when I most feel like a missionary

Francisco, Corban, and I all ready to hike and visit homes

 Corban hopped out of the car with a skip and a jump.  Always outgoing, he quickly introduced himself to the newly arrived mission team, "Hi!  I am Corban.  We are missionaries too!"

Missionary... a new word in my 4-year-old's vocabulary... a concept he is just beginning to understand. 

What does it mean to be a missionary family?  I am sure it can vary from family to family, but in our case often times the daily routine becomes so familiar that I no longer even feel like a missionary.  We try to maintain a healthy routine of nap times and early bed times.  Corban gets up and goes to school.  My husband works a secular job to pay our family expenses so he is gone Monday through Friday from early until late just like many husbands.  I work at the mission base office and in my home office just like a regular working mom.  It all seems so normal and so routine.  Mom, semi-housewife, swimming lessons, karate, all these things can seem so much more real and pressing even in the midst of the mission field.

BUT THERE ARE TIMES WHEN I KNOW I AM A MISSIONARY, WHEN I FEEL LIKE A REAL MISSIONARY AGAIN.  And this is when we host mission teams.  Hosting a mission team does something in me.  It makes me come alive again.  The adrenaline surge that comes with all the planning and then the actual hosting seems to awaken parts of me that fall into a gentle slumber at times.  IT IS WHEN I MOST FEEL LIKE A MISSIONARY.

These past 2 weeks have flown by in a blur.  In fact, the whole month has flown by.  Getting all the details nailed down for the two teams we hosted was its own whirlwind.  And now having the teams here is another.  How we have enjoyed greeting old friends and making new ones.  How we have enjoyed the fellowship and hard work together.   

The first team visited local homes to meet and pray for the families on a Sunday, so my husband was able to join us and help interpret.  

walking down the dirt road through the village

Mission team Dad and daughter inviting children to the camp

The family I translated for (sorry for the sideways pic, don't know how to fix this)

For quite a while now we have desired to hold some type of camp for the children and youth but lacked the resources to do it.  God gave us the desire of our heart by sending Camp Sonshine to hold a 3 day camp which changed these children, youth, and moms forever. 

craft time- super hero masks.  Jesus is our super hero!!!

the sports portion of the camp

amazing dramas and games to bring to life the point of the message

The next team has been amazing as well.  With generous hearts they packed 75 bags of food to give to local families and took the time to visit each home to pray for individual needs.  They are still here as I write this... doing puppet skits, dramas, and games all over San José Pinula, bringing a message of salvation and healing to the community.  God bless them for their tireless efforts.

weighing and measuring out portions of beans, rice, and oatmeal for the food bags

food bags complete!!!

After a long day of visiting homes and walking though miles of dirt and dust Corban lay in his bed, still contemplating the days accomplishments.  "Papi, we are missionaries in this house.  We pray for people.  We tell them about God." and as he drifted off to sleep he murmured, "and Cohen is the littlest missionary of all."

yes, we are a missionary family.  We do pray for people.  We do tell them about God's plan for them and introduce them to the power of Jesus.  Yes, we are missionaries, and this past month I think that concept has become even more clear to a preschooler just learning how to serve the Lord.

If you would like information on how to contact us or more about what we do you can see our website: www.crossculturejesus.org
We would love to hear from you, pray for you, and connect with you.

W-O-R-K

Once, a few years ago, my nephew casually commented that Aunt Sarah didn't have a job, she was just a missionary.  JUST A MISSONARY?  My nephew obviously never took Pastor Randy's ministry class where he went into great detail to explain that the word ministry is spelled W-O-R-K.  (Faith Landmarks Bible Institute, Richmond, VA)

So, like any good Aunt (or missionary defending her position), I pulled out a scrapbook of photos and began to walk through a typical week in the life of CrossCulture Jesus.

I showed pictures of a clothing give-away.  Then asked my nephew to think about how we got the clothes to begin with?  Who solicited business, churches, and friends?  Who wrote letters, made phone calls, and sent thank-you notes?  Who sorted the clothes by size for the 70 families we visit.  Then who walked miles and miles carrying bags and bags of clothes to visit each family, bless them and pray for them?  How long did he think maybe all of that took?

I showed pictures of our Bible Clubs.  My questions were about planning a class, writing the curriculum, practicing skits, making visuals, putting together to preliminaries for a craft, taking time to buy the materials needed, and then finally teaching the class itself.

Next were pictures of mission teams visiting.  Then food give-aways.  Pictures of preaching in churches.  We talked about the amount of time that goes into fund raising, writing newsletters, keeping supporters in the loop.

Me "endless energy" 4-year-old who is still skipping along after walking literally MILES to visit families

We talked about the mundane details of missionary life.  Not the glory of climbing volcanoes.  Not the adventure of riding horseback to remote villages.  Not the well-groomed image of a missionary on a podium in an American church talking about all the successes.  We talked about the nitty, gritty kind of work that gets our fingernails dirty.  We talked about how many families we visit and how many activities we plan before we see any real fruit.  We talked about real WORK.

After all, God called the base, mundane, foolish , weak things of this world to confound the wise and carry out His plans.  GOD CHOSE ME.  And He chose you.  I have noticed that He not only called the base, mundane, foolish and weak ones, but that also most of the work of the ministry is base and mundane.

Brothers, think of what you were when you were called.  Not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were influential, not many were of noble birth.  But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.  He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things... (1 Cor 1:26-28a)

So let me encourage you today.  As you do "normal" things that don't seem important to you, just remember we are in good company!  The disciples themselves spent most of their time doing "unimportant" things.  Walking for miles and miles between town and villages was far from glamorous.  Surely they stopped along the way to wash clothes and bathe in rivers and creeks.  Surely they stopped to build a fire and cook a meal.  Someone had to gather the wood.  Someone had to hunt the food or catch the fish.  Simple things.  Normal things.

When Jesus fed the crowds he asked the disciples to organize thousands into small groups.  Then to distribute the food.  Although this takes just a paragraph of our Bibles to tell, surely it took hours to play out in real life.  Real work.  Real ministry. 

So, when it is your turn to clean the church or take over the nursery, rejoice, for you are partaking of the base aspects of serving the Lord.  As you practice for hours for 30 minutes of worship on Sunday morning, be glad.  As you plan Sunday School classes, make phone calls to plan youth events, clean your house to host a Bible Study, as you cook a meal for a family, give a ride to a neighbor, or any other endless "chores" on our weekly lists of things to do- know that you too are participating in REAL MINISTRY.

The boys strapped in for an afternoon of running ministry errands.  we were armed with milk, water bottles, snacks and toys to face the hours of errands we had to get in before a mission team arrived.

My well-earned late lunch after a morning preparing for upcoming events: homemade Guacamole, beans, and rice

Farewell Alfonso

A much loved team member has moved on.

In the kitchen where he often astounded us with his culinary skills!

Alfonso Alvarado formed part of the outreach team from May of 2007 until Feb of 2013 when he accepted a position as director of the local Senior Citizens Center.

When I think back over all the years and all the changes that our small ministry has undergone since its beginning in 2007, Alfonso's memories are woven so intricately that I feel as though we will never fully say farewell.

As Alfonso sat in our den with a warm cup of coffee in his hands he began to share his heart.  Outside the uncharacteristic wind and rain slammed against the window panes.  The temperature that had dropped from 80 degrees to just 50 degrees overnight was only one reason he shivered.  The other was the news bomb that he was dropping on us: he had accepted a position in a government organization and would not be returning to work on Monday.

WOW.

When Alfonso came to us he was looking for a job- any job.  He decided to help us out for a while until something better came along.  But nothing ever did.  Finally he realized that God had a plan for Alfonso with us.  At least for a time this was Alfonso's calling.  Never having worked with children, never having worked in missions, he came on board.  Over the years his character was molded and formed from being intimidated by the mission work we do to being very adept.  Alfonso's enthusiasm for life, joy, and overcoming attitude have helped him to face challenges and be formed by them.  He grew from being a person who had a hard time being stable in any one place to a long term team member.  He grew from being someone who had started university 2 times and never finished to someone who on the third try, with our constant encouragement, is now on the way to graduating.  He went from being someone from the poor side of town with little or no exposure to the outside world to having international friends and planning visits for missionaries from all over.  It was a good thing.  It was a GOD thing.

teaching in a training meeting

My husband and I are so very proud of the person that Alfonso has become.  As he sat before us thanking us for the role was (through the ministry) played in helping him to become the man that God desires for him to become, we were humbled.  It is our heartfelt desire that all those who work with CrossCulture Jesus and Brazos Abiertos would one day leave better than when they came.  It is our desire that our small ministry be a time of testing, trying, and refining for all of us that are there.  To hear Alfonso recount his testimony we were stricken with the KNOWING that Alfonso, like many others, had gone through the refiner's fire and come out clean on the other side. 

Yes, it was a God thing for Alfonso to come to us. 

We are thankful to all the years of hard work, diligence, and giving 110%.  We are thankful that we can count Alfonso as a friend.  And we are thankful that the Lord is promoting him and rewarding him for so many years of faithful service and sacrifice.

We bless Alfonso in the name of Jesus and declare that all he puts his hand to will prosper!

Alfonso with team member Yoli and a visiting missionary