I Realize That "Freaked Out" Is Not The Most Spiritual Phrase

In three days, I will be going with my 14-year-old son and 18 other people from various Calera and out-of-state churches to Ventanas, Ecuador on an E3 mission trip. Our group of 20 will be divided into groups of two (one group leader and one children’s worker) and will go into ten different villages that do not have churches with the purpose to start a church in each village. If this sounds like a God-sized task to you, you are right!

One of the many things that I love about the E3 Partner’s ministry is that our group will be partnering with established Ecuador churches. Ten Ecuador pastors and a few people from each of their churches will travel from other areas in Ecuador to work with us. Through the partnership with the ten established Ecuador churches, the new churches will each have a “mother church” in Ecuador.

On Saturday, one other person from our team and I will meet the group that we will be working with all week and then go to our assigned village. My group includes myself, one other person from the American team, our two interpreters, an Ecuador pastor from one mother church, and a few people from his congregation. On Sunday, I will be going to the pastor’s church for the morning service. That afternoon, we will train the pastor and his volunteers in evangelism, discipleship, and church growth. From Monday to Thursday, we will go into the village to share our testimonies and the gospel. We will invite everyone to come to a “cell group” each afternoon to study God’s word further. This cell group will be the first church service ever held in many of these villages.

Last week, I found out that since one of the leaders is not able to go on the trip, I am now a team leader. I will be training the pastor and his volunteers and leading the door-to-door visits and the cell group meetings for the first few days. After the first few days, the nationals from the mother churches to take the lead.

For lack of a more spiritual phrase, I was “totally freaked out” to find out that I would be leading a team. Hundreds of reasons why I should not lead a team ran through my head.

Seeing how freaked out I was, my son reacted very sweetly. He said, “Mom, would it make you feel better if I helped you? Let’s get all your leader information out and work on what you are most worried about. What are you most worried about?”

I answered, “Everything.”

He said, “Let’s start with the sermon that you might have to preach on Sunday.”
Yes, you read that right; one of the E3 staff told me that I need to have a sermon prepared in case they ask me to preach on Sunday since I am leading a team—talk about being way outside my comfort zone!

Stephen helped me organize all my information and then proceeded to make suggestions for my sermon, “Mom, why don’t you preach something simple like John 3:16 and then go into John 3:18.” He then told me how lucky he thought I was and how he wishes that he could lead a team. I offered to trade with him.

I later talked to Brother Sam, and he said that women usually did not preach in the churches, and I would probably not be asked to do so. One of my friends suggested that if I do need to get up and speak that I should just share some of my blogs. She suggested I share the bird attack story. I don’t know. I do not think that is what they have in mind, and I am not sure how well that story would translate.

To sum up this whole blog, please pray for me!

I am asking for you to pray for me, Stephen, and our whole team. Stephen will be on another team in a completely different area and village. As a mom, it bothers me that I will not be in the same area as Stephen. He will be the children’s leader in another village. We could have been on the same team but Stephen would rather be on a different team. That is a subject for another blog. I do agree that it could be a potential witness hurter if we had a mom/teenage son argument at the first cell group meeting.

When I think about this trip from a human perspective and what we are attempting to do (start 10 churches), I am just overwhelmed. There is no way that I can do this! I can’t do it, and thankfully, I don’t have to! The Psalms reading from our Tuesday Together in the Word has really helped me this week:

Psalm 65:5: “By awesome deeds of righteousness You will answer us, O God of our salvation, You who are the confidence of all the ends of the earth.”

I don’t have to have the confidence that I can do it because He is THE CONFIDENCE of all the ends of the earth.

Psalm 63:7-8: “Because You have been my help, therefore in the shadow of Your wings I will rejoice. My soul follows close behind You; Your right hand upholds me.”

I will be protected under His wings; He will hold me up and He will lead the way. I just need to follow close behind HIM!

I am claiming Psalm 67 as my passage for this trip. Please join with me this week in praying these words for our trip.

Psalm 67: “God be merciful to us and bless us, and cause His face to shine upon us, that Your way may be known on earth, Your salvation among all nations. Let the people praise You, O God; let all the people praise You. Oh, let the nations be glad and sing for joy! For You shall judge the people righteously, and govern the nations on earth. Let the people praise You. Then the earth shall yield her increase; God, our own God, shall bless us. God shall bless us, and all the ends of the earth shall fear Him.”

I hope to post updates to my blog from Ecuador. We also have a team blog at http://e3ventanas09.blogspot.com/or go to www.brothersam.net. If you would like to be a prayer partner for us, please comment and give me your email address and I will email you a prayer calendar. Thank you for praying!

Also, please be praying for me to feel better. I have been sick with a kidney infection for almost two weeks. I just finished a round of antibiotics but I am not any better. I am still running a fever and I went back to the doctor today. I really feel rotten. Please pray that I will feel better very soon.

Blessing to you,

Kelly