Waiting Process #1

I know that many of you who read our blog are those who are waiting for your church to be in a partnership with a Guatemalan church to reach an unreached area with the Gospel of Christ.  And you are "sitting on ready" and probably wondering why we haven't gotten things together for you/your church to come.  I know that impatience and intense desire but often things don't process as quickly as we would like.  Lately the Lord has been reminding me of some things that are important during the "waiting process."  I think some of them are applicable to any type of waiting time.  This may stretch over a couple of posts so bear with me.

As we build partnerships, we work with Guatemalan churches.  The first step involves sharing the vision with pastors.  Often pastors are bivocational, meaning they work another fulltime job in addition to being a pastor.  Therefore for us to visit with a pastor, we must work within his schedule.  (Think about your busy schedule.)  Then we must schedule our time accordingly.  (Think about your busy schedule again.)  Often these meetings are several hours away from our home, so they involve two to three days away from home.  Then a pastor needs to have time to process the vision, pray and seek God, share the vision with his church leadership, and together discern God's will for His church.  Sometimes he or the leadership are not ready for a partnership, or already fully occupied in their vision for their church, or are not interested in becoming involved, so we begin again.  However, if they discern this is God's plan for them, then he recontacts us and another trip is scheduled and the initial planning begins.  Sometimes the area is near their own home, sometimes it is not.  Each situation poses it own share of "issues."

So what does this mean in relation to you.  During this "Step One Waiting Process" what can you do?

1.  Pray for pastors to have a vision for reaching unreached areas for Christ.
 It is easy to become occupied with the local church, settling issues here, meeting needs there, etc. and forget the whole picture of reaching out further and further.
 It is easy to become "self-involved" and neglect the far reaching implications of the Great Commission and Acts 1:8.  The urgent tasks often overtake the important tasks.

2.  Praise God for those pastors who have a burning desire to reached unreached areas for Christ.

3.  Pray for vision for the pastor and the local church.
 Pray that God would being knitting in their hearts to specific unreached areas,
       broadening their vision to the specific needs of this area,
             giving insight as to how best meet these needs.

4.  Pray for receptiveness to training.
 Pray that teams from the local church will be trained in best evangelistic and discipleship methods. 

5.  Pray for physical needs of the local team.
Finances - Just as there is a cost for you and your team to come from the states, equally there is a cost for the local team members.  Just as you, team members will be not working during the "mission trip," but differently from you, they are not taking vacation time; they will not receive wages during during those days of ministry.  Pray that the physical needs of their family will be met supernaturally so that God will be glorified in their ministry and the family strengthened in their faith.

Health - Pray for their health and that of each member of their family.

6.  Pray for us as we travel to meeet with pastors and churches.
 Safety - Pray for David as he drives and Glynis as she navigates.  David watches the road in front of the car for POTHOLES in addition to the traffic, often navigating around HUGE fallen rocks or fallen "sinkhole" roads.  Glynis watches the terrain and landmarks, looking for signs (there are VERY few), reading a map (if there is one), trying to remember them for when we come this way again.

The rainy season has begun so that means water saturated land OFTEN slides down the mountain covering parts of the road, HUGE rocks fall as dirt is washed out around them, water saturated dirt under the road is washed out causing the roads to fall.

An example is below.  This occurance was Monday, June 4, 2012; we had traveled this road on the previous Friday and commented on that particular rock being ready to fall.

A landslide occurred at noon today at kilometer 147 route national 1 which connects Sololá with Panajachel, at the entrance to this municipality in the place known as "Tzanjuyu" where there was a landslide of rocks of approximately 2 meters and Earth, that hinders the lane of exit of the municipality.
The COVIAL staff perform tasks of cleaning in place.
Photo: LLG / / Augusto C. (Translated by Bing)

Un derrumbe se produjo al medio día de hoy en el kilómetro 147 de la ruta nacional 1 que comunica de Sololá con Panajachel, en la entrada a este municipio en el lugar conocido como “Tzanjuyu” donde se registró un deslizamiento de rocas de aproximadamente 2 metros y tierra, que obstaculiza el carril de salida del municipio.
Personal del COVIAL realizan tareas de limpieza en el lugar.
Foto: LLG // Augusto C.

 

Praise God for His care for us.  His angels surround us - in front, in back, beside, above, beneath.  We are confident in Him.

 

Wow, that's a lot to pray but we are dependent on your prayers.  Apart from the Spirit's leading, we can do nothing.  Vance Havner once said, that in times like these "we are stranded on Omnipotence."  What better place to be?!  Stranded on the One who IS, who knows ALL, who HOLDS us in His hand.  That's where I always want to be.