path to wisdom. peru #7

“whoever walks with the wise becomes wise” proverbs 13:20. we all know we need more wisdom when it comes life. we need to know how to make the right decision when it comes to the dilemma we are facing. what job to take? when to marry? when to move? when to have the tough conversation we know we need to engage in, but how? we need to know how to lead a family in Godliness. we need to know more of we are able to fulfill our purpose in life. we need to know how answer the question: why does God allow bad things like tornadoes to destroy cities like Joplin and Tuscaloosa? these are amongst the many questions i am sure most of us ask ourselves and desperately search for the answers to throughout our lives. we all need wisdom and instruction because they “are our life” (proverbs 4:13). the one who believes he does not, i, along with Gods word, think that one person is an idiot (proverbs 13:10). we need more direction. more answers. more questions. and we need Gods word, His spirit, and His people to guide.

like i mentioned in my last update, i had no idea what to expect once i arrived in lima. all i knew was that i would be spending time with a man named mario. all i knew about mario was that he was the president of the christian missionary alliance in peru (a family of churches in peru and throughout the rest of the world. i also knew that mario was wise, discerning, and that a good friend mine told me that if he could, he would wash dishes in marios house for a few months just to observe and learn from him. that is about all i knew.

i arrived at marios office wednesday afternoon and will admit that the first few hours were a bit awkward and hard to read. simply because mario cannot speak english and the spanish i have learned over the past month and a half can only get me so far in a conversation. after a little bit of down time, later in the evening we had the chance to sit down and talk for a few more hours. mario began tell me how excited he is to have me here. he began to tell me his story. how he came to know Christ when he was 16 and how he realized with full assurance his calling into full-time ministry. how through his time in ministry he was able to lead his mother, father, and a few siblings to Christ and even baptize them. he told me how his relationship had sparked with my faith family back in nashville when he was pastoring the church in comas. he also told me how after that he began to oversee all of the 58 churches in lima. and now how he oversees 372 churches in all of peru. he told me that he never expected any of this to happen to him, but everyday all he desired to do was draw near to the Lord in desperation for Gods glory to be revealed through his life. he told me that above all, if there was only one thing he wanted me to learn from my time with him, it is the importance of a daily relationship with God and of necessity continual seeking and striving to know him more.

he then began to tell me about his family. his smile and joy struck me like a contagious disease as he described each member in intimate detail. he then told me about how his wife, rosa, was diagnosed with cancer a few years back. he described how the first day he began his new role as president, it was also the first day rosa entered into chemotherapy. he vividly recalled the agonizing moments of difficulty he experienced as he attempted to support and encourage his wife through the immense pain she was facing on a moment by moment basis. he told me how every morning he would take care of every need his children needed (breakfast, clean clothes, having a devotional with them, etc) then he would have a devotional with his wife, work all day, come home, take care of his wife as she suffered the effects of her most recent chemo treatment, and somehow find time to sleep a few hours. still smiling, he tells me how thankful he is for the fact that his wife had gotten cancer. thankful? for cancer? i am not even thankful for the cold i received 2 weeks ago and this man is thankful for the cancer that was destroying his wifes body from the inside out. he then described to me with almost shouts of praise how much God has used this what was then devistating circumstance, for His ultimate glory. that God has used this situation to make each of his family members stronger and ultimately more dependent upon the Lord. and now, rosa, is free from cancer (praise God!!”$TG%EG$ $#W%Y# EG!) and continously is sharing her testimony of the miracle she has received through cancer and healing. that regardless if she had never received cancer, God is still God. he is unchanging. matchless. holy. sovereign. and uses every situation in our lives to glorify Himself and further his kingdom.

oh, that God would move us all to such complete dependence and ruthless trust. i was then reminded of a quote from david platt, “we are not saved by God to live in self-sufficiency. but we are saved by God to live in God-dependency.” mario is a man that loves his family and i am so thrilled to observe the way he affectionately loves his wife and kids through continous consistent investment in the person each one of them are becoming. all i can say is that after those 3 hours, i left the conversation a different man. praise God for the wisdom he filled my heart and head with that evening. it was then that i really began to understand why God had brought me to lima to work with Mario for 2 weeks. simply to observe. ask questions. lots of questions. seek wisdom from a man that loves the name of Jesus with everything that is in him. and just to be relationally invested in and guided by a man who is passionate about seeing the glory of God exalted in the church. oh praise God for giving me understanding in this conversation! even though i did not understand every word, i did understand the meaning and subject matter of every sentence. i cannot believe God has blessed me with learning spanish so quickly.

thursday through sunday we spent time traveling through central peru visiting different churches that mario oversees. it was an incredible trip filled with conversation, observation, worship, and many opportunities to just build the friendship between mario and myself. every car ride and moment of down time we were able to continue the conversation we had put on pause from the few hours before. it was awesome to again, just ask questions and learn. i loved the oppportunity to observe him as he preached and interacted with the pastors of each church he oversees. he is one of the most relationally wired human beings i have ever met. he pours himself into each pastor and supports them through investing in them relationally and supplying much biblical encouragement and counsel. it was cool to watch the way each pastor was uplifted by the words mario delivered to them and the respect they gave mario as well. i was moved to worship as i got to experience the mountainous region peru has to offer. i know i exclaimed before that the jungle experience i had in iquitos hurt my eyes through not wanting to blink because of the beauty i found myself immersed in, but that has absolutely nothing on what God blessed me to witness this past weekend. around every corner i expected the sights to somehow diminish in beauty, yet fortunately they did not. tons of massive green mountains. tons. it is almost as if when i blinked and reopened my eyes, more appeared. it reminded me of romans 2 where paul writes, “for his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly percived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.” every blade of grass beckons the worship of our God as sovereign creator and sustainer. i had the privelage of traveling to oxapampa, pichinaki, villa rica and chanchamayo. side note: villa rica and chanchamayo are 2 of the main cities where coffee is produced in peru. so that was freaking awesome to walk through fields of coffee plants and see coffee co-ops where i think the coffee shop i work at in nashville receives its peruvian coffee from. yup, i am a nerd, but it was awesome.

also, mario asked me to share my testimony at each of the 3 churches we visited. at first i thought it was a cruel joke. then, realizing he was serious, i laughed, nervously, and immediately began praying for help. time began to share at the first church friday night…i started talking, somehow 7 or 8 minutes later, i finished. some people had blank faces and some were smiling and nodding there heads as if they understood. i asked mario if he could perceive at all what the heck i was saying, and to my surprise he told me “so so.” i was in shock! i know not every word was correct, and not every verb was conjugated perfectly, but God was able to communicate the message of how he reconciled me to himself through his son Jesus Christ. and some people were able to understand that. praise God for the fact that after a month and a half he has given enough knowledge to share my testimony in another language.

sunday night we arrived back in lima and i had the entire day monday to just rest. read. and rest some more. it was the first day in this entire trip where i could just have the time to myself. after much mental and physical exaustion, it was the perfect medicine for me. yesterday mario and i traveled 2 hours south to visit a pastor who is pastoring 2 churches right now. he is a man that is incredibly passionate about seeing the gospel come alive in peoples lives. he wants to see God transform every heart of every person in this world, he told me. it was a great time of conversation and i left feeling really encouraged by this man. also, in one of the cities he pastors in they are in the beginning stages of building a church. there was a group of people from england working who were all my age and more importantly it was a group of people who spoke english! haha in all seriousness, the first few minutes of conversation i found myself stumbling over words to say as if i had forgotten how to talk in my native tounge. it was great to hear some of their stories and how God had impacted their lives over the few months they had been in peru. overall it was a great day of conversation and provided more opportunities to learn from mario and other pastors.

so now it is wednesday, and i am not so sure what the rest of my time will look like in lima. other than the fact that i know much of my time will be spent with mario continuing to converse about God, our stories, families, and our desires to see God move in our lives. i am thankful for the opportunity to learn from a man that has been filled with much wisdom from God simply because he desperately seeks to find God. i am praying that God would use this time to continue to shape my heart and future as a man in life and ministry. i am praying that my time would somehow encourage mario in his walk with the Lord as well. and i am also praying for all of you, that you would as well, find people around you to be invested in by. God has created us for relationship. with himself and with one another. i pray you would invest in the people around you and ask questions realizing the need we have for more Godly wisdom in our lives, no matter the stage of life we find ourselves in. love you all and thank you again for your continous support. let me know how i can be praying for you.

OH! im glad to see jesus held off on the rapture for at least a little bit longer and allowed 2 huge events to happen this past weekend! congrats to 2 of my friends who got married! kenny and hilary davis. so excited for their future together. i wish i could have been there to celebrate with them. also, one of my bestfriends, mark mattingly, got engaged on saturday to an amazing woman, lindsay pritchet. again,cant wait to celebrate with them when i return. please pray for Gods blessing on all 4 of these people as they all move forward into new exciting and challenging seasons of life.

in christ ans for his glory bubba

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