by Les | Sep 21, 2022 | Click Date to Respond
Ephesians 2:10, “For we are God’s handiwork created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
Recently I have had the pleasure to speak with Roger and Jody Will. The Will’s live in the community of Lost Springs, KS. Roger and Jody have had a working farm for many years, along with their full time jobs.
In 2016 they felt God was calling them into mission work. They spent a good year praying and meditating on God’s word, making sure they were hearing him correctly. In 2017 they met with Glen and Rita Chapman (now retired IM missionaries of the Democratic Republic of the Congo working in Kikongo). They learned that there was a need for their skills in Kikongo and this started the ball rolling toward their mission work. In 2017 they attended the Hear the Call conference at Green Lake, WI. While there they also met with Reverend Dr. Charles Jones, the ABC International Ministries Area Director for Europe and Liberia. They knew that there was a chance they may not be able to go to the Congo due to civil unrest so they were also checking on the possibility of a plan B.
As one door closed, another opened, and in January 2018 they traveled to Liberia, Africa. They discovered the realities that followed what we sometimes heard about only in the short news reports that we received here in the U.S.A. Liberia had struggled through back to back civil wars and was then struck hard by an Ebola outbreak. The ravages of war, famine caused by war and disease had nearly eliminated an entire generation killing most of the people who had agricultural experience. When Roger and Jody arrived in one Liberia’s agricultural areas they found that the people working the farms had book knowledge but lacked the hands-on experience that was lost when that generation was lost.
To illustrate, Jody told me that when the Liberians were attempting to catch a cow they would simply chase the animal around until it grew tired and they could get a rope around it. Roger assisted them in building fences and cattle enclosures where cattle could be herded into and confined. He also taught them how to neuter bull calves and boar hogs to improve the meat quality. They worked with the Liberians to provide better nutrition for their livestock, based upon local resources, as well as how to vaccinate their livestock.
As they near their retirement they felt that they are being called back to Liberia. Roger and Jody are planning to return to Liberia where they will again work with Rick’s Institute and also to possibly partner with two other Baptist schools. One is the Lott Carey Baptist School and the other is the Baptist Seminary. Both schools are starting agricultural programs and it is their hope that these schools will also find a need for their service. They plan to depart for Liberia sometime in January and hope to spend 60 days in Liberia this trip. The ABCCR distributed an email earlier this month about their planned trip.
When I spoke with the Will’s earlier this week I learned that they are still seeking financial assistance for their trip. It seems fitting that I share this with you during the time that our church is collecting World Missions Offering, a special offering that helps so many around the world. Unfortunately, none of the WMO will assist Roger and Jody as they are volunteer missionaries.
If anyone would like to contribute to Roger and Jody Will’s efforts to help the people in Liberia, a fund has been established with the First Baptist Church, 201 E. Hawley St., Herington, KS 67449. In the memo field write Liberia Mission Trip.
by Les | Sep 13, 2022 | Click Date to Respond
A visit to La Pimienta, Nicaragua – part 3 of 3
Philippians 2:13, for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.
I didn’t want to go! I was perfectly happy supporting others but I simply didn’t want to be included in a short-term mission team going outside of the U.S.; God didn’t see things my way.
In October of 1998, the eye of Hurricane Mitch sat stationary off the eastern coast of Nicaragua and Honduras for five days. The winds and rain created havoc and unimaginable rainfall. We were told that La Pimienta had experienced fifty-four inches of rain over those five days.
American Baptist Churches – International Ministries began looking for short-term mission teams to travel to Nicaragua to assist with the recovery efforts in the communities that our mission partner, Provadenic (1), served. Teams departed the U.S. to help rebuild these communities almost monthly for nearly three years. I had three times listened to people speak of this need but I remained unpersuaded; locked in my stubbornness.
In February of 2000 the men of First Baptist Church, Valley Center, KS gathered for a prayer breakfast. David Grisham drove from El Dorado, KS to be our guest speaker. David had been a member of the very first relief team to travel to Nicaragua only weeks after the hurricane.
As Grisham concluded his talk about the ongoing hurricane recovery efforts he told us that the mission team that was to visit Nicaragua in April had fallen apart. As no group of volunteers had come forward to fill the vacancy he challenged those of us who were gathered to do so. As he stated his challenge I felt that he was looking directly at me.
I left the men’s breakfast feeling resolute that I would not be going to Nicaragua. By 9:00 the following morning, a Sunday, God’s hand had moved events and people to make it clear that I would indeed go to Nicaragua. It was also clear that I would need to organize the team of volunteers; which did not yet exist.
On Monday morning I phoned Pastor Robert to discuss how this change of mind had occurred. As we were speaking I felt a need to say, “… and I think that I am to ask you to come with me.” Robert was quiet for a few moments before saying that he would need to discuss it with his wife; Robert and Debra both joined our mission team.
As Wednesday evening’s Bible Study dismissed Pastor Robert asked if I had considered asking another church attendee, David, to join us. I had indeed but had dismissed the idea because I didn’t think the family’s finances would allow it. Wilma Engle then joined us and asked if we had thought about asking David to join us. We agreed that, no matter what we might think, if the Lord had put David into the thoughts of the three of us, we shouldn’t be too quick to dismiss asking David.
The following morning David was asked if he would like to be a member of the team. He replied that he would but he was concerned about the expenses. It was little surprise that a sizable check arrived in the mail the following day to help with our team’s expenses.
Only nine weeks after the challenge was made to our church, Pastor Robert, Debra, David and I found ourselves in Nicaragua with five others who joined our short-term mission team. Our team had participants from Valley Center, El Dorado, Augusta as well as from California and Rhode Island.
As told in part one of this three part series, we arrived in La Pimienta near the end of the dry season. To bathe we wore our swimsuits and walked several hundred yards to the swimming hole at the Rio Queso (Cheese River).
As we did our best to wash, while wearing bathing suits, we noticed that children would gather on the boulders that lined one side of the river. We thought this curious until one of our members suggested that previous mission teams may have played with the children while they were at the river. Finished with our lathering and rinsing, he let out a whoop and made a huge arm swing to encourage the children to join us. With huge smiles upon their faces they began peeling down to their underwear; the older girls leaving their upper body covered.
As the children began jumping into the water Debra pulled two pool splash balls out of her backpack. The balls began sailing through the air as a couple of the men cupped their hands and began tossing kids into the air; laughing merrily as they splash back into the water. Each day following the number of children at the river would increase.
Beginning on our second day of fun with the kids, David exited the river and calmly dried himself off before walking towards the clinic where we slept. On the third evening, following his second departure, I asked him why he retreated when the children came into the water.
As David began to answer, there was a catch in his voice. In a few moments he began by saying that it was difficult for him to remain. He was missing his four young children so badly that it actually hurt to hear the children’s laughing, cheerful voices.
Sometime during our trip something unexpected had come upon David. It was without question that he loved his family but he had never expressed such open endearment towards them before. A new depth of feeling was evolving in David’s life.
Our story now fast forwards to our exiting the aircraft on our trip home. David moved quickly up the jet way where he dropped his carry on luggage and wrapped his arms around his wife and swung her around. He impatiently asked her where the kids were and Kim replied that she had left them in his mother’s care for the evening. David told her that they needed to collect the kids and spend time together as a family.
Over the next couple of months Kim would often ask, “What did you do to my husband in Nicaragua?” I would always reply that I hadn’t done a thing but that God had.
David was a changed man and his family very much knew that he had changed. But life isn’t fair and only four months after our trip to La Pimienta, David passed away. It was only four months but it was an incredible four months for Kim and their children to be with David.
Not all short-term mission trips have such stories. However, all short-term mission trips are an event where God is actively at work. Things happen while on these trips, often very subtle things but they are signs of God moving in people’s lives.
My first journey to Nicaragua was in obedience to God’s will. Following mission trips were an opportunity to see what God would do during those trips.
There are many opportunities to see God at work; we don’t have to go to Nicaragua to see his work. All too often we overlook His subtle touch as he moves in the background arranging things according to his own good will.
I believe that we are experiencing such a time at Meridian Avenue right now. We are returning to His purpose as we emphasize making disciples. The emphasis isn’t new; it is as old as the Christian faith. I ask that you watch with me and look for the ways that God will work in the background as we seek disciples for Christ.
(1) In 2006 the ABC-IM mission partner in Nicaragua moved from Provadenic to AMOS Health and Hope.
by Les | Sep 5, 2022 | Click Date to Respond
A visit to La Pieienta, Nicaragua – part 2 of 3
Isaiah 65:20a – “Never more shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days.”
Last week I wrote about a 2000 short-term mission trip to La Pimienta, Nicaragua. La Pimienta was a recovering disaster area having suffered the onslaught of Hurricane Mitch.
During our time at La Pimienta we met two people who were in their early fifties but met no one older. Had we not been told their age we would have thought they were much older by their furrowed features. There were a good number of adults in the community but the majority was under the age of forty. There were teenagers but children well outnumbered the adults we met.
Childhood in La Pimienta is immensely unlike childhood in the United States. Before the morning’s first light we would hear girls talking as they gathered at the well to fetch water for the day. Filling a plastic five gallon bucket nearly full, weighing nearly 35 pounds, they balanced the bucket upon their head to transport it home. Younger girls would carry a lesser amount of water and we once saw a preschooler, following her older sister, balancing a near-full coffee can upon her head.
Girls often had a younger sibling perched upon their hip; freeing their mothers to perform their daily task.
After the morning sun rose above the hills boys would appear with machetes in hand. They were gathering the day’s firewood.
Once water and firewood were collected, and a fire was set ablaze, the mothers would go about the business of making breakfast. The slap, slap, slap of women’s hands patting out fresh tortillas was a common sound in the mornings.
In time the school children would appear in their uniforms. Boys wore dark blue slacks, girls dark blue skirts, and both were wearing white shirts; the colors of their national flag. They would trudge towards the Rio Queso (Cheese River) then trek north along its bank to where their community existed prior to the hurricane’s flooding. Their old school was still in use despite sections of two walls having been damaged. (a) School convened only during the morning hours.
The days passed and on Friday afternoon we returned to Managua. Dr. Gustavo Parajón, one of our ABC-International Ministries missionaries in Nicaragua at the time, joined us for lunch the following day. We learned a great amount thanks to our time with him.
Provadenic (b) was invited to begin their medical care for the community of La Pimienta nearly ten years before our arrival. Prior to Provadenic’s intervention, death of children under the age of five and of women dying during childbirth commonly occurred.
With Provadenic’s aid, La Pimienta selected a member of their community to be trained to treat common injuries and ailments and also to monitor a woman’s pregnancy, childbirth and both the mother and child after delivery. Regularly scheduled monitoring of the children through age five helped to discover any issue that required a doctor’s intervention. Provadenic also began working with the community to develop improved waste disposal and to improve hygiene.
Before Provadenic’s support far too many died early and life expectancy was far too short. Provadenic’s support meant that fewer mothers died giving birth and that their children had an improved chance of survival. The improvements in sanitation and hygiene further improved life expectancy.
Dr. Parajón expected the children of La Pimienta to live into their seventies and eighties; all because they had a better start in life than previous generations.
Our 2000 trip to La Pimienta was an opportunity to see some of the impact that our mission dollars can accomplish. The ministry that Dr. Parajón worked with treated the physical body, and at the same time, shared the word of Jesus that spiritual healing may also occur.
In September Meridian Avenue promotes the World Mission Offering. WMO is an invitation for each of us to support ministries that help many around the world and to share the love of God to all.
(a) The new school construction was nearing completion while we were there.
(b) Provadenic was the predecessor ministry of AMOS Health and Hope. AMOS Health and Hope began their ministry during the spring of 2006.
by Les | Aug 30, 2022 | Click Date to Respond
A visit to La Pimienta, Nicaragua – part 1 of 3
Job 5:9-10, He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed, miracles that cannot be counted. He provides rain for the earth, he sends water on the countryside.
Following Hurricane Mitch’s havoc across Nicaragua in 1998, American Baptist short-term mission teams began heading south nearly monthly to offer assistance. The country is 60% the size of the state of Kansas and suffered over 11,000 deaths, more than a half-million homeless and nearly one billion dollars in damages. The clean up efforts continued for years and was the reason I found myself in the back of a truck while traveling north along the Pan American Highway on April 28, 2000.
Traveling with me were our driver/interpreter, Julieta, and eight other volunteers. It took the ten of us nearly five hours to reach La Pimienta due to damaged roads, courtesy of the hurricane, and the need to drive across shallow rivers where bridges once stood.
Our trip to La Pimienta was six months into their dry season making it possible to drive through the shallow rivers. Julieta told us that only one more team of volunteers would travel to La Pimienta before the wet season prevented return trips until bridges were replaced.
As we neared the community we departed the paved roadway and journeyed over dirt roads. During the dry months vehicle tires had ground the dirt into a fine dust that climbed three inches up the side of the truck tires.
Reaching the high sided bank of the Rio Negro (Black River), Julieta stopped and asked us to hang on tightly. It was necessary for us to ford the river that lay a few yards below the road level. Felled trees had been placed into the river bank to provide tire traction and it was a bouncy ride into the shallow Rio Negro. On the far side was a shallow sloping bank and the road into La Pimienta.
Our dry season trip to Nicaragua introduced me to never before experienced weather. Each day we were there the temperature exceeded 100 degrees. While such temperatures are not uncommon in Kansas the absence of humidity was a new experience. Not once while we were there did we feel moisture on our bodies. The air was so devoid of humidity that the sweat evaporated as quickly as it formed.
The hills to the east had been charred from a fire that had at some time occurred. Elsewhere stood small clumps of grass or hearty weeds for the skinny cattle to munch as they wandered from one to the other.
The community, having relocated following the hurricane’s flooding, possessed a shared hand dug well. The well had adequate water for the community’s drinking and cooking needs but little more. To bathe we would have to wear our swimming suits and hike several hundred yards to the swimming hole of the Rio Queso (Cheese River). The deepest water that we found was a little over four feet deep.
At the latitude we were visiting the sun sets early all year long. It would be fully dark by 6:30 PM but the sun’s absence did little to suppress the heat. As the sun peeked over the hills in the morning the overnight temperature had not dropped below 80 degrees.
The slightly cooler morning temperatures had a more noticeable impact on the inhabitants of the community than it did our team. Stepping outside of the medical clinic, where we slept each night, we found the local women wearing shawls upon their shoulders and some men wearing warm hats. They were unaccustomed to the cooler temperature.
While in La Pimienta we laid concrete block walls for newly constructed homes and assisted with framing the roof supports of other new homes. Concrete would be mixed on swept ground and carried to the bricklayers a shovel full at a time. Adding a bit of water to the mixed concrete was often done because of the excessive evaporation.
Our team’s recollection of La Pimienta is that of a hot, dry and dusty place. A place of sparse vegetation; where the ribs of livestock showed through their sides for lack of adequate fodder.
Shortly after our return home we sent photos of La Pimienta to the leader of the mission team that would follow us. His emailed reply was that they would prepare for desert-like conditions.
Then the rains fell.
The following team arrived in Nicaragua only a couple of weeks into the rainy season. The photos that their team emailed us revealed an unimaginable transformation.
After very few rainfalls the soil around La Pimienta had burst forth with new life. Instead of the dead and dying vegetation that our team had witnessed; their photos revealed a tapestry of green grasses and multicolored flowers. The touch of the rain had transformed the desert into a landscape of amazing beauty.
Our God is the master of transformation. He can make new life spring forth from where life seemed abandoned. He can invigorate people who are spiritually indifferent, filling them with a fire for his purpose. Only God can make those who are lost, found anew in his spirit.
This is what it is to experience God; it is the making of all things fresh and new.
Experience God and be transformed.
by Les | Aug 23, 2022 | Click Date to Respond
Romans 8:28, And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God.
It was a mid April afternoon when our two children, Mika, and Andrea ventured outside to build a snowman in the wet late season snow. Mika was our exchange student from Japan and Andrea was an exchange student from Brazil who was living with a host family nearby. Being a late season snow it was perfect for packing.
As the first ball of snow grew larger in diameter the debate began. Our children thought the ball was large enough and wanted to begin working on the second of three balls of snow for the snowman. Mika was surprised and said that in Japan they made the body from one large ball of snow and then put a second ball on top as its head. Meanwhile,
Andrea stood to one side and said nothing about the number of balls or their size.
As the three continued to discuss how the snowman would be built, Mika turned to Andrea and asked how many balls of snow they used to make snowmen in Brazil. Andrea’s eyes grew big in surprise and exclaimed, “Mika, we don’t have snow in Brazil.”
Andrea’s response was enough to get everyone laughing and it was decided to build an American snowman since it was American snow.
The four young folks, coming from three different cultures, having different experiences and expectations, were able to work together and accomplish their goal. That is how a church should be.
Every person who attends a church, any church, has different experiences, expectations and abilities. Sometimes our past experiences and expectations bump against that of another and debate begins. Debate is often a good thing because it allows us to grow in understating and often gives insights not previously considered. However, when one or more parties insist that their opinion is the only one worth being considered; debate fails.
When new things come our way it is more helpful to consider the possibilities they offer than it is to reject them because they are different or not the way we have done things before.
by Les | Aug 15, 2022 | Click Date to Respond
1 John 5:14-15 RSV, And this is the confidence which we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have obtained the request made of him.
In the summer of 1990 Helen and I were returning home with two exchange students in the car with us. Mika and Yuko were both from the Soshin Girls High School in Yokohama, Japan. Mika was living with us and Yuko was living with Roy and Wilma Engle at the time.
Our car was in need of being washed so we pulled into a car wash; the self-service type where you use a high pressure hose and wand to wash your car.
As I pulled the high pressure wand from its sleve Helen asked me to wait. She said that the two girls wanted to wash the car for us; a new event to remember in their American adventure.
Before the quarters were dropped into the coin slot we showed the girls how to operate the wand and warned them of the amount of pressure that would be exerted by the device. Their response was an expression of typical teenager eagerness; impatient to get things going. We explained again that they needed to ready themselves for the wand’s pressure before pulling the wand’s trigger.
I dropped a couple of quarters into the device’s slot and turned the selection knob to wash. The hum of the pump began and Helen and I began backing away. Yuko, taking her turn first, pointed the washing wand at the car and pulled the trigger on the handle. We watched as she was forced backwards a couple of small steps and then saw the water climb up the washing bay’s wall towards the ceiling. As the spray of soapy water began moving across the ceiling she released the trigger and the flow stopped; but not before both girls were damp from the spray that had fallen back towards them. There was a moment of quiet surprise followed by joyous as they rapidly exchanged words in Japanese.
Better understanding the power of the washer wand the two young ladies began taking turns washing the car. We probably could have saved a couple of quarters had I washed the car myself but it was much more entertaining watching them.
Despite being told, Mika and Yuko were unprepared for the amount of force that is expelled by a car wash wand. They had to experience the sudden rush of power to fully appreciate it.
A number of Bible verses tell us of the power of prayer. Mark 11:24 tells us that we can pray and believe we will receive. Romans 8:26 says that the Spirit helps us in our weakness. And in Psalm 66:19, it says that God attended to David’s prayers.
The Bible tells of many who prayed and that their prayers were answered. So why is it that when prayer is answered today so many are surprised? It is as though many do not believe that their prayers will be answered.
Perhaps it is necessary for many of us to personally experience our prayers being answered powerfully. Like the two young ladies with the car wash wand, we are taken back by the reality of the wonderous force that prayer is.
Earlier this year I shared a time when I experienced a power response to a prayer. I wasn’t prepared for a rapid response from a very brief prayer that I had uttered. It would seem that God had to prove his power to me as well.
Addendum: Having mentioned Shoshin Girls High School, Yokohama, Japan, in this story I should share that the school was founded by the wife of an American Baptist missionary during the 1870s. She thought it unfair that boys were being educated but young women were not.
