God's timing

About a year ago I felt like God was calling me to reach out on the university campuses here. One thing about the university campuses here is that no one lives in dorms. So, my origional desire to begin in the dorms wasn't even possible. So, I began wondering how I could have a legitimate presence on the campus. So, I decided to see about teaching English during the week. After three interviews I was accepted as an English teacher on the campus. Now I had a legitamte way to be on the campus. (Another thing about the campuses here is that you have to go through security to get on. So, without a legitimate reason to be on the campus you can't get in.

I taught on the campus for a sememster hoping to be able to meet some students who might be interested in the gospel. Of all of them, there was only one of them named Ernesto and from the moment I thought about talking to him more in depth about a relationship with Jesus I never saw him again. After the entire semester I had no one interested in the gospel and when it came time for me to renew I was told that there were more teachers than they needed for the amount of students they had, and because of seniouty I was the first to go.

I was really frustrated, feeling like I had stepped out in faith and that nothing happened. So, I haven't even thought about the university campuses since then.

Today, I was working at the office (Starbucks) preparing a booklet for the AIMers (apprentice missionaries) who are coming to work with us in two weeks. They are college age and my hope is to have some way for them to have a presence on the university campuses here. While I am working on this booklet in walks Ernesto.

We talked for a while and I mentioned to him the AIMers who are arriving and brought up the idea of him helping them practice their Spanish and get acclimated into the culture. He seemed very interested and it seemed like an easy way for these new AIMers to be put into his oikos. We was sitting at a table with seven others. So, maybe now the time has come.

Growing in Faith

I know that a lot of you take time every new year to set some goals for the coming year. I also know that many times those goals are forgotten by the end of the month. I wanted to share this before the end of the month in hopes that it will at least be remembered for a little while. This year I really want to grow in my faith. I know that seems kind of generic and that a real goal should be something measurable and I agree. So, how do you measure weather you have grown in your faith or not? I was challenged by a statement Rick Atchley made this week. He said, "A sure faith never came from waiting for a sure thing." This has really challenged me because while I really do feel like I have it on my heart to do great things for the Lord and his kingdom I tend to not takes steps until I feel like I have it all figured out. It has challenged me to make it my goal to take lots of risks for the Lord this year. I guess that is how I will measure if I have grown in my faith or not this year, I will count the risks that I have made in the name of Jesus this year. I also liked the a story Rick shared about a guy being recruited to the Army's 82nd Airborne Division. The guy began to ask the recruiter about jump school and the recruiter said that jump school takes three weeks. So he said, "What do you do?" and the recruiter said, "Well, the first week we separate the men from the boys, and then the second week we separate the men from the fools." "Well, what do you do on the third week?" "On the third week the fools jump." It makes me think of 1 Corinthians 4:10 when Paul says we are fools for Christ. I really want to be a fool for Christ this year and jump. I want to do things in the name of Jesus that involve risk.

Hello Everyone

Hello everyone. This has been something that I have wanted to do for a while. I have been encouraged and challenged by so many of you and I hope that I am able to do the same for you as well. I like how I have been able to get a glimpse into your lives. In this blog I hope to be able to share with you what is going on in my head. I really like the idea of having a virtual coffee together. I think of how I often get coffee with my good friend Tim. There is no agenda, but amazing things happen. We share or lives, we encourage each other in our ministries, we sharpen each other, we share our struggles, pray for each other, challenge each other, talk about baseball, tell jokes, always feeling that it was well worth the while. That is what I want this blog to be. So, share what your drinking and lets enjoy the conversation. I'm having a Casi Cielo Guatemala.