To the Harvest Conference report.

It is indeed a thrilling thing to be a missionary serving God on the mission field.  As we served the Lord throughout our deputation ministry we used that time in churches to share our heart for the people of Uruguay.  Before that, when we didn't yet know where we were headed, we would listen intently to each and every missionary and ask God, "Is this where you would have us to go?" 

Often times, especially after a missions conference, we would become overwhelmed by the need for world-wide missions and we would chomp at the bit to get out of Bible College and to the field.  It was hard to be patient and wait on the Lord but we knew we must or we would be unprepared for what lay ahead.

This week of missions conference was very interesting, it was as though God cut a new facet into our lives as missionaries.  It certainly adds a new dimension to missionary life to have a missions conference on the mission field.  While sitting in the services listening to Pastor Daniel Lopez, missionary from Peru serving here in Colonia, share different needs world-wide I found myself praying for the Uruguayans to hear and to see and to go. 

Details are important to God and He certainly didn't hesitate to work through even the smallest things in this conference.  Our original special music schedule had to be changed and when I printed out the conference booklet all the missionary quotes ended up on different pages than I had intended.  It turned out that the changes made to both the music and the booklet fit better with the preaching.  Since we had no idea what Missionary Jeremy Estrema was going to preach it made it fun to see how the little adjustments would play out with the messages, and/or with Pastor Daniel's missions presentations.

I'm very thankful that God gave us the idea and burden to have this missions conference.  The preaching this week was some of the best we have ever heard on missions.  We trust He is at work in hearts helping them to beat along with His, giving compassion for the lost, helping eyes to focus on the need for workers in the harvest fields world-wide and loosening the grip of fear of living without money, family, and all things familiar.  Our prayer is that each and everyone of us that attended the conference would live in open handed surrender, that we will say Here am I Lord, send me, and that we will follow through.  

Kaitlin and Amparo Lopez took the kids to China via the story of Hudson Taylor.  Each child got their own "passport".  They also learned more about our guest missionaries Jeremy and Katie Estrema.

Having fun together during lunches at our house.

Wrestling Match

Eph 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

Missions has always been at the forefront of my Christian life.  I thank God for our sending church that places a focus and importance on the heartbeat of God - sharing salvation through Christ with the world! 

We loved missions conferences in our home church!  I'll never forget the conference that followed, by a mere week, Scott's surrender to serve God full-time as a missionary.  Having the missionaries into our home was thrilling and we soaked up all they had to share with us. 

When we moved to Bible college we were able to experience two missions conferences every fall; one at the college and one at our church.  Every missionary presentation was an opportunity to pray and ask God if that was the country and the people He would have us to go and minister.

Then we were appointed missionaries with Baptist World Mission and suddenly became the missionaries.  The Lord blessed us with the opportunity to present the need for the Gospel of Christ to be shared here in Uruguay in over 100 churches.  Each church was a special blessing to our family.  And it was clear that missions was more than a concept it was what made the church.  It became clear that if the churches focus was on missions that church was a thriving vivacious work. 

I never take lightly the sacrifice of money and time on our behalf, personally, and on the lives of countless other missionaries that had already passed through the doors of each church.  However, I never understood, until now, the battle that rages around a missions conference. 

As soon as we began planning for this conference we have had to duck and cover.  We are being bombarded! 

Sadly, friendly fire along with the expected fiery darts of our natural enemy have hit their marks.  Even so, you all are praying and our battle gear is in place so those fiery darts have not quite had their full intended effect.  (Eph 6:16 Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.)

For the past few weeks we have had one thing or another happen to us our the kids.  Since this past Saturday it has been literally non-stop.  Simeon dropped a huge rock on his pinky finger leaving it swollen and black and blue.  Later that day Silas and Brandon came down with something respiratory.  Brandon was barely able to stand on Sunday morning and he was scheduled to preach that night.  We encouraged him to plan to preach.  God intervened and gave Brandon the strength and ability.  By the time we got home Sunday night Silas was in a major asthma attack and we had to put him on steroids before the day began on Monday.

Tuesday morning Simeon got his finger caught in between a bike chain and the sprocket.  And that afternoon Silas fell and cut his chin open.

Wednesday during school the window above Isabel's desk fell and the glass shattered where she would have been sitting.  Thank God she had already finished school and was not at her desk.  Later our guest missionaries arrived to our house for lunch and their oldest daughter was bit by our dog.   Yesterday their son had a bad allergic reaction.  And Silas touched the hot tail pipe of the moto. 

This morning Adeline woke up in a severe asthma attack.  Yesterday she ran out of her miracle asthma medicine, my fault, I miscalculated.  I don't know if the crisis was a result of not having her meds last night or not.

I praise God for His protection in all of these incidents.  Clearly many of them have been life threatening.  Yet God in His grace has not allowed them to go beyond the superficial and the almost.  God is on the throne!  And we will continue to share God's heart for worldwide missions with the Uruguayans!!!