Begun in Faith

After a long silence, it can be hard to know what to say. Where do I start? What will people want to read? What is important? I don’t know if what I’m about to say falls under either of those categories, but it's where I am going to start. It is just a start, though. I have plenty more to say in future blogs.  I came to Brazil to train teams of missionaries; teams that include ten young adults, a support family, and a pastoral family. We recently hired the pastoral family and still do not have a support family. While the pastors are preparing to leave their current church and home, I am living with and training the team of nine (currently) young adults. I am their trainer and, for the foreseeable future, their support family. I often feel like a single mom of nine who works from home. It's not boring.  Back: Pr Lincoln, Yussef (a disciple, not part of the team), TJ, Dave, Bernard, Alexsandra, Lucas Front: Aline, me, Hannah, Alyssa, Olivia, Sarah, Pra Fabiana, João Lucas a...

Portuguese is a slippery thing. It’s hard to get a hold of. It’s even harder to keep a hold of. And once you give up on trying, it will slip into all your Spanish and even your English if you’re not careful. But it is also a blessing in teaching humility. Daily. The dance team is an important part of the worship team. That's me playing the piano. I don't know any of the songs.  I have now been in Brasilia for exactly four weeks, but I’ve been carrying around a story that I’ve wanted to share with you for the past three weeks so I’m going to share it even though it’s not recent. I’m also going to type entirely in run-on sentences so you can get a peek into my grammatical chaos. First, let me just say that I am alive and doing well. I’m living with a friend and her mom, eating three delicious meals a day, and slowly figuring out how the public transportation works. My basic needs have been miraculously covered, so thank you for your prayers. I’ve been very busy with...

Have you ever gotten good news that felt like bad news? Like when “Yay! A new puppy!” becomes “Now I’m buying expensive dog food and picking up poop for the rest of my life.” In January, I got to attend Extreme’s annual summit in Manta, Ecuador. We began every morning with prayer and worship. One morning, we were asked to get with a partner we didn’t know well, pray for them, ask God what He wanted to share with that person, and share what God told us. My partner, the pastor of the Chile church plant, told me that my message from God was to not freak out. Don’t freak out about my future plans in Brazil or the visas and just trust that God would take care of things. Sounds great, right? I immediately felt warning bells going off inside of me. God’s word is timely and perfect. However, I was not at all worried about visas or my future plans. Why would God tell me in a prophetic word to not freak out… unless a storm was coming. My dread was now at odds with the promise. Getting the v...

Last week, I preached about how we can see our lives and our circumstances with God's vision. I used Jorge's life as an example. Even after meeting Christ, he still lived in suicidal depression until he saw himself as God sees him; completely forgiven and free to live abundantly. Enzo is a very different example of the same concept. Having been a Christian since his youth, he saw his life through the lens of Psalm 22:6 "I am a worm and not a man." He is a man of excellence in everything, but only perfection will do with the things of God. Whether rewiring the sanctuary or buying snacks for an event, he provided the best of the best. However, he knew, and would often tell us, that his humanly standard of perfection was not enough. His work, efforts, performance was merely the best he could do, acceptable only by the grace of a loving God. His self-deprecating language was always confusing to those around him. We could see him with God's eyes: a natural leader, ever...

There once was a missionary who was traveling with his apprentice through the highlands of South America preaching the good news and encouraging the people. One evening, at day’s end, the two were far from any town and without lodging. They saw a small house on the edge of the ridge and, thinking it was abandoned, went to seek shelter. The structure was barely standing, but the duo was surprised to see it was inhabited by a large family. The head of the household invited them in. He explained that they were very poor, having only one dairy cow to provide food. The family lived off of the cheese they made from the very small amount of milk the cow gave. They didn’t have much, but they were more than willing to share with the missionary and his disciple. Before the meal, they asked the missionary to pray for them. He did so generously, asking for the Lord’s blessing and provision for the family and their future. The cheese was divided into portions so meager that each one continued in h...

Our last trip, our last Encounter, our last communion, our last holiday, our last short term team. As April 20 looms closer, we are experiencing and planning more of our “lasts.” Our last Sunday is Easter Sunday. What a horribly depressing way to celebrate the purpose of the universe. The short term construction team that visited us last month was a huge blessing in a difficult time. For those of us transitioning out of Extreme and feeling like we have less and less to do, it was a perfect distraction. For those of us continuing on and feeling more and more the weight of our ministries, it was an encouragement to see so much productivity in such a short time frame. The team itself was made up of old Extreme veterans. For some, this was their fourth Extreme construction trip, having built our churches in Arequipa, Ambato, Antofagasta, and now Córdoba. And that’s just with Extreme. Some have been on as many as twenty work and witness trips with Nazarene Compassionate Ministries. Thr...

The Setup Ok, let’s back up. What is Extreme? Extreme Nazarene is an organization that partners with the Nazarene church to plant new Nazarene churches using teams of missionaries from the United States and the country where the church is being planted. Except it doesn’t because sometimes the teams have members from three or even more countries. The church in Ibarra, Ecuador has pastors from Venezuela and the church in Antofagasta, Chile has missionaries from Brazil and Peru. And really, Extreme doesn’t send missionaries but rather social workers, baristas, 4 th grade teachers, dog groomers, factory workers, and college students to be trained as missionaries on the field. So Extreme Nazarene plants Nazarene churches using teams of young people sent to make disciples and train their disciples to make disciples who make disciples.                          ...