Lost in Translation

José subió la página de la Federación Bautista Fundamental Independiente a la que pertecemos para que la conozcan...

Bautistas en Colombia

José uploaded the webpage for the fellowship of Baptists churches with whom we fellowship so you can get to know them...

I just ran across two free resources on internet. First, the Peacemaker brochure is available as a free download on their website. If you haven´t heard of Peacemaker Ministries, you need to look at their materials because they are a real blessing for developing a culture of peace in the church. Their website is www.peacemaker.net. and you can access the brochure at Peacemaker materials in other languages

The other site is The Gospel Coalition which now has Themelios Journal online for free. I perused the issue online and read one good article on the definition of "mission," a topic that is of great importance. What is "mission"? For many it has become only the Missio Dei or the social mandate, but the author argues that "mission" should be defined by the Great Commission. Good stuff!

We went this week on a trip to Neiva (6 hours to the southwest of Bogotá) to rest and also investigate the possibility of church planting there. We thoroughly enjoyed the trip, and the heat actually for me wasn´t as bad as everyone says. Holly said it was hot, but in comparison to a humid Iowa July day it wasn´t bad. We were able to travel to a desert about 45 minutes northeast of Neiva which was really interesting. We also traveled to a dam about an hour to the south of Neiva. As always it was fascinating to see how different the geography of the country is. It reminded me of Arizona in some ways.

As far as church planting, the city has a need, but we found that the location is not central enough for branching out to other cities. We talked to one Baptist pastor who is serving faithfully.

I haven´t had a chance to blog about anything because the team that was with us just left on Tuesday and we´ve been trying to catch up this week. Last week while we were with the group we heard the best news for Colombia we´ve heard in a while. Ingrid Betancourt, the three American hostages and 11 Colombians were rescued by the Colombian military from the FARC guerrillas. When we saw the announcement on TV, I was moved emotionally. The operation was a huge strike against terrorism in this country because the FARC lost their most important hostages and the way that the military tricked the guerrillas shows that they´re closer and closer to defeat.

We thoroughly enjoyed our time with the group from Campus Baptist Church. In fact, nothing went wrong on the trip. We didn´t have any troubles; everyone had a great time; we had about 65-70 kids total in our basketball camp and were able to teach them the eight essential truths about the gospel (God, man, sin, death, Christ, cross, faith, life) in relation to basketball. On Saturday, 23 kids came to a youth activity at our church and 10 made professions of faith in Christ. As I was meditating on the liberation of Ingrid, I thought about how she was a captive when she woke up on July 3, 2008. But later in the day she was rescued and free. This is exactly what happens when someone places their faith in Jesus Christ. They are rescued and set free!

Today we spent almost all day shopping for food for the missions team that is coming down tomorrow. 16 people are coming down from our sending church, Campus Baptist of Ames, Iowa. God has blessed with the preparation for the trip, as it looks like a good number of teens have signed up for the camp (70 had already signed the last time I checked), and more will surely sign up (we´re shooting for about 100-120). The team should Lord-willing get in tomorrow night at about 8:45 p.m., so we´ll be getting to Chía about 10:30-11 p.m. We´ll have an orientation day on Saturday, then church on Sunday, a camp prep day on Monday, the camp from Tuesday to Friday, a youth activity on Saturday, church on Sunday, a trip on Monday and then on Tuesday they´ll be heading off.

I also just wanted to plug the blog of Nic and Megan Olson: Colombian Brewed. They are a couple from one of our supporting churches in Minnesota, and already have adopted two Colombian babies. The amazing thing is that they are working towards adopting a sibling group of children between 0-10 years of age. We consider it a privilege to know Nic and Megan and pray that God would bless them richly in this new adventure.

I just ran across a free online seminary, called Biblical Training. They offer courses for new believers, foundational courses, and upper-level courses.

Biblical Training

They also have a page of links to other online courses with other institutions.

Other online courses

I think that buying an iPod was one of the best things I´ve done to grow in wisdom. Since we got ours last year, I don´t know how many hours of good lectures and sermons I´ve listened to while I wash dishes or jog. It´s been a real blessing.

I started reading David Brainerd´s diary this week, which is included in the works of Jonathan Edwards. I was struck by his constant desire to be closer to the Lord. He definitely wasn´t perfect, as he speaks of constant bouts of discouragement and melancholy. The interesting thing was to think of how I´ve felt similarly many times, wondering what I´m doing in the ministry, and then coming back to the truth that it´s not about us. It´s about our Savior. The gospel message keeps us humbled and dependent on Christ.

On a related note, I started The Way to Joy discipleship material with one of my disciples, and I think that it´s helping me to expand my understanding of the gospel. Sometimes we think that the gospel is a series of three facts (death, burial and resurrection of Christ), which it is, but it´s more. Because the whole message of the Bible points towards Christ, and without that context a person won´t understand the gospel.

José and I have been talking about where our church members are at spiritually. We came up with a list of ministry competencies (what we want each disciple to understand and do), and now we´re developing a questionaire to evaluate where they´re at. It´s a little scary to begin thinking about this. For example, how many of our members shared the gospel with someone this week? Or, how many have a consistent devotional time each day? How many are giving faithfully on a regular basis? I think that simply asking the questions is going to help us as a church.

I thought that I´d mention two resources that may be of blessing or challenge:

Web site of Ron and Val Berrus (two of my heroes from ABWE). They have a ton of great discipleship, church-planting, and spiritual discipline resources.

Acts 29 network. This is something new for me, so I don´t understand all about this group, but the two messages I´ve listened to have been a real blessing and challenge. Have you heard of missional living? If not, check it out.

We were planning to spend most of our week in Barranquilla on our survey trip to the Colombian coast but ended up spending as much time in Santa Marta because after two days of work in Barranquilla we realized that it´s not the best place for us to start. We saw a directory of churches that listed around 800 churches in Barranquilla. Of these there are at least 35 Baptist churches. Granted most are Pentecostal now, but we decided that we don´t want to have to work in that type of environment, at least for our first church plant. In constrast, Santa Marta, a city of around 400,000 (or up to 600,000 in some estimates), has only one Baptist church. We weren´t able to talk to the pastor but asked if the pastora (lady pastor) was around. The girl told us that the pastora would be there later in the afternoon. Scott asked when their healings service was, and the girl said on Wednesdays at 7 p.m.

As you can see from this example, it´s really not that hard to figure out when a church isn´t fundamental here. That said, Santa Marta is now looking like our number one possibility for a future church plant. The three of us left enchanted with the place and the need for sound churches is evident. Please continue to pray with us!

NASA image of Barranquilla on the Magdalena River and Caribbean coast

I fly out this evening with Alfredo and Scott to Barranquilla on the Colombian coast. The goal is to do an investigative study of the churches and need in this city. We have set a goal of interviewing 63 pastors in this week, and I also plan to talk to a seminary director. We also want to understand the cost of living in Barranquilla.

Of the main cities on the coast, this one seems like the best possibility for future church planting because it is the most industrialized and doesn´t rely on tourism so much. Cartagena is busy during vacation times, but for more than half of the year the people don´t have work and that makes it more difficult to serve as a future hub for church planting. Barranquilla is also the most centrally-located city on the coast.

I´m looking forward to the trip and praying that God will give us direction for future ministry. The time without José in Chía has helped me see that serving as a pastor alone is not my calling. I struggle on the pastoral side of things, as far as visitation and running after sheep that have strayed. Our pastoral intern Wilder has more gifts in that area, which is a blessing, but it also makes me feel bad when he asks "Have you called so-and-so?" and I haven´t. Obviously I need to grow in this area, but at the same time I know that some people are gifted for it and others are not.

I sometimes ask the Lord what I´m doing here as I seem to struggle to find the role for which I am gifted. For example, I´ve had a real burden for evangelism and reaching out to our neighbors, but it´s often difficult to work that area of the ministry while guiding the church, preparing messages and lessons, and preparing for an upcoming seminary class I´ll be teaching in a two weeks. I sometimes wonder how good I am at balancing things. I can balance things to "maintain" the ministry, but it´s hard for me to help it grow when I have several ministry roles to fulfill. For that reason I like these trips to other parts because I can focus in on one thing and do it well.

Please pray for my trip and God bless!