Sacrifices

I have now been in Sucre for about a total of three weeks (I did take a small trip to Peru to get my visa, which I did get by the way! Thanks for your prayers!!) and I have had a lot of time during these last few weeks to think about home back in the States. I´m not really wanting to go home anymore--sorry, mom--but from time to time I find myself thinking about Texas and all the things I´m missing back there to be down here obeying my Lord to the best of my ability. We all have to make sacrifices in order to follow Jesus, and I am just now realizing the extent of what I have sacrificed to be here in Bolivia.
The most obvious sacrifice I made was two years of my life in a third-world country away from family and friends. I have found myself pondering every now and then what they´re up to, do they ever think about me, or how could things be different if I was back there. I know that most of the time it´s pretty dangerous to think about stuff like that because this train of thought can easily lead to obsession and/or depression on the field, and can hinder the work. I´ve found that I have to keep myself focused on the reason I´m here so as not to go crazy with homesickness; if I wasn´t here, then there would be no one else to reach the Quechua in the mountains, as God has has planned since before everything came to be. But even with this thought, it´s fairly hard to keep my imagination from returning to Wichita Falls from time to time. I´ve had to sacrifice spending special days (birthdays, celebrations, etc) with my family for being here. They know I love them; but they also understand the need I have to share the awesome Word of God with the lost people here, and for that I can never be thankful enough of them. I talked with my mom, brother, and grandparents last night for example. My mom, brother, and a friend drove to Oregon to visit our relatives on the West Coast. I would have loved to be able to go on that trip to see my grandparents but I´m called to be here serving however I can. I knew coming down to Bolivia that I would have to give two years of my life to serving God full-time, but that still doesn´t make it any easier now. I´ve already missed my entire family´s birthdays once, and there´s still another round to miss; trips with family and friends that would be priceless for years to come have been traded for other trips into shabby villages that are far more priceless to the advancement of the Kingdom; family meals around our dining room table are traded for meals of potatoes in a dark hut, but with the knowledge that after this life I will be able to share meals with my loved ones and the people I love in Bolivia altogether; hours with good friends in the building some people call the church, doing ¨church,¨ are traded for being the church with my brothers and sisters here, waiting in breathless anticipation for the moment the Bride is reunited with her Groom. It´s thoughts like these that are able to keep me sustained through the trials I face, and all of the dark thoughts Satan´s minions throw my way.
The other sacrifice that missionaries, and all children of God, make is to sacrifice a life of comfort; it may not seem very comfortable at times to those who have it in the States, but, for example, most missionaries on the field would almost weep tears of happiness to have an actual toilet, or even toilet paper... :) The material thoughts that run through my head make me laugh sometimes while I´m out in the villages: ¨Man, what I would do to eat at Cheddars!¨ ¨If I see another potato again, someone is going to loose an appendage.¨ ¨To have one uninterrupted night´s sleep would be a little slice of Heaven.¨ We all make sacrifices, that´s the obvious truth, but it´s funny to see how much hype missionaries get for ¨what they go through.¨ If only people knew how much of a blessing it is to suffer even one night of cold, dehydration, not sleeping, and hunger to reach a village that is so shocked that some ´gringo´ would care to come to them in the middle of nowhere that they are eager to hear the message we bring! The look in their eyes when they hear for the first time that there is more to life than just slaving away trying to scrape up a living, that there´s a loving, caring God who loves them too is worth all our suffering alone, much less knowing that these people now have ¨living water¨ and will never thirst again (and we´ll be able to party all the time in Heaven together).
The piece of Scripture that I read on my last trip that really gave me a new perspective on this is in Matthew 19. It´s just one, simple verse but it really caught my attention and allowed me to reflect on those thoughts of home and material goods with a whole new perception: ¨And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name´s sake, will receive a hundredfold, and will inherit eternal life,¨ verse 29. This verse was like a balm on my mind because before this I was almost constantly, obsessively thinking of home. All of the suffering we push through will be rewarded to us one day; maybe in this life, but if not, oh well, just more to look foward to in Heaven. To know that we aren´t the first ones to experience the pain of leaving loved ones behind to share the Gospel is an incredible gift as well. Christians throughout the ages have done so, and it works wonders for our faith. People will almost always ask ¨Why are you here, when you could be living it up in the USA!?¨ Well, I just thought I would share this little thought that´s been running through my mind for the last few weeks with all of y´all.
I want to share a praise with all of you because it was a huge hurdle that finally crumpled for me: I got the first stage of my visa in Peru to be here in Bolivia as a missionary! It was such a huge weight off my shoulders, and one that had been there for a long time. I know that your prayers helped with this because I used the exact same papers as last time, with the same guy as last time who said I didn´t have the right papers, and he gave me my visa!! God is so great! I do also have a few prayer requests as well for you too, if it´s not too much to ask... our trip has been postponed for a little bit; we were supposed to leave today actually, but our boss wants us to stay a few more days so my partner can finish making hammocks to support himself being here (much like Paul being a tentmaker, and supporting himself). So please pray for Javier, my partner, and I as he is trying to complete his hammocks so he can continue working with our team. Also, we are taking Quechua language classes every morning for three hours. It´s pretty tough so far, but we are trying our hardest. Please pray that we can get a grasp on the language so we can start to share the Bible in the Quechuas´ heart language, patience for learning it as well as we can, and for an opportunity to open up to share the Gospel with our language instructor. I will try to put out one last blog before we leave for our next trip, whenever that may be. ;) Thank you for reading and until next time!