August 2th 2024
So one of my favorite pieces is listening to the personal stories of some of the missionaries.
We heard from Shawn and Melissa and I cannot tell you what tribe they are from…but they are a family of 5 and when she was pregnant with the last…they had to travel back to their village. 8 hours on the river and then 12 day hike back …with kids and being pregnant. Impressive. Basically, its hard work. Learning their language (tooks them 2 years I think) becoming accepted in the village, translating..raising your family in the village…and traveling out and back to said village…clearly.
Isaac and Shirley are a sweet older couple that I sat with one day and it was such a relief to find the rare gems that spoke English! We talked about how they met and SIL (which I forgot what that stands for) and then we talked about Cora being mission minded and he suggest she look into Dallas International University. They did share their story and what stood out to me was that it was 15 years!! before one converted soul! Thats dedication. Now they have 3 ordained pastors in their village.
We also heard from Facu from Argentina. What a great light in our time their. He was full of life and comedy. He really hit it off with the guys there…and made us laugh so much. He told his story and it was a little sad. He left everything in Argentina to go live “at the ends of the earth” in an area most wont go. He is married and he and his wife took over when another missoinary left. However, they were not allowed to live in the village so they purchased a home outside of the village. In 5 years they have not had any new believers. Its very hard to be able to evangelize and even be a part of a community you cannot really dwell amoung. It’s hard to speak the language and build relationships. I hope that the kids (and myself ) keep in touch with him. I’d love to see how God is working there when it looks like He is not.
My favorite..and I dont’ know why..is when we went to listen to these two ladies who do the recording. I feel like they stood out in how they look and carry themselves. They were quiet and not there often for everything. They were always working. They were also our suite mates. We were a bit too loud for them sometimes though. They were up and at the studio early and they stayed late. We went and heard from them one afternoon and sadly not everyone was there. They are with a group called Faith Comes by Hearing. They travel all over Brasil, staying 2/3 months in each location. They speak Portuguese (but not the tribal language they go to). They use one or more persons in the village in which they are staying, to read the translated books that they have in their native language. Some villages have the entire New Testament and some have a few books. They stay until its all recorded and edited and then sent off to headquarters. It is then accessible on their apps. Yes, almost everyone has wifi and smartphones (its actually hurting cultures as it is ours) but if they cannot read or write, they can listen to the Bible in thier own language which is incredible! At Ami, they were recording Nehemiah 1-7 in every language that was at TiB. (I think 11) and they were tired. They said there are not enough people doing what they do. They are the only ones in Brasil! They said there was someone waiting to go but needed a partner. I guess I found this enticing as they traveled all over Brasil, didn’t need to learn new languages and were able to do somethin gthat helped build His Kingdom. Of course, they said Bible/Theology education is helpful, interculteral experience is encouraged and exposure to other languages would greatly help….but the tech piece is taught. So any one of those kids listening could have dropped everything and joined. Yet, I seemed to be the only one wondering how I can make this work in my life. Ha! I keep asking God to clear up my path if He wants me on that one (or anyone I’m not aware of).
I could talk awhile about Brasil. I loved how the kids interacted with each other and everyone there. How they embraced the kids their age and really grasped the opportunity they were given. I don’t know if anyone of them were really “moved” to go into the mission field..I actually know one kiddo who realized, once there, that missions were NOT what they thought they wanted and I guess that is good too. I just became even more aware of how selfish I am. I was reminded I need to do self checks often. As I look into the future of all the things I’d like to do or experience..I have to ask myself if I want to do that to serve myself or others. Usually, its to serve myself and so I then need to decide if its something I should even be thinking about spending my time doing. I really do want to serve others and I honestly think living in America makes it hard. Our culture tells us to serve ourselves. Its easy to think about all these places we want to go and see but its not building anyone’s life up. Its not serving and its not spreading His light. We get distracted sooo easy! I don’t want to be distracted…which is hard because I was born that way. I often ask God to make my brain a focused brain…but so far he wants me a bit scattered and thats fine in general but I don’t want to be distracted in life itself. I want to wake each morning knowing my purpose and changing it but often I wake up and decipher which day it is…and then what is happening… and then grab my phone, coffee and start making lunches etc…and just go through my day checking off the lists and hoping to get in something that made me feel like I accomplished something. Accompishing much (or little) is very different than leading a purposeful life (I believe that is a book on that) I mean, I know I need to wake and have some quiet read time but then I forget I was goign to do that. Just call me Dora. The truth is, I don’t lead a very disciplined life and it feels awful.. There’s that work again…feel.
So Brasil. Great dry weather. The TIB conference was good…the different cultures were interesting..the translation was interesting. All the people we met were super! We went to waterfalls and were able to see some sites including a shopping day in the town…but all in all…we were at “camp”. It wasn’t totally what I expected because I needed it all explained to me like a dummy but I figured it out. I didn’t know it was dry season and it will NOT rain..and I wasted space on a poncho. I loved the surrounding area, rolling and green (because they had holding tanks and sprinkling systems). I learned that there needs to be a maintenance crew on campus and there needs to be a system and there needs to be tools and materials. BUT that all takes money and like most missions…there are none. I also learned, and the kids did too, that you don’t have to speak the same language to understand each other and to create a bond. God brings us together…and so does soccer. 🙂
There was a lot more but I’ve written this is two setting and have forgotten what I wrote in the first one already and don’t want to repeat myself.
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We just came off from Weekend at Bernies (my dad name is Bernie and we (me and my siblings and their families) spend the weekend camping at his property, the farm where I grew up) and are prepping for week 2 of school. I have more to update you with in life and thoughts to share but we will continue on with that later.