So Bernie Martin, a good buddy of mine, is a missionary. I have a lot of missionary friends, I seem to collect them, I think its because missionaries seem to always have such a great story, and I love a good story. Bernie is no exception here, he and I have had some great adventures.
On my latest adventure to Nicaragua, I attended Reclaim 2010, which was a leadership conference that Bernie orchestrated. Youth leaders from all across the America's came to share and connect with ministry.
Anyways, last week Bernie and I were talking, and he asked me to write a sort of report on "What we did." So I thought about it, and I thought.... what DID we do?!? I remember flying in to Nicaragua. I had a big two weeks ahead of me. I was super excited to get to chill with my friend Kathryne, and go back to Skylark, and tour around Nicaragua with fellow youth leaders... but when I was landing, I remember thinking... "What am I doing?" (and for all you youth reading... the answer wasn't... "I'm doing me").
So what did we do? We joined forces with youth leaders from all over the world, and together we did ministry in an incredible way. Scripture talks of us as being one body, and that was demonstrated so well at Reclaim. Apart from a few translators, there was a large language barrier. Many of us on the team didn't speak Spanish, or spoke little Spanish.
But God is bigger than language.
We gained experience in ministry in an incredible way. Working closely with local Nicaraguans built relationships, and allowed us to experience the culture in a way that would have been impossible had we been a group of North Americans doing children's ministry on our own. What is most important, is that through this intercultural ministry, we had to rely on God and the power of his Holy Spirit more than ever.
Because of all this, we were all able to use our gifts and leadership skills. Everyone had to take part, and some of us even discovered new gifts that we didn't even know we had. This experience further developed leadership and teamwork skills in us by relying on God, trusting in his leadership and allowing him to work through us. We experienced the culture by immersing ourselves in it. Working closely with local Nicaraguan youth workers we learned from them as they learned from us, doing ministry, worshiping, and fellowship together.
So these thoughts aren't quite complete. My last trip to Nicaragua has further driven into my heart a passion to serve God through missions. I suppose I will never be done reflecting and writing thoughts on this trip. These are just some of my thoughts, and I hope, as I continue to build my relationship with Bernie, and as God continues to take us on adventures across the world, I will have many more thoughts.
This website is called Chazownlife. Chazown (for those who didn't read the front page) is Hebrew for vision and revelation. My hope is that God will provide many more opportunities like this as I live out the "Chazown" he has for my life.
In HIS grip,
Pastor Matt
Posted by Matt Sampson
May 22, 2010
Last Updated:
Jul 04, 2011
