In the Mission Field

I am writing this last email on my way home from Bogota.  The flight was uneventful and I will get home early.  We needed to get up at 4:30 in the morning today to get to the airport in time for the flights. But now lots of time to reflect on the campaign.

So what were the “results” of the campaign?  For the team I worked with in Porvenir we had 138 professions of faith.  We call them “professions of faith” rather than people who were “saved” because only the Lord knows who actually put their full trust in Jesus’ death on the cross for the payment of their sins.  The 138 only includes adults and older teenagers, and not the dozens and dozens of younger kids we shared with during the week and who prayed.  It is not that we don’t think the kids can understand and trust in the Lord, because they clearly can.  Surveys show that 50% or more of the people who are Christians accepted Jesus before they were 13.  But from a practical standpoint many kids will pray without understanding or not be able to give us an address for follow-up.

Child Evangelism Fellowship has a short demonstration of how to use colors to share with the children about Jesus.  During the week I shared with the kids using colors with balloons, stories, magic and other ways to share the gospel.  You can see this on the link below:

http://www.cefonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id0

Since there are probably several thousand people who live in Porvenir what impact did we really have?  Only the Lord knows the ultimate impact of our week in Porvenir.  But among the people who are in that 138 professions are Hugo our driver who was there because he needed a job, Sandra who came for a day to learn English and had her life changed, and of course Stefania who “happened” to be in the park the first day we arrived.  The impact was certainly great on each one of them.  But we didn’t even talk with Stefania’s mother, grandmother and the rest of her family, or most of the rest of the people in this barrio.  What about them???

Our primary impact on Porvenir was letting the Lord work through us to help start a new church in a barrio of Bogota with no church.  The believers in that village will now have a church they can walk to.  The new Pastor Francisco Nino, who worked with us all week, told us of the plans the mother church has to rent a building for the new church.  The church in Porvenir will be supported by the mother church – Comunidad Cristiana Sinai – which has helped start five other new church starts in Bogota.  But the hard work is ahead of the church in discipling the new believers and in bringing more people from Porvenir into the church through faith in Jesus as their Savior.  Some of the money we raised for the campaign will be left with the new church to help meet the practical needs of the church like chairs for people to use in the new church.  That new church will have a lasting impact on Porvenir beyond the impact we had in our short week there.  And at the same time my team was working in Porvenir there five other teams working in other parts of Bogota.

And then there is the selfish impact on each of us who worked in Porvenir.  Watching my three North American team members – Andrea, Ken and Daniel – grow in their faith and witness on there first campaign was great!  The translators we worked with – Maria Paula, Julianna, Catica, Nancy and Jose – all were impacted.  And even though I have gone on over 20 campaigns now, the impact on me was great as well.  Even in watching the simple faith and trust that Stefania has in God in her circumstances, humbled me and makes me look at my faith in a new light.

I have attached a picture of Stefania (along with me and my translator Maria Paula – Stefania is in the middle).  In case your email has size limits I will also send a separate email with pictures of Hugo (the van driver), plus a couple pictures that show use with the kids in the park. If you missed any of the emails I sent or want to see some more pictures they are on a great Christian website www.2mites.org .  The site is managed by a friend Charlie Wardell was had been on several mission campaigns himself the past few years.  The site has a lot of good material on it.

If any of you have any questions or comments please let me know, especially if you have questions about how we shared the gospel during the week.  And I would strongly encourage any of you who have never gone on a mission campaign to consider going.  I can give you direction there as well.  For those of you who hung in to read my emails to the end – thanks!  I hope you found them interesting and informative.

God bless
Rich

Philemon 6 – I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ.

Postscript – upon my return I learned that a dear, dear friend Ted VanNatta passed away on Saturday.  I first met Ted in Romania in 1999 on a mission campaign and have gone with Ted on campaigns every year for the past 10 years.  Ted was an artist who painted Bible pictures in the streets and parks.  The paintings attracted crowds of people who than heard the gospel presentation.  Ted had gone on 55 campaigns and literally tens of thousands of people heard the gospel directly through Ted’s work.  While I can’t begin to express my grief in Ted’s passing it is a comfort to know that one day Ted and I will be together again, along with many, many people that will be there as well through Ted’s work for the Lord.  I have attached a picture of Ted.