This last week our bosses from Canada, Brent and Celeste were in town and ran the team through workshops on team dysfunctions to simply bringing us Christmas presents and taking us away to a beautiful island on the Carribean. Yesterday morning during our last training time Brent passed out diagrams to each of us to illustrate spiritual multiplication and really drive the point home of our vision and our goals for the ministry here. Seeing this little diagram, and as I filled it out with the names of students I'm working with I was so so excited to realize we're taking steps to realizing our dream of seeing students sharing, training and multiplying their lives into others. It takes time but it's coming.

Even as I write this I have a huge smile on my face. After training with my team I booked it to school for my discipleship time with two girls in science, Erika and Katy. Erika and I had 45 minutes before Katy arrived and so I pulled out my little diagram and ran her through where I see her fitting in and taking steps of faith. As Katy came and I re-explained the entire thing in Spanish I asked her what she thought. With a blank face she said, "Si ella cree que lo puedo hacer porque no?" As I translated this into English mentally I looked at Erika and asked, "did she just say what I think she just said?" Katy was exhausted and yet through this said, "If she (me) believes that I am able to do this, why not?" Both of the girls laughed at me as I let out a little shriek of joy. These two girls are committed to this ministry and to reaching and changing their campus. They're just as scared as I was 4 years ago when I got involved in campus ministry and yet so excited and willing to get trained and be ready to rock in March with their own discipleship groups.

Next week is the last week of classes and so as a ministry we're gearing up for a bit of a different time until March. But there's training to be done, a tonne of prayer and strategic planning, vision trips and retreats all in store. I believe with all my heart that the campuses here are going to be changed through the lives of students here like Katy and Erika. I've already seen the beginning of this in their lives and in two of my other disciples Jely and Yavi, let alone all the other students the rest of the team is working with. All four of "my" girls are baby Christians but know and believe that God can do anything when we're sold out and committed to him. They're catching the vision and trusting God with the results.

For the longest time I was "stuck" in Psalm 62 and finally I kept going in the psalms... only to hit Psalm 63. The words of David are beautiful in the passage. It's been a crazy couple of weeks, complete with the rough pathways, from team communication to simply being homesick when I realize how far away I am. There's also some issues that have come up with my health. Not huge worrisome ones, I'll be totally okay, but enough of one that I'm back in forth from the hospital for blood tests and all that fun stuff. I think more than anything, all of this reminds me of the huge necessity for prayer. The other night when I was upset I felt like God was simply asking me, "Lindsey in who do you put your faith?" It was a good reminder that my solid foundation is only found in Christ and its not changed or dictated by the circumstances around me.

Psalm 63, A psalm of David. When he was in the Desert of Judah.

1 O God, you are my God,
earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you,
my body longs for you,
in a dry and weary land
where there is no water.
2 I have seen you in the sanctuary
and beheld your power and your glory.
3 Because your love is better than life,
my lips will glorify you.
4 I will praise you as long as I live,
and in your name I will lift up my hands.
5 My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods;
with singing lips my mouth will praise you.
6 On my bed I remember you;
I think of you through the watches of the night.
7 Because you are my help,
I sing in the shadow of your wings.
8 My soul clings to you;
your right hand upholds me.
9 They who seek my life will be destroyed;
they will go down to the depths of the earth.
10 They will be given over to the sword
and become food for jackals.
11 But the king will rejoice in God;
all who swear by God's name will praise him,
while the mouths of liars will be silenced.

As I stood at the doors of the auditorium this morning, waiting for students to come for the lecture/outreach we were having I was reminded of something. When I was in Ukraine 3 years ago on a missions trip we showed the movie, "The Passion of the Christ," as an outreach for the community. Not very many people showed up and I remember thinking and really just needing to believe by faith that God in his sovereignty had exactly the people there that he wanted to be there. Sunday morning came and we were sitting in the church service as my pastor preached and was interpreted into Russian. Towards the end of his sermon I remember him saying that there are times that we just need to come to God. He was gearing up for the invitation to come to the altar when something else happened. A man named Alex, someone we had met that week, walked up to the front where Pastor Will was standing and just kneeled in front of him. It wasn't the proper time to come to the altar but it was his time, his moment of truth with the Lord. So I remember sitting there, to the right of Pastor Will and Alex, with the sun streaming in the window and the tears streaming down my cheeks. That moment made the entire trip worthwhile. If 6 of us had had to travel across the world so that Alex could come into contact and a personal relationship with his loving heavenly Father than it was worth it for me. Today 15 students indicated decisions to recieve Christ on the comment cards that were handed in. 15! So yes not as many students were there, and no the auditorium wasn't packed but that's not what really matters at all. I have 15 new brothers and sisters in Christ and those there were those that needed to be.

What is the price, the cost, that we place on a life??? If the 6 of us STINT-ers had come here for a year and only saw one person come into a relationship with Christ, would that be enough?

"Suppose one of you had a hundred sheep and lost one. Wouldn't you leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the lost one until you found it? When found, you can be sure you would put it across your shoulders, rejoicing, and when you got home call in your friends and neighbors, saying, 'Celebrate with me! I've found my lost sheep!' Count on it—there's more joy in heaven over one sinner's rescued life than over ninety-nine good people in no need of rescue." Luke 15:4-7 (The Message)

Am I really willing to leave behind my 99 safe sheep and go out looking for the 1 that is lost?

Monday morning I stared at a stack of 150 posters and 600 invitations for the outreach on Wednesday, simply wondering how on earth we would pass out 600 invites. But by noon, all 600 invitations are gone, whether given out or with other students involved in the movement. A group of students had shown up at TUAL (our unofficial office) and headed out to invite students and go postering around campus. So by one o'clock I'm back at the copy center with another 50 posters and another 600 invites ready to go. That stack is almost gone.

"They," whoever they is say that to get 200 people to an event you need to pass out 600 invites, so on those numbers we should have a packed out auditorium tomorrow. But either way I learned to say, "lets do this in faith," en espanol, "en fe." I can't do anything on my own and when I start to place limits on things its then God takes those limits and gently exceeds them.


"For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Matt 6:32-34

I've been thinking about those verses this week. What do people seek after? What do people run after and look for? Things like relationships, money, security and the list goes on and on. The thing that struck me though is that God already knows we need them. There's no denial on his part that those things don't hold some value. BUT He doesn't tell us to seek after them, he tells us to seek him first, his kingdom and his righteousness, and everything we need comes after that.

There's a sweet sweet passage in Matthew chp.11 that's really touched my heart this week and so I leave you with this and with all my love. In the midst of life, in whatever pain, trial or even normality remember this, I know I'm definately taking this one to heart this week.

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Matt 11:28-30

The Canadians (minus Sarah)... I love you guys!
The beautiful view from the top.

My team for the weekend, these guys are awesome!

Well the team of 26, Panamanians and Canadians survived Bajo Grande this past weekend. As I returned home Monday morning and as I've been spending time through my solo time with God a lot of little details of the trip are starting to make more sense.

Tuesday morning I was able to talk to my mom and she told me that my grandpa had prayed to recieve Christ last Thursday as he was headed in for hip surgery. I let out a little yell and laughed as tears welled up in my eyes, because that's a miracle! I was thinking back to this weekend when my team was blessed to see 8 people accept Christ on Sunday, and yet the excitement I felt then was nowhere near what I felt when I heard about my grandpa. Now don't get me wrong I was definately excited this weekend, but my grandpa hit a little closer to home. So that got me thinking... why shouldn't I be just as excited when someone I've only known 2 days becomes a new Christian as I am when someone who's known me all my life accepts Christ???

Then I realized; my 8 new brothers and sisters in Christ in Bajo Grande have people surrounding them. Maybe not Christians but people that will see their lives changed and be affected by that every day. People that will see when they fall but see that they now have someone bigger to pick them up. I think of Pastor Correa and his wife, in their 60's and moving further and further into the interior of Panama planting churches. They have amazing vision and I remember joy in his eyes when we told him about Mari accepting Christ. When I thought about all that the excitement and joy grew like crazy in my heart. Sometimes I look inwards instead of outwards, and when that happens, God gives me a simple check and reminds me it's not about me at all.