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Why GO?

I’m just days away from my short-term missions trip to Honduras. I will be one of almost 2,000 missionaries that will flood the nation of Honduras with God’s love. Although I’m so excited to be going and ministering to the high school students there through testimonies, skits, and prayer times, I still marvel that I am going. As I pack my suitcase this time around, I’m reflecting on how I even started going on these trips and why I go. Blessings!

I must say I am an accidental short-term missionary. At least in my eyes. I never grew up wanting to go on missions trips. I certainly didn’t know any missionaries. Over the years, I did discover that I enjoyed traveling. My goal years ago was to travel to the cities that hosted Olympic Games. And God allowed me to go to the modern Olympic Games stadium in Athens, Greece and the stadiums in Sydney, Australia, Salt Lake City, Utah and Los Angeles, California. Not bad! I am so grateful for all the wonderful places I’ve gotten to travel to over the years.

But God had different plans for me. After years of traveling for vacation and for work and after my amazing time in Israel in 2007, I knew it was time to “give back.” Before I could even ponder where I might go, God introduced me to Tyler Burkett from Extreme International.

Tyler was in town with his wife and a group of teens who were on a missions trip to New York City. I was guiding his team on an outreach through the New York School of Urban Ministry (NYSUM). During our lunch break, the kids mentioned that they had been on a missions trip to Ecuador. I was intrigued. My Dad is from Ecuador so I asked them which part they had gone to, and they proceeded to say the name of my Dad’s hometown! What? Of all the places in the world, these kids had gone on a missions trip to the place where my Dad was born and raised? When Tyler said he went there often and invited me to join them, I didn’t need to see a burning bush in front of me. I KNEW that I would travel with him one day. The next time I saw Tyler, it was two years later. I was in the airport in Ecuador with my teammates from Texas for the missions trip in 2010.

In between meeting Tyler and traveling with his group, Steve and Dianna Butcher from Amazon River Churches came to speak at my church, and they made an open invitation to go build a church in the Amazon jungle in Brazil!  I wrote here how tough it was for me to decide to go, but again God had already softened my heart towards missions.  I had no previous desire to travel to Brazil, but in 2009 I packed my bags and went on an adventure of a lifetime!

After going to Brazil with Steve and the team in 2009 and Ecuador with Tyler and the team in 2010, I was open to Steve’s invitation to AFRICA, which I wrote about here.

All this talk about traveling can sound kinda glamorous to some, but it’s not always easy to get on a plane, leave all your loved ones behind and go to some foreign country. There are shots to take beforehand (and sometimes gigantic malaria pills to swallow during the trip!), money to raise, vacation time to be used. There’s also lots of prayer and fasting to get ready for the spiritual battles that will take place.

Surprisingly enough, sometimes the toughest battles are fought long before even setting foot on the plane!

So why do I go?  Seriously. Why worry about mosquitoes and critters and what the sleeping conditions will be like? Why go to places where I have to brush my teeth with bottled water and avoid certain foods? And WHY go to places where I have to carry toilet paper with me and drown my hands in hand sanitizer??? (Just trying to be real folks! Don’t worry, many times I’m also shocked by how modern some of the cities are!)

Clearly, missions trips should not be confused with your typical vacations!

I go for so many reasons including:

I see God move in miraculous ways! I have seen Him heal team members and keep us out of harm’s way! Yes, that means that team members have gotten sick and been healed while being out on the field. Some have come on trips defying their doctor’s orders, and God has kept them healthy!  Other times He has held back the rain for us during the monsoon season, and He has kept us safe in the jungle in Brazil, on the mountaintops in Ecuador and in the slums of Ethiopia. Of course, I see God move in miraculous ways here at home, but there is something so special about how I see Him work when I’m abroad.

I meet amazing people! From the sweet kids we get to play with and minister to, to the humble pastors we meet who receive meager salaries and little recognition, to the full-time missionaries we get to come alongside and encourage, there is no shortage of wonderful people to befriend like I wrote about here. Some of the heroes are the missionary kids who adapt to life “out there” and embrace the local kids as if they were their family. Speaking of local kids, in Ecuador there was a little 4-year-old who was the daughter of a local pastor. She came with us during all our home visits and she was such a delight. What a trooper! She climbed up and down the mountainside without any complaints.

My teammates also inspire me. They leave behind family and the comforts of home and sacrifice the little money and vacation time they have. They set aside fears of insects or of long flights, lay down worries about health issues, and just go and love on the people!

My faith g-r-o-w-s!  God speaks to me extra clearly when I’m “out there” and I love it!  I know that I am in the palm of God’s hand and in the center of His will for my life when I’m out there. And I know that we are covered in prayer. That’s why I can be at peace in the middle of the jungle while we’re painting the church in Brazil or while we’re swerving along the mountainside on winding roads without guardrails in Ecuador. That’s why I can feel God’s presence during an impromptu service in a junkyard in Ethiopia! That’s why I can talk to complete strangers about Jesus and pray for them on the spot!

I am so encouraged to see how the locals love the same God that I do. It reminds me that as Christians we really are one family with the same Heavenly Father! I am so blessed to be able to travel around this beautiful world that God has created! And I am humbled and honored that I can be the hands and feet of Jesus in any small way while I’m there.

Because God says GO! It’s all over the Bible. It’s some of the last words Jesus said to His disciples after He resurrected and before He ascended into heaven. That should be reason enough for all of us to Go! When God opens a door, it’s best to go through it! The peace comes from knowing He goes before us and is with us! That’s His Promise to us!

Some of you may be thinking about and praying about going on a short-term missions trip. I pray that God will confirm things to you and swing the doors wide open for you.

Below are a few verses that are near and dear to my heart especially as I prepare for mission trips. I pray they will bless you as well!

  • “I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses.” (Joshua 1:3)
  • “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” (Joshua 1:9)
  • “Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I. Send me!'” (Isaiah 6:8)
  • “Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.'” (Matthew 28: 18-20)
  • “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)
  • “…Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?  And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!'” (Romans 10:13-15)

If this encouraged you, please feel free to leave a comment below. If you’ve already been on missions trips, I’d love to hear a bit about your experiences!

THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

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Foreign Friends

View of painted church

 

One of the best things about going on short-term missions trips is the people you get to meet along the way. It’s during these trips that you get to exchange ideas and interact with people that live in a completely different world than you. And you get to make memories with people that you may never see again. Below is the story of a young lady I met in Brazil that I will never forget. Blessings!

During the short-term missions trip I went on to Arumanduba, Brazil in March 2009, the team befriended the family that lived to the right side of the church that God allowed us to help build (the church is pictured above). So many generations lived in this one particular house right on the river. Among them was the older man who donated the land for the church to be built, a cute little 4-year-old boy who used to ride in a canoe by himself, and the boy’s grandmother. There was also a young couple.

We had all noticed there was something different about the young wife. She didn’t look like any of the people in the area. The Portuguese she spoke sounded like it was a slightly different dialect. She also seemed kind of melancholy. We soon learned that the young wife was actually only 14!

Josie, as I will affectionately call her, was caught between two worlds. She didn’t fit in with all the carefree kids splashing around in the murky water and climbing palm trees in their bare feet. She also didn’t fit in with all the adults that stayed indoors doing housework, went off to work or gathered around to see us crazy Americans assembling a church.

She looked like she was a foreigner who had come from another region of Brazil. Her blonde hair made her stand out among all the brunettes. She was extremely quiet and reserved. She seemed like a young girl trapped in an adult’s life.

All seven of the women on our team were hoping to get to know this mysterious young lady and thankfully God gave us the opportunity one afternoon. During a break from all the construction we were doing, we stopped and played games such as paddy cake with the kids. As we were relaxing on some chairs, Josie quietly came over and took a seat next to us. With our indigenous Brazilian missionary there to serve as our translator, we struck up a conversation with our new friend. We got to encourage her and pray with her, and God allowed us to lead her to the Lord right on the spot.

That in itself was precious! So was what happened a little while afterwards.

It was the end of the week and the construction was just about done and I was finally ready to hit the water. I had seen my teammates and the locals swimming all week long and none of them had gotten bitten by any piranhas that may have been lurking around, thank God! Now it was my turn to jump in.

The kids were so excited that I would finally be joining them for their daily swim! And though the water was well… FILTHY… I had been looking forward to taking a dip. Don’t worry, I didn’t put my head under the water!

While I was playing with the kids, Josie decided to join us. I was so happy she did! Her demeanor had changed so much after we prayed for her and she received Christ. It just seemed like a weight had been lifted off of her.

So she hung around for a bit, but then left. She motioned that she would be back. I figured she went off to do some chores in the house.

After awhile, she came back and had this little plastic jar with her that you would find in any salon here in the states. She then took out some cream from the container and put it on her hair. Then in a very sweet gesture, she reached out and showed me that it was avocado conditioner. She then motioned for me to put some in my hair, so I did.

At that moment, I felt a special bond with Josie. I felt like she was inviting me to enter her world. There I was, standing in the murky water that was like a second home to her and she was sharing probably one of the only simple luxuries she must have owned with me. It was a girlie moment in the Amazon jungle of all the places in the world! We were just two girls trading beauty secrets except we didn’t say many words. It was priceless!

The once shy girl was coming out of her shell. My how she had been transformed in such a short time!

The night of the church’s inauguration Josie and her husband went up to receive prayer for healing. What a blessing to see! I don’t think she or her family will ever forget our team and by writing this memory down,  it will help me to always remember Josie.

Of course, you don’t have to wait until you’re on the mission field to enter someone else’s world.  Who can you start befriending today?

If this encouraged you, please feel free to leave a comment.

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Adventures in the Amazon

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This month marks four year since God allowed me to go on my very first short term missions trip. It was to the town of Arumanduba in the Amazon jungle in Brazil! The mission was to build the church you see pictured above.

The church stands as a testimony to the power of prayer. The people in that community had been praying for seven years for a church to be built there. They had no idea how they would be able to pay for it or who would do the actual manual labor!

The church is also a symbol of what a small army of folks dedicated to the Lord can do.

There’s so much I could say about that trip. A group of 12 of us flew from New York City amid a snowstorm on March 2, 2009. None of us city slickers knew quite what to expect as we joined our leaders from Amazon River Churches (ARC) on this extreme adventure.

Our goal was to build a church in a week. The only problem was that it was during the rainy season, and our team was made up of 7 women! That was the most females ARC had ever had on a team.

How I even got on the team was a shock to me. I remember our leader Steve sharing a video of a previous team building a church and him asking the congregation, “Do you see yourself doing this?”  My immediate thought was, “No!’ All I saw were men at a construction site!  I had no construction experience. All I had ever put together was IKEA furniture.

And going to the Amazon jungle!  No way!

But for some reason I kept going to the meetings, asking questions, and God kept giving me peace about moving forward.  What finally drew me in was the thought of sleeping in hammocks on a boat on the river and going on home visits to meet the locals. My plan was to “get through” all the construction in week one so I could enjoy the home visits and evangelism during week two. That was my goal. And despite the fear that the place would be crawling with more bugs than that infamous scene from “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,” I boarded the plane to Rio, flew to the city of Belem and boarded the van (or combie) to the town where we boarded the boat that would be our home for a little more than a week.

When we literally had to walk across a plank to get on our boat, it hit me that we were not in New York City anymore!

In this post, I’ll only focus on the church building part of the trip and how God s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d me during that time.

When we arrived at the construction site, the foundation had already been finished by local workers. Our job was mainly to put up the walls, raise the roof and paint the church. But it had been pouring all the days prior to our arrival, so our first assignment was the lowly task of using the top halves of plastic soda bottles as shovels to scoop out the water from the holes where the posts for the walls would go. So there I was, my first day in the jungle, literally on my hands and knees getting all muddy as I put my hand in some holes and scooped out water with my makeshift shovel. It was quite humbling for me, but I knew it needed to be done so I did it unto the Lord.  It helped that my fellow teammates were also down on the ground.  We had come prepared to work.

My Dad’s pep talk to me before I left was simply, “Get the job done.”  That’s what I planned to do.

After the scooping was done, we assembled a bucket brigade to pass along concrete (or masa) to fill the holes. Then it was time for the part I was dreading the most. The 50 pound placas (or concrete slabs) needed to be moved so that they could be stacked up to create the church walls. We women paired up in teams of two and just hustled as we moved those heavy suckers around. I still say God gave the team the strength of Samson during those days.

Amazingly, by the end of Day 1 the walls were up!  I don’t know why I thought we’d be moving placas for days and days!  Day 1 did have a few hitches including me getting “bit” by a placa. It happened while we were sliding the concrete slabs into place. A little piece of the palm of my hand got caught in between two placas. It immediately started to swell up and I started thinking, “Oh no, man down! Man down!”  But I had little time to feel sorry for myself as I soon found out that one of my teammates had stepped on a nail! I was impressed by how calm she remained. So after icing my hand for a bit, I sucked it up and went back to work. And that meant helping to put primer on the outside of the church walls. That’s when I saw a snake in the distance and was reminded that not only was I on a construction site but one in the Amazon jungle!  Oh, what we do for the love of God!

Day 2 included caulking and painting. It was fun getting to know my teammates as we painted and repainted the walls. By this time we had attracted quite a crowd of locals who had come to see what the crazy Americans were up to. Thankfully, a few pitched in to help us.  As I stood in the muck and mire in my work boots, I was shocked to see the kids running around in the mud barefoot. But they wanted to be part of the action, too.

To my surprise, all that was left to do was to finish painting and to put up the roof.  I affectionately call Day 3 my “bi polar” day as I found myself laughing, and then crying, and then laughing again.  I felt so honored to get to help paint the front, right-hand side of the church. I was so overwhelmed by what God had allowed me to be a part of.  Little me who had only assembled IKEA furniture and had never painted so much in my life. God had allowed me to help create a beautiful church in this remote part of the world.

Looking back, I see that while I was busy helping to build a structure, God was at work building some character and faith in me.

God did so many amazing things on that trip!  I have never been the same!

Miraculously, God held off the rain in our area during our work hours. When it did rain, it was as we were putting up the roof! That just added to the fun we had while passing all the tiles along to each other to place them on the steel beams to finish the roof.

To our amazement, God allowed a team with 7 women to help build the church in record time – 3 1/2 days!

One of our favorite songs we sang while working was, “What a Mighty God we Serve.” That is an understatement.

The icing on the cake was being able to invite the locals to come to the inaugural service that Sunday.  People traveled quite a distance by boat to get there. It was standing room only during the service.

As I soaked in all the celebration, I noticed I was standing right near the spot where I had been “bitten” by a placa. Things had come full circle. My blood, sweat and tears literally had gone into helping to build this church that I was now worshipping in!

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I would be remiss if I didn’t include some takeaway lessons for you as well:

Don’t be afraid when God calls you to join Him on an adventure! – I was at such peace while painting in the middle of the jungle. I know it was all the prayers of the saints! When God calls you, He will be there protecting you every step of the way!

Let God change your “no” to “yes” – I would have never signed up for a construction trip, But God….

Don’t put God in a box – He really can do exceedingly abundantly above all we ask or think! (Ephesians 3:20-21)

Let your light shine – That church stands as a beacon of hope because a few men and women obeyed the call from God to go and bless His people in Arumanduba. And what wonderful people they are! Such humble people. It was our honor to serve them.

What is God calling you to do? It may not be as extreme as going to the Amazon. It could be to volunteer at your church, to sign up for a small group, to try out for the choir or to speak to someone about Jesus.  Once you figure out what God is asking of you, pray and then ask God to help you do it!

Has God recently asked you to do something completely out of your comfort zone? I’d love to hear about it! Feel free to leave a comment below.

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Cleansed

Back in March 2009, I had the extreme privilege of going on a short-term missions trip with Amazon River Churches (ARC) to the Amazon jungle in Brazil.  We traveled by boat to a remote little village called Arumanduba. Our main mission was to build a church for the community of believers who lived there. That is a wonderful story for another time!

Once the church was built, we had the pleasure of taking a mini-speed boat ride to visit the neighbors and invite them to the inaugural service. The custom over there is that instead of knocking on someone’s door, you clap as you approach their house as a way of announcing your arrival.

In one of the houses we visited, there was a man and a few of his friends who seemed very excited to see us. During that visit, the man invited our group to see the well he had in his backyard. Not realizing how far we would be walking, we thought nothing of leaving our shoes by the front door. We ended up walking quite a distance barefoot, over a make-shift walkway made out of long, thin tree trunks. Thankfully, it wasn’t so high, but it was still quite a balancing act. When we arrived at the well, we rested and our host was kind enough to cut down some coconuts from a nearby tree and split them open for us to drink.

While that was all quite an experience in itself, one of the things that stood out to me the most from that home visit was watching the man pour the filthy well water into a water filter he had in his home and watching the murky water instantly come out clear of impurities and clean enough to drink. Amazing!

As I watched the gunk being transformed into drinking water, I got a picture of what happens when someone is born again so I shared it with one of the men there. I told him that that is what happens when we give our lives to Christ.  We give Jesus our junk, our mess, our sins, our brokenness and His precious blood wipes away our sins and cleanses us and restores us and makes us brand new.  Now that is truly awesome!

Today, if you are struggling with old ways of thinking and living, I would like to remind you that as a born-again Christian, you are a new creation! You are a blood-bought, redeemed child of the Most High God! Don’t let the enemy fool you! There is no sin too awful that the blood of Jesus can’t wipe away! That is His promise to us!

If you’re just starting to learn more about Jesus, I invite you to visit http://peacewithgod.jesus.net/ or the Info for New Believers/Seekers page.

I’m proud to be joining Bonnie’s Faith Jam this week!

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