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.

Broadening our global perspective of God’s Kingdom work

Robert Bruneau, Lisa, Evelyn Umana, Carlos Baca

The atmosphere breathed excitement as I anticipated the arrival of our multicultural team of professors. This would be the first time all of us would be gathered in one room, face-to-face. For the last year, we had been meeting monthly via the internet, planning, preparing, praying for each of the team to get US visas (14 out of 15 got visas).

I breathed a prayer of gratitude as I saw them arrive with their host families, smiling, moving their hands and making great efforts to communicate.

Analu Cornejo (Peru),  Patti Salla, Norma Canales (Honduras)

Warms hugs, kisses on the cheek, loud greetings filled the room. “Finally, Karina (from Argentina) we meet face to face!” Oh Rixy (from El Salvador) “I haven’t seen you since 2010 when you traveled to Honduras for Lisa’s 50^th birthday! “Victor Hugo, wow, you are much taller in real life than on the screen, ha, ha, ha.” Just the greetings and introductions took 15 minutes!

Mimi Seigfried, Alvaro Cordero (Boliva), Walter Seigfried, Bob Sabean (Costa Rica)

I looked over the faces of the team gathered and tears sprang to my eyes. So many dreams were coming true in this moment. Here is one of those dreams:

This event is a landmark in the life of the association of Christian Camping International, Latin America  (CCI/LA) because it gives a group of leaders whose gift is teaching a global perspective of how God’s Kingdom works.

Pastor Manuel Cortez (Costa Rica) & Pastor Alvaro Cordero (Bolivia)

CCI/LA's curriculum for developing leaders in Christian camping

Manuel Cortez works year by year since 1974 with my fellow missionary, Bob Sabean, in the rural area of Costa Rica. He is a pastor and daily he labors to give his fellow pastors a vision for the power of Christian camping (the power of camp). When he travels from his rural setting to Pittsburgh he meets the churches that have been supporting CCI/LA through me and discovers that due to their provision, he has ample written material with which to do his work in Costa Rica. His eyes light up as he makes the connections. He says: I see this curriculum as a dream come true. Bob and Lisa envisioned CCI/LA's written curriculum long before it was published. I ask myself: What do we see 5-10-20 years from now? What vision do we anticipate? I believe our point of entrance is the church, specifically through the pastors. I recently saw how the vision of one pastor expanded when he took one of our CCI/LA courses.

The diagram below attempts to convey how Manuel's perspective is broadened. Starting from right to left, the circle represents Manuel's starting perspective and progressively expands as he critically reflects throughout his short-term missions experience in Pittsburgh. 

Diagram attempting to illustrate how short-term missions trips broaden one's perspective.

What experience have you had that broadened your perspective? Please share about your experience and how your perspective was broadened in Comments below. 

We have more than 10,000 reasons to praise the Lord!

At our church Comunidad Cristiana, El Hatillo (Tegucigalpa, Honduras) Valerie Umana-Anderson and Susie McCabe (from North Way Christian Community, Pittsburgh, PA) sang Matt Redman's song, 10,000 Reasons. Susie and her husband Mac McCabe are visiting us and are our long-time friends. We have known one another for more than 30 years. Both Mac and Susie knew my parents, Bobbie & George Anderson and I was able to have their two daughters, Shannon first and then Cami, in my Bible studies during two different furloughs home in Pittsburgh. After my father passed away in 2003, we have often stayed in their home when we are back in Pittsburgh, so Valerie and Victor feel so endeared to them, they call them: Uncle Mac and Aunt Susie. So, needless to say, we share plenty of history.

So you can imagine the joy we felt watching Valerie and Susie sing for God's glory at church. We do indeed have far more than 10,000 reasons to praise HIS NAME!

Enjoy this video of their worship to the Lord (4.35 min.)

Overnight Camp-out with the Sunday School class of 8-10 yrs

In our church, Christian Community, El Hatillo, during the first 6 months of the year, celebrate one Over-night camp-out per Sunday School class (4 classes of around 15-25 students each, ages 8-13 yrs. boys and girls separate).

We invite the entire class to come to our house Saturday morning and spend the night in tents camped out on our lawn. The teachers serve as camp counselors and I serve as the speaker and camp director, and Alfredo is in charge of Quiet Time and the final reflection on Sunday morning before we walk to our church, just in time for Sunday morning worship. I prepare the video clip (which you can see below) to show the church family what God (and their kids) did over the weekend. This will be our third year doing this and the kids look forward to this season with excitement. We take the older students, 14-18 years old on their own retreat to a nearby camp. 

They enjoy the activities like:

• Swimming in our little pond
• Playing games with the parachute
• Getting closer as a SS class
• Being taught in depth on one particular subject, this year the theme is: Friendship with Jesus and  others.
• Taking a night hike all by yourself in the dark
• Watching the stars
• Sleeping in tents with their friends
• Getting up at 5am to swim and become a member of the "Polar Bear Club"

These next blogs will show you some more images and details about what we teach and hope to accomplish. For now, I invite you to enjoy the 3:45min. video from our first Camp-Out with girls 8-10 years. 

Overnight Camp-outs with our church's Sunday School classes: Feb. class of 8-10 yr. girls

The theme of this year's series of Overnight Camp-outs is "Your friendship with Jesus and with others." We had in attendance 12 of the 15 girls in that age bracket (8-10 years old) so we were very pleased with the turn-out.

As you will see from the video clip below (3:45 min.), the highlights are swimming in our little pond, playing with our German Shepherd dog, Fofer, sleeping in a tent, playing games with the parachute, cooking your meals over the campfire, taking a night hike (alone in the dark woods!), and several said they enjoyed the Bible teaching on friendships.

Contrast between 8-10 year old girls in Honduras and USA

Overnight Camp-out with our church's Sunday School class of 8-10 girls

Listen in to this conversation as Alfredo and I ask the girls gathered around our ping pong table:
Jesus is your BBF but what is your friendship really like? 

"Jesus protects me from getting robbed like what happened to my cousin. The other day she was on a bus and some guy held a knife to her and took her cellphone."
"I prayed to Jesus for Him to save my friend who had been kidnapped. He answered my prayers and really the whole school's since we were all praying for her. (another chips in and says, oh so-and-so, yeah, we heard about it in our school and prayed for her too.) Yeah, after a couple of weeks, she was returned to her parents."
"I know Jesus is with me because when the robbers came into our home, we were gone and they didn't take much."
"One time I felt like Jesus hugged me, but it was so real that I thought for sure that it was my dad. So the next morning I asked him if he had come in during the night to hug me. But, no, he said it wasn't him, so it had to be Jesus." (she hugs herself to show us how He hugged her.)

Several more shared, interspersing stories about Jesus as their BFF, robbery, kidnapping and other security issues.

Alfredo leaned over and whispered in my ear: "Can you imagine hearing stories like this with a group of 8-10 year olds where you grew up in Pittsburgh?"

I said that at their age, that world was unknown to me. But, his observation got us all thinking, together with the two other Sunday School teachers who were present. The gest of our discussion was:
"The dangers in Honduras are so obvious that an 8-year old can figure it out. They depend on God to protect them from robbers, kidnappers and the like. But, in contrast with children from the USA, the dangers are not as obvious but no less dangerous. Sure, depending on where they live, most kids are not worried about robbers and kidnappers, but are their parents aware of the need to protect them from the dangers of materialism (thinking that the more you have the better off you are), consumerism (thinking happiness comes from what you consume like technology, entertainment, stuff), and moral decay where God is less and less part of the picture and "what's in your heart" is trusted more than "In God we trust?"

So many Hondurans, even several families from our church, have immigrated to the USA for security reasons. No doubt it's a relief to be able to drive your car with the windows down, to walk without looking over your shoulder, to let your kids play outside, to not have to hide your purse under the driver's seat, etc. 

But, what new dangers do they need to be on the look-out for?

I would love to hear your thoughts, you may have a new perspective to add, please take the time to share it by clicking below on "observations."

(This conversation formed part of our first "Over-night Camp-out" for each Sunday School class. I will share with you in my next blog some images from the camp.)

Don't panic. The perspective of Rixy, a Salvadorian serving in Christian camping in Niger

Rixy Leiva serving in Niger, Africa

I have known Rixy Leiva since I arrived in El Salvador in 1993. God used her to open my eyes to post-civil war El Salvador. We built
a strong friendship during the two years I lived there and since then have continued to walk together. Today, Rixy serves as a short-term missionary in Niger, Africa. 

She has been helping another fellow CCI/LA instructor (Juanita Rivas) teach our camping courses. (CCI/LA= Christian Camping International, Latin America). Last week, Rixy wrote this letter to her supporters due to their concern about the civil war in the neighboring country of Mali. (She has given me permission to share.)

Rixy describes how the gospel of Christ contrasts with the Muslims religion. I found Rixy's perspective to be particularly insightful, filled with confidence in Him who called her to serve in missions. 

I encourage you to take your time in reading this and discovering God's great world. 

From: Rixy Leiva, Feb. 1, 2013

To: "My beloved co-pilgrims"

The regional situation: 

Indeed, the news of the civil war in Mali is not encouraging. This week the government here in Niger have stationed groups of 6-8 soldiers to stand guard in the Christian churches in the capital, especially where foreigners attend. The official word is that it's a precautionary measure. But the soldiers presence at church generates insecurity in all of the community. There's a noticiable increase of military vehicles in the streets and more military check-points on the highways. The homes of the public figures are also heavily guarded. You can also hear more sirens as important officials are escorted by the police to and from and the war planes can be seen criss crossing the skies. 
The mosques which normally announce with loud speakers prayer 5 times a day, now are announcing prayer more frequently. The tone of the discourse on the news (which I can't understand) has gotten more tense and bellicose. I asked a former Muslim who is now a Christian what they were saying in Arabic and he told me that the Niger government is upset with how foreigners have intervened to foment the war in Mali. There's a general sense of anger towards foreigners. 
The NGOs (Non-governmental org), one of which I serve under, LINK, have asked its members to respect a 6pm to 6am curfew. They fear attacks against foreigners and the French Embassy is asking its people to "go on vacations, visit some family member back home," etc. They are not evacuating anyone but are encouraging their people to leave until things calm down. 
Yesterday some of the soldiers were heard to say that the rebel groups from Mali have crossed over the blind spots along the border into Niger, as they flee from the Mali armed forces. The government armed forces have re-taken the capital of Mali. The government of Niger is allowing weapons and arms to be transported through it in support of the Mali government. The response of the rebel groups in Mali has been to threaten Niger with attacks, saying: "Niger is no longer neutral. Niger is now part of this war." 
We were given a list of instructions which indicated the basic things we needed to have packed in our bags in case we needed to be evacuated quickly to a nearby country. They recommended keeping a bag  packed and ready with your personal documents, cash, water, names and phone numbers, a phone, and keeping your tank filled and ready. That means I have to have my moped bike filled and ready to go! hahahahaha
That being said, I ask you not to worry. In spite of all the warnings, on one hand everything continues as normal and in peace. This type of news really is heard and paid attention to only by the NGOs, Embassies, and foreigners, for us to take precautions. 
Churches are scheduling days of prayer and fasting. All the missionary community here are praying for this situation and we all came to the same conclusion: What should be do? Leave the country? Stay tucked in safely in our homes? No.
We need to redeem the time since the days are evil. We have the opportunity each day to be in Niger, we need to take full advantage of this time. Sure, we'll take the precautions that have been indicated, for example, not to travel alone. But the work of God must continue as always. 

The work:

Today, Sunday, I met with several co-workers Beatriz, Roberta, Wallace (Brazilians) and Midge (a North American). We traveled 30 min. outside of the Capital Niamey, to a very poor village where we had a beautiful worship service with 15 adults and 50 children. We sang. Prayed. Preached the gospel!

When the teacher asked: "What's the most important book in the world?" A very enthusiastic Nigerien (native of Niger) quickly stood to his feet, raised his hand, and shouted with all his strength: The Koran! Everyone shouted in agreement, "yes, yes." 

But you  know what? All of us (and I mean you as well since you are there with me since I would not be there but for you my supporters) would say: "The most important book in the world is the Word of God, the Bible." 
We explained that this Book, the Bible, speaks about Jesus Christ, the Son of God who loves us and gave His life to save us from the wrath of God for our sin, so that we might live eternally with Him, in heaven. The Bible speaks of the love of God through Jesus Christ.
The love of God is the strongest attraction for a Muslim, because their religion does not speak of love, but rather of condemnation and punishment. But we are here (you and I) to tell them: The God of the Bible loves you and gave His Son to save you; He is a personal God, He is your friend."
The god of the Koran is not just mad, but also far. 
But God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ loves you and is near, He wants to be in your life, through the Holy Spirit....

In conclusion:

Sure, war is in the air here, but it's a spiritual war, and maybe in the future, the door that is open right now, in the heart of Africa, might close. But today, the door is open and therefore we must do our work (the work is all of ours). Please, pray with me that the gospel would take over Niger, be heard, and many would come to repentance and give their lives to Christ. 

With deep joy in my heart, your ministry companion,

Rixy

Psalm 118:6-7: The Lord is for me, so I will have no fear.  What can mere people do to me? Yes, the Lord is for me; he will help me.

  

Rixy has had lots of new experiences in Niger

These are the women of Niger with whom Rixy lives and works.