Hello, friends! It’s been awhile! I hope you’re well. All is well here. We are in Uyuni, a tiny frontier town in southwest Bolivia, and the gateway to the the largest salt flat in the world, Salar de Uyuni.
This month has been different than previous months for a number of reasons, mainly because I’ve been training alongside the Alumni Squad Leaders, preparing to serve as a Raised Up Squad Leader when they head back to the States at the end of this month. What does this mean, exactly? I’m still learning, but essentially, I’ll have the immense privilege of shepherding C Squad with the rest of the leadership team. I’ll get to move from team to team over the course of the rest of the Race, and while serving with them, also serve them by pouring into them, challenging them, and loving them. I couldn’t be more excited…because our squad is a ridiculously special group of people, and the Father has given me an unexplainable, supernatural affection for them. (Please continue to pray for us and for me as this transition happens!)
So I started this month in La Paz with the leadership team, talking about vision for the squad and just learning the ropes. Then 4 of us traveled via overnight bus to Uyuni, where we’ve been serving with Team Huzzah, a beautiful team of 6 women from C Squad, at a local church. We’ve led worship, preached, served in a special needs school, put on kids’ clubs, done a bit of manual labor, and visited the homes of some of the church members. Tonight, we head back to La Paz to prepare for Leadership Development Weekend (which is next weekend), and then we leave for Europe a week from tomorrow. I can hardly believe how quickly time is flying by.
But right now I want to quickly throw it back to Chile, and tell you about the evening I realized that we’re living in the sequel to the book of Acts. The last two verses of Acts say this: “For two whole years, Paul stayed there in his own rented house and welcomed all who came to see him. He proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ – with all boldness and without hindrance!” Nowhere does it say, “The end. The Holy Spirit is no longer living and active.”
We talk often about the Holy Spirit. We know that the Word of God is living and active. But do we live like it? Do we live in a way that shows that we expect miracles, that we expect radical life-changing conversion? Do we walk in the victory that we’ve already been given? Or do we live our lives as believers who seem defeated? It saddens me to think about the years I spent not enjoying the victory that’s already mine.
When we were in Valparaiso, Chile for debrief at the end of April, a lot happened. I’m not going to attempt to give you the full details of all of it here…many of my squad mates have written beautiful blogs about their stories from those four days, and I would highly encourage you to read any and all of them. What I will do is try to give you a summary, Acts style. Here it is:
“A group of Christ followers known as C Squad arrived in the seaside town of Valparaiso for 4 days of rest and encouragement. Their lodging was provided at a hostel by a man called Claudio, who was not a Christian when they arrived but took very good care of them. They spent much of the first two days praying and worshiping, and the Holy Spirit was upon them. They quickly realized that they had been sent to Valparaiso to build the local church. After talking with many of the believers and experiencing the presence of the Holy Spirit, Claudio became a Christian. That same night, Claudio led C Squad out into the darkest corners of the city of Valparaiso, to the homeless, to the wandering, to those struggling with addiction, where they prayed with people, delivered bread and coffee, and the name of Jesus Christ was proclaimed over and over again. As the believers prayed, they had visions, and these visions came to pass as they encountered person after person who needed to hear more about Jesus.
After all this had happened, the believers knew there was more to be done in Valparaiso – Claudio and the other new Christians needed to be connected to the local church – but they were scheduled to set out for Bolivia the following day. In His infinite wisdom, God had other plans. The bus that was supposed to take C Squad to Bolivia broke down in Santiago, and they were left to minister to Valparaiso for another day and a half. During this time, God drew some of the believers to a cafe, where they met Jocelyn, a Christ follower who was passionate about connecting Christians to her church. She was the connector they had been waiting for. After exchanging contact information, the believers of C Squad praised God for all He had done.
From Valparaiso, C Squad set out on the long journey to Bolivia, where they gathered together and reported all that God had done through them and how He had opened a door of faith to the Chileans in Valparaiso. And they were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.”
Let’s live as if we’re living in the sequel to Acts.
Because we are!
With love and joy,
Erika
