Enduring another goodbye

It's 1:00 AM on the morning of my parents' departure. I am sitting here with a heavy heart reflecting on the fact that they are leaving. This is the first time this has ever happened. For many years I have been leaving the U.S.A., and they have had to endure seeing me off. It is my turn to say goodbye and watch them walk away. It is a painful feeling. I wonder if it hurt Christ to leave the perfection of heaven as He humbled Himself to be born among sinful men.

They say David Livingstone (Africa, 1800's) said, "God had an only Son, and He made Him a missionary." I know that there is inherent error in that quote, because Jesus is not God's only Son, but rather His only begotten Son. Anyways, I understand what the quote is trying to communicate, and I see its truth.

A missionary is one who is sent. Being sent means that you leave behind something, and though it ought not lessen your resolve, it can be very painful. Abraham left behind Ur of the Chaldees. Joseph left behind his family and his home. Barnabas and Paul (temporarily) waved goodbye to their local church.

I remember when my nephew Zachary and my niece Hailee were born I waited the whole time in the hospital. It makes me sad to think that I won't be able to be there for my sister this time around; there's just a couple of weeks left.

The United States is a great land, and although it is no longer my home it is home to many of the people, places, and things that I love.

This week I watched a video from a Birthday celebration at our sending church. I miss those people dearly.

I am so glad that missionaries are sent and not severed. The last two weeks have been so refreshing. It's wonderful to have family that is involved in your lives and ministry. It's not easy to travel from California to Patagonia, and especially so if you don't speak Spanish. I'm very thankful for the visit, and can't wait to see family again (here or there).

As I think of those who were sent (especially Jesus, because He is everything), it is overwhelmingly clear that the nobility of their commission outweighed the sorrow of their departure. He came to seek and to save that which was lost, what nobler cause is there?

It's time to get back to work, hand to the plow, don't look back.

Cults

This picture here is of various materials from cults that have recently been donated to our fireplace. I thought I'd snap a picture first because it really moved my heart. There are many (2 Corinthians 11:13-14), worthy of being anathema (Galatians 1:8-9), who preach a false gospel and who vigorously promote lies. It is incredible how heavily they are present, even in the ends of the earth. How much more we, who have the truth, need to put our hands to the plow and labor!

John 9:4
I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh when no man can work.

Patrick Thomas Sheridan

Our new little bundle of joy arrived last week! It was a long journey. We hit a few struggles along the way in the hospital, but we are just thankful for a healthy baby and all of God's blessings in our family. I love his name! I got to choose it this time. I think it's neat that he has my dad's name and Annie's dad's name. The motive for choosing Patrick was after my dad, and there were actually three men named Thomas who inspired the middle name: my father-in-law, my grandpa William Thomas Sheridan, and my good friend Thomas Ware. I got a shot of Micah meeting Patrick the day after he was born...Micah is wearing his festive Chilean clothes for Independence Day (er, WEEK, because here we literally celebrate it all week long). Please enjoy these pictures, real baby pictures are coming soon, and hopefully an updated family picture.

Conference was a success

Our first annual missions conference went very well. We plan to start supporting our second missionary who is a Mexican brother serving in India. The only thing stopping us is figuring out a few logistical difficulties, but hopefully those will be resolved soon! We had our guest speaker and his family in. There is a gal who attends services who does art by burning drawings onto leather. We presented Pastor Cristian and his family with a personalized gift made by her. We were challenged to take the gospel to every creature in our generation. Here is a picture from one of the services, in the background you can see our new banner that says "TO EVERY CREATURE IN OUR GENERATION":

Murta, Sanchez, and Tranquilo

We planned to hit one more town on our evangelistic trip, but because of a flat tire we didn't make it to Puerto Guadal. It was a memorable trip. We passed out many gospel tracts, at least one to each home in these three places, and we also got to preach the gospel to people in each place. They all desperately need a church to be planted there. Sanchez is so small, maybe like 50-75, and it is not too far from Bahia Murta. It is a little community that up until the last decade was only reachable by boat or a very dangerous road. One of the most memorable moments on this trip was after witnessing to two men in Puerto Sanchez, one of them yelled to me as we were walking away, "Don't forget Sanchez! Come back to Sanchez!" I will not soon forget him, or Sanchez. Here are a lot of random cell phone pictures from the trip:

 I thought this waterfall that had frozen over was so beautiful. This was at the highest point of altitude as you are making your way towards the Villa Cerro Castillo/Puerto Ingeniero Ibañez area. The roads were pretty icy. This picture is from on the way, but if you want to get an idea of how icy the roads were check out the last picture in the post.

 These two pictures are from the entrance of Bahia Murta. Just under 600 people according to this sign, but I suspect it has grown a little. These are 600 people whom God loves very much. Most of the town was gathered the day we were there for a funeral, I was moved with compassion as they wept without hope.

 Oh, just a pig in the plaza at Bahia Murta.

This dear man welcomed us into his home. I preached the gospel to him and used his guitar to sing some gospel songs. He said Bahia Murta needs a pastor...he's right. He asked if I would send one and gave me his phone number for when we do.

This is on the scary road winding through the mountains on the way to Puerto Sanchez. From what I hear it is no where near as bad as the old road.

These two frost-bitten pictures are from in front of our cabin in Puerto Rio Tranquilo. I plan to take my parents and family here in a couple of weeks. It got really cold that night. It was so cold when we woke up that I went and had devotions in the car with the heater on! What a whimp! I remember doing that once on deputation with Annie. 

What a trip! This was my last shot I snapped when we were still about 2 hours away from home. I was so excited to get home to the family, sleep in my bed, and I was thankful for what God had done on this journey.

Redeeming the time

I am over halfway through my 20's, and although I'm still very young I am beginning to see that life is not as long as one might think. I wonder if as you get older you become more aware of the fact that life is short. Here are some Scriptures that challenge me to live for God today, and to efficiently use my time to carry out the great commission.

Ephesians 5:16
Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. 

I love the King James Bible in English, and I also love my Spanish Bible. They're the same Bible, and often times reading one of them helps me to understand the other. One example is Ephesians 5:16. Where it says "redeeming" in English, the Spanish says "taking advantage of". I want to take advantage of the time I've been lent.

James 4:13-14

13  Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: 

14  Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. 

Life is short.

Proverbs 27:1

Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. 

I don't remember where I read it, but I remember seeing a quote that impacted me:

"Most of us underestimate what we can do in 10 years, and overestimate what we can accomplish in 1 year."

I have a vision that will take decades to accomplish, but I don't want to get lost boasting myself of tomorrow and not being faithful today. Have you ever asked yourself how to be faithful in 10 years? The answer is to be faithful today. And then tomorrow, "be faithful today". And if you continue being faithful "today" then in 10 years you'll be found faithful.

Mathew 24:45-46

45  Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season? 

46  Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. 

When I see the Lord, whether it's because my life on earth came to an end or because He returned to the earth for me, I hope that I will be found a faithful servant. What does a faithful steward do? In the absence of his Master he does what the Master bade him do.

Evangelistic trip to 4 communities

What do Bahia Murta, Puerto Sanchez, Puerto Rio Tranquilo, and Puerto Guadal all have in common?

They are isolated communities in Chile's Patagonia
They are all very small
They are without a Bible believing church
Their homes will each be receiving a gospel tract on Monday or Tuesday of the week to come
They are all places where we hope to start a church in the years to come

Although these are small communities, which might make them insignificant in the eyes of some, they still have human beings with precious souls for whom Jesus Christ shed His blood. These people are included in the "every creature" of the Great Commission. I am heading out early Monday morning with one of the men in our church and we'll be doing a two day evangelistic trip. I am so excited and cannot wait to see what God will do.Here is a snapshot of what our route looks like:

 If you would like to see some of God's greatest scenery then look up the names of those cities on www.google.com/images. I remember speaking with this brother about Cochrane which is a city in the southern part of our state. He goes there from time to time for work related reasons. He told me that not only is there a Bible believing church there, but he wasn't even able to find any church that wasn't Roman Catholic. What a great need there is in Cochrane! I can't help but think that maybe God is working in his heart and maybe one day he will go and plant an independent Baptist church there.

I have this 3 phase plan to get the gospel to every creature in our region and plant churches in every village. The planting churches part is part of the 3rd phase, but I have been thinking about the fact that maybe God doesn't want to do things according to my "plan". Isaiah 55:8-9 "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." Maybe on this trip somebody will get saved and offer their house for weekly meetings, and then maybe we will have our second church plant in the works. God is good and serving Him is so exciting!

Note: this trip was supposed to happen about a month ago, but my partner had to cancel because of work; I'm so glad it's finally coming together!