Lessons From Ecuador

So here are four lessons i learnt from my recent trip to Ecuador. I went along with four other adults and nine teenagers for 8 days, two of them in Quito, five of them in Misualli, the 'gateway to the jungle,' and one more in Bella Vista, a deep jungle tribal village that doesn't even appear on Google maps. It was, by almost any measure, an extraordinary week.

The Gospel really is the hope for all nations

OK, so i didn't 'learn' this in Ecuador, but i tasted it. I guess it's easy living in the United States to feel like the power of the Gospel is somehow limited by borders or ethnicity Or to feel like we've limited it. Most people in our churches are 'just like us,' one way or another. It's easy to drift into the mindset that the Gospel is only powerful in in the Bible belt. But that's a lie, as you know. The Gospel is powerful to change lives everywhere. Monks Risborogh, Greenville, Quito, everywhere. It was so good to be reminded of this, and reminded of it so powerfully. And it has to be the Gospel. What is the hope for kids in those remote places? Just the Gospel. Sure, running water and electricity would be nice, but only for a life time. The Gospel offers life beyond life, life after death. His Word speaks and creates life wherever we are. It was wonderful to see the Jesus of the nations, to hear His praises' sung in Quichua and to see His Word at work deep in the jungle.

Faith is radical

The word radical has lots of traction in Christian culture at the moment. We all want to be radical in our faith, which is no bad thing, as long as we understand what it really looks like to be radical. I guess one of the first things we think of to define radical is the family from the States who pack up everything and move to another country to teach people about Jesus. And we met some of those people last week. People who had given up nearly everything to be play their part in the great commission. And it was inspiring. Like i told our teens at one point, either they were in love with Jesus or they were out of their minds. Maybe sometimes there's not much difference. But, the same radical seed that blooms in the hearts of those overseas blooms here also. Getting on a plane does nothing to your relationship with the Lord, by itself at least. Reading the Bible is radical, Heaven breaking out on Earth as we open the Word. Being faithful to church is radical. In a me, me, me society, why would i give my time, and treasure and talents so freely, so abundantly. We've either lost our minds, or we love Jesus. And increasingly, as anti Biblical morals are legislated and celebrated, simply living like the Bible is true will become more and more radical.

I almost had a religious experience

To be a Christian is to be an iconoclast. No sacred space, except everywhere, and no sacred time, except all the time, but at the Saint house, the renovated HQ for Operation Auca, now turned into a museum, i nearly had a religious experience. To stand at the very radio, in the very room, where Nate, Jim, Roger, Pete and Ed failed to radio in at 4.35 on January 8th 1956, to see the airstrip from which Nate Saint would fly into the jungle from, to stand in the kitchen where the five wives were told of their husbands' fate, to know that real, living, recent Christian history happened in these very walls, was almost too much. What a legacy and calling those men and their wives left behind.

Never grab a monkey by it's tail

And that's all i'll say about that.

Sometimes. And That Time

Sometimes the words flow easily. Sometimes it's a matter of getting them out of my brain and onto a screen before i lose them. Sometimes, even 140 characters for a tweet is asking too much, never mind a few hundred words for these pages.

And who knows why. Sometimes i read the Bible and find what Edwards might have called 'a pleasing symmetry' between the Word and my heart, sometimes i'm just dull, dull dull.

Sometimes singing in church is a labour (because of my heart, you understand), but this Sunday it was a joy, so that's something. Such fluctuations in our hearts, our minds, our lives. Such coolness where warmth is appropriate, such out of place warmth for things that don't much matter. How can my smartphone be more interesting than Jesus? And yet so often it is.

On Saturday morning, i'm headed to Ecuador. Me and Rachel, three other adults and nine teenagers will board and early flight from Norfolk, Va, to Miami, and then to Quito. A night or two in Quito and then a bus ride over the Andes. We're going to the town of Missualli (probably not how you spell that!) to lead a Bible school, and then working our way back through Shell Mera and Banos, before flying home on Sunday week.

I've never been to South America before, and being the most south westerly Wycombe Wanderers fan appeals to me quite a lot. I'm looking forward to seeing how our nine teenagers (and me!) cope with a totally different environment, and what we'll learn from people in Ecuador.

But, as you might have guessed, one of the highlights of the trip will be the visit to Shell Mera. If the church were the right way up, people would drive for days to visit this place, not Elevation, although of course, if the church was the right way up, they wouldn't, but for different reasons! I can still remember the affect that hearing the story of Nate, Jim, Roger, Ed and Pete had on my in the final year at uni. It still does to this day. To stand in the very room, at the very radio, where their fate unfolded promises to be an overwhelming experience. It certainly should be. It will be a massive privilege to follow, even in the smallest ways, in the legacy of those men. Rachel and I have been watching these short Youtube episodes as we prepare, if you'r interested in finding out more, i can't recommend them highly enough.

So pray for us, and i'll see you on the other side.