Day Quatro

Before you read this post, make sure to re-read my previous one below (Third Day) because I fixed mysterious a problem with the blog program and the post is MUCH longer than was earlier posted.

The trip is marching on and we are having a great and beneficial time thanks to your prayers and support. Dinner was fun together last night. We figured out how to cram a glass in our mouths, so that kept us busy for a good hour.

After this intellectually stimulating exercise, we headed in for worship. After singing a song, Wayne got up to talk to us about how missionaries raises money for all the many living expenses that they have. This was especially relevant in light of our earlier discussion about the fact that God HAS called you to be a part of missions. The question is not "IF?" but "HOW?" Global missionaries have so many expenses that we can't even anticipate. Wayne described a philosophy of missionary support called "faith missions." In faith missions, the missionaries are not paid a salary, but rather they live from month to month watching God meet and exceed their needs. He was careful to say that faith missionaries have not reached a higher level of spirituality, but they do depend on God daily and are able to rejoice in Him more palpably as they see His wonderful provision. This was striking to me since we are living in a culture that is obsessed with security. We freak out if we don't have every step for our future set up. We often value strategic test scores over building character and faith. In light of that, Wayne is a man who envies nobody. He has seen God provide in ways that we can only dream. If God can meet our needs this radically, then what does it look like to really be involved in missions as a sender? Does the way we give affect our leisure spending? Does it affect the way we vacation or plan for our future? Wayne gave example after example of God's kind providence meeting his needs. He told the story of a missionary who was asked, "What do you do for your financial planning?" He half-jokingly replied "I give!" He really believed that “He who is kind to the poor lends to the LORD, and He will reward him for what he has done" (Prov 19:17). Do you believe that? As missions senders we need to realize that God prospers us not to raise our standard of living, but our standard of giving (a great quote from www.generousgiving.org).

Well, after that faith-building talk from Wayne, we sang some more. It was a tremendous time of pouring out our love to God. Before we sang, I noted that the way Christians sing is unique. We get used to it because we do it all the time, but other faiths don't have songs like we do. We alone have songs of redemption and forgiveness. Other faiths don't believe in salvation by grace alone, so their relationship to God isn't one wholly of grace. Christian singing is precious and we should pursue it with unique fervency. We sang all about the cross and resurrection of Jesus. We shouted "Savior, he can move the mountains/my God is mighty to save, mighty to save/Forever, author of salvation/He rose and conquered the grave/Jesus conquered the grave!" I can't tell you how amazing it was to worship and proclaim that truth to the world, to our God and to our own exulting hearts.

Brandon got up to speak and he talked about Jesus's encounter with the leper in Mark 1:40-44. Since our talks are looking at Jesus in His life on a mission, Brandon addressed the issue of fear in talking to our friends about the gospel. When he joined his fraternity at TCU, he initially did it to be an influence for Christ for these guys. But he soon found out that he was intimidated around his pledge brothers. He was afraid of being an outcast. Talk about a fear-filled outcast, Jesus encounters a leper here. Leprosy was a disease that was absolutely disgusting: a nine year death march of red and brown running abscesses, bloating faces, staring eyes, disintegrating limbs: Brandon described it as death by inches. But the worst part of it must have been the social isolation. You couldn't be touched and only the bravest of souls would even look at a mutilated leper. FOR NINE YEARS! The leper, possibly having heard Jesus earlier say, "ask and you will receive" boldly approaches Jesus and begs to be healed. In a great insight, Brandon showed how leprosy for this man is like our sin: it had a mysterious origin, it came from the inside out, it was hated and it is fatal.

But here comes the turn...Jesus TOUCHED the man! Can you imagine the shock and gasps from the crowd when they saw that? Jesus, in a display of supreme compassion, touched the man and all of a sudden, He took part in the man's uncleanness. But instead of Jesus being contaminated, the man was healed; immediately cured and set free! Here's something interesting: according to Old Testament regulations, a person who had been healed of a skin disease had to present himself to a priest. Upon confirmation of the healing, the priest took two doves to the altar. The first one was killed, spilling its blood, while the other one was sprinkled with the blood and set free. What an incredible picture of the gospel: set free through the shedding of blood. WOW! This man, upon being healed would have gone to the temple to see this very ritual. Jesus is the true sacrifice that would cleanse him.

Brandon ended by telling us, "If you are a Christian, Jesus has touched you." So, how does this relate to fear? The leper lived in a world of total fear of himself and others, but Jesus accepted, healed and befriended the leper. The leper's fear was gone. God doesn't merely heal us, but saved us and accepts us eternally! Now that we have that kind of radical acceptance in our life on a mission, we don't have to fear being rejected by anybody. The more deeply we believe this, the more we will be able to share with outsiders to the faith boldly. And because it is by grace, we will do it with humility rather than pride. Glory to God for His triumphant grace!

Well, afterward we spent time in Give God the Glory and here are some things the students said:

• Sadie Murray: for the elders at the Alfa y Omega church
• Clark Nowlin: for changing plans since he had to go to a different place at the last minute. He was disappointed at first, but was so glad he got to go.
• Marshall McBurnett: for the leaders, especially George. He said that in the past few years, nobody has had a bigger spiritual impact on his life than George. When he said that the whole room erupted in applause because we have all experienced the blessing of having George around. It was so special.
• Rachel Mallison: she said that she was nervous to the point of anaphylactic shock by just opening her mouth. But she was able to give God the glory for ears to hear the gospel and mouths to spread it. She said that we like to think that America is the main portion of God's plans, but God loves the few as much as He loves the many. Wow!
• Ernie Elbert: for the strong Guatemalan kids at La Colonia and the protection God them since we aren't very good at playing safely with them. He mentioned that we've been the source of many scrapes and tears for these kids. Nothing serious, though.
• James Floyd: for the kids at La Colonia who wanted to be with us so badly that they were willing to break into the church :)

After our time of worship and the Word, most of the kids went right to bed. Each morning some of the seniors have been leading a prayer time at 6:30 before our 7:00 breakfast. A good number have shown up each morning and it was finally time for the high school pastor to show up this morning :-) It was the perfect start to the day.

The we headed out to the work sites to do much of the same awesome work as the days before. I'll have somebody else blog about the other trips we took. Here are some of my pics from the workday.

Sally Truitt found a treat to eat on the ground. YUM!Brennan and Carson conquered this tree stump! Look at the videos below to see the destruction in process.Carson's technique wasn't as effective as Brennan's

Cameron sustained some massive facial injuries. Well, maybe not massive. And maybe not much of an injury, but it was definitely on his face!
Finally, we played a bunch of soccer with some Guatemalans in the rain. It was fun but the most eventful part of it was actually a pretty scary moment.

So, Alicia Hunker, one of the leaders is an AWESOME soccer player. She played soccer in college and was just tearing it up on the field. She was in the middle of the field and the ball was kicked up in the air. Going all out, she kicked high and her body went horizontal in the air. She landed with a thud on the ground and immediately she started screaming! As it turns out, she crashed down on her pelvis or tail bone. Soon the pain became so intense that she couldn't even cry. Time dragged as Dr. Burkett and Molly went out and attended to her still body. She was conscious, they made sure to take their time before moving her. Eventually, the Burketts decided that it was important to get her Xrayed to make sure she wasn't broken. They lifted her up and walked her over to the waiting pickup.
Glory to God, she doesn't have anything broken or torn. She will just be in a lot of pain over the next few days. She is also pretty disappointed that she won't be able to go full steam as the trip winds down. Please pray for her to be able to see God's hand in this and for supernatural healing. Most of all, we want to see this as another reason to boast in Christ.

It was another wonderful day. Looking forward to another tomorrow.
Jon