May 22nd- Colca Canyon

So, I had the opportunity to go to Colca Canyon this past weekend. We backpacked for three days, and I saw some incredible things. Parts of the canyon are even twice as deep and the Grand Canyon! Anyways, here are some pictures of the trip. I hope you enjoy them.

May 15th

Sometimes there is nothing that we can say to make sense of the things that happen around us. Now is just one of those times that words completely gone from my mind and my heart.

We will all miss you Holly. The world is missing out on meeting the truly kind, smart, beautiful, and funny woman that you would have grown up to be.

May 9th- Missions Part 1

Hey everyone. So I've been thinking a lot about the subject of Missions and the Church, and the next few things I write are going to about this subject. I am doing this mostly because it is something that has been on my mind a lot, but also because I think there are some common misconceptions about the subject. Hopefully this is something that is equally relevant to people who are not interested in leaving their own country as it is to people who are considering a life in a different culture. So here's part 1:

Matthew 28:18-20 "Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Needless to say, I got a lot of different responses from people when I told them about God's call on my life here in Peru. These discussions have inspired a lot of thought about the subject of the church and missions. Additionally in the past 5 years I've been on a number of different missions trips, and I've heard a lot from many different preachers on this subject. Here are some of the conclusions that I have come to through all of this.

Missions is a word that I have heard being used synonymously with evangelism. For example, "I am a missionary in my school." or "I am a missionary to the people that I work with." Though this form of speech conveys information in a way that we understand, it is also dangerous. It is a dangerous way to speak, because in some ways it makes the assumption that there are people in the church who are meant to spread the message of Jesus Christ, while there are others who do not have this call. Otherwise, these phrases that we hear so frequently, wouldn't be necessary at all. I'm not saying that it's a bad thing to speak this way, rather I am suggesting, for clarity's sake, that we re-evaluate our titles.

Steve Saint says, "The goal of missions is not to evangelize the world; that is the role of the church. The goal of missions is to plant the church where is does not yet exist." We are all members of the body of Christ, so we all share the same burden to share the Gospel with the people around us. It is not solely the responsibility of our pastors and missionaries to fulfill the great commission (to go out and make disciples of all nations). We must come to grips with the fact that we are the church, and that it is not someone else's responsibility to share the good news of Jesus Christ with the people who we come into contact with on a daily basis. Therefore if you are talking to the people in your school, or in your work about Jesus, you are not a missionary--you're part of the church. We need to get it through our heads that the real force behind the Kingdom of God cannot be laid on a few people in the church, but that it is something that needs to be taken up by all of us.

May 1st- Miracle

How would you respond if God told you that He was going to an incredible work in you, but it would mean that everyone around you would would despise you, and talk about you behind your back? Even more, what if all of your friends at church would completely misunderstand you, and think that you were a horrible sinner? Would you respond like this:

“My soul glorifies the Lord
⁴⁷ and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
⁴⁸ for he has been mindful
of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
⁴⁹ for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
holy is his name.
Luke 1:46-49

Mary was told by an angel that she would have a baby miraculously through the hand of the Lord, and she responded in worship. I'm sure she was aware of what everyone would think happened when she suddenly became pregnant, but her first response was worship. I don't know about you, but at times I have had God ask of me things much less difficult than this, and the first thing that has come to my mind was worry rather than joy.

So how is it possible? How was Mary overcome with praise instead of being worried about what her fiance would think, or about what the entire community would say about her and her new son? Mary was able to respond the way that she did because she saw the miracle. She was overcome by what God was doing in her so much that all of the worries that could have overcome her, were drowned out by the glory of God.

God is going to ask us to do things that will be hard. Maybe he will ask us to give our money sacrificially, leave our home for the sake of the Gospel, or maybe He will ask us the hardest thing of all--to tell the people who are around us about Jesus. Everything in our flesh will want to respond to this with worry or with contempt. There are many professing Christians who live their lives resenting the things that God asks of them. This is truly tragic to the Father. Mary rejoiced in the Lord because she looked past the hardship and saw God's beautiful and awesome plan.

Don't miss the miracle.