Off to Guatemala…

Early tomorrow morning (and I mean 4AM early!), I am heading out on a 13 day mission trip to Guatemala with David Sutton and 6 of our college students. We’re working with Students International, an organization that is committed to meeting both the physical and spiritual needs of the people in Guatemala. I’m really excited about the work that we will be doing, especially because David and I were able to take a short trip to Guatemala in March and meet the SI personnel in Guatemala and see the work that they are doing. What I was most pleased with was seeing how they were meeting meaningful physical needs for the people of Magdalena, Guatemala while at the same time begin faithful to provide an opportunity for their most significant need, a personal relationship with Christ, to be met through sharing the gospel.

The work that is done by SI in Guatemala is divided into various sites with full time SI personnel leading each site. The different sites include:

Art site: workers will teach art to children in an after school program.

Education sites: there are two different education sites located in two area schools. Workers at this site will teach English, music, crafts, and ethics depending on the school.

Agriculture site: Workers at this site will help families in the community help families in the community build and maintain self sustaining chicken or hog pens. This provides needy families with a second source of income which can make a significant impact on their quality of life. A single hog raised over a few months can provide more than $100 worth of income. That may not sound like a lot of money, but consider that the average annual income in Guatemala is $1200. The families learn to reinvest a portion of their profits in their side business so that it continues to produce. The SI leader for this site is also the pastor of a local church which we will have the opportunity to attend on Sunday.

Appropriate Technology Site: Workers at this site will either be building water cisterns or sand based water purifiers for individual families or paving with concrete the dirt floors of local homes.

Medical Clinic: The small clinic that SI runs is the only one in a city of 18,000 people. The clinic if fairly new and most families who aren’t aware of it are forced to travel (usually by walking) to Antigua (5-10 miles away) in order to seek medical attention.

Social Work Site: Workers will serve in a hospital in Antigua which houses a large number of special needs children from birth to late teens. This is without a doubt the most emotionally difficult site. It was very emotional just for me to tour it when we visited in March.

Each of our students is assigned to one of these sites (they had the opportunity to voice their preferences during the application process). David and I, however, will be able to work at any site throughout the time that we are there although we will probably only serve at sites that our students are serving at.

Here is our schedule.  We’ll get there on Monday and have a general orientation. We’ll also meet the Guatemalan family that we will be staying with during the two weeks (I think that adds a lot to our experience). Tuesday-Friday we’ll be working at our various sites. Saturday and Sunday will be rest days. We’ll do some site seeing on Saturday and we’ll attend church on Sunday. I’m really excited about the worship service…hopefully I’ll be able to understand some of what is going on. (I’ve been working pretty hard on my Spanish) Then its back to work Monday-Friday and we’ll come home on Saturday, June 7th.

I’m looking forward to sharing what I experienced and what God did in a post or two when I get back.

If you’d like to pray for me and our team, here are a few things that you can be praying for:

No issues coming through customs: we’re bringing a bunch of bibles, vitamins, and other donations for the various sites.

Opportunities to demonstrate Christ’s love through our words and actions and opportunities to share the gospel.

Physical, spiritual, and emotional strength and health for our team.

Hasta la vista.

Keith and David’s volcano adventure…

In March, David Sutton and I spent several days in Antigua, Guatemala on a preview trip which we planned in order to better prepare us to lead our students back to Guatemala in May. A month or so before the trip, we realized that we would have a free day during our preview trip to do whatever we wanted and David immediately went to work figuring out something that we could do related to nature. If you know David, that probably comes as no surprise to you.

A few days later he came back to me with a simple question: “Would you like to hike to an active volcano and poke hot lava with a stick?” Seriously…who is going to answer that question no?

David and I were picked up from our hotel a little after 8AM by our adventure guide Emmanuel (what a sweet name). He was a native Guatemalan, but he attended college in the US and spoke English fluently. He was a really nice guy and David and I enjoyed having him as our tour guide.

Emmanuel suggested that we hike to the volcano on a path less crowded than the normal tourist route. To get there, however, he took us up this dirt road that zigzagged back and forth up the mountain. There were a couple of times I thought he was going to drive his 4WD Land Rover off the edge. This picture of David is from an antenna that we parked beside. It was one of many antennas that covered the side of the mountain. The dirt road we used was there to allow service trucks access to these antennas.

We then began our hike up the volcano. The picture at the top of the post is from a ridge overlooking the active lava fields. Emmanuel said that the fields themselves are always changing with lava coming out at different places almost every day.

Probably the weirdest thing for me was that as we began to walk out onto the lava fields you could feel a significant temperature increase (at least 10 degrees). Having the realization that you are separated from molten lava by only a few feet of rock was pretty weird. The hardened lava itself was very jagged and uneven. I slipped once and caught myself with my hand on a rock, cutting my hand in several places. (not seriously though)

We navigated our way over to one of the active lava flows on the field and took turns poking it with a stick. I was actually surprised when I did it because I assumed that the stick would just sink right into the lava, however the top of the flowing lava had somewhat hardened and you actually had to push the stick to make it sink into the lava. You can see that I’m leaning back pretty far in this picture because it was extremely hot.

It was a lot of fun…I encourage you to do it if you ever get a chance.

One more thing off the life to do list.

Later friends…

Be a Global Christian

The fulfillment of Christ’s commission to believers in Matthew 28:19-20 is the opportunity and responsibility of every Christian. In these verses, Jesus commands his disciples to:

“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

The question for each of us is not IF we should be involved in what God is doing in our state, nation, and around the globe, but HOW.

One important way that anyone can be involved in reaching the nations with the gospel is through prayer. A website that I would recommend for this is Operation World.

Operation World has a lot of information including specific prayer request, answers to prayer, statistics, and demographic information on every country in the world. Every country is prayed for during the year on a least one day, with larger countries emphasized on more days. I’ve only been doing it for about a half a year but I’ve learned a great deal about the needs of and how God is at work in other countries. Just click ‘pray today’ on the left side of the webpage.

Here are two other websites that provide really unique opportunities for practical ministry to Christians around the world:

Bibles Unbound – This organization is working to get bibles into the hands of people who need them in countries were their access is limited. Donating $30 gets you everything that you need to mail 5 bibles to people that believers in China, Indonesia, and Columbia have requested that they be sent to. You receive a list of the names of the people that you are sending the bibles to so that you can also pray for them.

Prisoner Alert – A website that documents Christians that are currently in prison because of their faith. A really great feature of this site is that it allows you to send letters to those in prison to encourage them. You can choose from a number of statements and verses on their website, place them in whatever order you want, and print the letter out in the recipients language. Then you simply go to the post office and mail it to them. What a cool opportunity!

These are just a few of the many ways that you can be a part of fulfilling the great commission and stand with believers around the globe. Get involved!

On the Bookshelf: Celebration of Discipline

Celebration of Disciple: The Path to Growth is one of the best books that I’ve read in the last few years. Richard Foster’s book is a helpful discussion and guide to twelve spiritual disciplines of the Christian life, including prayer, study, fasting, confession, and worship among others.

What I find most beneficial about this book is that I believe Foster has a proper understanding of the disciples. Some believe and teach that the things that we do, including practicing spiritual disciplines, earn our relationship or favor with God. The teaching of Scripture, however, refutes that belief and teaches that our relationship with God and His love for us is a gift of his grace and not something that we can earn by our works. Ephesians 2:8-9 puts it this way, “by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Foster points out that “the needed change within us is God’s work, not ours.” (p. 6)

However, Foster continues, “the moment we grasp this breathtaking insight we are in danger of an error in the opposite direction. We are tempted to believe there is nothing we can do.” (p. 7) This is why I like his book so much. We as Christians do have a part to play in the transformation that God is making in our lives. The true disciple of Christ seeks to follow Him and grow in relationship with Him, not out of obligation, but out of love and gratitude for all that He has done. Foster acknowledges this and that is the whole point of the book. He puts it this way, “the disciplines allow us to place ourselves before God so that He can transform us.” (p. 7)

As far as the way the book is organized, Foster divides the disciplines into three categories: the inward disciplines (prayer, fasting, study, meditation), the outward disciplines (simplicity, solitude, submission, service), and the corporate disciplines (confession, worship, guidance, celebration). He spends a chapter on each discipline, providing a basic picture of what each looks like and giving practical guidance on how to make each a part of your life. I found the chapter on fasting especially helpful, among others.

I would recommend this book for everyone. Don’t just read it though. Seek to integrate these disciples into your life.