You never know when it'll be your last...

We were getting ready to leave for Cuenca on Friday night when Tabitha called me. “Jose Gabriel died.” If you don’t remember him from about a year and a bit ago, he was the kid that I listened to one day as he poured out his heart (If you wanna read the story from last year, click here). He told me about his family situation and how his dad had lived in Spain for more than half his life.
He had not just made friend with me, he had also made friends with Tabitha, one of the missionary kids. Last week Tab met with Gabriel and as they talked, she just laid it all out for him. He claimed to be a believer, but he just wasn’t living like it. Tab told me later that she had never been so blunt with anyone. She spoke the truth fearlessly into his life… and that was the last time she ever talked with him.
Gabriel’s friend, a fellow believer was the one who told me about the whole incident. He said that that conversation with Tabitha was the best one of his life. Gabriel said that she challenged him to get his life together and start living for Jesus. The Friday night before he died he told his friend that he had a dream that a man in all white came to him and said, “Don’t be afraid. Come to me.” His friend told him, “Jesus is calling you! Run to him!” But what he didn’t realize was that Jesus wasn’t just calling him to walk with Him, but to come home.
That Sunday night, Gabriel’s cousin went to his house looking for help. The cousin wanted to commit suicide and Gabriel was trying to talk him out of it. He was telling him how life was worth living. They were on the fourth floor balcony of Gabriel’s house when the cousin tried to jump. Gabriel grabbed him and while pulling him back grabbed an electrical wire electrocuting himself and vaulting him off the balcony. They rushed him to the hospital, but it was too late. He was gone.
As the girls and I were talking about what happened this weekend, we started praying for the cousin whose life was saved by Gabriel and I started thinking, ‘This cousin now has an obligation to live his life to the fullest because its no longer his, its actually Gabriel’s… which was taken from him.’
And then I realized that this was a new picture of what Christ did for me. He allowed himself to be killed so that I wouldn’t have to die.
Someone gave their life for you… its as if you are living the life that SHOULD have been theirs. You are not your own. You were bought by someone else’s life. Honor Him with all you are.
I think about Tab’s last conversation with Gabriel. She spoke truth deep into his soul. She held back nothing. I am amazed by her courage and the way she allowed the Lord to use her. You just never know when a conversation you how with someone will be their last. Make it count.

My only hinderance...

Master-workman surely has the right to use any tool he pleases for His own work, and it is plainly NOT the business of the tool to decide whether it is the right one to use or not. He knows, and if he chooses to use us, of course we will be fit. And in truth, if we only knew it, our chief fitness is our utter helplessness. His strength is made perfect, not in our strength, but in our weakness. Our strength is our only HINDRANCE.
- Hannah Whitall Smith

Don't settle!

At this moment, I have three very dear Christian friends who love Jesus that are dating people that don't (and several others that are considering it). I don't know if I can fully explain how burdened this makes my heart. They all try and tell me that that doesn't mean they won't MARRY someone who loves Jesus (and that this person is OPEN to God)... but its much more likely that they will end up with someone who does not point them toward Jesus. One of my friends who is in this situation had her 6 year anniversary of being a believer today and I just thought to myself... you DESERVE a man who loves the Lord with all his heart!
I have been struggling all week about how to talk to each one of them. I desperately want them to know the truth and at the same time know my love and that this is not coming out of judgment. I have too many friends and know too many women who are married to good men who don't love Jesus. Each one of them would tell you that every day they plead with the Lord for the salvation of their husbands so that they can serve the Lord together. THIS is what I don't want for my friends, though it is very common here in Loja due to the lack of strong godly men (and women)walking with the Lord. I believe it is one of Satan's biggest lies to Lojano believers: if you wait for someone who loves the Lord, you will be single forever! (Which is one of their biggest fears).
Please pray with me for my friends and the other believers in Loja who are settling for LESS than God's best for them.

I KNEW they would make good friends!

When I first met Melissa, I didn't realize that she was only 17 years old because of her maturity level. She wasn't like most of the 17-year-old girls around here constantly screaming about some boy and breaking a nail. She has goals and dreams and desperately desires those to be met. This was definitely a different "type" of girl from the normal Lojana I am used to.
There is another girl that I know who is that same boat, Tabitha. She is a 16-year-old missionary kids living here in Loja who loves to play soccer and isn't bothered by stupid boys or petty drama. She has a heart for missions and desires to see people know Jesus. The problem is, that doesn't mesh very well with the 16-year-olds here.
Several months ago I thought to myself: 'They would make great friends!' And I kept trying to set up ways for them to be able to hang out, but it just never happened. Recently a super short termer named Holly came to visit and the three of them started hanging out constantly! They are becoming GREAT friends... Holly and Tab invited Melissa to youth group and to hang out after. This Sunday we started a Bible study with the three girls and Mesissa's counsin Anita. They all seemed to really enjoy it and are super excited to keep going in the book of John.
God continues to teach me that it is ALL in his time and his way. Melissa is moving closer and closer to a personal relationship with Jesus. I believe with all my heart that these girls will play a huge role in her coming to know Jesus. Please keep this little Bible Study and four-some of girls in your prayers. (Above Picture: Melissa and Tab are fighting over a game of spoons :))

Hope's here to stay...

I am so blessed by my volunteers. I just think they are amazing. There are two girls in particular that I have become more attached to in the past month. Karen (on the right) and Valeria (on the left). Karen came to me from the English club. She wanted to practice her English because she is moving to the States in August. Valeria is a girl from my youth group who is best friends with Karen but has never shared her faith with her. Valeria decided that she was going to come on the two days that Karen helps me to build the spiritual side of their friendship.
This past week, in English club, my friend Paula was able to have a conversation with Karen about her relationship with Jesus and she stated that she just wasn't ready yet but she had been thinking about it a lot. And later that night Valeria invited her to youth group with us. She declined due to some homework, but we haven't given up yet.
Here's the even cooler part... Karen just found out that she is moving to Arkansas for her exchange program and will be staying with a PASTOR! She will be doing everything the family does, including going to church and being involved in youth group.
There are no such thing as coincidences. God has a plan that would blow our minds away if we truly understood the full extent of it all. Please join me in praying for Karen that she would accept Jesus as her Savior... if not here in Ecuador, in the United States. Pray that the family she is staying with love Jesus and would continue sharing the good news of the gospel with her.
THE LORD IS MOVING IN LOJA!!

Challenging Moments

This is not the first time (nor the last time) that I have talked about Maria de los Angeles. As some of you know, she recently went to Bolivia to do her thesis. As many do not know, she had a hard time from the beginning. She was supposed to be living with the nuns in a convent and then decided that that would not be best for her spiritual walk and bailed out to live with the rest of the students.
This caused her problems on two ends… the nuns decided that they did not like her because she bailed and the students decided that she was a “nun” because she was supposed to live with them. This was just the first of many things that have happened to Maria in the past couple of months with the most recent being problems with the university she is working with. She was meant to go and help teach some of the poorer people in the area how to produce and sell their own food, but is currently teaching Biology and Chemistry instead. Needless to say, she is very frustrated and I received an email a couple weeks ago telling me she desperately wanted to come home.
Yesterday I was able to chat with her on-line and was overjoyed by what she told me. Not one of her circumstances has changed… she still doesn’t like her job and things are still very difficult, BUT because of all of this she has grown very close to the heart of God. She told me that HE has been the one sustaining her through all of this.
As I inquired as to what she had been studying (since there isn’t a Christian church in her city, to my knowledge) she said she was studying Romans and that she LOVED it. As we talked she asked about a passage in chapter 10 that was confusing her. I looked at the passage to see if I could shed any light on it, but found myself also quite confused. So we looked at it together and came to an answer… SHE challenged ME and I learned something new about the Word that I had never seen before. How awesome is that?! The Holy Spirit is teaching us both through his Word.
I miss her desperately (me and the girls took the above picture to show Maria where she “should have been” at a recent birthday party :)) but am so excited to see what the Lord is doing in and through her life. He has awesome plans for her there in Bolivia and one of them is definitely to grow closer to Him.

Manwellcito...

Manwellcito… he hates it when I call him that. But I have grown to love this kid like he is my little brother. I have been amazed to see where God has brought him in the past few months. I don’t know if I can do his story justice, but I will try…
When I came back to Loja in January he was not doing good. My roommate Nicole told me that he had been drinking pretty much every weekend since Christmas. As you can imagine this hurt my heart. One night when we were all out, Nicole and I saw him pretty wasted and here was the thing that really got me: when I’m just hanging out with Manwell in the coffee shop he’s happy, laughing and fun. When he drinks, he is quiet and down. I thought to myself, ‘Why would he want to be THIS Manwell… I like the other one better.’
A couple months later he told me, “I feel like I’m always wearing a mask for people. I have to be this happy, fun guy when really I feel miserable inside.”
I remember one day looking over at the couches and seeing Manwell and Carolynn in a very intense conversation. Later on Carolynn told me that she has never been so bold with anyone. She just asked him straight up what he was doing and where he was in his walk with the Lord. She challenged him to read a book called, The Jesus I Never Knew by Philip Yancey.
It was amazing to see the transformation that took place in Manwell’s life throughout the next month. He told Nicole and Carolynn that he was afraid to be honest with God because God was so big and powerful. About a week after that we were talking and I asked him about that comment and he said, “I used to be scared to be honest with God… like I had to wear a mask for him too, but now I’m not. As I was reading that book I realized that Jesus can handle my junk.”
Carolynn just recently went back to Australia and Manwell told me, “If I was the only reason that Carolynn came to Ecaudor for the past 3 years, it was worth it because of how God has used her in my life.”
God is still working in Manwell’s life and it is amazing to see what He is capable. Keep praying for Manwell that he would know the amazing Jesus who desperately wants to know him.

Tag team...

I met Fabían on a taxi ride home. I had just been with a bunch of my friends at a graduation party and they didn’t like that I was going to catch a taxi alone, so they sent Fabían with me. We started chatting on the ride home and I quickly found out that Fabían spoke English and wanted to practice. We talked about what I was doing here and where he learned English. As we rounded the corner to my house he said, “I really respect what you guys are doing here and I’m really interested in a relationship with God.” The words no sooner crossed his lips as we pulled up to my house. I quickly told him to please come by El Sendero so we could chat more. He promised to come to Faith Night the following night and I said goodbye.
The next night was Faith Night, which I never go to… but I was planning on going just to talk to Fabían. Well, as it happens, I was sick that next day, but my parents were in Loja and my mom decided to go to Faith Night. Here’s the funny part of the story. I THOUGHT Fabían’s name was Javier, so I described him to my mom and told her to look for a guy named Javier. Oops. Even with those hiccups, she found him and had an amazing, but short 10 minute conversation with him.

Here was the email I received a week later from Fabían:
The main thing that encourages me to write this is that I have heard that your mum has returned to the US, and it makes me sad the fact that I was not able to say her farewell, you might found a little odd what I am going to say but I got the feeling I would never forget what your mum has told me in on a, say, ten minutes length single conversation we were having a couple weeks ago, she told me about the Good News and helps me like only few people have done in the past to understand what God has done and what is He is keeping doing for everyone of us, I strongly think that the conversation I had with your mum will lead me in every single step and decision I would make in future regarding my life, because what she told me kind of opened my eyes, mind and spirit for a new whole adventure under God's eyes and care, that made me happy and I also got the feeling that God has a good plan for me, in the past I would never expect something like that but now that my soul has been alerted I am willing to hear every single word He will tell me and also to obey him with no doubts.

I set up a meeting time with him the next week and as we talked, it was as if the Lord was stirring his brain. I could see him thinking about the things I was saying and Jesus and a relationship with God. He told me that he was Catholic and that he thought he always would consider himself as such because of his family and his culture. I shared with him that Jesus cares very little about the titles we put on ourselves but more on what we believe and our relationship with him. I was able to give him a book that Colin recently bought in Quito called, “Tu Fe” (called Choosing Your Faith by Mark Mittelberg in English). The next day he came to the shop to meet up with Steven and he told me that it was a perfect book for him in discovering his Faith. He was already on page 87!
“I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.” – 1 Cor 3: 6-7 The conversation started with me to my mom to a book to Steven. Don’t ever forget that YOU have a part in the salvation of the people you love. You never know if you will be the one who will START the conversation or end it.
Love the tag team...

True Religion?

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress..." When I read this verse the other day in James, it disturbed me. I thought to myself, am I not showing true religion because I don’t HAVE any orphans or widows in my life?
The other day as I was walking home from buying a bunch of stuff for the café, I came across a little old woman. (“Viejitos” – old people – like this man in this picture seem much older here than they do in the States). This woman particularly looked like she was having a rough time of it; she was so bent over due to osteoporosis, she might as well have been bent in half. In one hand she had a small bag of bread and in the other a little walking stick that was holding the majority of her weight. I, myself was carrying two large bags, but knew that this was the time. I stopped and asked her if she needed help. She gratefully took my hand and put all her weight on my arm. As we walked she talked about her family and many other things that I couldn’t understand due to a lack of teeth and a mutter.
My heart was broken that I couldn’t communicate with this woman, but I knew that for this day at this time, she was my true religion.
Walking home I thanked the Lord for giving me the opportunity to minister to someone in real need and then he reminded me: Orphans and widows don’t have to be physical, it could be emotional, spiritual or mental. This woman was a widow because she had no one to care for her. Others have family but no one who will truly care for them. Some orphans still have parents but have no one to show them the truth.
THIS is true religion: to take care of orphans and widows in their distress. Do not discount the orphans and widows in your life.

Blessing in the midst of heart ache...

There have been many difficult things that have happened in the last couple weeks, but along with those things the Lord has brought many blessings. I would like to share one of those blessings with you today... may God receive all the glory for gift he has given me this past couple of weeks.
I'd like to tell you about Margoth. She is one of the girls who has been in my Bible study for almost a year. She comes from a very devout Catholic family and, when asked will quickly say she is a Catholic through and through. This past week as we were sitting down for Bible study she told me about a spiritual life class that she and the other girl in our group, Gabi have to take to graduate from the Catholic University they both attend. She was very flustered at the teacher because she used the terms "Catholic" and "Christian" interchangeably. So I asked her what were the differences that she saw between Catholic and Christian. Her explanation was very interesting...
Catholics pray to the saints, but she was quick to say that she didn't. She also said that Catholics believe that you can get to God through Mary, but she doesn't. She believes that you can only get to God through Jesus. "When everyone prays to Mary during Mass, I pray to Jesus because he's the real way to get to God."
I just smiled at these statements. I believe my little friend understands the gospel more than she thinks she does. Gabi and I explained to her that it is less about the title you give yourself and more about what you believe about Jesus, salvation and the Bible. We all know "Catholics" who don't practice their faith and know very little about what they believe AND we all know "Christians" who don't believe that Jesus is the only way to heaven and having a relationship with God. So give yourself whatever title you want, but who do you place your faith in is the real question.
Margoth is still thinking and processing, but I am convinced that many people are discipled BEFORE they come to Jesus as Savior.
There are many more blessing and people who are coming closer and closer to knowing Jesus, but I'll save those stories for another day. Please be praying for Margoth that she would truly understand the saving power of Jesus Christ.