5 Things I've Learned in Honduras

There is no substitute for learning the language.  

In my ministry, it would be impossible if I didn't know Spanish.  This seems like an elementary concept, and I suppose it is rather basic, if you want to disciple people in another country, you should be able to speak their language, but I have seen that it is often easier said than done.   I don't mean to say that it is difficult to learn a language because it's physically difficult, even though it absolutely is.  To learn an entirely new vocabulary and verb structure, to refine your speech to the seemingly endless nuances of  Spanish, and to adapt formal, classroom Spanish to informal, street, natural sounding Spanish is all part of the frustrating road that eventually, after much headache and embarrassment, leads to fluency.  What I mean when I say that it is difficult to learn Spanish is that as new missionaries come to the field energized, eager, and motivated to begin reaching people for Christ, it is difficult to slow down for 6, 12, 24 months to learn a language.  It can seem like a necessary evil to get through before the real ministry can begin.  However, I'm convinced that taking time to learn a language and a culture are just as much part of ministry as sharing the gospel precisely because of the fact that the gospel can't be shared and discipleship can't happen until the language and culture are learned.  I have missionary friends who have been honest about their struggle with this period of waiting until the ministry they came to do can actually begin.  I have been impressed and encouraged, however, by their realization that they must concentrate on language and culture if they want to be effective reach people for the gospel.  That's not say that God can't use someone who doesn't know the language, God can do what he wants through whomever he wants, but on a practical level, there is no substitute to knowing the language well.  


There is no substitute for community.

If being part of a bible-believing community of friends that walk alongside you to for encouragement, correction, and discipleship is important in America where there exists all the comforts of home, then I'm convinced that it's importance is intensified on the mission field where there is uncertainty, insecurity, unfamiliarity.  After a month of being in Honduras, this need became glaring to me.  Fortunately, God blessed me with two other missionary families who too felt the void of community in their lives.  Since then we have met every week to share a meal (and always dessert), a time of worship through song, a time of bible study, and a time of extended, intentional prayer.  This group has been invaluable to me so far in Honduras, especially since I'm here alone.  I can't believe for a second that the Christian life was meant to be lived alone, but rather alongside other bible-believing, Christ-imitating, God-honoring Christians.  I believe that remains true, if not more so, for life of the mission field.  


There is no substitute for prayer.

I can't improve of the words of John Piper here.

"Life is war. That's not all it is.  But it is always that.  Our weakness in prayer is owing largely to our neglect of this truth.  Prayer is primarily a wartime walkie-talkie for the mission of the church as it advances against the power of darkness an unbelief.  It is not surprising that prayer malfunctions when we try to make it a domestic intercom to call upstairs for more comforts in the den.  God has given us prayer as a wartime walkie-talkie so that we can call headquarters for everything we need as the kingdom of Christ advances in the world.  Prayer gives us the significance of frontline forces and gives God the glory of a limitless Provider.  The one who gives the power gets the glory.  Thus, prayer safeguards the supremacy of God in missions while linking us with endless grace for every need." 

Life is war.  We must fight daily to pick up our cross because, some days, it's just so heavy.  We must fight daily to be lovers, not cynics, because I'm tired of you calling 'culture' what the bible calls 'sin.'  We must fight to trust that God is working in the heart of the person whose salvation we weep for.  I've found that these fights are best fought face down begging the limitless Provider for significant frontline forces to continue on.  


Satan really, really hates it.  

This is exactly why life is a war--because Satan wants nothing more than to distract us from pursuing God.  If he can't strip me of my salvation (and he can't) then he'll strip me of my will to tell others about it.  A week doesn't go by without me or someone I know experiencing events orchestrated by the devil himself for the sole purpose of discouraging us.  Marital issues, sick children, issues with immigration, attacks on ministry, theft, disruption of Christian unity, loneliness .  Satan is creative in his attacks, but our God is effective with his counter.  He is sufficient to provide care, healing, and protection  from the attacks of the enemy.  It can be exhausting having to constantly absorb the punches from the devil, but if he doesn't deem me worthy of punching, then I'm probably not much of a threat to begin with.  So punch away.  

I'm not meant to do this alone.  

I have so enjoyed my time in Honduras thus far and I look forward to the remaining seven months, but it has been made strikingly clear to me that I am not meant to do this missionary thing alone.  I am thankful for this time here alone, but there is still a sharp void in my life and ministry.  I anticipate, not so patiently at times, the day that I can serve alongside Laura, my fiancée.  If I ever needed more affirmation that she was the one I ought to spend my life with, these last five months have absolutely confirmed that.  



As I am nearing the half-way point of my time in Honduras, I want to thank those of you again that have partnered me financially and prayerfully.  I covet your support as I would not be here without it.  I feel blessed and privileged to be able to partner with people from all over the United States as we mutually work to carry out Christ's last words to us on earth:

"Por tanto, id, y haced discípulos a todas las naciones, bautizándolos en el nombre del Padre, y del Hijo, y del Espíritu Santo; ensenándoles que guarden todas las coasas que os he mandado, y he aquí yo estoy con vosotros todos los días hasta el fin del mundo."
Mateo 28:19-20.

The Harvest

"Go and make disciples" is what Jesus commanded us to do.  We are to "teach them to obey everything that [He] has commanded."  

Discipleship is our task. 

But what do you do when it feels like you're discipling a brick wall?

What do you do when you find yourself saying to God at the end of the day: "I've told them!  I've done my part!  Now hold up your end of the bargain!"

A farmer wants to yield a harvest.  

That's why it is difficult to hear one man I'm discipling tell me about his indifference toward remaining faithful to his wife.  

That's why I'm brought to tears when one man tells me that it's not sin, it's just cultural, to impregnate a 16 year old girl out of wedlock and then have no intention of caring for her or the baby. 

 

That's why it hurts to see the confused look on his face when I tell him of my intentions to never cheat on my wife.  

That's why it is painful when he asks if I think the 13 year old girl that walked by is hot, then when I respond with an emphatic 'No!' he says, "Oh yeah, it's because she's too young for you right?"

So, what do you do?  You hold fast to the fact that even the farmer, no matter how well (or poorly) he sows, can't produce the harvest.  He has to wait and pray...wait and pray for God to send the rain because without the rain, even the most well sewn seeds will burn up.   

So here I wait and pray.  I pray that God would replace the word "cultural" with the word "sin."  I pray that God would pulverize the notion that it's okay to follow parts of the Bible religiously and then ignore others.  I pray that God would create examples of faithful, covenant-honoring husbands and daddys out of my friends.  

But most of all, I pray for the harvest.  

The Last 6 Weeks: Upside Down

Last week, during a time of prayer with some fellow missionaries, a friend of mine mentioned that, as Christians, we live in an upside down kingdom.  What he meant by that was that if the way this world operates and what the people of the world strive for is our default (and it is-- Romans 3), then the way God operates and what he expects of us is the opposite of the default--its upside down.  I loved that imagery, so I decided to do a little research.  I began to scour the Bible for evidence of our kingdom being an upside down one.  What I found was that no part of God's kingdom operates the way our world does.  What is valued in God's kingdom is scorned by the world.  Likewise, what is held highly by the world is seen by God as polluted garments. 

For example, take a look at a few people that God used in Scripture that, in today's world, would not be considered the best and brightest: 

• God used a doubting murderer in Moses to lead His chosen people out of bondage in Egypt and eventually to a promised land.
• God used Abraham, a liar and a doubter, to be the father of many nations, out of who's bloodline would come the savior of the world. 
• God used Rahab the prostitute in the line to bring about the savior of the world. 
• God strips down Gideon's army to 300 men to defeat the Midianites with an army of tens of thousands. 
• God used an adulterer and murderer in David to be the king of Israel and to be included in the line of Christ.
• Jesus build his church on Peter, the rock.  A prideful, ignorant, wishy-washy rock. 
• Jesus spent his entire 3 year ministry with 12 ordinary, obviously flawed men.  12 men who, after repeatedly being told of Jesus' coming death and resurrection, were shell-shocked when he died and resurrected.  Jesus then left the advancement of the early church in their hands to either succeed or squander. 

Read these saying from Jesus and take note at how upside-down they are:

• "Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it."
• "...unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of Heaven."
• "But many who are first will be last, and the last first."
• "...for I came not to call the righteous, but sinners."
• "...follow me, leave the dead to bury their own dead."
• "Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life..."
• "But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also."
• "If anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak"
• "...love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you."

The life of Jesus itself--upside down:

• "...foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head."
• "...even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve..."
• "The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone..."
• The savior of the world enters Jerusalem triumphantly…on a donkey.
• Jesus, a Jew, as he is passing through enemy Samaritan territory, stops and ministers to a provocative Samaritan woman.

Perhaps the most upside down about the Kingdom of God is that he himself would become flesh and subject himself to the evils of a world he created so that we could commune with him eternally:

• "...but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
• "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."
• "But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ..."
• "Christ redeemed us from the law by becoming a curse for us..."
• "...Christ Jesus, though being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped..."
• "...he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant..."
• "...being found in human form, humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross."

If the kingdom of God is truly as upside down compared to our world as Scripture makes  it out to be, then there are huge implications for our lives.  It's clear that since we are a part of this world and naturally bent toward it, we must make conscious decisions each day to pursue the upside down.  If we pursue things of this world, we scorn what God wants.  If we do not daily pick up our cross and follow Christ, then we will pick up our pride, our checkbook, our corporate ladder, or our trophies and follow the world. 

It's not easy, it's not popular, and it's certainly not natural, but God operates upside down.  Jesus lived upside down.

And if we want to be a part of his kingdom, we must be upside down too.