Mission Trip Part One

A baby cow that almost looks like sheep which made me think of a sheep without a shepherd, which fits with the theme of this post.

As some and probably most of you know I am back from the country of Paraguay. I have told some of you that I will probably be doing a series on the trip. The experiences and lessons I learned while there. The post will probably not describe my trip in chronological order, but I will do my best to help you understand the chronology of the stories I tell.

This first post I want to just describe to you the aspect of the trip that broke my heart. We went to these three villages on the Paraguay River. At one of the three villages there is kind of a church. They hold church on Sundays and a couple of bible studies around. The man who leads the congregation is not a pastor, but a fishing boat captain (who better to be a pastor than a fisherman?). But God really broke my heart for these villages that have no spiritual leaders. Many in the villages are illiterate so even if there were more than just sections of the bible translated into their native tongue of Guarani few would be able to read it. God repeatedly broke my heart for these sheep without a shepherd. I talked with the director of Mission Betania on one of the rides back from one of the villages. He said the only type of discipleship these people get is when a missionary team. We were like the first team to be there since March. As the majority of Paraguayans are Roman Catholic they pay a tax for a priest to come once a year and baptize all the new babies, but besides that there is no one. I asked him if any of the missionary students who are being trained at the main base in Luque were planning on pasturing these villages and he told me that Mission Betania’s main purpose is to train missionaries. Many of the students are affiliated with some denomination so the denominations send them to other places when they finish at the school. So though, he obviously cared very deeply about the people of these villages there was not too much he could do for them. There are those who get saved when mission trip teams come through and do bible schools, but then there is no more discipleship or instruction until another team comes through which could be several months. I was very confused during the time we were up river. I repeatedly prayed to God and asked him if he was calling me to pastor these people. I was very scared that he might be. I was sure to point out to him all the obstacles and problems I could foresee if this was what he was calling me too, but I quickly told him that if he called me and removed the obstacles I would do it willingly. I wrestled with whether this was God’s will for me for a few days. Several of the other team members asked me if I was alright as I was very quiet and kind of stayed on the fringes a couple of days. I finally felt like God was testing me on whether I would really be willing to do this and whether I cared enough about the fact that these people had no one to disciple them, perform the sacraments for them, evangelize, comfort, and pray for them. I know there is a priesthood of all believers, but there is still and vital role of a pastor that these people obviously needed. After praying about it for a few days I felt like God let me know that at least for now he is not calling me to this role for them. However he has not removed the burden he gave me for them. I still feel very strongly that I am to pray that he will call someone to pastor them and that when he does that I am to support him in anyway that I possibly can: financially, prayer, supplies, and whatever other needs he or she has or that God lays on my heart. I also feel like I am to continue to pray in the way that I did when I was questioning whether this was God’s will and say “Lord, please call someone to shepherd these people even if that person is me.” I hope that you will join me in that prayer.