Engaged and On Their Way

Day One in the mission field ... so blessed to have a ton of prayers that we can feel down every calle, or street. In my group, there wasn't a home where someone who answered the door wasn't receptive to us, and no one wavered when we were still talking 30 minutes later, which is a 180-degree turn from life in the States. Teenage girls and boys walk the streets talking and overly-friendly instead of walking together and holding two separate conversations (texting) on their own phones. Another staple in the States, which tragically we see couples do too much even on date night.

Engaged and focused. Colombians do it so well.

Each of the 8 groups within Team Cali reports on a daily basis how many people we present the Gospel to and how many people prayed to accept Christ (77 and 60 for our 4-member group today for those keeping score), but I try and stress to our team (a) it's not about a religion at all, but a relationship, so meeting people where they are is critical over generating numbers," and (b) if someone places their faith in Christ but we fail to arm them with the tools to grow in their new-found faith and to interact with others in their community, they will quickly become a fruitless branch on the vine.

Dallas-based E3 Partners, our awesome mission trip escorts, have made a massive step forward in 2011 to engage those to whom we present the Gospel. In the past, we would invite everyone we met back to a slimmed-down church service at 5 PM every night to engage them in the church, they get to see where the church is located, and they are introduced to the pastor and his key church members.

E3 realized people didn't need more of the standard "church service" but sorely needed to begin getting fed .... hence the formation of 2-8 person discipleship small groups held at our church plants every night at 5 PM. A brief Bible story is shared within each group and the participants share ... what they like about the story ... what they don't like or is confusing ... what does the story tell you about God ... about people ... what can someone do differently about their life from the story they read ... who can each person tell about what they have learned?

Our church plant was packed (praise God) inside for the small groups tonight, and when the 4 of us and our translators departed at 6 PM, no one noticed when the North Amercans slipped out to grab the van back to the hotel. Our church members took ownership of the groups and facilitated (instead of teaching) to maximize participation.

There wasn't a dry mouth in the room. That's engagement.

In the bottom right corner of the photo is a man (gray sweater) and wife who teammate Bill visited in the afternoon. They have been married for less than 4 months, neither seemed to be ecstatic about the situation so wise Bill (married for 37 years) asked the husband where he was seeking counsel to live a Godly life as husband and leader of the household. The husband quickly asked where he could get THAT book .... From marriage development to money management, God's word has it all covered. The newlyweds were active in the small group, and any couple committed to growing closer to God side-by-side can't help but grow closer together. Bill's smile next to me, while watching the couple interact, made for a great memory to close the day.

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Brain Freeze of the Week #1. Jackson from New Jersey is a member of Team Cali who sat next to me on the flight from Miami to Cali on Saturday afternoon. I remarked to him that the weather looked clear for our arrival (it had rained much of the past week in Cali) which was a great sign. Jackson pointed out we were still at 33,000 feet, which is quite clear anywhere in the world. I think Jackson quickly looked into our Cali schedule to make sure he wasn't on my team.

Brain Freeze of the Week 2: After finishing my shower this morning, I looked at my roommate Andres and remarked I missed the morning slot for any warm/hot water in the hotel before our breakfast meeting started at 7 AM. Andres asked what knobs I was turning in the shower and I remarked, "Just the H, because the C is just going to be cold and I don't need that." Andres, a native of Cali now living in New Jersey, reminded me that we were no longer in the States where C means COLD but in South America where CALIENTE means hot. And the H ... if I could see clearly ... is really an F, for FRIO, or cold. Andres is on Jackson's team. Can only imagine the exchange they have each day of "guess what Dave said today?"

Uno loco hombre, Dave