July 2013 in Tampa

Free Will Baptist Logo

 I am a part of the National Association of Free Will Baptists. Our National Convention meets this next week in Tampa, FL. Thousands of Free Will Baptists from around the globe will converge on the city to conduct business, worship and fellowship together. While the Association convenes to conduct business, there are also two other conventions that also meet. The Women Nationally Active for Christ along with the Free Will Baptist National Youth Conference will take place.

WNAC is a group of ladies who are active in ministry, primarily focusing energies on supporting missions. They certainly do much more, but they do a tremendous job in assisting in the promoting and supplying our missionaries with many of their basic needs.

NYC (no, not New York City), is the youth / student component of the convention. The National Youth Conference features many students involved in various competitions. There's competitions in Bible studies, denominational studies, music and arts, you get the idea. Additionally, they will be involved in doing service projects throughout the city of Tampa. There are seminars for youth and youth workers, as well.

This convention is an annual meeting. I've attended many of them in various parts of the country. Even as a kid, my family would go to the National Association. Oklahoma City and Tulsa, Memphis and Nashville. Fort Worth, TX three times, Detroit, Anaheim, and Wichita have all hosted this event. I've been to Kansas City and Charlotte; Atlanta and Macon. Oh, and there's Birmingham and Little Rock, too.

Those are just the cities I've been to attending the convention. There were several that I couldn't make along the way. I've not had the pleasure of attending the last few. Maybe that's why I'm so looking forward to attending this year. I've been reading on Facebook the last couple of days as people are making their way to Tampa. Friends have posted pictures of watermelon trucks and signs along the road. Many times people turn the few days leading up to a convention into a bit of a vacation. After all, what better place to vacay than Florida's theme parks with the kiddos! There was even a friend who posted a story of meeting strangers at a rest area who were headed to the convention. Their children were attending our annual leadership conference that works at the NYC, and were on the same flight headed to the meeting. Needless to say, they are strangers no more!

Yes, the next few days will be hectic. I'll be busy. I'll get tired. But it will be the absolutely the best hectic, busy schedule resulting in the best kind of tired I can be! Calling all Free Will Baptists ~ let's go to Tampa!

Emily the Missionary

Recently my daughter, Emily went to Guatemala for 10 days. This was a mission trip sponsored by the school she attends, Southeastern University in Lakeland, FL. I asked her to write about her trip and share some pictures to use on my blog. The following is what she gave me to use. Thank you, Emily, for your willingness to go, and now for your willingness to share with me and others.

Isaiah 55:12 “You will go out in joy, and be led forth in peace…”

Ps 16:11 “ You make known to me the path of life; you fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.”

This past week, I journeyed to Guatemala with a team of seven other college-age students, primarily from Southeastern University in Lakeland, Florida. My adventure was not merely for pleasure or thrill-seeking travel: I was on a mission.

From Guatemala City, a 7-hour bumpy car ride west took our team to the Quiché Department, where missionaries Bart and Pam Biddle and Wesly and Katie Sanchez live in the town of Chicamán, preaching in surrounding villages within a few hour radius.

Saturday before our full week of ministry, we fasted and prayed together in the mountaintop village of El Amay, worshipping God and asking Him to do incredible things in the nearby villages. As the saying goes, we tried to put “first things first” and not underestimate the power of prayer. Each morning before ministry, we worshiped and prayed corporately in order to prepare and unify our hearts, and to prepare the hearts of those who we would be ministering to that day.

Our team primarily focused on kids ministry, sharing the gospel through skits, acted-out Bible stories, and testimonies geared towards children. Though many children spoke Spanish, we used the help of local translators to translate our message from Spanish to the local Mayan dialect, Poqomchi’. Throughout the week, we visited a total of 9 villages, held 8 kids ministry activities, and served in 5 church services, in addition to preaching, testifying, and reading Scripture on mountainsides and in marketplaces. Everyone on the team got a chance to share Christ’s transforming love with villagers of all ages.

Beyond ministering to the Guatemalan villagers, God ministered to me personally this past week, reminding me that He is Creator and Healer God, and He is ultimately in control. God revealed His own hand at work in the villages, most of which have been strongholds against the Kingdom of God, completely ensnared in Satan’s grasp. Entire villages are spiritually resistant, their people trapped in idol worship, hopelessness, and deadly misunderstanding.

Though we preached the gospel relentlessly, many people are spiritually blind and deaf, unable to hear our message without the aid of the Holy Spirit: we prayed fervently that God would remove both spiritual and language barriers, clinging to Isaiah 55:11, “so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”

Though it may seem slow in our weak human eyes, God is moving among the villages in Guatemala. His Word accomplishes its purpose and does not fall void. At the market in Beleju this past Friday, a witch doctor initiated a conversation with Bart, asking questions about Jesus Christ and prayer. We pray that his hunger for a true God would not be sated, and that it would lead him to a life-changing relationship with Jesus. Another man, a believer in the village of Beleju, decided to give up some idols he had hidden in his home. The local pastor and missionary burnt the idols and praised God for our brother’s repentant heart and growing closeness to God, while rejoicing at another triumphant victory over sin and Satan’s hold in the village of Beleju.

God allowed me to witness evidence of His healing hands in the lives of Guatemalan people, as well as allowed me to hear His clear voice. God is working to transform my image of Him: God is a patient Shepherd and loving Father, but He is also Healer, Warrior, and a mysterious God.

As I rode along bumpy roads for hours at a time to get to remote villages, I was awestruck by the beauty of God’s creation. Rocks, hills, mountains, trees, and rainbows surrounded me and I couldn’t help but worship my Creator God. Yet even in my worship, God revealed to me something greater: the people of these mountains are made in God’s image, and therefore far more beautiful, more important, eternal. God has a plan for every single person in the villages of Quiche, Guatemala, whether they realize it or not. And it is my job to help them learn about the God who created them, who knows each name, who is ready to bless with abundant love and salvation.

The mountains of Guatemala are made of rock and mud, yet are incredibly fertile, full of life and thriving agriculture. The Guatemalan people are hard as the rocks they live in, yet there is capability for planted seeds to grow. The people have deep roots, and though their hearts are hard, they are a fertile harvest.

Though we witnessed no salvations this past week, we are certain that we planted seeds of Jesus Christ’s love, resurrection, death, and power into the hearts and minds of the hundreds of children and adults we ministered to. Many of the children we ministered to had never heard Jesus Christ’s gospel, but God used our team to teach, preach, and love Guatemala. The people are hungry and thirsty for the gospel, and it was incredible blessing to be a part of team sharing the Living Word, the Living Water, the Living God.

Ezekiel : 36:25-26 (ESV)

“I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.”