The Good Fight

I have not yet introduced my new partner from Columbia, Efrain Mosquera. He is twenty-five years old and has been on the Xtreme Team for quite some time. He is rather quiet and usually does not say something if he truly does not mean it. In many ways he has no fear by what he says and has told me many times that I am fat. But even more importantly he is fearless with the Gospel and I have not met anyone else in my life with a better relationship with Christ. Efrain spends hours and hours with the Father and is always trying to be closer to His presence and this has greatly challenged my walk.

This time of waiting and anticipation has been somewhat tough on Efrain. Though as usual he has found a way to grow through it. He wrote this on our computer almost as open journal blog and shared it with me. I deeply moved me and I hope that it will inspire in you in the same way.

¨This is a letter that I am writing no with my own hand or fingers but it is through a keyboard.

I am in my last days of this year and it started to become very slow; the difference is that every day we or really I am a little different inside, and have more become intense in my prayers for these days the spiritual battle is growing in me, I feel that I am in a war without quarter, many times, the arrows of the enemy has harmed me. However, I recognized who God is and has raised me to continue the good fight of faith, not in my strength but in Christ´s, and die every day taking the hard and heavy cross. This part has been the most difficult because I am found with two sides inside: the Spirit and the Flesh. The Bible says that these two are in opposition, the point is that GOD has given me the capability to choose good or evil. But at times I do not choose the good, always aksing God to please help me be crucified just like Jesus did...once and forever. The small struggles will prepare me for the greater battles and of course continue in God with His Word.

The date to leave the community has passed but we keep praying because we have the hope of going and sharing the Gospel. Now we are here in the house and personally I am bored. This time I have used to learn a story, the story of disobedience of man in Quechua. This is a serious thing to learn. The thing is that God has given me the ability to do this because he knows that this is for His Glory, and Miguel°, my new partner already knows the story of creation in Quechua, and told me that he feels a peace waiting for the moment to leave. We think that this time God is using to protect us from some danger or is preparing the hearts of those who will hear the Gospel of Christ, or even working in our hearts.

I dreamed about my old friend from High School, and the made me pray for him, and for all of my friends from my High School. I don´t know if they are living, but it is my desire and the desire of God that they receive salvation like God has had mercy on me. It is something so beautiful to wake every morning and know that it is for the goodness of God that I can or we can enjoy one day more and know that this day we will have the opportunity to give glory to God. In my Study Bible I am in Ezekiel. It is a serious thing to be a prophet of God, but also, is even more serious to be far from God and not know that God is God and always wants the best for his chosen people.

I miss my family, but this morning I learned one more time that if you don´t hate your most beloved and totally give your obedience to God, you simply cannot be his Disciple. LORD, this is my prayer I give to you every day, without reservations or conditions, in the middle of society that every time I am in sin, LORD, I need you deeply to help me walk in this world with your light and your truth and in this way be light and truth to many people that know nothing of you. Only for your Glory. Thanks for your faithfulness and your forgiveness in Jesus, Amen.¨

- Efrain Mosquera

°¨Miguel¨ is my name in Spanish and the name all the Latinos use for me.

I translated the letter so I know there are many errors. I just hope that his message was a clear picture of a man after God´s own heart. Please pray for us as we try to stay sharp and find our satisfaction in the Lord everyday.

All Things and Donkeys

I used to love to write in my journal. I could express all the joy that lived in me always impossible to contain. I lost a lot of love for many things in my life. This did not result because of my lack of love for the things of the world but rather a lack of love for The Savior. Interestingly how it works: The more love I had for my LORD the more I was able to love all things. It is like my love for Him only enabled me to love more and more. But as time passes and as we finite, fallible creatures succumb to our own weakness we start looking to the result instead of the source. And as that happens we lose all. Of course it would be wrong to look at the Savior only for His benefits, but I believe that is what is so beautiful about our relationship with Him. That as we make Him our all, our everything, when we truly abide in Him and our joy rests in Him we are able to even enjoy those things that we might find otherwise boring or irrelevant. With God at the center of our heart, our True joy, it is as if we see the world through a different lens. I can enjoy all things because in all things He is my joy.

This was an excerpt from my journal while I was in the community. Some things are just that much clearer away from all the hustle and demands of the city. I believe that same day we had to round up some donkeys and they ended up running away from us making it to the well (the same one we drank out of). After many amusing attempts by the two gringos and the whole village getting a front seat at the very new and very ineffective techniques of rounding up donkeys we finally managed to bring them home. I used to think Donkeys were interesting creatures but after that experience I understood why their name became a pejorative term.

Either way, I have found that when we simplify things in life much of our worries fade into the background and we can have a better picture of the Savior.

Greatest Day of Eleanor

I apologize for the delay in writing. I know there is much time that elapses between blogs but I do appreciate your visits. The delay comes from an overall apathy mixed with indifference. My partner and I were supposed to be in the communities over a week ago but due to political unrest we have had to wait.

It has been as if I have been sleep walking these past few days waiting for life to wake me up. I feel as if I need to confront God and just come to His burning presence.

In that burning I have found that I have placed my significance on the conditional, various circumstances, the changing of the season. I am left wanting because I don´t find myself in the Unconditional. But here is the grind: When I am not ¨serving¨ God or in a sense doing my work I find my life without meaning as if I am drifting. This begs to imply that my significance depends on my work, my actions instead of God Himself. Another form of idolatry that is very subtle as it stands in the high places far away from the throne. I believe if I cannot find my meaning, my worth in Him right now when all I can do is be then all my work and service in His Name is shallow and in a sense defiled.

Maybe e that is what I am finally learning. This could be the lesson that I must learn before I move on or at least just face the day given to me. That who I am is not based on what I do as much as my position before Christ. The nearer I am to His Presence the more I am capable to do His work and the purer the work will be. My significance lies within the Heart of God.

I named the title of this blog after the Smashing Pumpkins´ song, ¨Today.¨ When I was in High School I used to blare this song before school everyday and claim the lyrics for myself: ¨Today is the greatest day I have ever known.¨ Though of course the first time I heard this song with my boy, Dino, I thought ole Billy was saying, ¨Today is the greatest day of Eleanor.¨ I thought, ¨Who is Eleanor and why is the day so great to her?¨ I always thought this would be a great name of a book or something.

Either way I am learning the preciousness of each day because I am finding that preciousness in Christ. The days and seasons are just waves breaking against the immovable rock. I find that the greatness in the day is because of the greatness of the Savior.

So celebrate with Eleanor and me in the greatest day we´ve ever known.

Chariots and Horses

I am still in Sucre and waiting for the arrival of my mom and our vacation. During these past few weeks my new partner, Efrain Mosquera from Colombia, has arrived and we both have been focusing on learning Quechua. Efrain has been with the team for over a year and a half now. He and Bobby Lane worked with the Yaminauah in the jungles of Peru, where the Yaminauah now have their own church and missionaries to reach their own people. We are really happy to have him.

This time has been good for resting and preparing for the next trip which should be the most exciting of them all as we are going to start storying with the Quechua in Quchumi. Recently I have been translating the story of creation from Spanish to Quechua (who would have ever thought?) and though it has been quite difficult I feel so excited about what our LORD will do through His beautiful word.

¨Some trust in Chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.¨
- Psalms 20:7

A friend of mine told me that they were praying the chapter of Psalm 20 for me while I was in the community. Verse seven of this chapter has always stood out to me. When I was a kid I thought it was kind of funny. I mean why would someone trust in a horse? It seemed to be to me all too silly. But after growing up a little and studying scripture especially in the times of the Judges and Kings I realized how much importance it was to have horses and chariots. The very numbers determined battles and gave hope to men or broke their spirits.

Time and time again when the numbers were against Israel God showed His power and saved His people. In many instances the Kings would lose heart at the sight of the great number of horses and chariots before them. Some even hired other nations to protect them. I reflected on this when I was in the community and though as I kid I thought it funny to trust in a horse in many ways I found myself still doing so, whether I was trusting in my own strength to get through the day or just the circumstances that appeared favorable to our mission. We put trust in the things we think will give victory but reality we are shown that victory is only given by God in ways we would never expect.

I guess that is one of the tests of faith. To look across the battlefield and know that we are in enemy territory and outnumbered on all accounts, and be able to reach down and find that hope in our LORD.

I look at the upcoming days in the community of Quchumi and I know that we are in enemy territory and in many ways outnumbered. We are able to face this with joy and hope because we are there in His Name. We are able to trust that He will do all and eliminate all obstacles in order for His Glory, His Precious Name to be known. Though some trust in chariots and some in horses, we will trust in the name of the LORD, our God.

Lost Sheep

I am sorry for the delay in the blog. Andrew and I got back about a week ago and he has since left to go back to the States. Also Kay´s parents were here for a bit.

In this blog I will just tell how our most recent trip went. Though it was rather short it was one of the most important trips we have done thus far. My first trip with Andrew the people worked us really hard and at times it felt we were only hired hands which seemed as if the real reason we were there was lost by the people. This trip was to regain the focus.

We decided to plan only to work half the day and reserve the rest for studying Quechua. If the people were willing to accommodate we could stay and if not then we would have had to find another place. Learning the language is of the utmost priority and we wanted the people to remember why we were there.

To the Praise of our Father it was a very successful trip. Upon arriving to Quchumi we found that they had been saving our room for us until our return. We were able to work with our Man of Peace all the days and were never without food.

The first time we had to leave to go study and not work the rest of the day was hard because Don, our Man of Peace, had a hard time understanding and even asked us who was now going to help him. Though a little worried at first, we still received food and the promise of work for the rest of the week.

Andrew had memorized a story, which was Jesus´ parable of the lost sheep. Upon hearing this story, Don was excited about learning more stories in the future and understood the need or our studying. I asked him a few questions about the story Andrew told. His favorite part of the story was that God was looking for the lost sheep and he even said that he felt like that he was the lost sheep.

Though our trip was short we are really excited about what we were able to see during our time there. God is preparing the hearts of the Quechua in Quchumi for His Precious Word. We are just excited about being a part of this work.

I want to thank Andrew Griffith for his time here in Bolivia. Though he was only here for two and a half months the work he did here was invaluable to our team. Andrew, thanks for being my partner and being so passionate about His Glory as I believe you accomplished much here for the Kingdom. You are going to be missed.

Fellow Workers

As many of you know I don´t exactly have experience in working out doors except picking up pine cones and mowing the grass. This aspect of our job always scares me a little.

We enter into a community with the promise that we will work for a place to stay and food to eat. At times when we didn´t have work we wouldn´t eat (many a time the people were so generous and gave us food anyway). For most of the people they live hard lives and seem to age faster than normal. They work from sun up to sun down with little variation in their average routine. Though difficult we were fortunate enough to help the people and work along beside them.

Every morning Andrew (my partner) and I would wake up with the sun do our usual morning routine and walk outside, sit on a wooden stump and wait for whatever was to come that day. If food came then usually came with it the promise to work. The first few days were the easiest as all we did was seperate potatoes and later spread them out. Though boring, it was not all that bad. The people also made this type of potato called Chuño. It takes a long process of several days to make these things, and there is stomping on the potatoes which we got to partake later in our stay. They are probably the worst things known to man.

Right now being in harvest season the work we did the most had to do with wheat whether it was cutting or carrying. It took us some time getting used to cutting the wheat but after awhile we took pride in our work. (Weirdly enough we began to have conversations about wheat like, ¨that wheat was great to cut because it was long and smooth unlike yesterday which was very dry.¨ We realized we had cut too much wheat at this time.) Many times we spent all day cutting fields of wheat, but sometimes we would have to walk an hour or so just to get to the field.

Our health was good basically the whole time. Andrew got sick one day (the day we had community work day repairing a stone road...good times), and I got sick the very last day which has since affected all my team members. I cut up my hands pretty bad doing stupid things (like cutting my own hand with a sickle). We had to take vitamins to supplement the lack of everything in potatoes. We had potatoes every meal, and though sometimes it was in a soup type deal, most of the time it was just a basket of potatoes. In the end I did not bathe for three entire weeks (new record). We did our best to wash up whenever we could be there was not much of a chance really at all to do so. When I finally got to bathe it was as if the dirt was caked on and took several showers to finally remove the filth.

Though it was very difficult working and living like the Quechua it is of the upmost importance and advantage to do so, if only to not be a burden to the people as Paul did in Thessalonica, ¨for you remember, brothers, our labor and toil: we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to you.¨ Also in this way we have become more like the people, equals, and not just strangers with some foreign message. It is amazing how deep with the people we were able to be just because we were living life like they do.

¨He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God´s fellow workers...¨

As we keep planting we know that God gives the growth. But how thankful we truly are to be given the privilege to work not only for God but with God. To think we are His ¨fellow workers¨ is a humbling thought but it also gives us strength and hope to face each day. And though our work was very physical and not many people could see the eternal results, we worked with confidence that God was working the whole time and that makes all the difference.

Greeting Them From Afar

We just got back from our trip to the Quechua who are in Quchumi, a small community of twenty families living in the mountains in the Chayanta Department in Bolivia. To the praise of our Gracious Father we were able to stay for three weeks working and trying to learn culture and language.

In the next blog I will write about the work and physical aspect of our trip. This blog I will just relate about what God did with our time in Quchumi.

We entered Quchumi the 13th of June trying to find a Man of Peace to stay with, work with, and eat with in order to earn our keep while we studied the language and culture and built relationships.

There were many hardships that we encountered. The suspiciousness of the people at first, the food, and the work. We started working for several different people in the community, which turned out to be a blessing in itself allowing us to get to know more people in the community. We, however, finally ended up with our Man of Peace in the last seven days of our stay, which we worked really hard for him all those days. He was, by God´s design, the owner of the house we had been staying in the whole time, but did not find this out until the end.

The greatest hardship was the language barrier. Many of the inhabitants of Quchumi spoke enough Spanish for us to get by, though most of the time our limited Spanish exceeded their level. We had few chances to practice the language but heard it a fair amount. The temptation was great to begin telling the Gospel in Spanish, but to keep the Gospel pure we refrained. It was quite difficult to stay for such an extended time without engaging in any time of ¨Evangelistic Outreach¨ or even start storying. We strongly believe, however, in our method of learning the language and teaching the stories, God´s Story, from beginning to end if not to cheat or rob them of truly understanding His Message.

At many times it just felt like we were surviving. We would get up and work, some days for over ten hours with little conversation (when eating with the Quechua in their homes they usually serve guests outside while they eat separately inside their house). I believe even with the barriers of language and limited fellowship we were still able to build valid relationships. At times long days of work were made all the worth it when a five minute conversation somehow came through revealing their interest in hearing the Gospel. Upon many questions we found out the people have a general idea about God, almost nothing of Jesus, but all have the interest to learn the Word. We have received an invitation to come back any time to stay with them and to start teaching.

At times it was extremely difficult to keep looking down the road to when we could start storying. This is such an important process and during days of hard work, eating a million potatoes, of being the outsiders for so long, we had to keep saying to ourselves, ¨we are doing this so they can hear.¨ Though through this work we aren´t able to see any ¨results¨ yet, we believe it will lead to something beautiful. As the saints of old greeted the unreceived promises from afar we too greet the promise that the Quechua will hear and we continue in that hope.

¨...not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar...¨ - Hebrews 11:13