Process or Purpose?

Do we sometimes confuse process and purpose? Do we say “I am going through this stage of my life to become a better counselor, a better father, a better whatever. God’s purpose for my life is that I become a better husband, a better messenger, a better missionary for Him.”? No. God’s purpose for my life is that I become more like Jesus, and that is a process.

What’s the difference? We say I am going through this (a process) so I can become a better ________ (a purpose); instead, the process of our life is God’s purpose for our life. God has not called us to be a better counselor, husband, or father (end goals, or purposes). God has called us to be (a process).

Why is this important? If we merely endure what we are going through, thinking the goal is to become a better whatever, we may miss the real purpose God has for us; that is the process itself that we go through. The people we interact with, the place we live and work are all part of this process, and that is God’s purpose for our life.

If we become better whatevers, we may think that’s all God had in store for us and start to rest, and that can be dangerous!

Gracias por venir

That’s it: Gracias por venir [Thanks for coming]. That’s what Josue Argueta wanted me to tell one of Hope’s team members when they arrived Monday evening. And then he went to tell another team member.

Sandy and I are invited guests this year to the family conference Hope Baptist Church sponsors each year here in Honduras for the pastors and families of Training Pastors International. After so many years being team members, it feels a little odd being guests. We came to Honduras a week early to visit with “family” and friends in Honduras and Nicaragua. In each place we visited, these were the words we heard: Gracias por venir.

The new members of the Hope team are now learning what Sandy and I have been saying for some time now… simply our presence in their country, in their town, means more to them than most people will ever understand. It’s hard for them to understand how and or why people would make an effort to spend money to leave the comforts of the US, to come to this area where mosquitoes are prevalent, where hot showers are considered luxuries, where clothes are still washed by hand. But they are OH SO GRATEFUL! They have told us it adds confirmation that what they are doing is important.

Visiting, talking, eating, learning, laughing, crying with people is how some people define family; this is how believers in the early church spent their time and grew together in the Lord (Acts 2:42-47).

Thanks for your continued support. If you would like to participate personally, let us know and we can help!

Bill & Sandy

Signs of the Times…

Here are two signs of our times: one proclaims a national holiday celebrating el diablo, the other proclaims the work of God’s men claiming the world for Christ. Both events are happening as I write this, within a mile of each other. Nationwide people are partying with el diablo. In three cities this weekend, TPI is teaching, and men are learning, biblical truth. Some people are celebrating worldly pleasures, many inspired by Satan, while others are studying under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

Just as in Jesus’ time, the national leaders, even the religious leaders, were aware of what was happening but thought they were powerless to stop it. The Roman leaders sanctioned anything the Jews wanted to do, as long as it didn’t interfere with their control. The religious leaders tolerated the money-changers in the temple as normal, even God-sanctioned, activities.

Jesus knew better. He put a stop to it. And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. (Matthew 21:12) Jesus took an unpopular stand (He did that a lot!).

The men here are also taking a stand. They are not overturning tables or emptying the temple, but while others choose to celebrate el diablo, they have chosen to teach and study God’s Word. It is such a blessing to know these men, to be with them, and to call them friends; men who take a stand for God against what many others in society have found acceptable, against what the government deems acceptable.

I thought you would want to know.

Please continue to pray for them.

The Workers

Then He [Jesus] said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.” – Matthew 9:37-38

How many times have you read that passage, and even said a prayer (or two)?

These past few days I spent with the workers (los obreros) in Jujuy in northwestern Argentina, I thought What would happen if EVERYONE responded to Jesus’ request to pray for workers, but NO ONE responded to God’s call to be a worker in the field?

I also realized that some people are praying the God would send workers into the field, and others are praying that God would bring workers into the field. Do you see the difference? Some people are sitting at home asking that God send workers where they are needed, and others are praying that God would bring workers to where they are needed.

Anyone reading the above passage has 3 choices: ignore it, pray for workers, or become a worker. Sandy and I have the opportunity to not only pray for the workers, and sometimes even be the workers, but we get to meet and fellowship with many of God’s workers in the field. These are men who are married and have families, like many of us, but have responded to the hunger God placed in their hearts for His Word. They are taking the gospel and biblical training into areas that do not even have a space on the map. They are winning souls for Christ, starting churches that multiply, and discipling others to do the same. They have responded to His call to be the workers in the field.

What an awesome privilege we have been given. If you have prayed for us, thank you. If you have supported us financially, thank you. If you want to know more about how God is working throughout Latin America, OR VISIT WITH US IN ONE OF THESE COUNTRIES, please contact us.

This is the generation of those who seek Him!

Psalm 24:6 in the New American Standard Bible (NASB)

I read this in my devotions this morning and thought about some of the despair and discouragement I see in posts by friends on Facebook… I thought about what we see on television and how we hear of persecution throughout the world… I thought “Can this be true today? Is ours the generation of those who seek Him?”… maybe it was true when David wrote it, but certainly not today. Then I thought about David’s environment: persecuted by Saul, hiding “from the wicked who do me violence, my deadly enemies who surround me.” (Psalm 17:9) Not very different from our situation today!

Sandy and I believe it is true today. We see God at work in our lives and in the lives of others; we see the fruit of those working to expand God’s Kingdom. Let me tell you what God has done through the men of Training Pastors International (TPI) in Central and South America, just in 2010: (does not include works in Peru or Miami)

Country	People Evangelized	Prof. of Faith	Msgs Preached	Baptisms	New Churches
Argentina	2,948	598	1,122	563	70
Paraguay	2,513	391	1,531	122	23
Nicaragua	1,717	731	2,103	177	11
Honduras	410	75	298	17	0
Colombia	3,204	1,068	2,152	557	15
Cuba	9,694	2,511	9,240	533	137
Guatemala	171	26	161	0	0
TOTALS	20,657	5,400	16,607	1,969	256

Give thanks to God for what He is doing through these men! PRAY for these men! Pray for the students in our classes that their hunger for the Word continues to grow; pray that they remain faithful; pray that they be effective; pray that God’s will be done in Latin America! Can I get an Amen?

An Update on the Healing in Paraguay

Some of you may recall the “healing” I witnessed in August while I was in Paraguay (click here). Maximo and Reinaldo, two of TPI’s teachers in Paraguay, returned to that village, Cruce Liberación, for the first time this weekend, visited the family last night, and gave me this update…

The girl has remained out of her depression and is still feeling fine.
She and her family have been attending the church where we held the TPI classes and she was healed.
She, her mother and her father were all baptized this past Sunday.
This weekend, she will be giving her testimony to the rest of the church.

What an awesome God we serve, amen?

Pray for this famine!

"Behold, days are coming," declares the Lord GOD,
"When I will send a famine on the land,
Not a famine for bread or a thirst for water,
But rather for hearing the words of the LORD." - Amos 8:11

God used Amos to prophesy this famine. Do we have this famine today? I know it exists in some parts of the world, even here in the US, but it is not widespread. Pray that people would hunger and thirst for the words of the LORD. But be careful…

People will stagger from sea to sea
And from the north even to the east;
They will go to and fro to seek the word of the LORD,
But they will not find it. - Amos 8:12

How can this be, they will not find it? The context tells us that “from sea to sea” indicates from the Mediterranean to the Dead Sea, and “from the north even to the east” means from the area of Dan in the north to… the east? Why not from the north to the south? From the west to the east has been covered (from sea to sea), so from the north to the south would follow, right? But Amos says: from the north even to the east. Guess why he didn’t say from the north to the south?

Jerusalem was in the south. Jerusalem held the true “words of the LORD.” The people already had in front of them the “words of the LORD” (Amos and the other prophets) and didn’t like what they heard. (See 7:12 – Then Amaziah said to Amos, "Go, you seer, flee away to the land of Judah and there eat bread and there do your prophesying!”) They were searching for the god of their desires, not the God of the bible; the god they thought would give them what they wanted, not the God that was ready to give them what they needed.

Paul warned Timothy that this would happen: For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires – 2 Timothy 4:3.

Yes, pray for this famine. Also pray that people search for the true “words of the LORD.” The bible tells us: you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find Him if you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul. – Deuteronomy 4:29. Seek the true God, the true words of the LORD, and you will find them; seek your own god and your own happiness, and you will be like those Amos spoke of: they will not find it.