Venezuela 2011 pt 1 The Excellence of Love

It has been quite a busy summer. I just returned to the states from a few weeks in Venezuela. I had the opportunity to go down with Chris Nelson to prepare for a team from North Carolina. Chris had not been back since his accident back in March. He had some personal matters to attend to as well as preparing for the team. I'm happy to report that he is recovering better than would be expected. Our God is a healer! Chris' vison is better than it was before the accident and no longer needs to wear glasses!

This trip was a great experience to prepare me for the field. I have gone on many short term missions trips in the past, but that does not really prepare you for the life you live as a foreign missionary. The pace that we kept for 8-11 days is not the same pace that you maintain when you are living in the country. There is much more time spent planning and building relationships.

Pastor Eliodoro Mora

My first few days were spent in Maricaibo. We then travelled to Baquisimeto and spent a week there without the team that was to be coming from North Carolina. While I was there I had time to work at the Global University Venezuela office. I was able to really begin seeing some of the technical work I will be doing while I am there. This time spent there is enabling me to better plan for the future. I also worked on a few computers during my week there and had the opportunity to meet with Pastor Eliodoro Mora, the district superintendant as well as others from the Lara district Asambleas de Dios. They all welcomed me with open arms. I love the relationship that Chris Nelson has with the local and national church. I'm looking forward to being a part of that family in a more personal way in the future.

Adding some gender balance!

There was a lot of bonding with the team from Global University Venezuela. It often didn't require words, but we had some fun with not understanding each other at times. (at least I think we did) Most of the staff there speak English in addition to Spanish. That made it a little easier at times but there was plenty of time where I had no clue what was happening around me. I was also able to visit with some friends from last year whom I have become very close with. I was also able to meet face to face with some friends who I have come to know through electronic means (e-mail, Facebook, Skype, etc.) Real hugs are so much better than this XOXOX, and real smiles are better than this :-)

In Springfield, they try to prepare you for "culture shock" (the feelings of isolation, rejection, ets, experienced when one culture is brought into sudden contact with another). There is no specific time frame that you have to start to experience it on the field and there is varying degrees to which each person will experience it. The one thing that is certain is that everyone experiences it to some degree. The good thing for me is that by being prepared for it at PFO allowed me to recognize the signs of it in myself, and by doing so, I could actively work toward how I would respond to it. There were times during a few of the days when I found myself being frustrated and wanting to be angry without reason. That was not the type of impression that I wanted anyone to have. Everyone that I was around was kind and did everything to make me feel welcome, it was just one of those things that I need to work through with God.

I'm really glad that I had the opportunity to experience the ups and downs of this time in country without a U.S. team around me. I do not believe that would not have experienced culture shock to the degree that I did with a group of North Americans speaking english around me. I'm sure that there will be other things to adjust to when I return, but for now, I am thankful for this experience and for my Venezuelan family who's love for me made this experience a much easier one. Thank you for loving me. I hope that I can show you my love for you.

This passage has been coming back to me everyday since returning. I may have to write about it later but here it is for you. We see it quoted many times but do we really think about what it really means?

1 Corinthians 13

 ¹ If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. ³ And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. ⁴ Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, ⁵ does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, ⁶ does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; ⁷ bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
 ⁸ Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part; ¹⁰ but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. ¹¹ When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. ¹² For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. ¹³ But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.