Pay it Forward

    This week teams Grace Under Fire, HIS, and Deliverance lived together in an orphanage that is under construction and planning to open in April. Teams HIS and Deliverance have spent the whole month there together, and my team Grace Under Fire joined them this past week to finish out the month.

   As a man on V-Squad, something incredible happened this week. On “Man Night,” six of us men sat around a fire outside the orphanage while the women were inside having “Women Night.” What started off as ordinary conversation around a fire ended with something called deliverance. Basically, God baptized me into manhood. He baptized me into brotherhood with Christ as well as with the men in my life, both on and off the field. It’s like stepping into my skin as a man.

   That brings me to the point of this blog: the men and women of V squad are beginning to walk out that which we are engineered to do: living a life of giving to God and others. I know that we hear this so many times growing up in church, but once I actually began doing it this week after receiving a new mind and heart, I am seeing now that true satisfaction comes only out of surrendering to God, that living comes only from dying, and that receiving happens only when you give. While these words are easy to tell ourelves and one another, at the end of the day it’s not about words. It’s about actions. And to live a life lead by Christ means you are devoting yourself to action. Yes, I need grace every single second and I need to continually remind myself that nothing I do, and nothing I don’t do, will make God love me any less. It’s not about right and wrong, because that’s called legalism and it’s wordly, not of God. So it’s learning to make the fuel of our actions love, which comes from only one source: our Heavenly Dad. My team is learning that this is not always going to be a pretty process. It takes discipline and sometimes hard conversations.

   We as Americans all struggle with selfishness, but when I live a poured out life I see that it never has been about me and never will. Anything praiseworthy in my life, even before I started taking my walk with Christ seriously, still came from my Dad in heaven. He is the author of all things good. He invented the idea of good. I remember something from the book “Purpose Driven Life” that my dad also told me: that we don’t actually own anything, we are just temporary keepers of that which has been given us by our Father. It all belongs to him, but he loves us so well and wants us to be a part of his story.

   So living a life poured out, a life consumed by giving, is why we’re here. If our squad does not learn how to live like that towards one another, then it’s not going to happen on the mission field. God taught me that this week. He also did a lot of work on my heart while working at the garbage dump in a district in Trujillo about half an hour from the orphanage. In the picture above is ChiChi and his brother Jose, who Katie, Elizabeth, Vanessa, and I worked with at the garbage dump. That is for the next blog, so stay tuned. 
   May you pass on to the next person what the Lord has freely given you in your life. Look up 1 Peter 4:8-11 to see God’s thoughts on what we are to do after he freely gives to us. Thank you for all those supporting me financially and prayerfully. Thank you for your obedience in walking out what the Spirit put on your heart to do. The fruits of this trip are spreading fast, and they are likely coming your way. So thank you and God bless, or as we’re saying more and more: “Dios te bendiga!”