Hey folks! I just wanted to write an update and let you know some of the things that have been going on recently. We continue to work daily on the house and hope to be moving in around the beginning of May. We are excited about the progress and look forward to being able to settle into our home.
There is another missionary couple that lives about twenty minutes from the property. Their names are Keith and Joanna Daniels. They are from Valdosta, Georgia. They have been, without a doubt to Kara and I, a definite God send. They have encouraged us, had us over to their house, are actually taking us to the capital next week to take care of some business at Immigration and the Embassy. Their ministries include running a children’s home, a twenty-four hour radio station, and Keith teaches the Bible in homes and villages throughout the week. He has invited me to go with him on several occasions; which have been very exciting.
About two weeks ago Keith told me about a new ministry that he and three other men want to start. He asked me if I would be interested in joining them in this ministry. In a nut shell it is a church planting and discipleship vision. Each of the five of us would be coordinators over a particular phase in the process. For example, Keith would coordinate the initial phase, which is evangelism. Then Jorge, a Honduran pastor, would coordinate the next phase, discipleship. The other two guys, Sam (a Honduran who works with Keith) and Randy (Keith’s pastor and mentor from the States) would coordinate the next two phases: teaching the pastor about worship and teaching him to play an instrument, as well as pastor training. Then the final phase would be mine to coordinate. It would involve the building of the church facility. This is great because it allows Kara and I to begin our own type of ministry, while remaining connected with IMB through coordinating building trips to these villages. We will all work together throughout the entire process, but we will have certain responsibilities when it is our particular phase. I tell you all this to ask that you will be praying for Kara and I as we begin this new and exciting opportunity. This will also provide a great opportunity for the interns who will be coming down to stay with us. They also will have opportunities to teach, disciple, and encourage these new believers.
I also wanted to share about the opportunity I had to teach in a village last Thursday. As Kara mentioned this week is called Holy Week throughout all Latin America. While it is mostly a tradition of the Catholic Church, the Protestants use it as a time of evangelism and witnessing. I am particularly grateful because it is literally all you hear about. The Lord has kept thoughts of the incarnation, the cross, and His salvation fresh in my mind for the entire week. I am guilty of, in the past, thinking of God’s great love and Christ’s sacrifice only on Easter Sunday. As I mentioned, I was able to teach on Thursday and just shared some of the things God has put on my heart concerning Easter. I would like to share with you some of those things.
It is impossible to think of Easter and not think of the abundance of God’s love (John 3:16). God is the Alpha and Omega. He has no beginning and no end; He is those things. When we read in Genesis 1:1 and John 1:1 the words, “In the beginning” it does not refer to God’s beginning but to the beginning of creation. God is eternal and uncaused. Because He is eternal and uncaused He is completely self-sufficient within Himself. God did not need anything from creation and He does not need anything we could give Him today (Isaiah 64:6). He enjoyed creating the creation and He enjoys receiving the glory from it, yet He does not change in His self-sufficiency. This is where it gets good to me. Out of the abundance of God’s love, and as John 1:16 says, “And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.” God, the uncaused and self-sufficient One, created man in his image to enjoy His creation and perfect fellowship with Him. We the creation forsook the great privilege of fellowship with our Creator for vanity, destruction, and death. We chose sin and have fallen short of God’s glory. However, it does not end there for us. Out of the abundance of His love, God, before creation, made the way for our redemption. A. W. Tozer says, “God is the triune God, and back in that pre-creation time, the Holy Trinity was busy with eternal mercies. God’s mind was stirring with merciful thoughts and redemptive plans for humanity, so we read in Ephesians 1:4, ‘According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.’” Out of the abundance of His love, God made the way for our redemption even before He created His creation. This is God’s great Love toward us. This is what should stir our hearts, not only during Easter season, but everyday of our lives. This is what should compel us to share the Gospel with those around us and those who have never heard.
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