BSM UTPA Missions Blog

I don’t know if you know but during the Valley Summer Project, the BSM team was featured in a story for the Baptist Standard (read the story here). I visited the BGCT website today and I was happy to see Belinda featured in a video there. I am happy because seeing everything happening in the background brought back memories of the wonderful ways God worked in and through the lives of students thissumer.

Here is the video of Belinda. If you want to see more videos you can check our previous posts.

This summer has been life changing for us. It all started several months back when God have us the vision for the Valley Summer Project. A few casual conversations with friends followed, then they became official meetings to discuss possibilities, and then finally, we got the official go ahead to put the project in place. To be honest, we did not how the whole local focus and global impact was going to come about. However, once students expressed interest and began applying it all clicked, God was definitely behind all this. I must say that I admire the students that participated very much. They took a huge step of faith as they decided to spend their summer doing missions.

Throughout the spring semester we began to see how God was opening doors for students.  He was also working in Venezuela preparing the place for us to go.  We no longer doubted but we trusted, knowing that God was going to continue working in our behalf.  I want this blog to stand as a testimony to God who in his great mercy used our lives this summer to serve him. To him be all glory for providing everything we needed and more. For keeping us safe, and for speaking to every one of us in a personal way.

Here is a summary of what happened:

I get this question asked often as people want to get my perspective on our mission trip there. My answer is always the same: the people. Of course the country is beautiful, particularly the city of Valencia, the mountains, the weather, the skies, the greenery throughout the city, and more. However, the people we met there were very kind and loving, they spent time with us out of their busy schedules, shared their testimonies, and taught us about Venezuelan culture. We were glad to be there and privileged to have made such wonderful friends.

Another thing that I enjoyed was seeing our team serving alongside the Venezuelan youth group. I loved their skits during the evangelistic campaigns, the participation of our team with the worship band, and going out to share Christ in schools. I also loved that our team spoke Spanish. Even though some people there speak very good English, speaking in their first language was awesome. We laughed very hard many times and got to share our hearts without translation with each other.

Here is a video of one of the skits our team did with the youth group in Venezuela:

Taking a short break from mission trip postings, I would like to share with you about this summer time. Many of you might be having a great time going out and about, keeping busy, resting, and having fun. Others though, might be at the other end of the spectrum: at home, bored, doing myspace and facebook until you can’t do it anymore. Whatever the case may be, I want to suggest three things to do this week to give you a break from the monotony and enhance your relationship with God.:

1. Take some time to pray and realize God’s presence in your life:

Read the following Scriptures

Listen to this song

Now take some time to pray and get your relationship with God back on track.

Let’s move on to the next suggestion:

2. Reflect on who Jesus is…. watch this video:

Let’s move on..

3. Here is a link to an old website of ours that has a few Bible studies for you. At the end of each one, there is a box you can fill in and we will get an e-mail with your reflections. Bible Studies

During our Venezuela mission trip we had the privilege of knowing a pastor of a small church in the south side of Valencia, which is considered one of the roughest areas in town. His story and that of his congregation is very impressive. While he was a catechism instructor in the Catholic church he began reading the Bible. Without no one teaching him or telling him what to read, he began asking questions about what he was learning and what he knew.

Studying the gospels…

Not being able to find answers he decided to begin a more thorough reading of the gospels to learn more about Jesus. When he did this, many people from his neighborhood began to join him, the group got so big that they all put their resources together to rent a space so that they could meet every day to read and discuss the gospels. The group kept on growing and for two and a half years they met every night to study the gospels and learn about Jesus. As they knew how, each gave their lives to Jesus and began experiencing transformation in their own lives.

Placing a name to what God had been doing among the group…

One day while listening to the radio, pastor Heding heard an announcement for a training conference for those seeking to minister to others in Jesus’ name. He showed up to his first pastoral training conference without even knowing that he was already a pastor of a church. After sharing his story with a church staff at Iglesia Bautista El Trigal, it became clear that God was working in this group of faithful followers of Jesus. They taught the pastor about Baptism, discipleship, and church. He came to the realization that for 2 ½ years they had been meeting and that now they were ready to become a church and be baptized.

On a beautiful day, the members of Iglesia Bautista el Trigal gathered to witness the baptism of pastor Heiding, as he was baptized, he then turned around and baptized the more than 30 people that had been meeting at a rented space every night to read the gospels. “It was a sight to behold” told me Hugh, the evangelism minister of IB el Trigal.

Being the presence of Christ in their community…

I got to hear this testimony from pastor Heiding, I also got to meet some of the brothers and sisters of the church. They are active servants of Christ. They still meet to read the gospels, and they have a vibrant kids and youth ministry that is reaching an area most people don’t dare go in because of gangs and drug dealing. We heard his vision and saw in his eyes a commitment to be the presence of Christ in his community. He could live anywhere in the city, however, he decided to live I that dangerous neighborhood, working full time at the airport, and working full time as a pastor, reading the Bible every night and teaching it to others as the Holy Spirit leads….. Amen.

The pastor and his wife...

Hospitality is something Christians should practice. The Old Testament tells many stories that present us the value of hospitality within the Jewish culture. The New Testament in turn, also presents hospitality as an important value within the Christian community.

Romans 12:13 calls upon followers of Jesus to “practice hospitality.” It is in doing so that we find a new dimension of sharing in the love of Christ.

During our mission trip we were hosted by families. None of these families were forced to host us, they offered to do so. Every time we thanked them for their hospitality they would remark that they did not want to miss out on the blessing of sharing with brothers and sisters in Christ. Our host families took us under their wings and went to great extents to protect us. They fed us, drove us to places, prayed for us, shared their testimonies, and cried when we left wishing they could have done more for us. It was a blessing.

One interesting thing of all this is how God worked out the placing of each and every one of us in the homes we stayed. We all took gifts for our host families without knowing who they were going to be; it turns out that the gifts we took worked out as if we would have known in advanced who we were going to be staying with. A lady collects bells from different countries, it turns out that the 2 students staying with them each took bells as a gift. Another family loves baseball, the girl staying with them took baseball gifts. Our host family loved candles so one of the team gave the lady candles for her beautiful display. Some would call this a coincidence, however, they thought, and we agree with them, that God in his love had placed each and every one of us in a family that he had prepared for us. There are lots of things that happened while we stayed in our host homes, we got to know the families and they got to know us. We shared, prayed, laughed, and cried together. We pray that God will bless the families that hosted us so lovingly.

Here is a picture of the family that hosted Martha, Jessica, Sharon, and I. We miss them dearly:

Here are pictures of a few of the loving friends we made in Venezuela:

The team has safely arrived home. We got into Caracas around 9 PM. Believe or not, we still had a Bible study and laughed and thanked God as we shared stories of all God did among us. We all received confirmations in many ways why God had brought us to Venezuela.

We got up at 4 AM and a church staff made two trips to take us to the airport. Leaving Venezuela is somewhat confusing. This is an airport where you for sure want to be three hours early. You have to stand in line, check in, go to another window and get a ticket stub looking thing, and then stand in line again to pay an approx. $60 dollar exit fee. After that, you have to stand in line to go through immigration to leave the country. Everyone was nice at the airport, so that made our experience smoother.

We ate our last Venezuelan breakfast and then boarded our plane that would take us to Houston and then finally bring us back to McAllen. When we landed we found a quiet place at the airport to make a circle to praise God for the great things he had done among us.

Next week starting Monday we will be sharing a few stories of people or adventures that stood out during this trip. Don’t miss them.

Thanks for all your prayers.

Yesterday we had our last full day in Valencia. Even though we were tired we were full of expectation for what God was going to do. Early in the morning we headed to the missionary house to prepare for a day of service at public schools at el Cambur. We went into the schools and taught in every classroom about God´s love. While the team was teaching, we went to talk with the school principal and she gave her life to Christ. This is big since now the doors will continue to be open for teaching the Bible every week at that school.

We then headed to the south side of the city to go visit neighboors of a mission there. The people there were very welcoming and opened their humble homes. Some prayed of the sick, others gave a word of encouragement to brothers and sisters, and some shared the gospel with homes that would let us. Our team got to share with a woman that was ready to surrenedered her life to Christ. The sister that took us there told us that they had been praying for her.

We headed back to our homes and then we were taken to a surprise good bye party. It was awesome. There were more than a 100 people there. Everyone was very sweet and loving. They showered us with gifts and made each and every one of us get up on a table to say a few words. It was very meaningful to hear our students share how they have been impacted by God during this trip.

This morning we are all packing and getting ready to head to Caracas for the evenening and then board our plane home early in the monring. Please pray for a safe trip and for alertness as we need to be on top of things every time we travel. Pray for me so that I will be able to lead the team back home.  Thanks for all your prayers. We will be posting more and more stories and pictures as we process them. In the mean time, here is a video of team members serving during Sunday worship at the church:

Please pardon the mistakes on some of our blogs. Time is precious on line so we don´t take time to double check for grammar and spelling. I know you get our drift.

Many of you have been waiting to hear the continuation of what God is doing here in Venezuela. The report is as follows:

Saturday. Some of the food we prepared to raise funds for the church did not turn out as expected. All the ingredients were the same in name but different in consistency. However, there was the exception, the coca cola cake the team prepared sold out on Saturday and Sunday.

We had the last night of the evangelistic campaign and it went great. Many guests came and the congregation of the church showed up to help and fellowship with one another. The team got to participate in a skit that was a hit.

Here is a video of some of the team members singing:

Sunday was awesome. God works through the pastor of the church in a very special way. He preaches with power and with wisdom. There were more than thirty people that gave their lives to Christ at the end of his message. It was a sight to see.

Sharon and Martha got to sing with the worship band. We also got to say good bye to the church. The people were very thankful and gave us many gifts as they were exiting the church. After church our host families got together to prepare an authentic “parrillada” This is a feast consisting of great conversations while drinking coffee and eating special cuts of meat. It was great.

Today was our one day off and we went to the beach. It was very beautiful. We arrived to a main beach and took a 20 min. boat ride that took us to an island called Playuela. The water was crystal clear, the weather was cool, and the company was great. More than 50 people came with us and we had a blast. We ate fresh seafood, snorkeled, and laughed. We thank God for this blessing.

Tomorrow we go into schools to teach kids Bible lessons and share the gospel, please pray for us, pray for open heart and safety.

I will post pictures when time allows.

We arrived yesterday to the missionary house to prepare for our day of evangelism at the same university we had gone the day before.  Upon our arrival to the missionary house we learned that it was not safe to go to the university because some students were protesting. So… we had to change our plans.

A sister from the church had been woken up in the middle of th night and she felt at strong urge to pray and seek direction for the day.  She felt a strong leading to go to local high schools to promote the evangelistic campaign.  You must know that all these school have a record of not allowing people in other than students. We split in team and went to high schools praying that at least we would be given a chance to post advertising regarding the campaign.  As expected many doors were closed.

However, God open other doors in some high school that we did not expect at all.  We were allowed inside the high school and go into every classroom to tell all students about the campaign. Not only that, but when saw that the students were really interested about what we had to say we began preaching the gospel in the classroom while the teachers watched and even asked questions.

It was awesome to see all members of the team spread out in the school patios sharing the gospel. Out of this about 7 students gave their lives to Christ.  We were talking with students that had an interest in what the Bible had to say about drinking, it turns out they had liquor bottles in their back packs and were planning on drinking after school.

We left filled with joy for the open doors and the people that gave their lives to Christ. The night at the evangelistic campaign, two students we met at that school came and gave their lives to Christ that night. It was awesome.

Tonight we are expecting a big turn out. We share Christ with a group of six students that said that they will be there tonight to find out more about Jesus. Pray that they come and that it does not rain tonight.

Our team is doing awesome. They are really busy but in great spirits. They have all been participating at the evangelistic campaign. Last night Sharon and Martha sang and th rest participated in a skit with the Venezuelan youth group. They will do the same tonight.

Right now we are gathering to cook. Every other week the church has a food fair in which they sell food to the community to raise funds to build their church. The team decided to also pitch in and do “pro templo” work as everyone calls it here. Pray that our food tastes good.

Tonight we will have the last night of the evangelistic campaign. Keep us in your prayers.

On a personal note, Sharon and I celebrated our 10th year anniversary yesterday. We were filled with joy the entire day knowing that celebrating the day leading people to Christ is unparalleled and quite romantic. I bought Sharon and bouquet for 10 roses. It was great.

We will post pictures and video when time allows. So far, I barely have time to write this report, and I do so as a testimony to God’s grace and power.