We had lain down (temporarily at least) our wild ideas of turning the world upside down. I was working, we had an apartment, and all of our friends, in-laws, and other family were happy that we had “wised up” and were submitting to the status quo of the culture. However, there was still a subversive fire burning in our bones and so we devised a plan for our life. I would work hard at whatever work God sent me during the day and at night Lisa and I would get educated theologically so that we could educate our children to be warriors for Christ. I told Lisa that for every book she read on Christian womanhood, child rearing, women’s ministry, or prayer and wrote a report on the book, I would buy her a new dress. So about two days later I came home from my $5.00 per hour job and she had already read a weighty book and written a beautiful report. I couldn’t believe it! How was I going to buy her a dress? I began, like Laban in the Bible, to change her “wages” seven times but she smilingly assured me that she never intended to take me up on my dress deal. She was as committed to our vision of knowing God and preparing our little family to impact the kingdom as I was and she need no additional incentive but the joy of pursuing God as a family. Within that month she had read 5 books and written reports. I couldn’t keep up with her reading, but I tried hard.
One day when our oldest, Luke, was about to be school age I came home and told Lisa, “I am not sending my kids to these New Mexico schools. The only thing I learned there was self defense. We are going to keep our kids home and teach them ourselves.” We had never heard of homeschooling so you can imagine my wife’s response. I told her that everything man has ever learned is in a book somewhere and all we have to do is teach them to read. She was incredulous but agreed to start teaching them at home. We didn’t have a TV so we spent nearly every evening reading. Every morning she would gather the children around our little table and memorize scripture with them. I bought her a blackboard to put on the wall in our dining nook and when they had mastered a verse by memory she would write the verse on the board. Each day they would review the verses on the board and then begin the process of memorizing a new one. I was working very hard to keep the wolves away from the door and not paying too much attention to the blackboard until one day I stopped and noticed that there were over 40 verses written on that little blackboard. I couldn’t believe it! I asked Lisa, “Do you mean to tell me that you and the children have memorized over 40 verses of scripture?” “Yes”, she replied and quickly to prove her point had the children recite from memory all 43 verses. I was stunned and thrilled. They were 7, 6, 5, and 3-years-old and our 5th baby, Brooke, was an infant. It wasn’t long before they were reciting whole chapters of the Bible from memory.
I had preached at a youth rally in Indianapolis, Indiana and the daughter of an evangelist, Don Boys, was in the crowd and was impacted by the sermon. Somehow I was told that her father was working on a curriculum for something called Home Schooling. He was gathering Christian educators from all around the country to collaborate on it which intrigued me greatly. Later I learned that he had completed it and it was available for purchase. We checked with the laws of our state, New Mexico, learned that homeschooling was illegal, but ordered the curriculum and began home schooling our children nonetheless. We didn’t know another homeschooling family but believed it was God’s plan for our family. Later our kids would tell us that for years they thought we invented home schooling! Later we fought with other home schooling families to make it legal in all 50 states. It didn’t turn out to be the quid pro quo fool proof method of raising warriors for Christ that we had hoped but we are still glad that we educated them ourselves all the way through high school. We eventually built up a library in our home of over 7,000 volumes, many of which our children had read before they graduated from high school. History, theology, biography, Christian living, science, classics, of course some good old fiction kept us captivated day in and day out year upon year and God was deepening us individually and as a family and preparing us for adventures we couldn’t have imagined at the time. Even today though our children are in their 20’s and scattered all over the world, we read a book or two per month together and share our insights, comments, and delights from each book in a secret Facebook group we affectionately call Bullen Book Club.
Many were the months that we didn’t know where the rent would come from but God always provided. There was a large rock outcropping in the mountain foot hills near our apartment complex and I would often go there late at night and cry out to God to provide for my little family. I was working at everything that I could find. Some months the Lord saw fit to let us really be tested. I even spent a night in jail once because our tags were expired on our old ford van that I used for work. But even then I witnessed to the officer that arrested me and everyone in the jail that I was raising 5 warriors for Christ on one laborers income and sometimes buying milk came ahead of renewing my registration. I’m sure we made many mistakes but we were two kids in our mid 20’s with 5 children and a religious conviction against food stamps and welfare and we were doing our best to figure out how to make it all work. God always sent us what we needed when we needed it though and that included encouragement. We lived in a second story apartment and a couple and their 3 teenagers moved in down below us. We began to notice how mature and how sweet and respectful their children were and it wasn’t long before we met them and discovered that they were Christians and that they homeschooled! Wow! Our first encounter with another homeschooling family! They were much farther down the road than us and so John and Kim took us under their wings and mentored us for the rest of the time that we lived there. They were radical! They lived in an apartment so they could use their funds for missions! They were unbelievably wise and encouraging and we owe them an eternal debt of gratitude for letting us know that rather than being crazy, we were actually on the right track. John and Kim and their children are still dear friends today and staunch supporters of our ministry. God is good.
It wasn’t all work though. We had a motto that we worked hard and we played hard. I doubt any young dad ever enjoyed his children more than me. Many were the nights that the water ran down the walls of our apartment as we had water fights. You could always count on getting blasted with a rubber band or cold water dumped on you in the shower or something around our place. Many weekends the older 3 children worked with me on moonlighting construction jobs. I found out later that they would endure the hard hours of labor because I always bought them breakfast burritos on the way to work. We were strict and demanded a lot from our kids but we had tons of fun too and it is the greatest joy of my life that today we are very close and there is deep love and respect in our family and we have the incredible blessing of working together in ministry around the world. But that is later in the story. The other wonderful thing that happened during this time was though we were not in any organized type of ministry, God sent an unending stream of people to our door to be discipled and encouraged… Aflame For God 13 – A Path To Our Door
I used to believe in coincidence… meaning I used to believe that people just happened to be at the right place at the right time… or that you don’t need to pay much attention to uncanny events that seem too good to be true because all in all it was just a happy mishap… a random occurrence.
Thankfully God began to work on my faith and began to open my eyes to see Him and more importantly to consciously recognize His work in action. Now of course, sometimes I still have my doubts and have to ask, “God is this you?” But every once in a while, more and more recently, God puts me right in the middle of something and there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that it is Him… because I can almost literally see His finger prints all over it… God is really cool that way. Just like an artist leaves his special mark on his masterpiece either in a clear signature or a hidden message inside the brush strokes, God loves to leave His fingerprints… His breadcrumbs if you will and just like a spectator gawking at the Mona Lisa, God leaves His children in awe and full of great joy at what He has been up to.
Today I was blessed to be a part of one of those “Aha!” moments. But let me start at the beginning. About 7 years ago my family started working in Colombia on short term mission trips. I remember considering my first trip (I was 16-years-old) more like a chance to explore a new place while still being able to do some good along the way. I had no idea that God was setting up divine appointments that I would not be able to recognize until many years later. I do not have a very vivid memory of what we did or whom we met but there were a select few that I made a strong connection with and will never be able to forget. One of these divine appointments was with a girl named Yesika. Yesika entered the government care system at 13-years-old along with her two younger brothers. She grew up in a catholic orphanage separated from her siblings and parents until she was finally moved to the half-way-house (a home for young adults who age-out of the system) at age 18 and that is where I met her.
I remember taking a special interest in Yesika because she liked to play basketball just like me. I only spent one day with Yesika but I never forgot her and prayed for her often. About two years later I was living for two months in Colombia as a short-term missionary and working at the orphanage where Yesika grew up. On the long bus ride home one day as I was trying to catch a few winks of sleep I suddenly heard a very sweet voice call out my name and of course who else should it be but Yesik1 We had not seen each other in over two years and just happened to run into each other both headed home from work in a city with over 8 million people and thousands of bus routes here we were “at the right place at the right time” to reconnect and re-establish communication. Since that day I have never lost communication with Yesika and we have stayed friends.
When I moved back to Bogota in 2014 as a full-time missionary God put her on my heart one day and so I invited her to ice cream. Little did I know that God was working in Yesika’s heart and had placed in her a passion to help others like herself not only in Bogota but also in many parts of Colombia. As she poured her heart out to me and told me all about her plans I could she the passion burning in her eyes. During my year in Medellin I was barely able to stay in contact with anyone because of the amount of work so I forgot about Yesika and her project until two days ago.
Since coming back to Bogota at the beginning of August I have been praying everyday for God to clearly show me what he wanted me to do next and during my prayer this past Saturday God once again brought Yesika to my mind…. I wasn’t sure what He wanted but I knew I needed to have lunch with her so I immediately shot her a message on Facebook. And of course, wouldn’t you know it, it turns out, in a city of 8 million people, she “happens” to live a few blocks from us. After spending the entire afternoon with my friend Yesika today and hearing all about what God is doing in her heart for Colombia I am more certain than ever that my relationship with her is not an accident or a coincidence. She and I have many of the same dreams and goals and I know that God wants me to help her get this project off the ground. She also found out recently that she might have a cancerous tumor in her throat. Amazing how God sends friends right when He knows you need them most.
To end this blog I just want to say that Yesika’s top need right now is prayer and to legally establish her ministry. She has the willing hands to do the work the only problem is making it all legal. And honestly as always that is a very expensive process. I am asking special prayer for her tomorrow as she has a doctor’s appointment to see whether or not it is cancer so please pray for her. Also if God touches your heart to support Yesika on her mission in Colombia then you can send a special donation to Mission Critical and we will coordinate with her to get the legal papers she needs to start this wonderful work. Thank you all for helping make this possible.
Where can God move? When can God touch someones life? Can God meet someone in every day life? Does He only work in planned places or planned times or can God radically change a person on a busy street corner? I know for a fact that He breaks through any boundary and interrupts our lives to let us know how much He loves us.
Brooke and I have enjoyed the most amazing opportunity this last week to team up with a group of missionaries from I Am Second to evangelize on the streets with local churches here in Bogota. This was the first time I had ever done this kind of street evangelism and to be perfectly honest I was a little skeptical of their plan. I didn’t doubt God could move but I didn’t think He would. But I am over joyed to say I was as wrong as I could be!
Our plan was to help new church plants by evangelizing in neighborhoods near the new church. We went out in groups of three or four with one or two missionaries from the States with a translator and a member of the church into some of the hardest neighborhoods here in Bogota. We took evange-cubes with us and just stopped people on the streets or in stores to ask them if we could tell them a story about our lives. I know what you’re thinking… “did anyone listen?” well, to my surprise, most people said “yes!” It’s wonderful how you can’t do or say anything wrong when God is on your side and He has prepared the ground for you!
I would like to share about just two of the many people I was able to see God reveal Himself to this week.
Steven and his son Pablo were sitting at a bus stop waiting for the bus to take Pablo to school. Tom my team member and I were just talking about how we didn’t like talking to people at the bus stops because you usually weren’t able finish the story before they had to leave but our Colombian partners wanted to talk to Steven and his son so like good American missionaries we went along. As Tom was sharing his testimony I could see that Steven was really into the story and he even started to tear up. Then when we asked if they wanted to accept Christ as their Savior Steven was almost jumping up and down with excitement. Just how God works, Pablo’s bus came right after we finished praying! But even after Pablo left Steven wanted to talk with us more about God and His people, the church. God taught me through Steven that I am still putting Him in a box even after all I know and have seen Him do. But praise Him! He’s not content to let me stay there! I want to know Jesus more and more! To see Him do things I never believed possible.
Ok I know I am rambling but I also want to tell you about Marco. As Tom and I were walking down an ally one of the days we were out, we said, “Hola” to a young man who then to our surprise replied in English “Hi, are you for the United States?” This started an hour conversation with Marco, a young man who learned almost perfect English from playing english video games. Crazy right?! Marco told us he believed in God because he had prayed as a little boy for God to get him out of a bad situation and place he was in and then how God had answered him by allowing him to go to college. Marco still is not sure about Christianity but he said he believed God had sent us to talk to him and he wants to learn more about God. I am going to try to stay in contact with Marco.
So I learned this last week to stay open to God leading even when I don’t see how He is working because I never know who the next Steven or Marco will be. God works in ways beyond our imaginations and all He asks is for us to follow His lead!
