Jesus forbids institutional violence because, ultimately, every person in the world is related. We are all children of the same God. All wars are civil wars. In the reign of God, Jews and Palestinians, Tutsis and Hutus, U.S. citizens and “illegal aliens,” Christians and Muslims, are neighbors. We are to treat one another with utmost respect and honor, the very way we want to be treated ourselves.”

“The kingdom Jesus preaches claims no land, defends no space, has no interest in political systems. It does not need to pass laws to take care of the needy; it just assumes the responsibility in a way that is decentralized, organic, sustainable, and local. It looks to serve and to place others before itself; it is content in recession and prosperity. It fasts to feed the needy. It creates no coinage, has no positions of power, and has no army. It works quietly within the old systems, not trying to change laws through powerful conventions, but simply living as if that reality already existed. Or to use the language of Jesus, ‘The kingdom of God is here now!’”

[excerpt from No Shortage of Messiahs by Matt Nederlanden]

I am here with a friend named Juan. I’ve been here with him 6 or 7 times now trying to have a surgery that he desperately needs. This should-be-easy process is complicated for many reasons. I’ll do my best to explain.

First, let’s talk about the hospital. This is the hospital in Managua that is free to all Nicaraguans. Sounds great right? But this free hospital is run by people that are not qualified to run a hospital. That’s the first problem. The second is the “system” that is in place here. It seems so ridiculous.  You are handed a slip of paper from your doctor when you have an appointment. To get back into the hospital you need this piece of paper. The security guard will not let you in the door without it. Once you figure out how to get in you wait. Everyone waits. No sign in. No number system. No snack machines, books, magazines – nothing.

Now let’s talk about Juan. Shortly after we got here last August, another crazy couple came down to work with us. Their names are Joe and Julie (Joe is pictured right with Juan). They have some medical training so they started volunteering at the local hospital with another friend of ours – Seth. The three of them met Juan during their visits to the hospital and as they became friends they learned more about his story (you can find Seth’s post about Juan here). Juan had surgery 15 years ago to correct his bowed legs. His left leg healed fine but his right leg did not. The doctors put some screws in his leg damaging it further and the leg never fully healed. He also has a bone condition called osteopetrosis (or “stone bone”) which means his bones are extremely hard, making it very difficult to operate.

He has had a bone infection for 15 years now. Joe, Julie, the Hickersons and Seth decided they would help Juan get the care he needed so they took him to a better hospital to get a professional opinion and some x-rays. After this, he was all set to go back to the free hospital so he could have the surgery there. Seth continued to go back with Juan only to be re-scheduled or given any number of other excuses just to not operate that day. Seth must have gone to the hospital with Juan 10 times. When it came time for Seth to leave, I offered to take this over for him never having met Juan. In my attempt to let my yes be yes – this is where we are now.

I can’t begin to imagine what it’s like to live with a bone infection for 15 years. The doctors describe the open sores that expose his bone as “volcanoes”. Juan needs a miracle. His entire life has been changed by this. He has never walked like a normal man. There is no doubt that if Juan was born in America he would be walking today. This hospital is Juan’s only choice and you could argue that it is the hospital’s fault that his leg is in this condition in the first place. I’m looking at him now and he looks terrified at the thought of having to stay here again – scarred with what happened here when he was a boy. He tells me that if I’m not with him, they will not even see him or ignore him all together. Without his “Yankee friends” he says he’s hopeless.

Juan makes a very difficult journey to get to the hospital from his home in Tipitapa. The hour long bus ride is very painful and this morning he fell really hard while getting out of the bus in Managua. It took him 10 minutes of sitting down for the pain to subside enough for us to make the 20 minute cab ride to the hospital.

Most of the people I work with here in Granada have difficult circumstances today because of bad decisions they made in the past. This is not the case with Juan. He has never struggled with addiction. He has no self-destructive behaviors or compulsions plaguing his life. In fact, despite his circumstances, he spreads joy everywhere he goes. He talks to everyone and they instantly love him. His joy is contagious, heart-warming and encouraging. He truly is a blessing to know and be around.

So why am I here? I am here because I believe in a God that hears the cry of his people. I believe in a God that wants to heal Juan’s leg. I am here because, as my friend Joe Kidd put it, “The Lord has won the war and is much bigger than the stupid Nica system and any of satan’s forces working with it!”.

Leadership isn’t something I’ve sought out in the past. I’m happier being a follower, and am at my best when I have a leader I can trust and job duties that are easily checked off a list. Because I’ve seen ineffective leaders, I avoided leadership roles out of fear.

–>warning, rabbit trail ahead.

Proving, once again, that God has a sense of humor (hello ability to pass gas!) God called us to a place that has shown me how to trust, but removed my lists. Sure, I have lists for groceries and for my basic duties here but most of what we do here is relationship based, and as you probably know relationships don’t come with a list.

and rabbit trail done<–

Through a series of events, God had given me the desire to lead a short term trip. Frank and I discussed it, and he agreed that God had placed this calling on my life. I emailed a friend at Adventures in Missions and asked to be put on the list if an opportunity opened up. He responded that the trips had been booked for the summer, but that he would keep me in mind.

A month later, another staff member emailed me and asked me to lead an Ambassador trip. From what I know, these two staff members had not communicated with each other. God had given my name to the staff member. I signed up for the trip, not knowing all of the details.

Then I received the email with details, including that part of the trip would take place in Ometepe. Frank would not be with me. I thought, “Oh boy! This isn’t what I signed up for.” Which is typical of most major commitments, but because God had confirmed this calling in several ways, I accepted it when it didn’t go the way I though it would.

Things I learned and felt while on the trip…

I could feel prayers covering me. The most obvious being that I found it easier to show myself grace and to make mistakes without allowing discouragement and feelings of failure to seep into my identity. The day after the trip ended, a lot of these doubts started coming back. I’m assuming this is when parents and leaders stopped praying in full force for the trip.

The last week was the hardest. My patience wore thin, and I snapped more at the girls during that trip than the rest of the trip combined. I didn’t handle difficult situations as well as I could have. Mostly because I was so tired and hadn’t had any time to myself.

A month long trip allows you to just start getting into the surface. Serious issues aren’t really uncovered in a month.

Leadership requires getting your hands dirty. You have to serve when you don’t want to serve. Answer questions when you have already answered 50. Be nice when you feel like being mean.

Leadership requires a desire to learn and knowledge that you will not be perfect.

Leadership requires humility and courage to apologize and make things right when you make mistakes. Something I’m still working on.

Leadership requires leading by example. If you gossip or tear other people down, the people who follow you will do the same. If you cheat or cut corners, so will they. If you grumble or complain, they will take this as permission to do the same.

God is real and active. We had a moment when we were praying where one of the girls had a vision of bright light surrounding us. At the same time, another girl opened her eyes while praying and saw streams of light flowing through us. Coincidence, I think not.

As John told his story, one statement really stood out:

My life wasn’t changing. I kept asking God to do it all but I was unwilling to do anything about it myself. Nothing changed until I decided to actually do something about it.

Often times for those of us that struggle with addiction, actually doing something about it is the biggest struggle. The folks at The 99% called it a “bias to action“. Its origin is to motivate the creative industry to make their ideas happen, but I think it can be applied to most areas of our personal lives as well.

Are there areas of your life that you want God to change? Does it seem like you have been asking God to do all the work? If so, God may be waiting on you to actually do something about it yourself. If you struggle with addiction, it may be committing to go to that recovery group that meets every week at your church. If it’s financial struggles, it may mean temporarily taking a job that you don’t like. Just make sure that you actually do something.

It’s only through experience that we learn anything. If God did all of the work, we would never grow into the people that he created us to be.

Shortly after arriving, we started a small group (Solo Por Hoy) for people that struggle with addiction. The group has not only blessed me but many people from the community now have a place to come and share their struggles and victories with each other and receive encouragement and prayer. The group has multiplied and now meets 4 times a week! Recently we were lead to implement some of the material from Celebrate Recovery into the program. We sent out an update and within 4 days all the material was purchased! We are putting together a solid curriculum for the leaders to follow long after we leave Nicaragua.

Rebekah had the opportunity to lead a group of 9 high school-aged girls on a 4 week mission trip (Ambassador) here in Nicaragua. The trip was through the same organization that we work with – Adventures in Missions. Her time began with a week of training to get familiar with the program and then they spent two weeks working in the community in Granada and then two more weeks working at an orphanage (CICRIN) in Ometepe. The girls had a great time and Bekah did an amazing job leading the girls to get the most out of their experience. She just got back yesterday so she is still processing everything (which means waking up at midnight because her brain doesn’t shut off while it processes). You can find out more about their time in Ometepe here.

My nephew (Treyson) has been here for the past 6 weeks during his summer break from school. It’s been so great for me to have him around all the time and to see his smiling face in the mornings. Lots of Ramen, picos and grama has been consumed and I have seen God work in Treyson’s heart during his time here. He was always up for going out and serving the people in the community and never complained. I pray that this summer changes his life forever and that he sees that the world is much bigger than America and that God is working everywhere!

Lastly, my parents have been here for the past week and they felt led to come here and do a Hearts in Hands project for a needy family. When we began to pray about who, we immediately knew it would be Massiel and her family. During the past week, we built a concrete retaining wall along with some concrete steps that lead to her house. We also did some other minor improvements. My dad had the opportunity to give Massiel a Bible (she has never owned one). It’s been an amazing week and we have been blessed to have my parents here with us!

Pray for Massiel and her family. Pray that the leaders that God has raised up for Solo Por Hoy to stay strong. Pray for El Puente and the short term teams that are here this summer. Lastly, we are on the homestretch of our time here so please pray that we finish strong and that God would continue to use us and change us. It’s been such an amazing year!

“We Christians must simplify our lives or lose untold treasures on earth and in eternity. Modern civilization is so complex as to make the devotional life but impossible. The need for solitude and quietness was never greater than it is today.” – A. W. Tozer

I read this after spending the first hour of my day checking Twitter, Facebook, email and reading blogs. Granted a lot of this involved reading about what God is doing around the world but it left me wondering if the conveniences and luxuries that I enjoy really make my spiritual life better.

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Are we too connected to everything to enjoy the close relationship with God that only comes through “solitude and quietness”? Are we spending more time – learning and reading and then updating Twitter and Facebook with what we’re learning and reading – than we are with our creator?

• Down a broken road, I was led to this church.
• Down a broken road, Rebekah was led to the same church.
• We met during a time in our lives when we were finding peace, joy, and ourselves after many years of pain and struggle.
• We married in March of 2007.
• 9 months later we went to Honduras.
• 10 months later we went Nicaragua.
• 1 month later God told us to move to Nicaragua.
• Our lives now have purpose and meaning and it is all because of God’s work in us.

But what we didn’t know was that while God was at work in our lives during this time, he was also at work in the life of a single mother of 2 in Nicaragua.

After arriving in Nicaragua in August 2009, we met Natalia. Rebekah began to build up a relationship with her and this led her to help Natalia start a sewing business to help her support her family. We decided to film her story and share it with our friends and supporters with the intentions of raising some money to help finance her business. After talking to her further, I was shown how God had woven our paths together. Here are some of the events that led her to where she is now:

• Down a broken road, I was led to this church.
• God began to show me who I was and how much he loved me.
• God brought a Christian woman named Brittany into my life and she help me and discipled me.
• God brought another Christian woman named Annie into my life and she helped me as well and discipled me.
• And now God has brought another Christian woman named Rebekah into my life and she is helping me start a business and she disciples me as well.
• My life now has purpose and meaning and it is all because of God’s work in me.

This left me wondering whether all this has happened by chance or by divine appointment?

As these three lives walked down broken roads seeking their identities, God was working in the midst of their brokenness in order to have those paths cross so that he would be glorified.

And for that I am eternally grateful…

Everything seems to be moving along nicely. We planted okra and cucumbers last week and they have already popped out of the ground. Hopefully, we have built a suitable home for the worms and they will begin to produce rich food for the plants to eat.  We will be documenting this process as we go so check back for updates!

We are very grateful for and humbled by your continued prayers and financial support during our almost 10 months here. It is so encouraging to know that we have people back home who believe in us and in our God. Thank you!

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This week we walked through verses 1:2-4. Here’s what we learned:

Verse one is an introduction and James is telling his readers who he is and who he serves and he is also sharing who the letter is written to. Tonight we’re going to move on to the next passage.

Read verse 2

Some of you may be asking yourselves, “Count it joy when I meet trials and temptations? What? Aren’t those hard things to go through? Why should I be joyful during a trial?”

Read verse 3 for the answer

It says that when our faith is tested that the outcome or result will be steadfastness. Does anyone know what the word steadfastness means? It means: firm and dependable, unchanging.

Ok so now we know that steadfastness is the result of resisting during times of trials and temptations. Now let’s read about steadfastness.

Read verse 4

Let steadfastness have its full effect – this means staying strong and firm during a trial so that we can see the results or the purpose that we are going through the trial. There is always a reason why we go through trials and temptations. They are not without purpose. God uses them for our good, to make us better, to teach us things.

If you were here last Friday, we learned that being tempted is not a sin – being in a trial is not a sin. It’s when we give in to the temptation or react in a negative way while in a trial – that’s we fall into sin.

So what James is telling us today is to stand firm against the temptation. By doing that, steadfastness will have its full effect which is what? You will be perfect and complete – lacking in nothing.

This reminds me of Jesus and how he resisted temptation for 40 days before he started his ministry. God rewarded him for this. I’ve always found it interesting that it seems that Jesus had to do this before he was able to start his ministry. It’s as if the power he needed for his ministry was found in or was the reward of his steadfastness during this time of temptation.

The same power that was in Jesus during this time is the same power that is alive and at work in those who follow and have faith in him today – right now.

Basically what James is sharing with us here is that trials and temptations are designed to produce spiritual maturity and should therefore be counted as joy.

Related posts:
James 1:1