Too Soon?

Is it too early to start thinking and preparing for the end? From today there are just under 5 months left until the project is over (about 4 months for me personally). Well, it’s not good to focus on the future and hope upon it, but I still am North American, more organized than most, and intelligent. For me, it’s time to start thinking of how this whole “leaving” thing is going to go down and that it goes down in the best way possible.

We’ve recently upped the evangelism (as a team) in all of the districts where there are churches, or soon to be churches. That has to taper off here soon (probably after the short-term impacters come), and we really need to focus on the people we already have. Make the strong stronger, and the weak less weak, and then the strong to help the weak. If we keep adding multitudes of people in these next months, we might never reach a possible peak with these that are already grasping the Word. So step one is to slowly dedicate more time to just befriending our contacts more, and evangelizing less. Kind of like a stick shift car: ease off the throttle as you ease in on the clutch, then vice versa, with the goal of shifting up a gear.

The second thing to do would be to leave leaders in our place, so that our work doesn’t just undo itself. There are three options here: one of us stays longer, someone else comes along (native or missionary), or nothing gets done. I’m not in charge of this, nor do I have much of a say but my recommendation at this point would be for my compañero Geremías to stay until these churches that we’re planting get established. Rinconada is still very weak, and Salcedo is showing strength even through it’s finances. Not enough strength to meet the “goal” (I use that term as if it’s not mine, because it’s not) but enough to continue with these new believers. So of the three, what I want is what I think is best and what God has been leaning my heart to, but I’m not the one who has to make the big sacrifice. I would never have considered staying before, but now I kept myself open to that option and have been praying for awhile now. I just don’t feel like that’s what God is leading me to do.

Really these decisions determine the future of the lives of people, so we need to take them with utmost care. We need to dedicate our time in a way that pleases God, not letting up at all.

So I guess I’m asking myself what the purpose of this blog is. I think what I’m trying to get to is prayer. I want to ask for prayer from you guys today. Please pick one of these things to start praying for:

1. Wisdom and responsibility in knowing where to dedicate time in these next few months: more contacts or stronger contacts.

2. Guidance on appropriately wrapping up any loose ends that we would otherwise leave behind.

3. A strong leader to rise up in each church plant to take charge and help us out.

4. Strength and willingness for me personally everyday of the week to carry on.

5. And my parents are coming down, so pray for that whole impact group, construction of the new church, travel safeties, and open minds and hearts.

Your prayers will not be in vain, and are a valid reason for the success we’ve been able to have until now. Only now is not the time when we stop praying, but when we pray more dutifully.

P.S. I always try to include pictures. These are from Saturday when we went to the country, out in the Andes.

P.P.S. I always try to include a song, this one just happens to be what I’m listening to.