Let Them Come

I want to begin this post with a quote from a book I am reading called " No Longer A Slumdog" by K.P. Yohannan:

Our Father in heaven is greatly concerned about the welfare of these helpless children. In fact, God has special angels assigned to watch over them at all times. Let us look again at Matthew 18:10 (NASB): "See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven continually see the face of My Father who is in heaven"

Now this is something very significant that Jesus is telling us here. There are angels watching over each little child in the slums of Bombay (and Africa and everywhere else in the world), yet simultaneously, these angels are looking into the face of the Father who is sitting on the throne.   

(Parentheses addition is mine)

The morning after I read this very chapter, I came across a story on my twitter feed that was posted on MSNBC here.

It is the story of a 12 year old little girl in Ethiopia who had been abducted from her family and village by 7 men in order that one of them may force her to marry him.

Apart from the appalling statistics that more than 70% of Ethiopian marriages are done this way, this was a child whose angel was looking into the face of God.

This was a child whom Jesus declared to all mankind, belonged to the Father.

That those who do them harm or prevent them from coming to Him...well it will be better if they had NEVER BEEN BORN.

There are certain things that Jesus was very serious and threatening about. The treatment of children by man was most definitely one of them.

As the story on MSNBC reports, the girl had been missing for a week with the kidnappers.

All hope seemed to have been lost, until police were patrolling on the outskirts of Bita Genet and found this young girl, beaten, crying, huddled up against a tree...and being guarded by three black-maned Ethiopian Lions.

Yes, I said guarded.

As the police approached, the three lions simply trotted off into the wilderness, leaving the girl free to be rescued by the police where she shared with them about how the lions had come and scared off the men who had abducted and beaten her, and then stood guard around her for more than half a day.

The only answer a local wildlife expert could offer was, perhaps the lions had mistaken her crying for the whimpering of a lion cub. However this simply does not explain why they would then wait for the police to arrive and leave her to be taken to safety.

There is no doubt in my mind that this was the Lord's hand at work in the rescuing of a child whom he holds most dear.

I cannot explain or comprehend why God chose to intervene in this situation and not the millions of other trafficked, kidnapped, and exploited children around the world.

But His ways are beyond our comprehension, and ultimately it is not God who is at fault for these atrocities, but the evil heart of man.

I know the Lord revealed these things to me in order for me to better understand, even more fully, the true purpose of our being here in Cancún. If we can save even one of the thousands of children who are abandoned to orphanages, trafficked or sold into slavery or the sex trade, then it will have been worth it.

If your support of us being here and your donations to our ministry contribute to allowing the little children of Cancún come to Jesus, then you have taken part in a great love story between our Father in Heaven and the 1 that was lost of the 99.

It is with a renewed sense of urgency and passion that I write this post to try to share with you this story that moved me so greatly.

The story of the omnipotent creator of all things, who was and is and always will be, greatness on such a scale we cannot begin to imagine with our feeble human minds, cared so greatly for one little african girl that he directed a pack of Lions to rescue her and protect her until help came.

I don't need to go into the countless recorded analogies of God in the form of a Lion (Lion of Judah, etc...)

I don't need to draw a diagram of how God used one of the most ferocious creatures he created to show compassion to this girl when the heart of man had none.

I don't need to tell you these things for you to not be awed at the power and condemnation of this story on all of us who stand by in our comfortable lifestyles, worshipping at church once a week, and calling ourselves good people, while this kind of torture, slavery, and genocide goes on every day all around us.

I don't need to tell you that we do help in some ways.

But I don't need to tell you that we simply must do more. Not because of a political cause, but because our savior has commanded it of us.

I do need to tell you thank you for your partnership with us.

Together, we are seeking to do more.

Each and every day, right here in Cancún.

Belief or Believe?

Everyone claims to have beliefs.

Things that they hold to be true in their lives.

Without delving too deeply into philosophical definitions (for which I am most certainly not qualified), this three word question has hit me hard these first ten days living in Mexico.

Allow me to describe what I have realized my previous belief structure was within my self-driven comfortable lifestyle it was neither spiritually nor physically challenging.

Once again, however, I feel I have to preface this with the customary, "these are my memories of how I thought while living in the states and in no way are intended to portray how others may or may not think."

I had lots of beliefs, many that were good, morally upright and biblically sound. But this does not make my beliefs real any more than sending an email makes you a computer expert.

It is not until we are forced to accept those BELIEFS in order to survive that we truly come to BELIEVE them.

The difference between the words are minute, the difference between their meaning, interpretation, and impact on how we live our lives,  is immeasurable.

These first ten days living in Mexico have been....great, terrifying, amazing, stretching, wonderful, exhausting, restful, filled with community and blessings, plagued by sickness and difficulties.

I really don't think I could describe it any better than that.

A roller coaster, perhaps, if I had to shorten the description.

It is the trials that I have faced these last several days that have caused my beliefs to mature to the point of actually believing them.

After two weeks of extremely stressful work packing up our lives, driving across the country, and culminating in a delayed flight from Miami to Cancún on January 11th.

It was not until we got here that we realized just how much of a toll this had taken on us. It took three days to catch our bodies up on the rest that they needed, and doing this with an energetic and exuberant 15 month old was difficult.

After that Anna and I were both so sick that we had to go to the hospital, Anna for an infection, and I was admitted for allergic and asthmatic reactions to the mold in the air which caused me not to be able to breathe.

So with nearly 10 medications between the two of us, and the worst seemingly behind us, we reflect upon the first ten days here in Mexico.

There were absolutely wonderful days in-between the sickness and exhaustion where we were able to get together with our wonderful new community of staff family, Erick and Julie Mowery, Mau and Lizy Davila and Matt and Julie Cooper as well as getting to know our church family here from Amistad Cristiana Cancún!

Throughout the last ten days of ups and downs, we see and know that the enemy is real here in Cancún.

We know that he seeks to destroy the Hope that Christ is trying to give to the orphan child in Cancún.

We know that he has come against us strongly since arriving here.

But...

We also know that we have a Savior who has taken the keys to death and Hell, and has overthrown the enemy with the blood that was shed on Calvary.

We know that when our God is for us, no one, not even Satan himself, can stand against us.

We know that He has called us here for a purpose, and that calling is not dependent upon whether or not the enemy attacks.

We know that purpose is to spread the love of Jesus to the least of these in this city, to the orphan and the widow, to the lost.

And we know that Jesus cares more for the one child that does not know him yet, than for the 99 that already do.

It is with great joy that we claim victory over the attacks of the enemy and even while celebrating, we prepare, through prayer, for the next attack.

We also are not blind to how terrible these last ten days could have been without the powerful prayers of so many of you that are supporting and sustaining us. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts and I can honestly say that we do feel the power and presence of every prayer lifted up to our heavenly Father on our behalf.

While the sickness has delayed us in some things, we have been able to move forward in some areas since arriving. I was able to get the final step for my Visa initiated at the immigration office here. We were able to begin looking for a place to live, and while we have seen many options, the Lord has not made a clear next step visible on this yet, so we will continue looking this next week and praying that the Lord opens a favorable door. (Please pray alongside us on this one!)

We have also started attending staff meetings weekly, along with prayer and worship several mornings per week. We have had some good debrief and venting sessions with our mentors for the move, the Mowery's (who did all of this four months ago and have been such wonderful friends through this). We have also begun preparing for staff training from the Back2Back Directors, Todd and Beth Guckenberger, in a week and even preparing for our next short term team that is coming the first week of February. We are even beginning to move past the shock stage of this adjustment.

Thank you again for your prayers and support and we will continue to keep you "in the loop" as to how we, as co-laborers with you, continue to progress, move forward, and begin joining in with the great ministry that is already taking place here at Back2Back Cancún!

The Open Road...

Tuesday, January 3rd

After having an amazing time thanking God for everything that He had been doing in our lives it was time to prepare for the second part of our journey... getting there!

That morning Andrew told me that he was feeling concerned about all the boxes and furniture that we needed to make fit in our 6x12 Uhaul trailer. Andrew likes to plan things out and I know that in his mind he was already picturing the trailer and the suburban completely full with all of our stuff. I am a little more laid back and I kept telling Andrew "we are going to be fine," although in my mind I also kept thinking "please God make it fit."

We had to do some running before going to finish packing and around 6:30 pm we arrived at our church where we have been storing everything. Andrew opened the closet door and my optimism went from 100% to 50%. I thought to myself, "Those boxes and furniture just got bigger overnight. What are we going to do?" Andrew, being the planer that he is, started to make two different piles. One with the things that we needed and one with the things that we could live without. The pile with the things that we we could live without was getting larger and my optimism kept dropping. I kept thinking: "God, I know that I don't need everything I have to serve you, but there is nothing impossible for you and I would love to take everything with us!"

My sisters and my brother-in-law came to help us finish packing and load everything in the trailer. I asked my oldest sister if she could pray while Andrew and Toño, my brother-in-law, were outside thinking how they were going to squeeze everything in to the trailer. I know that my God listens to all of our needs, even the silliest ones. He wants to be involved in every part of our lives. So my sister prayed and she asked for intelligence to fit everything into the little space that we had. After she was done praying Andrew and Toño came back and Toño looked at the boxes and noticed that there were many of them filled with pillows, blankets and towels and had the idea of putting all of that in plastic bags so we could fill empty spaces easier with them. 

We opened box after box and consolidated our stuff until we had gotten rid of  18 large boxes. The guys started to load the boxes and I could see God's favor in every box they would take. Andrew told me that there was no space for Kai's dresser and I kept praying "everything God, everything." Suddenly at 2:30 am I looked around and both piles were gone but the dresser was still there looking at me trying to make me think that it was impossible and at that moment Andrew and Toño came in and Andrew looked at me and smiled, the dresser was going in and even in this really insignificant thing God was being glorified!

On Thursday we were ready to go and left around 7 in the morning...

Thursday, January 5th

7:00 am: We are all in the suburban, with extra space I may add. It was sad saying goodbye to many good memories but at the same time we were excited for our next adventure with God. 

Our first stop was the Back2Back home office in Ohio, just north of Cincinnati. We had a great time meeting all of the wonderful people who do so much work behind the scenes to allow us to go. We were also blessed to be greeted by Todd Guckenberger, the Executive Director of Back2Back, who along with Casey, the US Operations  Director, took us out to lunch and we had a wonderful time of conversation. After lunch we headed out and made it to Charleston, West Virginia. We spent the night there still feeling like we were in a dream. 

During our road trip to Miami we stopped to visit family and friends in Virginia, South Carolina and Georgia that we wanted to say goodbye to before we left. We had a wonderful time and I am very thankful for their hospitality, generosity and friendship.

Tuesday, January 10th

Welcome to Miami... We made it there safely. The next day we dropped our belongings at the shipping company, then we took the trailer back, we dropped our car off at the port and finally we took a cab to the airport.

Our flight left an hour and a half late and we arrived at our new home at 11 pm.

Thank you so much for all of your prayers. We could see God answering those prayers every step of the way!