Many months ago when we closed the youth center we knew it was God's timing, but we did not know all the reasons He seemed to be leading us down this path.  We can now see it was the begining of a transformation.  God is transforming Kelly and I in the most radical ways.

First our marriage of 9 years is being transformed.  And we are closer to one another than a year ago.  We spend each morning in prayer together (unless I do something crazy like drive 10 kids to Asuncion for the night and return at 3:30 in the morning!)  and are ministering to each others needs better than we ever have.  Kelly feels more part of my ministries because we are praying about them and I feel more a part of her ministry in the home as we lift these things together before the Lord.

God is transforming our priorities.  As we grow in our understanding of the unspeakable treasure we have in Jesus Christ, many things are falling by the wayside.  Things that seemed so important have grown dim as they are placed beside the glory of knowing Jesus in a deeper way.

Ministry "activity" is falling by the wayside,  as hours spent in uselessness for the Kingdom are now filled with more time to be with people, pray and share the Word.  It is a simplifiying of what I used to call ministry and it is really getting back to the basics.  Abide in Christ, and the fruit will come.  May the desire of my heart be more of a reality each day.

Kelly and I have realized we have been placing far to great a priority on insuring our own comfort.  Is Christ enough?  Indeed!  As we grow in our dependence on Him we see that comfort is less of an issue and that after all our heavenly Father know far better how to comfort us than we do ourselves.  How many times in vain have I tried to fill my life with the world's "trinkets",  seeking comfort and yet pushing myself away from the very thing my heart cries for: "A peace that passes all my understanding"

We are being transformed as we learn to trust in God in new ways.  You might think that the life of a missionary is, of course,  a life of trusting in God, and I tell you that it can be, it should be, but it is not implicit in the job description.  We have so foolinshly denied God opportunities to glorify Himself in our lives and ministries because we are masters at "making things happen" , "getting the job done, no matter what it takes", and "robbing Peter to pay Paul".  We call Him Lord, but we have learned He has not been in far too many areas of our lives.  Kelly and I are longing to see God glorified as we stop leaning on our own understanding and begin to .acknowledge Him in all things.

Our desire is singular.  It is to know the Savior in a more deeper way.  We do not know where this leads and we do not care.  It is not a carefree attitude of a fool, it is the knowledge of the freeing truth that  if we are found in Him, even in the darkest moments, His discipline and guidance will be our comfort.

I said we are being transformed,  and this is a process unfinished.  What I've said is just as much our prayer for the future as it is testemony of what God is doing now.

The Youth Center Closes

After more than 5 years serving the youth of Villarrica, I believe it was God's will that we close the youth center.  This has been one of the hardest decisions I've had to make in my 13 years as a youth pastor.  To answer the question why, is to take you on a spiritual journey.

About 3 months ago at a spiritual retreat for the missionaries here in Paraguay, the Lord began to convict me of my lack of intimacy in my relationship with him.  Over the course of the previous year I had let activity in ministry slowly become a replacement for an intimate walk with the Savior.  Because so much of what I let define me are my activities, I was deceiving myself by thinking buisiness was Godliness.  At the retreat I finally became contrite and submissive enough to hear what God had been trying to ask of me all along.  The speaker at retreat gave each of us a little card called, "My Convenant" which challenged us all..

MY COVENANT

Lord I give up all my own plans and purposes, all my own desires and hopes and accept Your will for my life.  I give myself, my life, and all, utterly to you to be Yours forever.  Go on and on filling me with Your Holy Spirit.  Use me as You will; send me where You will;  work out Your whole will in my life at any cost, now and forever.

I wish I could have said, I had been living such a covenant, but I had not been.  I knew that I needed to change some things and so I began to pray and seek His will.  Through many confirmations the Lord lead me to close the youth center and re-examine all that I have been doing here in Paraguay for the last few years.  One of those confirmations came one morning as I prayed and read the Scriptures in my devotion time.

"If a man abides in Me and I in Him, he will bear much fruit, apart from me he can do nothing"  This verse is found in one of those particularly difficult passages to understand, and I don't claim to have the ultimate word on its interpretation, only that the Lord used this verse in my life in a particular way.  The words "much fruit"  and "nothing" were those to which the Lord drew my attention.

Where was the fruit from the youth center ministry?  Since it's opening there had only been a handful of young people that had made a commitment to Christ.  This was fruit, but not "much fruit".  I believe now that this is due to the fact that I was doing almost "everything" apart from Him. 

When the youth center was founded it was done so with much prayerful consideration, and dependence on the Lord for His direction, but somewhere along the line I let routine become the guiding voice and I let self confidence replace a dependence on Him.  For these things I am deeply repentant.

I'm trying to live out a surrendered life and ministry to Him once again.  I'm asking the Lord, what's next, and waiting on Him.  I do know this; that the "Lover of my soul" wants a deeper relationship with me.  And I do know that the secret to fruit bearing in ministry and in my walk with Him is in direct proportion to my yieldedness to Him.

May we all continue our journey with the Lord Jesus with the freshness and utter dependence on Him that we lived out when we first came to know Him.

'Big House' Helps Break the Devil's Hold on Paraguay Youth

VILLARRICA, Paraguay—About 40,000 people live in Villarrica. Half of the population is under 17. That’s why SIMers Tom and Kelly Stout (US) and short-termers Dan and Christy Reich minister at the Big House—a youth center with a homey environment as well as ping pong, billiards, video games, and a volleyball court.

The Big House attracts young people who would never set foot in a church or camp meeting. Kids like Richard.

"He’s a very stoical fellow," Tom explains, "doesn’t show his emotions a lot. One day, he came into my office and began weeping. He had been caught using and selling marijuana. And as we talked, I learned that he had gone to a cemetery and dug up a corpse to give the head to his old girlfriend as revenge for breaking up with him."

The conversation continued for six hours, during which time Tom saw Richard’s heart begin to harden again. Though they talked about surrendering to Christ, Richard tried to negotiate with the Lord what parts of his life he would surrender and what parts he would not.

Since that discussion, however, Richard is still moving slowly toward Jesus. Recently he brought Tom his Ouija board and some pages of occultic literature so he could destroy them.

He also admitted talking with spirits, reminding Tom and Kelly that ours is a spiritual battle that will be won only through prayer.

PRAY . . .

Only God can expose Satan’s lies and open the hearts and minds of kids like Richard to the truth of Christ’s love and salvation by grace. Please join Tom and Kelly and Dan and Christy in prayer. And ask that God would bring more young people to the Big House and more Christian workers to befriend and guide them. May God one day soon use these young people to spread the gospel to every corner of Paraguay!

Article from SIM Now Magazine