Steps of faith to get to Pittsburgh

Before we bowed our heads to thank God for this momentous occasion, I looked into the eyes of each of the team members and images flashed through my mind of all they had sacrificed just to be here.

Gloria’s father had just spent one month in her home convalescing from a sickness and returned recovered to his home the day before Gloria and her husband Victor Hugo flew to Pittsburgh.

 Carlos (Honduras) took out a loan to pay for his airfare. His mother had passed away just 2 months prior and this trip was serving as a time of comfort and solace.

Rixy had been back home in El Salvador for just 3 weeks after having been gone for nine months in Niger, Africa as a short-term missionary teaching CCI/LA’s training courses. She was still recovering from dysentery. 

 Evelyn’s mother had just had surgery for cancer of the mouth and daily Evelyn was in contact with her siblings who were taking care of her. (Evelyn’s mom passed away one week after she returned from Pittsburgh.)

Karina left her four young children in Argentina with her husband and got a friend to help in their family bakery while she was gone.

Robert arrived to Pittsburgh in the throes of having to raise missionary support for a severe shortfall he and his family are experiencing.

Each team member had taken a step of faith and had seen the hand of God move mightily just to enable them to be seated there in front of me.

Henri Doren, Pittsburgh-Lisa's partner in ministry

Tears blurred my vision and a hush came over the group as we breathed a collective sigh: Whew, we finally made it. We are here. We have dreamed of this moment for 3 years. I looked over to see Henri Doren’s smile lighting up her face, without whose help this Summit would never have taken place. As I have toiled in Latin America for this trip to become a reality, so has she toiled in Pittsburgh.

After we prayed, Karina approached me and said:

“As a mother of four children, my own needs for new clothes takes a back seat but once I got my US visa, I knew I needed to remedy that. I began to make up my packing list starting from a suitcase to the little shampoo bottles to shorts and tee shirts. God is a God who cares about the little and big details.  One by one the women of my church began to call me asking: Karina, what do you need for your trip? At first I gave them a polite answer that all was fine but when they insisted I finally showed them my list. Look at my list, every item is crossed off! One additional need I had was for US dollars which under the current Argentian government are illegal to have much less acquire. When my great-uncles found out, they went to their stash of dollars that they literally had under their mattresses from years ago and gave me exactly what I needed.”

What steps of faith have you taken recently and where has it taken you? 

Please share your comments in the space provided on the blog below.

What to do…

...when I needed an unusual piece of furniture built?

...when I needed to convert a set of shelves into a chest of drawers?

...when I needed someone to build ropes course elements?

...when I needed someone to supervise the construction of a house? 

...when I needed someone to fix something at camp, or at our house, or in one of the Sunday School classrooms?

...when I needed someone to watch the house while our family was traveling?

...when I needed someone to teach Short-term missions teams to make cement?

The answer is the same for all the above questions: I would call Don Carlos Romero. (see pictures on the blog)

Carlos Romero passed away into the presence of the Lord tonight.

Alfredo’s aunt, MariaElena, introduced me to him in November, 1998 and he has been working with us intermittently since then. Every time we received a work team, Don Carlos would gladly participate with us, often traveling the week before to the campsite to advance on the project, then once we arrived he would supervise the workers and teach the North Americans to make cement! The last team Don Carlos accompanied us with was this past July in El Salvador when we built low ropes course elements. His specialty was building 12-foot climbing walls.  

He was 88 years old and still very spry for his age. 

I can’t tell you the number of projects he would be recruited to build, everything from wooden guns for Victor, to a reading nook/loft, closet, and desk for Valerie, shelves for my office, and furniture to hold all my Creative Memory photo albums (which he equipped with light bulbs to dissipate the humidity), office closet and desk for Alfredo, …. He even built a gazebo for us from a huge pine tree that fell down in our front yard. 

Don Carlos was a very humble man, a Nicaraguan, who had lived in Honduras for the last 30 years, serving with us off and on for the last 18 years. He had a servant heart and our family, plus those who would visit our home, and all the short-term missions teams developed a special affection for him. 

He often reminded me of my father, both were very handy, and could fix just about anything. When my father passed away, I brought back a number of his tools to give to Don Carlos for him to use is his carpentry  workshop.

We will miss him greatly. There's not a room in the house where his hand-prints can't be found. We have many memories of special  moments shared together.  During one of the many long drives we would take to Fountain of Life Camp outside of San Pedro Sula, he told me his life story and I was able to present the gospel to him and he assured me that he spoke to God frequently and believed that Jesus was his Savior. I look forward to seeing him in heaven. 

The journey of learning marches on

What are my thoughts and feeling as I sit in class for a class on Leadership and Organizational Development and then attend a one-day conference for missions work? 

• What a wealth of new knowledge is available to us because scholars, students, practitioners have invested untold hours of their time and thought to study and distill but a small part of all they are learning.
•  How can I effectively "translate" some of these gold nuggets to those I work with?
•  Listening to these brilliant men and women make me curious to know more. It makes me thirsty. 
• Listening to these scholars lets me put but a finger on the world of knowledge that floats around like a huge iceberg. I see only the tip of the iceberg as a missionary in Latin America.
• There has been so much study and thought under-girding the missionary endeavor that I am completely unaware of. 
• I have long been content to just be a practitioner, now I am being challenged to be a reflexive practitioner, to act and think and think and act. 
• I am ashamed to admit that for much of my missionary career, I had a hidden disdain for scholarly work and schooling. I just wanted to get the job done!
• I am thankful for God opening my eyes to value the work of scholars, great thinkers, and to setting aside significant hours to think, ponder, and investigate what others around the world are doing and thinking.

In my own PhD journey, I have three more courses to take here at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School  and at that point I will  be a third of the way through.  I will have to do my comprehensive exams which means writing two publishable papers and finally my dissertation.

Whew...

I love each step of the journey and count it a privilege to be walking this path with numerous other co-scholars, outstanding professors, and my group of friends and family who all want a piece of that diploma...when I finally get it!

What journey have you been on lately? How's it feel?