Serving, Trusting and the Role of Money
During these weeks of waiting for the baby to arrive, we´ve been trying to make room for him, which has meant sorting through my stuff and throwing away non-essentials. I´ve done a fairly good job of parting with things (my efficient friend, Jalynn, would be so proud of me). However, there have been a few things that I just have not been able to part with. Among those things are a few select journals that I´ve carried with me from my days on campus at the University of Granada. With all this extra time on my hands, I decided to go back and read through some of my thoughts and experiences, recorded at a very different point in my life from now.
August 9th, 2002
In the next 3 years I long to see...
*20 new Spanish staff raised up in cities where they can be trained
*group after group of Spanish students discipling each other
*a regular annual conference providing times of worship and Biblical teaching for students leaders
August 19th, 2002
There are many times when I lose hope, becme discouraged, because of the hardness of the ground in Spain. Sometimes I can even read my Bible and still experience little change in my understanding and perspective. It´s not that it´s not true. I just can´t see it.
August 22, 2002
*I hope to see some significant spiritual growth in our regular students this year
*I pray for a definite group of core students who understand our goals
*significant exposure and interaction on a broad level on the campus in terms of Christ and the gospel
*We need more prayer, more evangelism, more understanding of the culture...
Of course, this was during the days when I was focused only on the university students of Granada. I struggled with my incredible ineffectiveness as a foreigner. Even if the message of Christ that I carried was attractive to these Spanish students, it was easy for them to discount it, saying that this what Americans believe, but it isn´t Spanish. I became more and more convinced of the importance of national laborers, Spaniards who speak the same language, who have been raised in the same culture and have the same history as their peers.
The longer I was in Spain, the more needs I discovered for these Spanish missionaries that labored among their own people:
*safe forums to be open and vulnerable with others
*strong environments of worship and prayer
*solid biblical training
*opportunities to discover and develop spiritual gifts and talents
*need to raise finanial support
So, I adapted my prayers to include these needs for the Spanish missonaries, especially the Spanish Agape staff with whom I work.
As the years have passed, I´ve grown impatient and discouraged over the incredibly slow progress that I see. I also began to question my calling and my role in Spain. "It seems like my efforts are fruitless. Why do You still have me here, Lord? I´m not accomplishing anything that is making a visible difference."
Yet, my spirit tells me that God is still working and that He hasn´t forgotten Spain, nor has He forgotten that He brought me to Spain for some special purpose. "But what are you doing, Lord? Why do you still have me here?" Could it be that He would chose to use me to answer some of my own prayers for these amazing Spanish staff?
This fall will be an opportunity to find out. I will continue to work in the realm of Human Resources, specifically coaching Spanish staff in the area of raising financial support for their ministries.
Even within the Spanish church, their is little to no regular biblical teaching regarding financial gifts and offerings to grow the kingdom of God. I think that part of this is a reaction to the harsh abuses of the Catholic church in the past with indulgences http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indulgence#Abuses that were required for forgiveness and salvation and a better place in heaven.
This 10-minute clip from the film Luther illustrates the practice and the abuse of indulgences that existed within the Catholic Church during the Middle Ages.
Now in the 21st century, many Spaniards have not only thrown off the heresies of earning salvation with money, but have thrown out everything that has to do with God.
Even though Spanish Christians have been able to sift through many of the twisted theologies that lie in their Catholic history, many are still affected and crippled by the atmosphere and the abuses that haunt their spiritual past, with financial giving just being one element of these abuses. In a desire to distance themselves from the abusive practices of the church, many Spanish staff struggle to even talk about the topic of money, let along challenge others to give.
In late September, our MDEA(Ministerio de Desarrollo de Equipo de Apoyo/Ministry of Support Team Development) Coaching Team will begin to connect one-on-one with our Spanish staff to help them evaluate where they are in their support-raising process and encourage them to take the necessary steps of faith to move forward.
Please pray for us as we begin this first stage of coaching and pray for the staff who need to raise support. Obviously, raising sufficient financial support is part of the goal, but the deeper, more important goal is helping to lay a Biblical foundation in the hearts and minds of these precious Spanish staff, to encourage them and to embolden them that "the laborer is worth his wages."
Thank you again for your financial investments and your prayers invested in the Spanish people and the building up of the Spanish church. May the Lord bless you greatly for your faithfulness and generosity!
August 9th, 2002
In the next 3 years I long to see...
*20 new Spanish staff raised up in cities where they can be trained
*group after group of Spanish students discipling each other
*a regular annual conference providing times of worship and Biblical teaching for students leaders
August 19th, 2002
There are many times when I lose hope, becme discouraged, because of the hardness of the ground in Spain. Sometimes I can even read my Bible and still experience little change in my understanding and perspective. It´s not that it´s not true. I just can´t see it.
August 22, 2002
*I hope to see some significant spiritual growth in our regular students this year
*I pray for a definite group of core students who understand our goals
*significant exposure and interaction on a broad level on the campus in terms of Christ and the gospel
*We need more prayer, more evangelism, more understanding of the culture...
Of course, this was during the days when I was focused only on the university students of Granada. I struggled with my incredible ineffectiveness as a foreigner. Even if the message of Christ that I carried was attractive to these Spanish students, it was easy for them to discount it, saying that this what Americans believe, but it isn´t Spanish. I became more and more convinced of the importance of national laborers, Spaniards who speak the same language, who have been raised in the same culture and have the same history as their peers.
The longer I was in Spain, the more needs I discovered for these Spanish missionaries that labored among their own people:
*safe forums to be open and vulnerable with others
*strong environments of worship and prayer
*solid biblical training
*opportunities to discover and develop spiritual gifts and talents
*need to raise finanial support
So, I adapted my prayers to include these needs for the Spanish missonaries, especially the Spanish Agape staff with whom I work.
As the years have passed, I´ve grown impatient and discouraged over the incredibly slow progress that I see. I also began to question my calling and my role in Spain. "It seems like my efforts are fruitless. Why do You still have me here, Lord? I´m not accomplishing anything that is making a visible difference."
Yet, my spirit tells me that God is still working and that He hasn´t forgotten Spain, nor has He forgotten that He brought me to Spain for some special purpose. "But what are you doing, Lord? Why do you still have me here?" Could it be that He would chose to use me to answer some of my own prayers for these amazing Spanish staff?
This fall will be an opportunity to find out. I will continue to work in the realm of Human Resources, specifically coaching Spanish staff in the area of raising financial support for their ministries.
Even within the Spanish church, their is little to no regular biblical teaching regarding financial gifts and offerings to grow the kingdom of God. I think that part of this is a reaction to the harsh abuses of the Catholic church in the past with indulgences http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indulgence#Abuses that were required for forgiveness and salvation and a better place in heaven.
This 10-minute clip from the film Luther illustrates the practice and the abuse of indulgences that existed within the Catholic Church during the Middle Ages.
Now in the 21st century, many Spaniards have not only thrown off the heresies of earning salvation with money, but have thrown out everything that has to do with God.
In late September, our MDEA(Ministerio de Desarrollo de Equipo de Apoyo/Ministry of Support Team Development) Coaching Team will begin to connect one-on-one with our Spanish staff to help them evaluate where they are in their support-raising process and encourage them to take the necessary steps of faith to move forward.
Please pray for us as we begin this first stage of coaching and pray for the staff who need to raise support. Obviously, raising sufficient financial support is part of the goal, but the deeper, more important goal is helping to lay a Biblical foundation in the hearts and minds of these precious Spanish staff, to encourage them and to embolden them that "the laborer is worth his wages."
Thank you again for your financial investments and your prayers invested in the Spanish people and the building up of the Spanish church. May the Lord bless you greatly for your faithfulness and generosity!
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