!  And Marcos...oh Marcos...Marcos came with us to CRU in 2012 to act as a translator, and he has since stepped up as a student leader alongside Victoria.  What a beautiful pair of Bolivian brothers and sisters who I can call friends.

Bolivia is a beautiful country full of beautiful people and beautiful potential.  God can use them.  God wants to use them. God WILL use them.  And I am SO EXCITED to be here for 10 days (starting tomorrow) to see what God does through English Village here in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. Registration begins @ 4:00 p.m. Sunday.  Please pray for us as we begin!

Putting our hope in God

Today the team had an incredible opportunity to see Bolivia from a completely different perspective- from the air! We drove through the crazy downtown traffic to a hanger on the outskirts of the city and were introduced to our pilot, Greg from SAM Air. Taking us inside his office, Greg showed us a map of Bolivia and some of the surrounding countries. He pointed out some of the places where he transports missionaries before showing us where he could take us. We were excited to find out that we’d be flying over some waterfalls that lay along a mountain range outside the city. Come to find out, that mountain range was the foothills to the Andes Mountains.

Split into two groups, we were taken up into the beautiful blue Bolivian sky in a tiny Cessna and given a glimpse of the sprawling city of Santa Cruz. The city looked incredible from the air, and the traffic looked much more civil than it really is (haha!). The foothills slowly came into view, and I couldn’t help but be awed by their beauty and majesty. It’s hard to imagine that these towering green hills are just the foothills and not the actual thing.

As we were flying, the hymn, “To God Be The Glory” came into my head. God has created all this beauty for our enjoyment and for the purpose of illustrating His power to us, and yet we still struggle trusting Him. Recently, God has been showing me that when I put my hope in things of this world, they shatter my hope. When we accept the Lord as our Savior, we say we are “putting our trust in Him,” yet a lot of us struggle putting our FULL trust in Him. Seeing the sites from the plane today, I saw how silly our reluctance is. He can move mountains and heal the fatally sick, and yet we still have trouble putting our hope in the Lord. It’s like we have one foot in the boat and one foot on the shore. The good thing is, as long as we allow ourselves to fully rest in the Lord, He can bear the weight.

Thank you so much for following and reading our posts! Please continue to keep us in your prayers as we prepare and launch English Village tomorrow evening. Pray we can stay focused and be used by God in whatever amazing ways He has planned. We’re all excited to see His Hand work through this opportunity.

Thoughts from the Air

As I sit here, flying at 37,000 feet and nearing Bolivia at hundreds of miles per hour, my mind is racing with thoughts of what God CAN and WILL do over the next few days.......

I think of ways He used us last year on this trip--of Ana and David, Christians who were faithfully serving God in the countryside but were alone and that we encouraged. I think of the tears streaming down Pastor Alcidez's face as we prayed for Him after weeks of ministry at his side. And I think of our deep relationships with Dana, college students, and our team that came out of our trip. God truly showed Himself strong through our time last year!!

I also think of God's unlimited power which He longs to use in us. He is the God who is ABLE to do EXCEEDINGLY ABOVE ALL that we could ask or IMAGINE, and so I'm asking myself, "What do I imagine God can do on this trip?" And I'm reminding myself that He cannot only do what I imagine but also unimaginably more. "Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive." WHAT a PROMISE that He longs to work mightily in us!!!!

And I'm reminded of God's perspective on this trip. As He sits in the heavens, far above this earth or our mere 37,000 feet, His viewpoint is far different than mine. He died for each one of these precious Bolivian people. He knows each one intimately and personally...He knows their needs, how deeply they crave intimacy with Him, and how they may be led to the Savior. He knows each prayer that will be prayed, precisely how He'll answer, and how His truth will change lives over the coming days.

It is a privilege to serve our GREAT God and the King of all the universe! We have the opportunity to walk in fellowship with our very creator and allow His life to transform us as we serve Him in Bolivia. Please pray that we'll be useful for His work, that we'll walk humbly and with great faith, and that our hearts will beat for the desires of God's heart as we eagerly anticipate watching Him at work over the next twelve days!!!!

Humility. Trust. Joy.

I'm typing this from my home in Charlotte, NC while the rest of my team...my family...is preparing to land in Santa Cruz, Bolivia!  My heart is already there and I am so ready to be reunited with them.

In Ryan's last post, he asked for prayer for me and so graciously said I was "having some trouble with (my) travel documents."  The honest truth?  I lost my passport.  Yuck.
So many thoughts and emotions raced through my mind in the wee hours of the morning as my mom, my brother and I searched for my missing passport.  I was literally crying to God in frustration.  And when daylight came, we were left with a house that looked like a hurricane passed through...and still no passport.  After just coming home from a week of counseling at a camp for teenage girls, I was emotionally, mentally and physically spent.  

But.  God is so faithful.  He surrounded me with the prayers of my dear family and friends.  He sustained me and gave me mental and emotional fortitude to make it through 8 hours of phone calls and flight & passport arrangements.  He carried me through the grief when it looked to me like I would not be able to go on this trip at all.  And in the end, He allowed us to FIND MY PASSPORT and provided a way for me to be in Bolivia tomorrow (Saturday)!  God has already taught and reminded me of so much. He has humbled me, strengthened my faith in Him, and allowed me to count it all joy.

Thank You, Father, for choosing to use me in Bolivia this summer.  Thank You for making my paths straight when I choose to lean on You and not my own understanding.  Thank You for Your faithfulness.

I choose humility.  I choose to trust.  I choose joy.

Departure Day!

GOOOO Bolivia!  Here we are at the Charlotte airport this morning, just a hours before our departure.  It was good to get the team together and finally be on our way.  Today we will travel through Miami, La Paz, and then to our final destination, Santa Cruz de la Sierra ("Holy Cross of the Hills").

Please pray for team member Rachel Allison. She was having some trouble with her travel documents and was not able to leave with us.  Pray for a miracle so that she would be able to get the details straightened out and be able to quickly join us in Bolivia.

The Approaching Wave

  The hours are quickly passing down till the moment our team will board the plane. As that moment draws near all of the last minute checklists and details start to crowd into my mind. Many of us will be finishing or even starting packing in these hours. We will be driving to the airport, getting tickets, and saying goodbye to love ones. All the anticipation and emotion seems to come at me in a wave of nervous excitement. As a member of the team who has not been to Bolivia, I find myself wondering what to expect. I wonder what the country will be like, what the people themselves will be like, and what English village will be like. Sometimes the waves of worry occupy my thoughts. I worry about our team being unified. I want us to be utilized for the purposes that God has for us down there. I want us to trust and rest in God's purposes and guidance. 

   For those of you that are supporting us from home. As we get ready to depart. We appreciate all your help in these coming hours. We certainly appreciate you backing us and praying for us. Prayer is so powerful because we have such a powerful God. Thank you so much for all of your prayers so far. 

   So as we start the count down. I can't wait to leave, and I can't wait to see what God is doing and will do down in Bolivia. 

Beautiful Churches

In exactly four days I will be stepping off a plane and onto the streets of Santa Cruz, Bolivia.  I will be joining 10 others from Calvary Church who are part of the GO Bolivia 2013 short-term missions team.  This team is one of relative youth...a team with great potential...a team of significant diversity...and a team passionate about seeing Jesus Christ exalted among the nations!  We will be joining forces with dozens of South Americans who also increasingly desire to make knowing, loving, displaying and exalting Jesus the preeminent motivation of their lives.

From July 26 to August 7, we will be sleeping, eating, praying, speaking...SHARING LIFE alongside local Bolivianos as well as fellow brothers and sisters in Christ from at least four other South American nations.  The focal point of our time will be a 10-day course known as English Village, organized by South America Mission (SAM) with whom we are partnering.  English Village provides a handful of South Americans a unique opportunity of English immersion for ten days.  The course attendees will be men and women throughout South America who are planning to enter the missions field in the near future or who are considering the Lord's calling upon their lives regarding missions.

Every day during the course, English will be the only permissible spoken language from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.  Through the use of small group discussion and teaching sessions, group activities (such as cooking, visiting markets, and hosting mock airport visits), prayer and testimony development, and much more, those attending English Village will be able to learn an immense amount of the English language in under two weeks' time.  They will also be taught language acquisition skills so that they are better equipped to more readily pick up a language wherever the Lord may take them in the future.  Our Charlotte, NC Team and other SAM missionaries will take on the role of teachers/mentors during the 10-day course.

God has been incredibly blessing this year's English Village!!!  While SAM was aiming for 20 participants in this year's English Village, there have been 31 men and women from Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Peru who have registered.  PRAISE THE LORD!!!  We have, in fact, had to reserve alternative housing for a handful of the group, as SAM's base cannot adequately house such a large number of temporary residents (remember...there are 31 participants and 11 Charlotteans alone, not including the local SAM missionaries and staff who may otherwise regularly stay on base.  We will be one BIG happy family indeed!!! 

Having participated in Calvary's first GO Bolivia missions trip last May and being one of two on the trip returning this year, I have a little more specific experience than most of our Team.  While I may know what our temporary home will look like, what it means to be on "Bolivian time," and how much different driving habits are in Santa Cruz compared to South Charlotte, I have no idea what exactly our Lord has in store for us all while there.  I do, however, know that our God is the God of immeasurably more who desires and

"is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think" (Ephesians 3:20)

Therefore, although I can hardly predict any of the stories I will be telling friends back home in three weeks' time, I can be certain of this: the stories will be beautiful.  They will not be beautiful because they will be about perfect people...faaaaarrrrrrrrrr from it!!!  But the stories will be beautiful because they will all tell of the grace of an infinitely complete God who delights in using redeemed lives to build beautiful churches whose aim is transforming communities both near and far all in the Name above all names...JESUS CHRIST!
May this be our focus...May this be our hope...May this be our legacy...JESUS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3u_18IXhIM