Sunday Service

Sunday mornings are hectic. We start at 7am with full team breakfast and a quick message from Sam Ingrassia, the e3 Partners Colombia Director, then each team (4 members) heads out to their host church for service. We worship alongside the Colombians that have been praying and preparing for our visit.

Church in Colombia is familiar, but different. We know many of the songs, because we sing them at home. The buildings are much different, their Colombia worship songs are very energetic and the atmosphere is full of dancing and honest worship. These are people who are on fire for the Lord.

After about an hour of praise and worship time, our team was introduced to the church, telling a small story or sharing a Scripture as part of our introduction. Then, I was asked to preach a message to the church before their pastor gave his sermon. I taught on Stephen and how his actions caused Jesus to stand up and take notice. The pastor followed up with some incredible preaching about answering the call. He incorporated the Stephen story into his message. Pure awesome on all fronts!




Quick clip from church service this morning. Turn down the volume, it will be loud! The pastor is the man on the left in the white long sleeve shirt.

We were informed that our first 2 days in the field will be in a unique neighborhood, not far from the church. We're going to be in an area known for drug addicts, prostitution, and hitmen. Yes, hitmen. We've been told that they will kill someone for $2 to $5. Fortunately, there are fewer of them around as the police have cracked down on them in recent months.

Continue praying for this area. These are people looking for something to fill their lives and they will be at a point of no hope. Spiritual warfare will be active for sure and I'm sure we'll be facing the activity of Satan first hand. Prayer for open hearts, protection and strength specifically.

The host church for this area has already been walking these streets praying over the people, anointing the streets with oil and preparing a way for our visit. I'm certain that God has a great harvest in store for us.

Dave's group and host church is equally as incredible. Their worship was very similar and the brothers and sisters in that church are also on fire for God and His Kingdom. I don't have many details about the neighborhoods he'll be visiting, and he's downstairs planning with some members of his team who were delayed in Miami.

6am prayer meeting in the morning, breakfast with the entire team at 7 and off to the field at 9.

Will update (with photos) tomorrow night.

Matt

Arrived in Cali

Dave and I have arrived in Cali, Colombia. We landed at 7:35pm and were through customs in record time, considering we had a unique box of items with us. Dave had been asked to bring a box full of glasses that will be given out to those in need here. He had a letter that explained why he was bringing them into the country, but the customs agent wasn't quite understanding. After some broken Spanish and confusion, he asked to see another bag from our luggage. It happened to be the box that included the evangicubes (the tool we use to share the Gospel with people). Once we showed him that they were the story of Jesus Christo, he immediately closed the suitcase and the glasses box and told us we were cleared to go through. God speaks louder than a letter can explain.

We're in the hotel now, planning our messages for the churches we will visit in the morning. This is the kickoff to a marathon of 4 days in the field doing evangelism, training, teaching, and church planting. It's hard to sit still in a hotel knowing that we don't know what God has in store for us this week.

Please keep your prayers focused on the hearts of those we come in contact with this week. If only one person can find eternal salvation this week, our time is well spent, but we know God has way more in store than that! Also, please keep our translators in prayer this week. The biggest difficulty we have in sharing is the language barrier. It appears that we have a shortage of translators this week, but God will provide.

Thank you all. Talk to you tomorrow night.

Matt

Wheels Up

Matt and I are off later this morning for Colombia, joining nearly 30 others from the States. You know you're excited to go when you wake 20 minutes before the alarm, and you went to sleep a good hour after when you should have. God will provide me energy ... no worries. My incredible wife, Lisa, thinks God could take some back most days, truth be told.

It's a few hours to Miami (Augusta National on your left), a couple hours to change terminals (I have my pedometer packed), then a few hours to Cali. We stay in the same time zone and should land by 7:30 PM. The city has 2.2 million people and is almost 500 years old. Factoid of the Day ... Cali is short for Santago de Cali, and "Santiago" is Spanish for James ... who we may talk about when sharing the Gospel during the next week.

Our scripture for today is Psalm 27. It starts with "The Lord is my light and my salvation; he protects me from danger - whom shall I fear?"

David started this writing in high spirits, but in 27:7 we hear, "Listen to my pleading, Lord! Be merciful and send the help I need." Matt and I know we will be tested this week. We will feel the presence of the Lord more than ever at our side, but we'll wonder where He is at some point when we're struggling, weak, and in panic mode when our trip is not going as planned.

God provided the path through David in 27:14. He always does. "Don't be impatient. Wait for the Lord, and he will come and save you! Be brave, stout-hearted and courageous."

Good words, indeed.

Dave

Almost...

Less that 12 hours from the flight to Miami and ultimately Cali, Colombia now...

This week has been extremely hectic for me. I've traveled to New York City for four days, saw a Broadway play and a Mets' game in my down time between meetings and training a new employee. Tuesday night, as I walked through Times Square, I began really reflecting on this coming trip to Colombia. With all of the noise, lights and people in that place at that moment, I finally found time to focus on where I'll be tomorrow night. My mind also wondered off to the small simple "homes" of the Colombians I met last time. Dirt floors, old sheets for doors, maybe some running water, maybe not. As I looked around at all the advertising along Broadway and 7th Avenue, I was truly impressed about the excess we have here and how greedy we are for more. There - not even close to that. They are greedy, but they are greedy for hope, love, friendship, relationship, family, laughter, and again love.

I'm ready to go now. I know that the Holy Spirit will guide my words, I'm not smart enough to do Him justice. I know Jesus will protect my path, His light will show me where to go. I know His Word will tell the story, my voice will just be the broadcast. I know God will show off this week. I'm blessed that He lets me see it and be a part of it in a small way.

Pray for hearts to be softened and that the people will be looking for Him. We're willing to tell the story, we just need an audience.

Matt

Don't Leave Home Without It

Matt and I are less than 24 hours from departing to Cali. There are plenty of errands to run today, plenty of packing (like men ever pack ahead of time) and of course, loose ends to tie with our careers.

The unseasonably warm weather that seems to be setting records across the United States for the month of April is getting us prepared from Cali, where its warmest month is ... April. The 10-day forecast for Cali looks similar every day ... 80s and partly sunny, with a 60 percent chance of scattered storms.

Key for our backpacks ... God's word, our Bibles. What was incredible for me during our last trip to Colombia was carrying the Bible with me almost the entire day. We left our rooms with our Bibles for 6 AM prayer, we carried our Bible to our breakfast meeting, and then out in the mission field where it was in our arms at every doorstep. It remained in my arms during the late afternoon church service in each community (pictured) and was finally tucked away in my backpack for the trip back to the hotel where we grabbed a quick dinner.

Back in the hotel room, Matt and I always seemed to be searching for the right verse to capture what we experienced in the field that day. When we found ourselves talking about miracles we experienced until the wee hours of the morning ... we could track our stories to what the 12 Disciples of Jesus lived in the early chapters of the Book of Acts.

I can't imagine how my life would change if I would carry my Bible with me throughout my day here at home. I'm not bold enough, yet, so for now it's just a passing thought.

Our scripture today is from Acts 4:31 ... may we be filled with the Spirit, to advance our work in Colombia.

'Team Cali' En Route To Cali

Key leaders of 'Team Cali' departed earlier today from Dallas. While Matt and I will travel from Dallas to Colombia on Saturday (with the remainder of the group of 30), pre-campaign training in Cali will be in fourth gear on the ground involving our church leaders.

Our escort on the mission trip is again Dallas-based E3 Partners, which manages building churches through similar short-term mission trips around the globe. Sam Ingrassia with E3 Partners has been leading groups into Colombia for more than 15 years, but this is his first with E3's new national director for Colombia, Luis Diaz.

You can expect Matt and I to talk about Sam's impact on us every morning at breakfast, as well as his wife, Vicki, who will provide an inspirational start to every morning with prayer at 6 AM. Sam and Vicki are also members of Firewheel Church.

Our prayer for today is Ephesians 5:15-21.

Are we ready for the journey? Matt has spent the past several days in New York on business. I have been traveling throughout Texas for much of the past week closing business to allow for a week separated from it for the first time since ... well, my last trip to Colombia, in 2008.

Haves and Have Nots

One of the more vivid memories from my last trip to Colombia was visiting a young mother and her two daughters inside their home. It was our final day (Thursday) in the mission field and it was late in the afternoon ... my translator asked me if she could take the lead and share the gospel with the young woman.

It gave me a chance to pray for the woman while my translator was sharing her heart. It also gave me a chance with my camera to capture the inside of this woman's middle-class home: no carpet or scraped hardwood floor, no 42" HDTV, no oriental area rugs, no oversized chairs around the dining room table, no lamps or area lighting, no custom paint, moldings, etc. A sheet separated the bedroom from the rest of the home and the chairs we sat in inside the home were the chairs we would sit in outside on the front porch. In the kitchen, a few cups hung from the wall ... no cupboards and definitely no microwave. No tchotchke wherever you looked.

As I glanced around her home I thought of images from my home ... an 8-piece place setting of a Snowman design tucked away that we may use once a year ... a backup set of dining room chairs stored in the attic ... tchotchke overflowing on every table ... chairs or couches draped in fabric in the living room that not only match one another, but also the thick carpet as well as the paint color on the wall.

What that woman in Colombia did possess, as well as many of her neighbors -- that we can't find back home .... is love for strangers. She opened her door to us, invited us inside and gave us her most comfortable chairs to sit and rest from the afternoon sun. Most of all, she gave us her full attention. She was being Jesus, before she truly accepted Jesus. The hard part that we can't seem to embrace she seemed to be living 24/7.

"A new commandmant I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." - John 13: 34-35

Church leaders in Colombia were amazed when we explained that evangelism doesn't go too far back home when it's outside the doors of a church. Strangers won't open their front doors, people won't stop on a street and finding groups willing to listen to you in a park or outside a restaurant ... how quickly defeat will be realized. It's also impossible back home to get someone's full attention without a TV, phone or general "noise" distracting conversation.

We're two days away from leaving Texas for Colombia, leaving excess behind to experience genuine love. The Colombians we will meet already have Jesus inside their hearts (love for strangers), they just don't know His story of salvation.