Ok, this may sound controversial to some, but with all my heart I write this as an admonition to those who are consumed with the pursuit of signs and wonders, the kind such as gifts of healing, tongues, miracles, words of knowledge,  prophecy, etc.  Although there may be many well meaning people who truly want to love the Lord and follow Him with all their hearts, I must say that there is a huge danger in chasing after such things.  Now, allow me first to say a few things.  I know about this stuff.  I was part of it for many years when I first started walking with the Lord.  I’ve not only been in many services where the focus was on the “manisfestation” of the gifts of the spirit, but I was often  part of the “ministry team” who was “operating” in such gifts.  So, I’m presenting this as somebody who knows all about it.  I’ve been there.

Now, this is not the time or place to argue whether or not the gifts that the apostles had are still for Christians today.  Although I will say that if we had the right or availability of such gifts as the apostles (healing, raising the dead, etc.) then why wouldn’t we be clearing out hospitals and cancer wards all over the country?  Now, do I believe that God still heals in miraculous ways and we as Christians are free to pray and ask God (not demand or claim) for such healing?  Absolutely.  But, do I believe that we as Christians are to chase after these spiritual gifts so that we too can perform such signs and wonders?  With all my heart, NO.  Allow me to explain…

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I (Maria) was planning on sitting down to write a very long post about the spiritual condition of Latin America. I had in mind to share some of my observations as I talk to people, visit places, hear conversations, and see things around me. Having grown up in a Roman Catholic-superstitious-latino-culture enables me to see that there is very little that has changed in Latin America in the past three decades. Maybe in the past three centuries.

For the most part the Roman Catholic religion is practiced the same way throughout Latin America. I do notice a few differences from country to country and even from person to person. Or maybe I should call them variations of the same thing as different countries, and people, add their own flavor to their beliefs based on past traditions and cultural background. It reminds of how all latinos eat rice and beans, yet every single plate of rice and beans that I’ve tasted in a latino home has always been different depending on the country represented. My mother would say of this, “it is the same dog with a different collar”.

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These days, both Maria and I find ourselves so busy with things that we say, “If only there were more hours to a day.” Now, here’s the funny thing…we are not busy doing “stuff” whatsoever, but rather we find ourselves busy as all can be just simply learning…learning Spanish, learning the Bible, learning about theology, learning about doctrine, learning about church, learning about discipleship and teaching, and simply learning about God. It is really weird. We are so busy yet we don’t even have to get off our most uncomfortable couch. Are we being slothful? No way! God is just stirring our hearts so much to know more about Him so that we can be most effective in making His name known to others.

I literally have about 6 different books that I am in the process of reading and they are all awesome books, but I just don’t have the time to read from each one every day. Also, remember that I am in language school for 5 hours a day as well and that also requires study outside of the classroom. Oh yeah, and I have a wife, a 7 year old daughter, and a new 8 month old son that take up a lot of time as well. So, seriously, I just wish that there were more hours in the day to do things. And yes, I also still see it necessary to take time to just have fun, whether that’s playing wii for an hour every so often or playing a game of Skip-Bo with Isabela, the reigning queen of Skip-Bo, or watching an episode of Little House on the Prairie with the family (I bought Maria the whole 9 season set for Christmas last year. We She really loves her gift.

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Sooooo… to continue with our journey through Nicaragua, on Monday we met again with Eric Loftsgard from the Nehemiah Center. We actually went to the facilities of the Nehemiah Center to learn about the work that they do there. We had a long talk with Eric and picked his brain to see how our call and our God-given gifts can be used by the people of the Nehemiah Center. We also met with another missionary couple and discussed more in detail what they do, how the Nehemiah Center enables them to do what they believe God has called them to do, and whatever other insights they had about this organization. It was great to learn more about the opportunities available. And like I (Maria) said in my last post, I will let Cody be the one to share with you more in detail since we are still praying and seeking the Lord about all these things that we learned.

Nehemiah Center in Managua

After our meeting with Eric and the couple from the Nehemiah Center we went out for lunch. We went to a restaurant that we had heard was great called La Plancha. Well, the restaurant was great. The service was incredible. The food was excellent. BUT…it was a very fancy restaurant and we had forgotten our formal attire. If you are in another country it helps a lot to know your currency conversion. YIKES!

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Last week, we went to Nicaragua to explore ministry possibilities and meet with some possible partners in ministry. Some of you were praying for us and we are very thankful that you kept us in prayer. We had a very productive trip. I (Maria) will let Cody elaborate about the ministry details of our trip, especially since we are still in the praying stages regarding some of the things that we saw, discussed, and learned.

For now, I just wanted to share with you a series of picture posts about our trip. Nicaragua is such a beautiful place. The people are very kind and we felt very welcomed. I really enjoyed learning more about this country, its culture, its people, its ups and downs, and the opportunities for ministries. I was amazed at the beauty of the country, but also burdened over the spiritual condition of Nicaragua.

We arrived Managua, on Thursday afternoon. We rented a car and spent the first hour and an half driving around looking for our hotel. Yes, we had our GPS with us and we also had downloaded the Nicaragua map that another missionary recommended, but unfortunately the hotel where we were staying was NOT programmed in the GPS. So we spent what seemed like forever just driving around looking for a hotel that we later found out was only 7 miles away! We were exhausted. Not because of the travel, but because we were mentally tired of asking people if they knew where the hotel was only to get a thousand different opinions of its exact location.

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We want to thank all our friends, supporters, encouragers, and prayer partners for all that you do.  We know that you are holding the rope for us in the states and are thankful that the Lord has blessed us with you.  We want to ask you all to please keep our family in prayers this week. We will be traveling to Nicaragua during the school break to do some more exploration and to meet with some brothers in Christ. We will be leaving on Thursday, April 26th and will be returning on May 3^rd. The purpose of our trip is to seek further direction for ministry and possible partnerships with other missionaries and/or leaders in the field.

As the Lord continues to stir our hearts more and more to bring the Gospel to the people of Nicaragua we find ourselves more burdened to go and to follow His lead in this new country. We are both excited about the possibilities and humbled by the task ahead.

Please pray with us as we seek to honor His call on our lives to reach the people of Nicaragua with the Gospel and we look for a specific place and specific partnerships to do this.

May the name of Jesus be glorified as we continue to move forward with Him. And may we be found faithful as we seek to obey His commandment to make disciples of all nations. We humbly ask you that you please stand in the gap for us and keep us in your prayers.

We look forward to share with you what the Lord has done!

So, here is what you would find should you open up our kindles…Disfruta!

Cody’s Reading List

Currently Reading:

The Bible – I have been doing my own personal study through the Book of Acts for the last few months. It has been awesome and I have learned so much. I also am reading through the Bible with Isabela every night. My goal is to read the whole Bible with her, but I am realizing that this is going to take a looong time because I don’t just read her the Bible, but I am teaching her, therefore we only cover a very very small portion each night so that she really understands what we are reading. We just finished chapter 13 of Matthew last night. And I am proud to say that she can tell you each of the parables that Jesus tells in this chapter and what they mean. By the way, our Sunday School hour at church just started this awesome new series on how to teach the Gospel to your children. We are three weeks in and it has been really really good.

La Santa Biblia – In order to get more practice and understanding of God’s Word in Spanish, I just started to read the Bible in Spanish starting from Genesis. This is just a time for me to read, not study and reflect, although it is impossible to read the Bible without reflecting, so I hope that I will only reflect a little so that I can focus more on reading and understanding God’s Word in Spanish. I try to read a chapter per day.

Los Atributos de Dios – By A.W. Pink. The English version is “The Attributes of God”, but I am reading it in Spanish so that I can get more familiar with theological vocabulary in Spanish. I have never read it in English, but so far it is a great book.

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Below is a letter that we sent to our support team today:

To our wonderful support team,

We are pleased to let you know that, after much prayer and discussion, and more prayer and more discussion, we have made the decision to move to Nicaragua after we complete our language training here in Costa Rica.  We are happy that God has led us thus far, and we trust that He will continue to lead us for His glory.

This is a big leap of faith for us all.  After all, when we started out in our cross cultural mission journey, our target was Haiti and we really did not know what was beyond that.  We only knew that the Lord had given us both a desire to serve Him in a Spanish speaking country.  So, how we arrived to our decision to move to Nicaragua is simply by faith, trusting that the Lord has led us there as we have sought Him completely with an open hand and with a desire of only wanting to bring Him glory wherever it is that we go.  The funny thing is that, after having served in the poorest country in the Western world for 2 years (Haiti), we did not give Nicaragua any real consideration when we first thought about where we would go after Haiti because we knew that it is the second poorest country in the Western world and perhaps we thought we would not want to be in the thick of such poverty anymore.

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This fact of the resurrection is the absolute bedrock foundation of our faith.  Christ has risen.  If he had not risen, then there is really no such thing as Christianity.  Paul addresses this fact in 1 Corinthians 15 when there were people infiltrating the church with the teaching that there was really no such thing as the resurrection from the dead.  What a tactic of satan to get people to doubt in the resurrection of Christ.  And doesn’t this still happen today?  Paul lovingly, but firmly and logically, addresses the Corinthians to be on guard against such teaching.  I encourage you to read the whole chapter.  it is such an awesome picture of the resurrection and the hope that we have because of it.

Paul starts out by saying to the church, “Brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel that I preached to you…by this gospel you are saved…if you hold firmly to the word that was preached.”  And what was  that word that was preached?  Paul states it in the simplest form, “That Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures”  Then He gives them the proof of Jesus’ resurrection by stating all the different people who saw Him after He was raised.  Paul is showing here that the knowledge and belief of the resurrection is at the absolute foundation to the Christian faith.  Without the resurrection, there is no faith. Read more »

As we reflect on Good Friday, let’s just remember that it was so good indeed for us at the great cost of it being so painful for our Savior who took our place.   Friend, if you indeed know Him as your Savior and King, then may these words just remind you of what love He has shown to you.  Friend, if you do not know Him as Savior, Lord, and King of your life, then I pray that these very words of God will show you how much He loved you that He suffered so much so that your sins could be forever forgiven and that you could receive the promise of eternal life.  If these words don’t mean much to you, if they do not cause you to pause and say a huge thank you to Jesus for all that He has done, if they do not cause you to worship Him and give your life to Him, then I am truly sorry for you, for that would mean that not only do you not understand the suffering of the Lord Jesus  because of His love for you, but you also then do not understand the greatest triumph of all time, which secures our place with Him forever, His resurrection!  Oh that you would open up your heart today and allow the King of glory to come in.

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