FINDING PURPOSE
Osvaldo and I had already committed to speak at a church retreat last Sunday when we realized that there were three events planned at the Guesthouse: a church luncheon, a Cederville University team meeting and a missions event with a guest speaker. We talked through our options: we cancel the speaking engagement, we send one of us to the retreat and the other stays behind at the guesthouse, or we ask Janetta to work just days after her arrival in Bolivia.
Janetta is the answer to many prayers! She has come from the Netherlands to work with us at the Guesthouse so that we can have a couple of days off each week. We are so excited to have her with us! But, we solemnly promised not to interrupt her language learning for the first few months she is in Bolivia. We broke that promise just a few days after she arrived. Janetta and another newly arrived missionary teacher spent part of their day at the Guesthouse on Sunday monitoring activities while our family headed for the retreat at Camp Kewiña.
Camp Kewiña, nestled in pines, sits in the hills next to Lake Corani (in photo above) two hours drive from Cochabamba. It was breathtakingly cold Sunday morning. The fire in the fireplace of the meeting area barely touched the massive room with heat, but there was hot chocolate in the cafeteria to warm our hands and bellies.
Our topic was missions. Our audience was a church group made up of a few couples, a few families and a group of Bolivian and Brazilian university students. We shared about our paths to missions, the work of SIM in Bolivia (click here to see a video we showed) and some of the things God has taught us about His passion for bringing people from all nations to Himself.
The pastor concluded the time by asking those who believe God is calling them to become missionaries to come forward and kneel. One young woman and three young men knelt at the front. The congregation raised hands towards them and prayed for God to send them to places where He is not yet known.
That moment in time - the four kneeling young people, the congregation standing with arms stretched out, the sun filtering through the curtains trying to warm the cold air - will stay with me as one of those moments in which God puts everything into perspective. He calls. He equips. He sends. One day His name will be known in every corner of the globe. Those four kneeling young people are part of His plan to reach the nations. The fact that we get to be witnesses gives us purpose and meaning in our own work. We’re grateful for the privilege to be part of that moment, grateful for God’s provision through Janetta, and grateful for God’s design for each of our lives to be part of His wonderful plan to gather people from every tribe and nation to His throne.
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