tête-à-tête

I have not written in some time. ¿Por qué no? (Why not?). I've asked myself that question many times over. Maybe it's because Karen has been in the States with our newborn for close to a month and I feel like Jeffrey and I are maintaining a holding pattern. Maybe it's because the "Let's Dialogue..." entry below is really challenging me. Maybe it's because I've been outside of my comfort zone with various relationships in a culture very different from my own. All I know for sure is that the Lord and I have been experiencing some tête-à-tête, and through these he continues to compete the work he started.

Karen and Jasmine
Karen and Jasmine have been in the States for almost a month now. What originally was to be a two-week stay in order to obtain Karen's U.S. citizenship has transformed into something quite a bit lengthier. We are still not sure when she will return. We are thankful to God that the INS has informed us that she has been approved for citizenship (thank you all for praying), but now she needs to attend the swearing in ceremony to make it official. The problem is that the INS can't give us an exact date when this will take place.

It's been hard on us all. Jeffrey and I are without mother and wife (our biggest supporter). And Karen is missing son and husband (the mighty men in her life). Yesterday (April 23) we celebrated Jeffrey's birthday without mom. Thanks to video conferencing Karen was at least able to watch Jeffrey open up a gift. And we were able to share many photos of Jeffrey's special day through the internet.

But, if you think about it... please pray that we can reunite quickly.

Let's Dialogue...
I'm not ready to share my thoughts just quite yet concerning the "Let's Dialogue..." dialogue. Karen is bringing 3-4 books to help me with my thoughts. I've had several people write me with their thoughts and encouragement. From these corespondence I do know that questions are being asked about the future of missions. I'm hoping to be part of that dialogue.

Relationships
It's not easy relating correctly in a culture that is not your own. I have beliefs of how things should be and other people have beliefs that determine what is. Do you understand that? Something that has always been normative for me in relationships may now be contra-cultural.

For example: Let's say you want to invite someone to meet with you at church. You invite... they say sure... you tell them the time... they say great... but in the end, they don't come. What happened?
What happened is that you did not ask the question three times like this: Would you be able to come to the church on Thursday evening for a meeting? ... So, Thursday evening at 7 o'clock you can come to the church? ... Are you sure you don't have anything that might conflict with Thursday evening?
The person might have said "Yes" to the first two questions, only to say "No, I'm sorry, Thursday evening does not work for me." to the last.

This is a very simple true example. It's also an example of a situation that won't cause me too many problems. However, there are many other cultural situations where I have found myself second-guessing what I should do. Thank the Lord for a ministry partner (Rev. Daniel Paredes) that can help me find my way through this cultural bog.

Would you pray for me. I want to understand the culture and how to relate within the culture in a way that is acceptable to all and pleasing to God. Rev. Paredes and myself are transitioning a church that has experienced break-down into a church that will experience vibrant growth. We need your prayers... I need your prayers.

What else has been going on?
Praise the Lord, the church has remained strong. One of my desires was to have the church maintain a momentum of at least 50 or more attenders until we got our cell groups up and running. We've had at least 60 people attending and we are now launching new cell groups. My new desire is that we will close in on 100 in attendance before the end of the year.

Our home continues to be open to students (predominantly young men as Karen has not been here to oversee young women). I've had several pool parties where anywhere from 4-10 young men have come out to enjoy the pool, play chess, or simply talk to the missionary. These times have been special for me as I've seen the Lord use them to draw more youth into the church.

I've been teaching a baptism class, and the first Sunday in May at least two new people will be baptized.

We've translated Cell Group leadership material into Spanish. We will continue to have weekly meetings for our Cell leaders. Two times a month for the Cell Leaders that have already been trained and two times a month for the Cell Leaders that will be trained.

We've revamped the Sunday School program here at the church. This is still a work in progress, but we are encouraged by what we are seeing among the teachers and the students. And we are excited to receive PUPPETS that are being donated to us by the Maranatha Bible Chapel Sunday School in Horseheads, New York (the church I grew up in). A big thanks to the folks in upstate New York.

We are also currently raising monies for an overhaul of our church. We are going to use the monies for a projector, a screen, a computer, new signage, curtains, carpeting for the pulpit area, paint for the inside. We want to send out a big THANK YOU to the churches in the states that have partnered with us on this project. These churches will have raised $3,150 towards this project and the Asunción Alliance church will have raised $350 (which is a good starting percentage for a church with few people and little resources). Currently we still need to raise another $1,000 from the States and the church is over 1/3 of the way towards their goal.

I am sorry for not communicating more regularly. Please lift us up in prayer. We can do nothing of eternal value in our own strength. But with the body of Christ... with God we can do incredible things.

Ciao for now. (BTW "ciao" is more used here than is "adios"... interesting, huh?)