Bogota June 2011: Day 6

Our internet was down the last 4 days of the trip so I am just now catching up with updates.

I awoke this morning thinking about and praying for my sweet daughter Beverly. She turns 20 years old today. She was with me on my first trip to Bogota 2 years ago this week and she turned 18 on that trip. She was not able to attend this trip as she and her 2 sisters Brooke and Rebekah are fundraising and preparing to go spend a year in the inner-city of Los Angeles in an intern ministry position in order to get trained to come and help us in Bogota in the future. They have a blog at http://purchasedinla.blogspot.com/ where they are chronicling their progress.

Today we are staying at the club and ICBF (the Colombian equivalent of CPS) is bringing 20 children on a mini, one day, vacation to spend the day with us.

On my way to breakfast this morning a saw a rainbow and it reminded me that my brother Lloyd had prayed over me the day before that God would put a rainbow over my life and protect my family and provide our needs. I saw that rainbow this morning and blessed God and blessed my dear brother Chihuahua! (Lloyd’s Colombian nickname)

After breakfast I shared another reason why Jesus is my hero…

Jesus the Recruiter

Luke 5:1   Now it happened that while the crowd was pressing around Him and listening to the word of God, He was standing by Sea of Galilee; 2 and He saw two boats lying at the edge of the lake; but the fishermen had gotten out of them and were washing their nets.  3 And He got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little way from the land. And He sat down and began teaching the people from the boat.  4 When He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.”  5 Simon answered and said, “Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing, but I will do as You say and let down the nets.”  6 When they had done this, they enclosed a great quantity of fish, and their nets began to break; 7 so they signaled to their partners in the other boat for them to come and help them. And they came and filled both of the boats, so that they began to sink.  8 But when Simon Peter saw that, he fell down at Jesus’ feet, saying, “Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!”  9 For amazement had seized him and all his companions because of the catch of fish which they had taken; 10 and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not fear, from now on you will be catching men.”  11 When they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed Him.

I love that Jesus is the great recruiter…

He could do the work by Himself but as my friend Bill Byrd says, “He cuts us in on a slice of the action.”

I recently used the illustration of a little boy going to work with Daddy to explain how I feel about this. Daddy sets the little boy up on the work bench, gives him a hammer and a block of wood to beat on. As the Daddy works the boy bangs on the piece of wood and then at the end of the day they go home and the little boy tells Mommy that he and Daddy built something today… I love that my Heavenly Daddy lets me go to work with Him.

The disciples could have said, “It’s too late for us. The Rabbis passed us up when we were 13”…. They could have said, “we’ve just had the best one-day income generation of our company’s history”… etc.

Would they have been bad Jews if they had stayed on the shore of Galilee? No, but think of what they would have missed. They had no idea to what Jesus was calling them. They couldn’t have known that they were going to see Him talking with Moses and Elijah on the Mt. of Transfiguration, they didn’t know they would see miracles, witness His death, burial, and resurrection. And preach the gospel over the then known world, Philip dying in Upper Asia, Matthew in Ethiopia, Andrew in Turkey, Mark in Egypt, Peter in Rome, Jude in Turkey, Bartholomew and Thomas in India, Luke in Greece, Simon in Britain, John in Greece and so on.

Omar Garcia – “Is this my new sea of Galilee?” “Have I become comfortable with the place I am at and is God calling me to something higher?”

Someone invited you to come on this trip but ultimately it was the Master who came to your heart and said, “Follow Me.”

David Brainerd

He preached all along the eastern coast, traveling thousands of miles on horseback in all kinds of weather. He suffered from tuberculosis, but he refused to put his health needs above the salvation needs of the Indians. One well-known story tells how the Indians who had crept to his camp intending to kill him left him alone after a rattlesnake refused to bite him.  The next day he was accorded a warm welcome to the village, and many were saved. At the age of 29, while in Edwards’ home, David Brainerd died of tuberculosis.

Jonathan Edwards edited Mr. Brainerd’s diary into a book that has been used by God to challenge Christians around the world to greater service. Though he lived such a short life here on earth, he became a great recruiter for his Lord. His story of missionary heroism to the Indians of Massachusetts inspired more missionaries than perhaps any other person in history. Nearly every great missionary since has sighted The Life of David Brainerd as one of the inspirations God used to get them to the mission field including William Carey and Henry Martyn.

Let’s go to work with Daddy today…

Today was a wonderful day. ICBF gave an hour presentation to the team about how our ministry has positively impacted national policy in Colombia and new rules and programs that are being set up to help us help the children. It was exciting and the statistics of what is happening to the children without our help was heart wrenching.

The rest of the day we rested and hung out at the club and loved on the 20 little orphan boys and girls who came. There was swimming, games, a great lunch, singing, etc.

Valleria

Hector and Lilliana’s teenage children, Andres, Heyli, Karoline, and nephew Rafael and friend Valleria were able to come today and it was a blessing to see these godly young people who will one day be some of the leaders of this ministry in Colombia getting to have a good time with their family. When Lilliana had asked me the day before if they could come I had quickly told her “of course” and then I told her that I thought of them as my nieces and nephews. She was so happy and when she called them to tell them they could come she told them that their Tio Mateo (Uncle Matthew) had invited them. When they showed up today it was so sweet for me that they all came running up to hug and kiss me saying “Tio Mateo!” God just continues to find ways to bless my life with the people of Colombia! Praise God.

Bill Byrd had set up a meeting for the board at 4:00 p.m. today to go and visit a new ministry partner in Colombia called CDA/Conviventia (Corporacion Dios es Amor/Living and working together). Bill had met them through our friend Omar Garcia, missions pastor at Kingsland Baptist in Katy. Omar had introduced Bill to a Pastor Cardenas who then in turn introduced Bill to Missie Christie, president of CDA. The week before the trip our board went and met with Christie. Her story is amazing. Her parents moved from New Zealand to Colombia when she was a baby to be missionaries and went through many trials. Now she is the head of a major ministry in Colombia and we are excited to be able to work together with them. You can see more about their ministry at Conviventia.org.

We jumped in their van and rode up into the mountains to a protection home for 60 little girls. We got out and were immediately surrounded by the cutest little girls you’ve ever seen. Jair and I reached down and picked up the first one we saw high in the air and very quickly a line formed for all the girls each waiting to be lifted up by us. I would have them clasp their hands over their head and I would lift them with one arm like a barbell. They would squeal with delight. Jair would throw them up in the air and catch them and they would also squeal. It wasn’t long before we were totally tuckered out and had to stop but it sure was fun while it lasted. We had a great tour and really enjoyed the staff, children, and grounds. We can’t wait to go back there next trip and spend a full day or two.