Walking with God in 2018

Prevailing Prayer

Dr. John praying with recovery survivors after japanese Tsunami

In Matthew 6: 9-15, He gave us the example. He said, “This is how you should pray,” and gave us an outline for prevailing prayer.

Beginning with verse 9 He has us acknowledge our relationship to God with “Our Father in Heaven”, and moving us to worship with, “Hallowed be your name.” This acknowledging His holiness and our deep reverence for Him that moves us to worship Him.

When He prays, “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven,” in verse 10, He is speaking of our surrender to the will of God, as obedient citizens in His kingdom. When we are living in obedience, we have the privilege of requesting His provision for our needs, as in verse 11. He enables us to have the supply we need in order to accomplish our assignment.

In verse 12, we come to a very difficult, but essential part of the prayer, “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” If we desire forgiveness, we must give forgiveness! This so important that He refers to this with a further explanation in verses 14 and 15.

His requests in verse in verse 13 are for God to lead him His way and protect him as he serves in obedience. All of this tells us to prevail in prayer, we must be seeking God’s will, not ours. We are to pray for direction as we obey His will. We are to follow His plan, not just ask him to bless our plan!

Now we come to, what may be the most difficult part for some to accomplish: Forgiveness. In verses 14-15, Jesus explains that we are forgiven our sins, if we forgive others who have sinned against us. He is saying we are to give to others what He has given us.

For your prayer life to be that which prevails victoriously with Father, the kind that moves mountains of doubt and blockages to God’s will being accomplished in our lives and in the world, you must pray, and internalize these truths.

Walking with God in 2018

Living the Intended Life

I was speaking to a group of university students this week about what it means to live a life of mission service. They were curious about the sacrifices I had to make to follow God’s will, or plan, for my life.

Sacrifices? God made a change in my life’s direction, but that was not a sacrifice. Getting your life in coordination with God’s plan is not a sacrifice, doing what you were born to do is the ultimate freedom!

I own and fly an antique airplane, a 1948 Luscombe.   It has a tailwheel and is called a “taildragger”. Landing and maneuvering it on the ground is difficult because you steer it with your feet, using the rudder pedals, throttle, and heel brakes. It is “squirrely” on the ground!

However, once it is airborne, it is aerial poetry! You have freedom that you could never experience on the ground. It was made to fly! Not be ground transportation.

In a similar fashion, you were created by God for a purpose. You will never find the fullness and joy of life God intended for you to experience if you are living outside of the will of God.

That does not mean a life without stress, difficulties, danger, and many testing times; but it means a life that is filled with purpose, productivity for God’s kingdom, and the pleasure of walking with the Father!

“My book, “Walking With God in Broken Places”, tells of the ways God has led me for over fifty years in ministry in places like North Korea, Iran, Russia, Bosnia Serbia, Peru, Honduras and many other places. The key to my life of service has been and is, “And then I prayed.”

Amigos Brings Clean Water to Gulu

New Water Well (Bore Hole) at Jehovah Jireh Church

Warmest greetings from us to you and the rest of the Amigos family and the 4AFRICA team.Firstly, am glad report to you the that the water well (Bore Hole) at Jehovah Jireh Church – Kabedopong, Gulu is already fully mounted and the church, school and surrounding community members in the area have already starting accessing the water from this clean source. Secondly, the water well shall be attached to the Resource and Practical Development Department of the Church, and a WATER RESOURCE COMMITTEE was formed after Thanksgiving prayers yesterday, Sunday, 14.10.18, to help in effective and efficient management of the water and ensure sustainability of the project; Rev. Capt. Okere Jackson, the General Overseer Jehovah Jireh Church will be their PATRON. Access to clean water is a fundamental human right and an essential step towards improving living standards worldwide (Gulu), and since an average person on earth requires at least 20 to 50 Litres of clean, safe water a day for drinking, cooking or simply keeping themselves clean, the impact of this completed phase of the project is immense already!!! I believe the project will reduce on the number of death due to diarrheal diseases such as typhoid, cholera, dysentery, among other host water sickness. 

Education will also not suffer anymore due to sick children missing schools because the community is now “water – rich” and economic opportunities will also not be routinely lost because there will be isolated cases of people rampantly become ill. Additionally, availability of this water well will also have wider implications through its contributions in other aspect of life. The water well’s ready availability at the site will save time spent by especially women and children (girls) that bears the brunt burden of collecting water each day from long distances.

The next future step God willing would be to see the water to overhead supply tanks for rest rooms/toilets.I will start by sending pictures taken earlier last week to you bit by bit as much as I can for now; some will be retrieved when you come to Gulu.

DONATE TO THE GULU WATER WELL

Water Well Update from Gulu, Uganda

We received a great update from Patrick in Gulu, Uganda, on the water well that we are installing for their community. This area has been affected by disease due to lack of clean water, so this is a great project for us!

From Patrick:

“Warmest greetings to you all. I am glad to report to you progress on the Aqua4Life project at Jehovah Jireh Church. The water well drilling was completed at 50 meters and mobilization of mainly construction materials was done in the past days, and construction/mounting was completed earlier today. The screed/smoothing done will be left for 2 to 3 days to cure before finally doing PUMP TESTING!! Thanks for the the generosity and support… Thanks for the patience. I have attached photos from the completed phase for compilation; more will be sent bit by bit. I look forward to hearing from you.”

Karol’s Kitchen Update- 6/18/2018

We have finally gotten moved into our new and final location! 
The Manna bus is set up and eager to start cooking– next week! The location is secure, the shed is moved, the electricity is hooked up to the Wata Fountin AND the Manna Bus, the water is hooked up at both locations, many of the “construction projects are completed, the fence is up, and even a side walk has been poured, children are being fed, adults are being fed!!! More Lord, we need more children and more adults to bless! To feed physical food, to offer spiritual feasts, to help ease and change lives! 
What an incredible team we all are!!!  Together, shoulder to shoulder, working as one, united in our Lord and Saviour Jesus the Christ we are touching lives, filling empty bellies and offering His love to His hungry ones.

Our move was delayed for a few months as Aprill’s move was delayed, it was a bit trying for everyone but she cooked for our kids during the time we were without our own place until we moved in.   So many people helped; a few here, a few there but what was an insurmountable task is now almost totally completed.  
Little by little we moved a mountain! We were granted permission to take down the fence at the police station to drive the bus in and then put it back up. We then had to lift the HEAVY furniture and all of the boxes of books, kitchen ware etc. out of the old building, down the one way street (the wrong way/with permission) and then OVER the fence into the yard and up the stairs of the new place! 
3 different small teams of men spread out over a couple of months, helped get the new shed built over the bus.  
As I move back through my memory of these past few months, I realize just how many people were involved in helping. My heart feels so full when I think of the blood, sweat, and tears it took to make this happen.

On moving in day, there were only a few women and 4 children but God sent ‘back up help’ a quick few minutes here and there and we eventually managed to grunt everything into place!
I am most grateful to my wonderful husband who many days, stopped his work projects, brought his Mayan workers, and even his tractor for one day and made it all happen. Without his help we could not have accomplished all that we did. Thank you Mr Larry!
All of this was done in the intense heat of dry season. 

We still have no one to run the bus and cook for the adults. After Josie died, we fed them at a local cafe for many months. The price of the plates was cheap but the cost  still added up and I realized that we could hire a cook for the amount that we were paying the cafe.  So we have temporarily been able to take that same amount of money and hire a cook! What a relief this is off of us few women! So many of our members have moved or have had to leave the group for family reasons that the few who are left were really struggling to cook 5 meals a week for the children. This way our cook can make one big meal so that we can feed the children at noon, and the adults come to eat at one pm after the children go back to school. 

We are presently feeding 6-8 children (we are trying to find a few more children to round our group out to 10). The children have changed dramatically (for the better!). One day, it was my turn to cook for them and as I sat down to eat with them I realized what horrible table manners they had (or rather didn’t have!), They were talking with their mouths crammed full of food, it was falling out, I was grossed out so I picked up a carrot stick and began to eat just like them! I asked them, “why do we use table manners?” They gave some insightful answers but I answered and said, “it is for the person across the table from us” (as half chewed carrot was falling out of my wide open mouth!), I explained that no one wants to see what you are eating ! I think I scarred their little minds with that demonstration as they have been chewing with their mouths closed ever since then! Ha! They are so loving and teachable, truly delightful most of the time!    
They are memorizing Bible verses and we are also trying to work with them on their multiplication and addition tables so that they won’t be the “dumb ones” in class. I am convinced that if we can help them to learn even the basic skills for math and English that it will improve their self confidence. These are the kids who are left behind in class, imagine if they could raise their hand to answer these math skills. They are certainly not dumb children, they have little or no home support, some are bullied at school so the Wata Fountin is a safe place for them.
 We invited ten adults to eat, (some of Josie’s original ones), but several have not joined us yet. We will invite them again and if they still don’t come, we will round up enough to be feeding ten adults for now. 
Ten children, ten adults and we also still sponsor the ten children at Bethel School. We are still able to share some vegetables for the cook at Bethel School to incorporate into the children’s lunches. This is such a big blessing.
I was driving past Josie’s old house the other day, (where she and I started the feeding program ~8 years ago), my heart is always sad when I pass there as I miss my dear friend deeply. That day, as I passed by her house, I hollered out to her, “Josie, we are still feeding your hungries”.   It made my heart soar to be able to say that out loud.
I can only say that because of our wonderful supporters. God has taken your little “widow’s mites” and He has multiplies it each month.
Thank you. Thank you for your confidence in this effort.
Thank you for caring about the very least of His brethren.  How wonderful is our Savior!
Much love to each of you, May God richly pour out His love upon you.

The embroidery of God’s handiwork

God’s hand, when it is shown to you, no matter how many times you see it ALWAYS blows you away.   This is a recap of a couple of days a week ago when God began to show His handiwork to us.

It started Sunday morning, October 9th, when Larry and Karol Smith (Karol’s kitchen) from Belize, came to visit in our Worship Service.  Karol gave a gripping testimony that morning and many were touched by God’s Word through her.   It just so happened that a family that is a member of our church is friends with them and their parents actually live and serve in Belize were in the service also.   They spoke and shared with Larry and Karol for some time after church which made us late for lunch!  But this conversation gave meaning to the next few days in a special way.  On Monday, I received a call from the Father in law of our members and he shared that he many times brought vehicles back and forth from the US to Belize.  We wanted to take our bus to Belize… but call me a person of little faith, but I really didn’t want our newly outfitted Commercial Kitchen Bus, “THE MANA BUS” as we will christen it… broken down in the heart of Mexico just “ripe for the pickin'”.  So I graciously declined his offer (although his discounted price would have saved us some much needed dollars).

Then came Tuesday… it started out as usual as most Tuesday’s begin… a cup of coffee and a “five minute huddle” with the administrative assistants and back to work.  Then the phone began to ring and emails began to show up… First, a note from Dr. John La Noue that stated the State WMU office Executive Committee met on Monday and approved $3500 to ship the bus to Belize… PRAISE GOD!  There the money we need to get it there… by ship!  And a few minutes later an email popped up from Carolyn Porterfield, the head of the WMU, stating as fact what Dr. John shared with me!

The phone rings and a gentleman I didn’t know, Michael Helton, wanted to visit with me.  It seems that the bus driver was speaking to him about our kitchen and Michael was interested in our project.  We visited awhile and he shared with me that he has been visiting Belize and working there two or three weeks a month for the past year and a half! An open country for the gospel, but with little or no Southern Baptist Work there now has an organization registered with the Belizian Government called “The Southern Baptists of Belize” because Michael set that up.  An answered prayer!  He shared that he is in the process of establishing up 7 churches in Central and Southern Belize.  An Answered Prayer for sure! He was very interested in the kitchen as he had 5 containers of food going to Belize next year… but no kitchen to cook it in… and we have a kitchen that can cook more food than we had food for… Wonder what God is up to… Then… we began to speak about Guatemala and the Food Security Issues there… but that can be saved for another post…

I do know this, the future is before us and it is ripe with opportunities.  Join us as we seek to follow God’s lead!

Ready, FIRE…Aim!

Ok, I really know my limitations… however I seldom heed them.  I’ve never been one to say I can’t (or won’t) do something.  If it needs doing, I’m going to do it or figure out how to do it if it takes me all day.   The only exception in small engines… can’t seem to figure out how to keep them going long term… but everyone has to have a stopping off place somewhere!  Along with this I’m tethered to the issue of being a “fixer”.   So… when I see something that is not right, even if it’s not my responsibility, I get after it…

So, when it comes to seeing God’s will, it’s never really been difficult for me.  Even hearing God’s voice that says, “Go” and “Do”seems easy for me.  I jump right in and try and make it happen.  My real difficulty is in waiting on God to tell me HOW He wants it done.   You see, I believe that God speaks to us to show us (1) what He wants done and (2) when He wants it done.  I also BELIEVE God speaks to us and tells us HOW He wants it done….There is where the rubber meets the road for me.   As my title states, I’m a “Ready, FIRE, Aim” kinda guy.   If I had been Joshua having just crossed the Jordan River into the Promise Land, and God said, “I want you to take the city of Jericho”.   I would have said, “Yes Sir” and gotten the men together with it’s shovels and pick axes and we would have started chopping on that wall.  God chose to do something quite miraculous on that hot desert floor.  He told Joshua to take the city, take it now…but then he said, “March around it seven times….(you know the story)  blow the trumpets and the walls will tumble down and the city will by theirs!  Would we have both gotten to the city?  Absolutely… my resolve would have had me chopping on the wall till it broke through!   But who would get the glory?  In Joshua’s case, there is only one that can get the Glory for what they accomplished.  For me, I would get all the glory, and God would have been left out all together.

So, here I sit.  I have a kitchen to build, and water purifiers to test and develop, both before 2017 begins… My inner self says to go and do… my heart tells me to wait on God.  I did take matters in my own hands with the bus… and we almost lost it to a engine fire… pretty scary (you need to ask me sometime!).   My initial thought was how should we go about it?   Karol needs her kitchen.  God says, “Wait on me”.   The water needs to be tested.  God says, “Wait on Me”.   I happen to be a pretty active listener… I want to “go and do”, when God says to “Sit and Pray”.  Following God’s lead is hard!

One of my favorite songs is here.  Thanks for following and joining me on my journey to follow God’s lead….

Image result for death in the afternoon

Amigos Purpose….

I’ve always believed that as God leads, he feeds…

One of the most important and inspiring statements I have ever heard came from my mentor and friend, our former President, Dr. John La Noue.  He told me one day,

“When God brings something to you, hold it in your hand loosely, NEVER hold it in your heart, just in case God wants to give it to someone else to be used in His Kingdom.”

Wow! In a world today that seems to believe that “He who dies with the most toys…WINS!”  how can you weigh the two completely opposite viewpoints?   I found the following verses and believe it now to be my calling with Amigos.  It’s found in my “new-est” favorite book, Deuteronomy 15…

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7  “If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, 8 but you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be.  10 You shall give to him freely, and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him, because for this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake.

Deuteronomy 15:7,8, 10

I particularly like verse 8, “open your hand and lend him sufficient for his need…”  a beautiful depiction of God’s call to Amigos Internacionales…open our hand and allow the God who filled it to empty in out to those that need it more…

Exciting news to begin our new Amigos… our next generation… Amigos, which ultimately is the same Amigos that began in 1979… doing what God has asked us to do which is 1) Do what Jesus did, 2) Meet needs where they are, 3) Share Jesus wherever we go to whoever we meet.

So… Join us as we seek to follow God’s lead!

Our History….

The following is an excerpt from the book, “Walking with God in Broken Places”, by Dr. John L La Noue, former President and one of the founders of Amigos Internacionales.   I encourage you to get the book and read it…It’s an amazing journey of following God…  You can find it here….
by John La Noue….
>>>I had been asked by the pastor of The First Baptist Church of Athens, Texas, to preach in his absence on Sunday May 21. I spoke about how Jesus used common men in His ministry as disciples.
After the services were over, I was approached by Jim Wren; he was a corporate pilot for an oil company and the owner of a real estate and insurance company. Jim said, “Brother John, I appreciate your message, but I have a problem with it. I am a layman with no church work skills. I cannot sing or preach, I cannot teach in Sunday school.
There is not a handle in God’s kingdom that fits my hand. What can I do?” I told him that I would be at the HCJC Baptist Student Building on Wednesday and would be happy to meet with him and discuss the possibilities. He asked if he could bring a friend, Ed Nusko, who was a banker and had been experiencing the same problem. I told him to
bring anyone who wanted to seek ways to serve God. I sensed God was up to something
special, so I spent a lot of time praying for wisdom and guidance. There was no way I
could have dreamed what was about to happen to the three of us as God put our lives
together in ministry.
Monday brought disturbing news. I called Dr. McLaughlin and asked him to send
the information I needed to title the clinic bus to the Baptist General Convention of
Texas. He said that the BGCT was not set up to own that type of property. Their
attorney would not let them accept the liability of a mobile clinic. Since it was in my
name, I thought, “Well it is in my name, so I guess the liability will be on me. Lord
Jesus, this is your project give me wisdom and protection.”
I met Jim and Ed on Wednesday. We had prayer together, talked about our
professions, and discussed ministry opportunities for laymen. The meeting ended about
midmorning and as I left Jim’s office, I told him about my clinic liability problem. I
thought his work in insurance might hold an answer. He said that I needed to form a
nonprofit corporation to hold the title. I asked how to do that. Jim said, “Wait a minute,
let me call the city attorney and see if he will help us.”
He called the city attorney immediately, hung up, and said, “He is waiting for us,
let’s hurry over. He asked what to name the corporation. Do you have any ideas?” As
we crossed the street to the courthouse, I told him it would need to be a Spanish name
that sounded friendly. “We could name it AMIGOS. No, that is already in use by a
mission group from Houston. I had written a literacy curriculum for that group. Let me
think. It will work on both sides of the border, internationally. Hey, Jim, that is it! We
will call it AMIGOS INTERNACIONALES.” The corporation quickly received its
nonprofit status and its 501 (c) 3 tax exempt designation as well.
We were in business! But, as I said earlier, this is one of those things that I did
not have the knowledge to pray for specifically. God just took over and did His stuff. So
often I prayed for one thing and God did another that made things so much better than
that for which I had prayed. It was like stumbling and falling, but landing upstairs!<<<<
So now you know sort of how we began…As stated in an earlier blog, we are here to meet needs where those needs exist.   Out of this one simple meeting where a person said,  “What can I do for God?”….God opened up heaven and used this tiny little Non Profit to touch the world.   By the way, Jim Wren’s son is now on the Board of Directors and is continuing the work of his Father!
I encourage you to respond, to ask, to question in your own life how God can use you…and then join us on this journey to follow God lead…one step at a time!

What is Amigos?

Amigos Internacionales is a Non Profit, NGO that is committed to do what Jesus did, meet people’s needs where they are and share the love of Jesus as we go.

That’s a pretty simple mission statement, however it’s taken it’s members around the globe on many trips of mercy, providing assistance and meeting needs for almost 50 years.  I’ll give a brief history of our organization in a future blog, but today I want to share my vision for the future of Amigos.

Amigos began in 1967 when someone said, “We need…”, a group of men got together and said “God provides” and they incorporated the Non profit, Amigos Internacionales, Inc. In the beginning, they helped provided mobile medical and dental vehicles that have provided service in the Rio Grande Valley between Texas and Mexico for years.

We find ourselves in a peculiar situation as we begin our 50th year.  At the Board meeting in which the Corporation asked me to be President and CEO, I shared an interesting fact I hear several years ago.  It states that 75% of the Fortune 1000 companies are led and controlled by 1st generation/founders.  Of those companies, 75% of those companies will never make it in to the 2nd generation.”   This is where we find ourselves today.  Of the founders of Amigos, only John L. La Noue is still with us and he sits on the board.   We have the privilege of developing a new vision based on the history of our founders.  We realize we are surrounded by a great crowd of witnesses that have gone on before us, and they are cheering us on to continue the great traditions of meeting people where they are, taking care of needs and sharing the love of Jesus with them.

We are also fortunate enough to have Michael Mirau, a nationally renowned business coach and member of the Gazelles coaching on our Board of Directors.  He is also Chairman of the Board of Amore Ministries, a Non Profit organization providing shelter in Mexico, south of California.  Michael will be guiding us in the journey of discovering God’s path for Amigos’ future.

I do know this, the future is before us and it is ripe with opportunities.  Join us as we seek to follow God’s lead!