Train, Stretch and Pull...God is wearing me out!

“Train, stretch, and pull...I feel like God is wearing me out trying to get me ready to go to Peru.  Literally all day long I sit in sessions that challenge everything I have ever learned about evangelism, or church planting.  It is quite a challenge and my head really hurts but I am finally doing what God wants me to do!”

In a word: I am finally getting to the meat of what I will be doing—church planting.  That’s right it is the goal of every missionary (despite your job description) to start what is called a church planting movement in the area where he or she is.  (Read on below if interested).  My friendships continue to grow while I am here and God has opened the door for me to share the gospel with my new friends Shawn, Sarah Carlos, and Dolly.  Please pray they would come to faith.  The visa process is going to start in October while I am in Guatemala, so please pray that everything will work out since the Peruvian government has been weird about visas lately.

Church Planting: I have learned about what is called a CPM or church planting movement.  This is basically where I go into a village, city or wherever (even in the states) and I find a man or woman of peace to start investing in.  Second, I start a small group of people typically in the home of the man or woman of peace and dialogue with them about the gospel and the Bible.  Once a few of them come to faith (including the man or woman of peace) I begin to allow he or she to take over the small group—teaching it and leading it.  My goal the whole time is to train so that everyone in the group can be trained.  It is like my new missionary friend said today, “We see every new believer as a potential church start in their culture.” The concept is that there is no way the world is going to be reached by the amount of pastors that we can train, instead it is going to be won by the national believers that we train in our small house churches.  Have you ever thought for instance that anyone can baptize?  Maybe you have known that your whole life but I have always had this thought in my mind that it would be better if a minister did it or something.  The best thing on the field though is to allow those that lead their friends and family to Christ to baptize them.  It gives them ownership in what God is doing and therefore gives them a passion to go reach all of the other lost people that they know.  I am still learning so much but I am so pumped that we are learning these things!

People I have met: You know what is great?  There are people from all walks of life here?  God truly calls anybody and everybody to go do this missionary thing.  We have people that were saved when they were 5 and people were saved only 3 years ago.  We have a ton of girls and just a few guys, which isn’t surprising in mission work these days.  And most of all we have people that have worked as engineers, fast food cashiers, nurses, and even those with their first job.  So there are always amazing conversations about where people have come from and why they would move to Africa, the middle east, Europe or wherever.

Lost people I am speaking with:

The Lord is increasing my faith and my passion to share my faith as I go.  I had the opportunity last night to share with a lady named Dolly who I don’t think had really heard the gospel before.  She was working at Waffle House and she was raised Catholic but when I told her of how God had changed my life it was something different to her.   She looked at me with such sincerity and hunger but the words coming out of her mouth were almost turned off.  I told her I would pray for her last night and that she ought to ask God to speak to her about Salvation.  So please pray for her that she would come to faith.

I am looking to invest in Sarah and Shawn at the Daily Grind Coffee Company.  Shawn seems to be open to talking all about spiritual things.  He reads the Bible all of the time, along with the Torah and the Koran. Sarah’s band played at the coffee shop one night and we all went to hear her to reach out to her. I have not shared the gospel with Sarah but one my new friends named Katie apparently had the opportunity to share with her.  So please pray that these two would be saved.

Finally I have the opportunity to go to El Paso Mexican Restaurant here in Richmond and share my faith in Spanish.  It wasn’t amazing by any means but my new friend Carlos and another man working with him told me to come back at about 3PM sometime and they would like to talk about Jesus a little more.  So please pray for an opportunity to do this and that God would give me understanding in Spanish that I don’t have.

And finally:

Things are wearing on and I am getting tired.  I am beginning to look toward the field and it is difficult to leave all of this behind.  Some TCK’s (Third Culture Kids or Missionary Kids) got up during a session and shared about how they said good-bye their whole lives because they moved around so much.  They were so disconnected from the US and even from the country that they grew up in that they didn’t have anywhere to call home.  It hit me when they started talking about this that I am going to move around a lot now and many of my friends are not going to live close to me.  That is hard considering I have never really lived outside of Texas before.  I mean I have really only moved once and that was for college.  So this is a huge transition for me!  I am pumped about it, but I am beginning the emotional process of letting go of what I have here—so that I can go serve the Lord over there.  So please pray like crazy for me as I work through this!

I love each of you