Here I sit in Guatemala

I recently returned from a trip with our church, Risen Life, facilitated by Hungry for Life, to Guatemala to partner with Iglesia Galilea and their growing ministry. Below is a blog posted that I wrote to update our church family on the events in Guatemala while we were there. Now I share it with you. If you would like to see all the blogs from our trip, you can go HERE. As a follow up blog, I hope to give some more thoughts on short term missions soon. But for now, enjoy my thoughts from last week from Guatemala.

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The Gospel calls us to go to the nations.

I have prayed and pray often that God would continually allow me to be involved in the taking the Gospel to the nations. Here I sit in Guatemala. God is faithful.

This trip for me has been a return to the nations. Over the last several years my passion for evangelism has dwindled. A growing family, learning to pastor in a church, the rigors and pressures of life, have together crowded out my passion for evangelism and work among the nations. I came to Guatemala wanting to reconnect with what it means to serve the world under the banner of the Gospel, and I have.

God has drawn close to me in ways that I have not experienced in quite some time. Saturday was great handing out tracts and going door to door in Jesus name giving out invites to Iglesia Galilea (the Church here in San Lucas). I can't speak the language, I look like a tall silly American (which I am), but in my weakness He is strong. I joyfully handed out the Gospel to many. It is interesting how this is exactly the type of evangelism we have been practicing in SLC over the last few months. Sunday I was impacted by Merari's sermon at Iglesia Galileia. He administered the Gospel well, and reminded me of the power it has to heal even me. Monday and Tuesday it was good to begin work in Membrillal doing construction on a church -pure service in the name of Christ. I laid cinder blocks to begin building the walls of the church, and I took great joy using the construction skills God has gifted me with to bless others. So simple, so important. Wednesday was spent in Zapote building a house for a poor family. The man that lived in the house was wheelchair bound living in a dirt floored tin shack. Again God breathed life into my heart as I considered this man's position in life and my own. I was the impromptu sawmill for our project and as I cut wood I kept looking back and seeing this wheelchair bound man through the window of his tin shack staring back at me as he sat in darkness. I struggled afresh with the suffering this man deals with everyday. I wondered where God was to help this man, and I realized it was me and each and everyone of us that was there building him a new house. We have so much, so much opportunity, so much potential, and so much responsibility. To whom much is given, much is required. As I rode home in the truck, in a phenomenal thunderstorm, I considered how I need to give more of my life again to those in need in our world. They need physical help and the Gospel. It is not enough for us as American Christians to sit by and do nothing while we entertain ourselves to death. I want to do more. 

As I sit in another gentle rainstorm this evening back in San Lucas, I ponder the mystery of the Gospel. Our efforts seem so small, so insignificant in this the swirling mass of humanity here in the jungle surrounded by volcanoes. The Kingdom of God is growing here, and yet it grows alongside the wicked. How I long for the whole world to be under the rule of Christ. But for now, little by little, the Kingdom of God grows in the midst of a dying world. The Gospel is life.

Today our team split up. Several went back to Zapote to finish tearing down the old house next to the new house we had built the day before and help the family get fully moved into their new house. I spent the day back in Membrillal bending and tying rebar for our concrete pour on Friday. This concrete pour will be the culmination of much of our work here. Please pray that it will go well. Our team has done so well that we have earned the title the "Utah Machine" edging out another Canadian team for the hardest working team that has partnered here in Guatemala. By the end of the week we will have done two more days worth of work than the church here was expecting and hoping to get done. They are stoked and so are we. 

I have made friends now with several of the pastors and workers from Iglesia Galileia. They are all normal guys. They have families, they have dreams, they have skills, and they have a heart of the mission of God. When we sit down at the marriage feast of the Lamb, it will be these men first in line. 

Tomorrow I am told I will teach the youth from Iglesia Galilea. I can think of no greater passion of mine than to teach and preach in the nations even for just a short time. When I think of myself in the nations this is what I see. I pray that I will be able to do more of this, and for the rest of my life I will be in the nations.

I have missed the nations. Here I sit in Guatemala.

Will I see you in the nations?

*The picture above is an original work of entrustedwiththegospel.com, all rights reserved.