An Open Prayer to the Future Hubs.

My mind often wanders to some of the strangest things late night on the colectivos (buses) that bring me home. Tonight in particular, I was not distracted per say, but let's just call it like it is: there were good looking men on the bus. This is Argentina, after all.

So how do I appreciate God's good creation in a fine looking man? Well, I thank God for his creation (no, seriously) but what it really draws me to do is pray for my future husband, God willing I have one. Because while on the outside this man may be good looking, I know nothing about his heart, which is where the wellspring of life flows from (Proverbs 4:23).

There are so many ways to pray for my future husband, right? I mean SO many ways. And that's before even knowing him. Lord help me when I have character and real issues to intercede on behalf of! Tonight though, I thought it would be a good idea to pray for the armor of God. I know it's something in theory we put on everyday, but I thought, how could I specifically apply all of these to him?

Ephesians 6:11-17 we specifically find the armor, as stated:

¹¹ Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. ¹² For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. ¹³ Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. ¹⁴ Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, ¹⁵ and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. ¹⁶ In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; ¹⁷ and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God,

So, amidst several things I seek, I think this passage gives great insight not only into how we can pray, but also what God wants for every one of his children.

The belt of truth. His Word is truth and by it we are sanctified, being made new. Does he know truth, that we mutually agree on?
The breastplate of righteousness. Does he leak Jesus? I know I don't always leak Jesus, and I can't expect him to 100% of the time because we're not perfect, but by God's grace and power of the Holy Spirit, we are made righteous by the blood of Christ Jesus. This I pray for my future husband.
The shoes (...) that put on the readiness by the gospel of peace. Is he willing and ready to always give a reason for the hope that he has? Can he challenge me and push me to be a better witness.
The shield of faith. Will he lead me and our household as Christ does the Church? When hard times and things of this world come our way, can he hold up this shield and say "our faith will not be shaken" because we have a firm foundation.
The helmet of salvation. Oh Lord, does he know you, today? If not, bring him now to your presence so he can grow in knowledge and wisdom. This helmet guards the most central part which cannot be taken away from us.
The sword of the Spirit. Does he know the Word, love the Word? It is sharper than any double edged sword because it cuts straight to the heart. I want him to have a hunger for it and it to constantly be on his lips.

There you have it. I new way to spiritually lift up my husband, Lord willing. Like I said, today there is so much more that needs to be taken into account. I've never been super animada about the idea of praying for a future husband, because - in case you missed it - it sounds presumptuous (hence all the "Lord willing's").  But, Lord willing [there it is again... I just can't!] He brings a man into my life, I don't want to say I never prayed for him. Given the way our world is today, young men could really use all the prayer they could against the things of this world... girls and the media aren't helping young guys, at all. Let's help a brother out.

Xo,
B

(As You) Go - My Vacation to the Falls.

So a few weeks ago I had the great joy of taking vacation to Iguazu Falls. Have you heard of it? Maybe you've seen my pictures?

 

There, that's the falls. As seen from the Brazil side. I thought "seen one set of 'falls' seen 'em all, right? WRONG. Niagara falls has NOTHING on Iguazu. Below: Niagara 

Niagara. Not impressive, I know.

 I'll post more photos of Iguazu, I promise, but this post (really) isn't about the beauty of the falls. 

It's about how even on our vacation, God used my teammate and I to share His truth with Argentine nationals and teach us about this culture we still know so little of.

First, meet Gabriel. This is his Spanish name. He has two other names, I think, one in Guarani which is a tribal name, and then another, in Bu'ah which was a dialect of Guarani. Incredible.

Gabriel was born in the jungle. Just like this picture above shows, he is a natural at building traps. He started going to national schools at 11 years old, and that's when he started learning Spanish. An Argentine, that didn't know Spanish until he was 11 years old! Culture is so rich if you're willing to listen.

Anyway. Gabriel lives with his wife and three kids in a small home with a little bit of electricity (he just doesn't like it; he wasn't raised with it). One weekend per month he comes to this school in the jungle to teach about 100 children the ways and heritage of the Guarani so that the kids don't get any half-truths from the national schools.

Along our jungle tour, Gabriel told us that his father was a Shaman. This was really interesting to me for several reasons. In college, I did my capstone project over shamanism. When you confront that in real life with your beliefs and knowing truth, it is a strong dissonance. 

Then there was the fact that I hear about these tribes, and people who are animistic and often are associated with Brazil and Peru, but Argentina? My mind so often drifts to Buenos Aires -- which is anything but tribal. The diversity here is real and my heart longs for them, and for once, I understood and if even for only a fraction, felt like I knew what it felt like for the people working with the Unreached, unengaged people groups all around the world. And that's not even to say that all UUPGs are animistic.

When we started talking to Gabriel about the afterlife, I was curious if he had a spirit, where would it go? He told me we all have a good and bad spirit.  With all due respect, I asked if they were little angels and devils sitting on our shoulders. He laughed and told me no, that they come from the earth and heaven when we're born and then return to where they came from when we die. That simple. 

My friend had to ask him then, where did he learn this? He told us his father, who learned it from his father, and so forth. But there are no books with anything written. Because their language (bu'ah, remember?) is not a written language, it's only spoken.

Oh, how I pray for the Holy Spirit to just open his eyes! Truly, I saw Romans 1:20-23 played out in that very moment. Gabriel chose to give credit the things of God, to things of the gods. 

Yet how often is my sin so similar; choosing to give the credit of things of God to credit of man.

Ruth and I left with him an opportunity to know the cross and he unfortunately never wanted to hear it, and we didn't see him the next few days because our schedule had us out all day. If you think about him, or right now, please pray for Gabriel, that his eyes would be open to Creator God. That God would continue to be merciful in sending people to share truth with him and that he would not reject the beauty that is so evident around him.

my super fun travel partner for the week!

Ok, so you've heard one story of how God moved in my heart teaching or showing me something, but there's more. Enter day 3 of our trip and we're heading to the Argentine side of the falls and up drives this guy is in an unmarked car wanting to give us a ride. Uhhh, no thanks. He circles around. Says he'll do it for the same price as the bus. I see on his window it says "Cristo me guia" or, Christ guides me.  Well that must make everything better! (at this point you probably think we're writing the script for Taken 4, but I assure you, it's okay!)

Ruth and I talk it over and I get in, and before she gets in and shuts the door, she takes one last look at the lisence plate number (how's THAT for contingency training?!?) and we're off to the falls! Our driver's name is Miguel, and he's young, and I quickly ask him what the sticker across his windshield means to him.

"Oooh, that means everything to me." He assures us. He quickly hands us a really old, used Bible and hymnal that was up on the dashboard that I had noticed right after we got in the car. After looking over the Bible, I realized the pages were missing from Genesis 1-4. The pages were a yellow/brown. I had a feeling this had been in the family for a while. He told us he was evangelical, Betuel [note to self: still need to look them up. Every Argentine in BA has not heard of this sect/congregation...]. I mentioned to him our experience with Gabriel and said "so animism must be normal here by the jungle?" and his response?? No, we're about 85% evangelicals in Iguazu. 

Now, Buenos Aires is about 2% evangelical, reached of the 14 million. I cannot fathom this little city being that reached. I didn't see one church! Ruth and I eyed each other in the back seat with a smile to keep from gasping, I think. So, appropriating, she led the next question to explain his relationship with Christ. He talked about how he was raised in the church, going since he was a child with his parents and grandparents, but not once was the word S I N mentioned.

We thanked him for the ride and had his information for the next day to go to the airport. This is where it gets good.

The next morning Miguel came to pick us up with his girlfriend to take us to the airport. We didn't have too much for conversation until on the way to get gas he tells us they saw a snake coming to get us and showed us the picture they took of it. 

I think both Ruth and I were both thinking about how the conversation ended the day before, and wanting to know how to get back to it. Suddenly Ruth asked them if they'd ever heard of the story in the Bible about the snake in the garden. They said no.

This is a 21 year old boy who was raised in an evangelical home driving around with his "Cristo me guia" sticker and Bible in the dashboard and didn't know who the snake in the garden was....SAY WHAT??

So Ruth ever-so-kindly tells them that I'm going to share a story. I went through Genesis 3 with them all the way to the airport, and the whole time, Miguel's eyes were looking back into the rearview mirror. When I explained the moment she picked and ate the fruit, sin entered the world, you know what verse he referenced sin with?? Not Romans 3:23. Not 6:23. Not even 5:8

John 8:7.

But. It was so great to share with him that from that moment, God had a plan for redemption, that the seed of woman, Jesus Christ, would crush the head of the serpent and forever have power over death.

Miguel asked us where to find this story and we said, Genesis 3. Just chapter 3? Genesis 3, God's word, that's it, we told him. Not my word's but His. Remember how I told you that Bible on his dashboard was torn and didn't start until Genesis 5? I pray he and his girlfriend went home and read it and sought truth for themselves.

I am continually seeing how the truth God showed to me from 2 Kings 22 keeps coming around, the importance of the Law, and teaching it to those around us, to your children. This boy who claims to be an evangelical didn't know the story of the garden, of sin. We have to read God's word to know God's word. To know Him.

I think I've written enough here. I just wanted to share about some of the awesome ways God allowed me to be apart of the work and people's live in the part of the country. I could share about Alex the German, but that's just your typical post-modern worldview, and sadly there's so many of those around I feel like there all the same... though I know every person's story is different. Like Alex, who was in town to see Haussentauten. The DeadPANTS. Not DeadPANS. Better to say DeadTROUSERS so someone doesn't misunderstand you. Which can happen in German. If you say Haussentouten it means DeadHARES, like dead rabbits or something, and that's just sad.

Ok really I'm just rambling now. Here are some pictures of this BEAUTIFUL world wonder!!

Enjoy! xo 

so much water

garganta del diablo

rainbow

A Prayer for St. Louis & Ferguson Thoughts

Heavenly Father, you know all things. You hold all things. Nothing comes as a shock to you, and I praise you for that. I don't have to worry about anything because before the sun sets today and rises tomorrow you know what will happen. You see Ferguson and you know every person's heartache. You know every person's anger. Most of all, you love and care for them more than we now how to humanly express. As I watch from so many miles away, I ask that you send your Comforter to the city and that His presence would be felt. I know that in hard emotional times when temperatures are hot, we don't always feel or want to acknowledge you, which is why I ask that you really fill the city with your presence. And God I pray that your Church, that the body of Christ would rise up;  Would tend to the brokenhearted. I pray that there would be no blame shifting, people pointing, but the only pointing would be to your son, Jesus. He has already carried our burdens. Carry the burdens of the people now. Use this time Lord to bring glory to your name. In all things may you get the glory, and some how for this ugly, this mess we have created of and by ourselves, may you get the glory out of it. Amen.

 

I don't know all the details and I don't pretend to know all the details. I don't know both sides of the story, and unless you are Michael Brown or Darren Wilson, then neither do you. Media is powerful, isn't it? It's hard as a society for us to move on from tragic events. It's even harder when we live in a society that doesn't allow us to forget our past. We're supposed to learn from it though, aren't we? Sadly I think we say with our mouths that we're different, but our minds and actions say otherwise. When are we really going to show that skin color is nothing but a color?

While I can't understand at all the pain the blacks are relating to, I don't blame them for the anger thay have. Granted, it doesn't justify the looting and setting cars to fire, but there also isn't justification for the police force using tear gas on them, is it? As MLK Jr. once said, "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." Even our President said:

But I join Michael’s parents in asking anyone who protests this decision to do so peacefully. Let me repeat Michael’s father’s words:  “Hurting others or destroying property is not the answer. No matter what the grand jury decides, I do not want my son’s death to be in vain. I want it to lead to incredible change, positive change, change that makes the St. Louis region better for everyone."

We have a long way to go. The Ferguson situation only brought to light what has been oppressed for far too long. We have to work together so that for our nation, our children's sake the next generation does not grow up and live in a world of hate. Two sided.  The first photo was 40 years ago of people being doused with water from a firehose for nothing but their skin color. And below, present day, cars set abaze and tear gas in hand.

St. Louis really needs our prayers. We need each other.  Lord help us all.

The GREAT Commission.

"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,  teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Matthew 28:18-20

Yesterday was a really great day. I went to two different church services and in each of them I saw this very verse in action. I witnessed an Argentine brother be prayed over as he was sent out from our local church, and later I watched a Brazilian sister be baptized in a step of obedience and faith. 

If you know me well, you'd know I cried at both of these services watching my brother and sister do exactly as His word says. His living and active word calls people to action, and nothing brought greater joy to my heart. Nothing.  Don't you see what makes this commission so great, though?

This brother, Joaquin, is going to India for a month to work and serve with Argentine M's in the Himilayas for the month of December. I'm sure he'd love the prayers. Heading to land of idolatry and false gods, he and his team of 11 others will be traveling throughout the mountains using music and the word to minister to the people there. I'm so excited to see what this trip brings about in both his life and the lives of the people there.

My sister Julia invited me earlier this week to church and dinner afterward. Obviously I love both of those things and accepted. So, imagine my surprise when I got there and she told me she couldn't sit with me because she was being baptized. Her and 20 others were dunked last night. PRAISE GOD. When asking everyone why they wanted this, they all said, "obedience and faith," but some gave additional testimony to how Jesus had forgiven them of their sins forever. To the least of these, can I just get an amen?

As we were singing at the beginning, I was just in awe of the glory and presence of God in this great city. That He would allow me to be a part of His work at a time such as this. To watch a brother be sent out yesterday and a sister be baptized in the same day. As church was letting out they had all 20 of them on stage and were singing a song called, "Te Doy Gloria" which is a party song. It repeats this line saying, "I give you glory (x3), to you Jesus". And I just thought to myself, this is a sliver of what heaven looks like for just one person repenting.

I pray than God gets ALL the glory, NOTHING, but the glory for what is happening here in Buenos Aires. May the enemy be defeated and have no part in this city. It's all for His name's sake.
 

Go.

In "Radical," David Platt writes:

-------------------------- 
    In Romans 1:14-15, Paul talks about being a debtor to the nations. He literally says, "I am in debt to the Jews and Gentiles." The language is profound. Pail is saying that he owes a debt to every person on the face of the planet. Because he is owned by Christ, he owes Christ to the world.  
    Every saved person this side of heaven owes the gospel to every lost person this side of hell. We owe Christ to the world-to the least person and to the greatest person, to the richest person and to the poorest person, to the best person and to the worst person. We are in debt to the nations. Encompassed with this debt, though, in our contemporary approach to missions, we have subtly taken ourselves out from under the weight of a lost and dying world, wrung our hands in pious concern, and said, "I'm sorry. I'm just not called to that."
    The result is tragic. A majority of individuals supposedly saved from eternal damnation by the gospel are now sitting back and making excused for not sharing that gospel with the rest of the world.
    But what if we don't need to sit back and wait for a call to foreign missions? What if the very reason we have breath is because we have been saved for a global mission? And what if anything less than passionate involvement in global mission is actually selling God short by frustrating the very purpose for which he created us? 
-------------------------- 

 What strikes me most about this passage is 2 things:

 1. This debt we owe the world as children of God, as saved ones this side of heaven, to every lost person this side of hell.  What a burden and yet what a privilege to be a child of God. 

 2. This concept that we are still here because we've been saved for a global mission. I think this goes back to that question/concept people have sometimes about why we don't go straight to heaven when we start a personal relationship with Christ.  I think of that verse in 2 Peter 3:9, "The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance."  

Now please don't see this post as a preachy Go! Yes, I am here in Argentina, that was my way to go, but I encourage each of us to interpret the "go" as God calls it fitting to your life. You are to be obedient as God call you to be. For me -a single person with no strings attached- it was moving overseas, but with families, persons with large debt, it can look different. 

Maybe we can't all physically go, maybe we can't all financially give, but we all can pray for global missions.

Living on a Prayer.

Prayer. How often do you do it? I mean, really, intimately get to talk with God? Answering honestly I'd say far less often than I wish.  It is something so powerful. Yet I fear as a society we take it so lightly... But if we look to the Bible, it is so highly regarded in the life of a believer, in the life of Jesus. Just in studying Acts, the first church was constantly together in prayer. Acts 1:14, 2:42, 3:1, 4:24-31 and 6:6 are full of examples of this, and that is only the beginning.

Jesus. During his ministry on earth he often went off alone to spend time with the Father.  Luke 5:16 tells us "But Jesus Himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray." If someone as righteous and holy as Jesus needed alone time with God, how much more does a sinful person like me need it? Just saying. Again in Mark 1:35, "In the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went away to a secluded place, and was praying there." This was a pattern in His life, not a one time special prayer request that Jesus was shooting up to the Father.  A discipline to be alone in the morning, day and night if you recall before His crucifixion He went alone to pray in the Garden of Gethsemane.

And how often does Paul urge us to pray without ceasing? Probably because he knows the enemy stands by waiting to get us while we're down... Prayer is our best defense! All of the following verses encourage us in the area of prayer:

• Philippians 4:6 - "...but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God."
• 1 Thessalonians 5:17 - "Pray without ceasing."
• Romans 12:12 - "Be [...] faithful in prayer."
• Ephesians 6:18 - "And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests."
• Colossians 4:2 - "Continue steadfastly in prayer..."  

It is my prayer that in my time here in Virginia, that I would be better at prayer and grow deeper in my prayer life. But for some reason, it doesn't come naturally to me. Now I realize it's just talking to God. But my mind is as easily distracted as a child in a candy shop when I close my eyes to pray. So if you'll join in praying that over me, I would so greatly appreciate it! It's my prayer request for the next 8 weeks here and it is a discipline in the fact that it requires practice. Waking up earlier to spend more time in prayer without back falling asleep. 

I have just one last verse to share with you that I hope will rock your world like it did mine. It is from Hebrews 7:24-25, "But Jesus, on the other hand, because He continues forever, holds His priesthood permanently. Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them." Did you catch what it says at the end... He intercedes for us. How humbling that the Son of Man prays for us daily. This is the same God who we have the privilege of meeting with every morning, Creator of the universe for from him and through him and to him are all things. I encourage you to meet with Him today if you haven't already.