May Update

(Originally posted on 5/25)

Hey there everybody,

     We hope you have been doing awesome.  We just want to give you a quick update on some awesome things that God has been doing.

     First off, I want to share a praise report with you that we have been rejoicing over today.  Many of you know that we have been praying a lot over the last couple months (the last few weeks especially) for direction from the Lord on our next step.  I finish up my Spanish classes next week and hadn't received any clarity from the Lord on what He wanted us to do next.  Well, we feel the Lord may be in the process of answering those prayers.  I've been serving in the nearby university (UACH) for a little while now by bringing coffee and donuts for the students and just talking with them.  This has led to some great conversations as many of them seem really receptive and open to talking about the Lord.  I had also been praying for more ways to get involved in the campus.  So, I asked one of the teachers that attends our church what I would need to do to become an English teacher at the university.  She invited me to come to the school today to talk about what I would need to do.  I felt like it was a long-shot and at best I would probably get a long list of the requirements I needed to complete before being considered.  However, I was pleasantly surprised.  It turns out that native English speakers that can teach English are in huge demand at the university because they are trying to transition to a bilingual university.  They said that my education, experience and Mexican documentation all look good and they were already talking about having me start a class in August, when the next semester begins!  I do have another interview next week, so please keep that in prayer, but I couldn't help but be excited about the eagerness they had to bring me into the faculty.  I see this as a HUGE open door to get to know more students and point them to Jesus.  When we moved here almost a year ago, I didn't know UACH would be such a huge part of our calling here to Chihuahua.  However, we have seen God move time and time again in regards to that school.  Today was just one more huge confirmation that the Lord is calling me to be a part of His plan to reach UACH with the Gospel.  I can't wait to see what the Lord does!

     As always, thanks for the prayer and send us an email anytime you want to catch up more.  Have a blessed weekend!

-Tim, Priscilla, Josiah & Hannah
 

Praise Reports
- My first interview for the English teacher position at the university (UACH) went amazing!
- It seems like the Lord has been answering our prayers for guidance and direction by opening up more and more doors at UACH.
- God has really been doing cool things at our Wednesday meetings at the university.  We feel we have been able to represent Him to the students and we have had some great conversations about Jesus.
- My Spanish classes are just about finished!  It has been hard at times but I have learned so much and it has been really cool to carry on long conversations completely in Spanish.
- Priscilla's Bible study in Soledad has continued to be amazing.  The ladies are really starting to open up and God is doing a wonderful work in many of their lives.  There still is not a church yet in Soledad, but some of the ladies came with a missionary to our church this past weekend. 

Prayer Request
- Please pray for the opportunity to teach English at the university (UACH).  Pray for the interview next week that the Lord would continue to move and give me favor if this is indeed part of His plan.
- That God would continue to to move in the hearts of the students we've been able to talk to.  We are hopefully going to meet up with a bunch of them off-campus this next weekend, so please pray we get more chances to talk about Jesus and that students give their lives to Jesus.  In particular, please pray for Alan, Duval, Brian, another Alan, Alexandria, Alejandro and another Brian.
- That God would continue to grow the ability of myself and the kids to speak Spanish completely fluently.
- That God would continue to move in the women's Bible study in Soledad.
- For His continued provision for all of our needs.

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(Update posted on 6/5)

Hey again everyone,

    We just wanted to send out a quick update to the update we put out a little over a week ago.  If you didn't see that update, you can find it here. Anyway, in that update we told you all that we were very excited as it seemed like God was opening up doors for me to be an English professor at the university that I have been serving at and praying for (UACH).  Well, I officially got the job!!!  I will being teaching classes in August when the next semester begins.

    This is just the latest confirmation from the Lord that He wants to do something great at UACH and He wants us to be a part of it.  We are continuing to build relationships with the students and point them to Jesus and we can't wait to see how much more He wants to do in August when classes start up again! Thanks for you prayer and for rejoicing and praising God with us as He faithfully guides.  May His name be glorified in UACH and in Chihuahua!

-Tim

Foreigner

“These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.” - Hebrews 11:13-16

     A simple thought has come to my mind multiple times in the last few months. “I just can’t wait to be with You, Jesus.”

     Sometimes it comes when things are going well and I’m just enjoying my Savior.  However, more often it comes in the midst of the tough days--those days when things aren’t working out like I had hoped; those days when I feel let down by circumstances, people or (maybe most common of all) myself.  You know what I mean, because you have those days too.  It’s those days that I am reminded that nothing in this world will truly satisfy me.  C.S. Lewis said something that I keep coming back to.

“If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the more probable explanation is that I was made for another.”

     Those Old Testament saints mentioned in Hebrews 11 understood this truth.  They would never reach their goal this side of heaven.  A new homeland wouldn’t bring the fulfillment their hearts yearned for.  The same truth applies to you and I.  More money, more things, more health or more comfort won’t satisfy us.  Perpetual peace in our homes and in all the rest of our relationships won’t satisfy us either.  You won’t be satisfied even if your biggest dreams come to fruition.  I won’t be satisfied even if God uses me to accomplish huge, world-changing things as a missionary.  We will still be left yearning for more.  This is, of course, by design.  We were made with an appetite that will only be satiated in the presence of our Maker.  We may get a taste of it now, but its ultimate fulfillment won’t come until we are face to face with Him.

     In the meantime, let’s give up on trying to find fulfillment in anything this world has to offer.  We weren't made for this place.  We can enjoy all that He has given us, but let’s do so with our eyes on Him and the glorious day to come when we will rest in His presence.  Indeed, we will see You soon, Jesus.  We can’t wait.

Who Are You Praying To?

     Prayer can be powerful.  However, the one you are praying to—the object of your prayer—is what gives prayer its power.  You can pray often and fervently to the “Almighty Blender” in your kitchen and your earnest prayers will be useless.  I know, that may seem like a silly example.  However, I’ve talked to many non-Christians that justify themselves and appease their consciences by saying that they pray to “God” all the time.  Praying to a vague god that has no authority in your life, no impact on your daily decisions and no power to do the impossible is no more effective than praying to a deified kitchen appliance.  It is the one on the other end, listening to your prayer, that gives prayer its value.

     What about those of us that are Christians though?  Does the One we are speaking to impact our prayer?  Said another way, how does the One receiving our prayer effect the way we pray?  If you’re like me, far too much of your prayer time consists of worrying and complaining to God.  Yet, if we realize who it is we are praying to—the all-knowing, all-powerful, all-loving God of the universe—shouldn’t worry and complaints melt away in His presence?  If God knows exactly what I’m going through, has the power to do whatever He wants in any situation and loves me so much that He is guaranteed to do the best thing for me—what place is there for those kind of things?  The mistake I have often made is dumping out all of my emotional baggage before God without first remembering who it is I’m even talking to.  Granted, it’s not a bad thing to unload all of our cares before the Lord (1 Pet. 5:7).  However, maybe our prayer time would be much more effective if we did so after first acknowledging the amazing God we are addressing.  Doing this changes the entire outlook and tone of our prayers.

     This is a lesson that God has had on my heart for months now.  Since He pointed it out to me, I keep seeing it over and over again throughout the Bible.  Hezekiah prefaced his plea for deliverance from the army of Assyria with an acknowledgement of God’s character (2 Kings 19:15-19).  The great prayers of repentance given by Nehemiah and Daniel—two of the best examples of godly leadership in the Bible—begin with the same thought process (Nehemiah 9 & Daniel 9).  Many of David’s Psalms start with worship and praise of God first, before then moving on to supplications for the problems he was facing.  Finally, Jesus revealed this pattern of prayer as He taught His disciples how to pray in what many call the Lord’s Prayer (Matt. 6:9-10).  It is an unmistakable lesson highlighted all throughout Scripture.  Focusing our attention first on the awe-inspiring greatness of the One we are praying to changes everything.  Applying this lesson to our lives will be sure to have an enormous impact, not only on our prayer time but also on the way we view life’s problems.  Worry and complaints will be replaced by confident rest in the God who holds it all together.  Next time you bow your head to pray, remember that the One you’re talking with makes all the difference in the world.

A White Boy in Mexico

“But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence.” – 1 Cor. 1:27-29

          I have received the general question often—“Why Mexico?”  They don’t say it, but I wonder if many people think I’m a little crazy and foolish.  After all, why would someone choose to leave all of the opportunities that are offered in the U.S.?  Couldn’t I just be a pastor there?  Surely it would be the safer and more comfortable decision for my family.  It also goes unsaid, but I wonder if some of my Mexican friends and family question what kind of impact a white boy from the States could ever have in Mexico.  Will I ever be taken seriously in Mexico?  Will I ever learn the language well enough to minister in a deep way?  Will I ever truly become part of the community that we live and serve in or will I always be an outsider?  I feel like it might be a little easier for my wife and kids since their skin color allows them to blend in a little better, but I will likely always stand out as the white boy.  Maybe I am a little foolish and maybe I will never truly fit in, but my answer to that original question is always the same.  “I am serving Jesus in Mexico because God has called me here.” 

          It was a little over ten years ago that I was attending Trinidad State Junior College on a baseball scholarship.  Baseball was life—it had been for years—and it was all that I wanted to do.  Sure, I had the grades to do lots of other things, but none of those things sparked my interest.  For me, Jesus was there in a peripheral kind of way—always playing back-up behind baseball and other worldly pursuits.  Then, an interesting thing happened.  My baseball world started to crumble.  It wasn’t working out like I had always dreamed it would.  I was left in a state of despondency as I contemplated what life would look like without baseball.  It may sound silly to be so upset over a game, but baseball had always been my life.  What will I do if I don’t play baseball?  What else is there that would fulfill me and bring me joy?  Wait, why am I seeking fulfillment and joy from a game?  Shouldn’t there be much more to life than success playing a game?  The lightbulb began to come on in my heart.  I realized that only Jesus would bring the fulfillment and joy that I was looking for.  Pretty soon, I began seeking Him and His Word just as passionately as I had previously sought success in baseball.  I was still playing baseball, but it was losing its grip on my heart.

          As I prayed and sought the Lord, a really weird thing started to happen.  It started as just a crazy idea, but the more I prayed the more the idea grew.  “I think God might want me to be a missionary in Latin America.”  It didn’t make sense.  My experience of Latin America was virtually non-existent.  My time there consisted of a couple trips across the border to Tijuana when my family lived in San Diego.  I could hardly remember those trips.  Latin America never held any kind of special place in my heart.  I had never been on any kind of mission trip.  Being a missionary had never once crossed my mind.  I couldn’t explain it, but pretty soon the desire to be a missionary started to eclipse my desire to play baseball.  This process continued until, finally, I admitted the truth.  “God is calling me to be a missionary in Latin America.”  It was time to start adjusting my life to make that a reality.  In the years to follow, I saw God confirm, refine and narrow the call into being a missionary and church-planter in Chihuahua, Mexico.  He even brought me a beautiful lady with the same calling and passion for Mexico—my wife Priscilla.  Today I know without a shadow of a doubt, God has called me to serve Him as a missionary here in Chihuahua.

          Knowing that God has called me to Mexico makes all the difference.  It doesn’t matter if it seems crazy—God has called me to do it.  It doesn’t matter if I get laughed at trying to speak Spanish with people—God has called me to do it.  It doesn’t matter if I look foolish as a white boy trying point Mexicans to Jesus—God has called me to do it.  The smartest, safest, most fulfilling place you can ever be is in the middle of God’s will.  If giving my life to follow the Lord makes me look a little crazy and foolish, then so be it.  However, it was Jim Elliot who said, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep, to gain that which he cannot lose.”  When the light-bulb comes on in your heart, you realize that the one that is really crazy and foolish is the one that is NOT following God’s will for their life.  Following Him may mean we look like fools to those around us.  However, we must never forget that God loves to use the “foolish things” of this world that He may receive glory though their lives.  It’s not about us.  It’s about God and His glory.  Sometimes, maybe often times, He receives glory best with foolish things.  In this case, the foolish thing is a white boy moving his family to Chihuahua as he seeks to spend his life pointing Mexico to Jesus.

Forward

“And each one went straight forward; they went wherever the spirit wanted to go, and they did not turn when they went.” – Ezekiel 1:12

“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.’” – John 14:6

          Walking forward isn’t too difficult or scary when you can see where you are going.  However, that changes a little bit when you can’t see far ahead.  Things can be amplified even more if the little bit we can see seems like it may be unpleasant.  All of this explains why, in life, we often have trouble walking forward as we follow the Lord.  You see, Jesus doesn’t illuminate our entire path and then just send us off in the right direction.  Instead He says, “Follow Me—I am the way.”  He doesn’t show us much about what lies ahead.  Our future looks dim and murky at best.  Sometimes, with the limited vision we do have, it looks like the way He is leading us can’t be the best way.  However, we are still called to follow Him step by step, day by day. That the Lord does things in this manner makes sense because it forces us to remain dependent upon Him continually.  But make no mistake about it—it’s often scary.

          With these doubts and fears about the future, some just choose to stop rather than move forward following behind Jesus.  Others lose focus and turn off-course rather than continuing closely behind Him.  This is something I’ve been thinking about in my own life.  Sometimes, when I look at what I can see on the path ahead, it scares me.  I’m tempted to slow things down and wait until there is more clarity.  I was in that place a few weeks ago as I sat during a Wednesday night service at my church.  Then, we came across Ezekiel 1:12 in which the prophet describes the attributes he observed in the heavenly cherubim in his vision.  The verse hit me like a ton of bricks.  It was as if I heard a faint voice in my heart saying, “Don’t stop and wait for total clarity.  Move forward!  Forward is where the Spirit wants you to go.”  Forward doesn’t always make the most sense.  It definitely doesn’t seem like the safest way.  It’s unknown.  Yet, there is a voice calling to each of us saying, “Follow Me—I am the way.  Continue forward.  I know you may be scared but you can trust Me.”

          Is there an area in your life where God is calling you to move forward in faith?  Join me.  Let’s boldly move forward into the unknown, following closely behind Jesus.  Now is not the time to stop due to fear or to wander due to unbelief.  He is the way.  We can trust the path He is leading us on.  Forward!

The Most Perfect Plan Ever

"'For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,' says the Lord. 'For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.'" - Isaiah 55:8-9

"And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose." - Romans 8:28

          Have you ever been young, naïve and totally convinced that you knew what was best?  No, my goal with that question is not to get you pointing the finger at your teenage child.  In some way or another, we have all been in that place.  Who are we kidding? We all still find ourselves in that place more often than we’d like to admit.  It’s that state of mind where everything makes so much sense to us.  We have come up with the best plans and methods—and we’re sure they are going to work out great.  However, there are a couple of major problems with this thought process.  First of all, we don’t know the future.  We think we have an idea of how things will be a few years down the road.  The truth is that we don’t even know what life will look like five minutes from now—let alone five years from now.  Only God can see the beginning from the end.  The second problem with that thinking is that we really don’t even know what is best for us.  Oh, we think we have a pretty good idea of what is best.  We are pretty sure the best life for us is one of ease, comfort, unceasing happiness and the ability to do what we want when we want.  So, we receive quite the awakening when we realize that God doesn’t give us the kind of life that we thought was best.  Rather than working all things together for our preference, He chooses to work all things together for our good.  His plan for us involves difficulty.  It involves discomfort.  It involves times of heartbreak.  It involves a breaking of our will so that we may learn to humble ourselves before Him.

           I thought I had all of the plans for missions and Mexico figured out.  It was about seven years ago.  I had just graduated from Bible college and was about to get married to a beautiful girl that I met while there.  She too had a heart to serve Jesus in Mexico.  We were ready to go and there was nothing that would hold us back from jumping into the calling that God had upon our lives.  When we wrote up the invitations for our wedding, we asked that our friends and family refrain from buying us wedding gifts.  After all, we would soon be heading to Mexico and didn’t want to bring a lot of things with us.  It was a great plan—until our sovereign, omniscient, infinitely wise God stepped in and changed everything.  I had been offered a full-time pastoral position at my church to lead the student ministry.  My answer?  “Wow, I am so honored that you would consider me for this position.  But no.  Priscilla and I are headed to Mexico.”  My pastor convinced me to pray about the opportunity before making a final decision.  In truth, the concession to “pray about it” was half-hearted with no expectancy that God would actually alter our dash for Mexico.  After all, I was called to be a missionary in Mexico, not a youth pastor!  And yet, as the verse says, God’s ways are so much higher than our ways.  It took some convincing during my quiet times with the Lord (actually more like the Lord beating me upside the head with a two-by-four for days on end), but I realized that the Lord was indeed calling me to take the student pastor position at our church.  “Ok, it will only be a short detour on our way to Mexico,” I thought.  “We’ll just spend two years here getting our feet wet in the ministry, learning valuable lessons that a young couple fresh in the ministry need to learn.  It will be fun and such a blessing.  Then we’ll make our way to Mexico.”

          What followed was four years of serving Jesus in student ministry at Family Worship Center in Pueblo, Colorado.  They were four years of excitement, satisfaction, growth, fruit and blessing.  They were also four years of pain, struggle, discouragement and refinement.  When the season reached its end, we were not marching off triumphantly to Mexico as I dreamed we would.  Instead, we walked away licking our wounds, desperately needing to be refreshed by Jesus as a family.  We moved to California to take a break from the fish-bowl life that is the ministry.  We wanted to spend lots of time individually at Jesus’ feet and together as a family enjoying each other.  We knew we were still called to Mexico but we desperately needed the Lord to refresh our hearts, our marriage and our vision.  I took solace in the thought that it would hopefully only be a short transition season before we could finally head down to Mexico.

          Now here we are, after two and a half years in California—finally with the peace that now is the time to move to Mexico.  God has done an amazing work.  He has renewed, redeemed and unified our hearts and our passion for Mexico.  God has worked out a plan in our lives that has been much different  than the one we thought would play out.  It has taken much longer and been much more painful than we thought it would be.  Yet, there is no disputing that it has led to better preparation and more depth of maturity than we would have had otherwise.  In fact, we sit today so thankful and in awe of the wonderful wisdom and grace of God’s plan.  His thoughts and ways are indeed so much higher than ours.  They are higher not only in their incomprehensibility but also in their quality.  Our God not only knows the future, He also has unfathomable wisdom when it comes to knowing how to make “all things work together for good” in our lives.  We can trust Him.  We can trust His plan.  Will it be easy? No.  Will we avoid pain and discomfort?  No.  Will we always understand what is going on in the midst of it?  No.  Will He formulate an incredible plan for our lives that draws us closer to Him, makes us more like Jesus, provides abundant peace and joy and is the very best for us?  Most definitely.  The most perfect plan ever was not the one we came up with all those years ago.  It was the plan that messed up ours and brought us to where we are today.

Our Vision

HISTORY OF THE CALL

The Lord first called Priscilla and I to serve as missionaries to Mexico almost ten years ago—before we even met each other.  In fact, our common calling to Mexico was one of the things that first brought us together.  When we got married six years ago, our plan was to move to Mexico shortly after our wedding.  The Lord had other plans!  As the Proverb says, “A man's heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps” (Prov. 16:9). After four years serving the Lord in student ministry in Colorado and another two years devoted to family time in California, we feel strongly that God is telling us it is time to finally step into the calling He has had on our lives for all these years.

SHORT TERM VISION

As we’ve sought clarity from the Lord in recent months as to the details of the work He has for us, a few things have come into focus.  We are now confident that God has called us to plant a church on the northwestern side of the city of Chihuahua, Mexico.  Priscilla and I believe that Chihuahua (and on a larger scale all of Mexico) is in desperate need of more Jesus-centered, Bible-teaching, theologically-solid, missional churches.  Chihuahua itself is a city of around 900,000 people and seems to have very few of these types of churches. The northwestern side of the city in particular is an area that is growing immensely.  There are many new neighborhoods and very few churches in the area to minister to the influx of people.  On top of this growth, this side of the city also contains a large state university--UniversidadAutónoma de Chihuahua (UACH).  After hearing that there are no Christian ministries pointing the students of UACH to Jesus, my heart burned all the more to minister in this part of the city.  Priscilla and I feel that young people in Mexico (let’s say from about 14-30 years old) are marginalized in the culture and largely unreached by many evangelical churches in the country.  Although our desire is not to lead a church that ministers exclusively to this group, they do hold a special place in our hearts and we believe God wants to use our family to point many of them to Jesus.  I think of Paul’s words to the Romans, “How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?” (Rom. 10:14). As Priscilla and I make our home in Chihuahua, we yearn to be those that tell the people there the good news of Jesus Christ through our words and our actions. 

LONG TERM MISSION

The way I am wired, it is often easier for me to see long-term vision than it is for me to see the short-term steps leading up to that vision.  (Priscilla is the one that makes sure we are able to function as a family on a day-to-day basis)!  With that in mind, my long-term focus can be summed up in a phrase I heard from a close friend of mine--I actually don’t believe that God is calling us to Mexico to plant a church, I believe He is calling us to Mexico to plant churches.  My long-term desire is to spend time discipling and raising up leaders who can be sent out to plant churches all throughout Mexico and Latin America.  Priscilla and I understand that planting the church in Chihuahua will need full commitment from our family for a long period of time, and we are prepared to give that commitment.  Lord willing, however, the church would be planted with a missional focus of planting more churches built right into its DNA.  The plan then would be to eventually create an in-depth program aimed at raising up pastors to plant churches all throughout Mexico (and eventually into other parts of Latin America as well).  Discipling potential leaders so that they are trained and equipped to be used by Jesus to impact the world is probably what I am most passionate about.  It’s just like what Paul spoke of in 2 Timothy 2:2, “And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.”  This kind of discipleship has an exponential impact for the kingdom of God that reaches far beyond our immediate spheres of influence.  That’s exciting to dream about!  We know this will be a lifetime of work, but Priscilla and I are committed to serving the Lord in Latin America for the rest of our lives (if that is indeed what He has in store for us).  One of the Scriptures that the Lord has given our family is Ephesians 3:20-21.  It has inspired us time and again to trust God for great things that He may receive the glory from our lives.  “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”  Be glorified through our family Jesus!