The Pond

God is so good to us! These next two posts demonstrate His faithfulness as seen through a small project in Uruguay to provide water for our Teen Challenge farm. It all began in Jan '09 when I saw the results of a devastating drought. . .

Finish the story below in the following post:

The Pond 2

God is so good. What a RIDE!

The Orange Rind Theory

Terry's Laundry Room after a team returns to the US

Team Ravenna (Ohio) just returned to the US after another amazing week of work, worship, and new friendships. They were the third team we've hosted since October. The Jackson, TN team arrives in just five days.

In the meantime Terry will be working through mounds of sheets, clothes, and much more that this team left behind. The washer and dryer will work almost constantly for the next 48 hours. Why does each team leave so much behind? I ask them to.

It's what we call "The Orange Rind Theory". During each team's orientation, I explain that we view each team member as ripe juicy oranges that the Lord sends to Uruguay. Our job is to SQUEEZE every drop of juice out, and send the leftovers back to the States. So we work them as hard as we dare, and let them leave with barely the clothes on their backs!

The amazing thing is that so far, everyone seems to love it . . . especially after they hear the testimonies of the young Teen Challenge students that they are clothing; men and women who come off the streets with literally the clothes on their backs, and often without shoes.

So I squeeze, and I don't apologize to anyone . . . except to Terry. She washes, folds, and sorts everything just in time for our next team to arrive.

P.S. Dont' tell her I posted the laundry room photo. She'll kill me!

Team Ravenna built 200 meters of fence at our Teen Challenge farm!

Full Circle

Team El Dorado Springs, MO - Feb 2003

They were the first. The first construction team that arrived February 2003 to build the first of seven churches. 28 members strong, the 1st Assembly of God, El Dorado Springs team worked us to death! Pastor Dana Taylor set a course of working all day, and preaching every night in the campaign services. I had to go along with it. “El Do” is my hometown, and 1st A/G is where I grew up in the Lord.

And it was an amazing, non-stop, 100 miles an hour two weeks that saw one church up with walls, another with the subfloor poured, and yet another with trusses and roof up.

Then they came back last week . . . after a six year absence. This time 21 team members, most of them repeats, came to erect a multipurpose building at our Teen Challenge farm, but not before they went back to visit their first church, Marindia.

Pastor Gabriel Ricca and his wife Gimena surprised us. The building is finished, painted, and they even turned the old construction shed in the back of the property into a church kitchen. More importantly, the building was full of believers.

Then, over the next five days, El Do put up the first wood frame building that I have seen in Uruguay. Walls up, windows and doors leveled, electrical and plumbing in, drywall screwed on, and a beautiful fireplace all but completed, it’s been an amazing week.

There is nothing like building the Kingdom. Marindia is one of seven churches where around 700 believers in all worship the Lord. Our Teen Challenge Center now houses 30 young men as they leave drugs behind, and find a new life in the Lord.

What a RIDE!

Back to Marindia, Team "El Do" Oct 09

New Building Erected at our Teen Challenge Farm!

Three Young Men Named Andres

I can’t get them out of my mind. Three young men named Andres with whom I talked today. Three young men, each at a completely different place in their lives, but each connected by a common tragedy: Crack Cocaine.

Andres Rodriquez and I hopped in our van to do errands, and to enjoy just being together for a couple of hours. Andres was one of the first young men to come through the program before it was recognized as a Teen Challenge Center. Today he is in charge of the supervisors and heads up the program when our director is out of town.

I am constantly amazed by this man in his early thirties. He and his wife, Malena are expecting a baby girl, their first. Andres is completely sold out to the Lord and to helping the other young men at the center. He loves to lead people to the presence of God in worship, and has written several songs that our ministry teams sings when we visit churches.

Andres and I parked the van in a seedy part of the “Old City” of Montevideo, an area of crime and drug use. A scraggly young man was parking and “guarding” cars for a few pennies. His name was also Andres, and he looked hungry . . . in many ways. I spoke to him about the living on the streets. He talked about the emptiness in his own life.

We bought him a Whopper from a local Burger King, and prayed for him before leaving him with the phone number of the center. I pray that he calls.

I talked to the third Andres after returning to our center. He’s been with us for five months, but has not made a complete commitment to Jesus Christ. I began to call him my Psalmist after hearing him make a guitar sing. I told him that's because what I see in his life . . . by faith. He even came forward for prayer once after a powerful worship service, but still holds back.

He explained his fear of never being able to live up to what God expects. This Andres has had so many failures that he is afraid of getting his hopes up again. We talked and prayed, and I left him with the challenge to ask God to make up for his failures the next time he was in a service.

Three young men named Andres. One lives on the street, scraping anything together he can to buy his next hit, empty, and alone. One battles to find the reality of all the promises he hears about daily. One reaches out to the other two, and to many others every day with the “buenas nuevas” that he has found in Christ. Pray with me for all three.

And me? I have this awesome privilege to be a part of it all . . .What a ride!

My Miracle Named Delmi

I was sweating bullets . . . OK, so they weren’t bullets, and it’s not yet warm enough in Uruguay to sweat anyway, but I was nervous. We are just a few short weeks away from the arrival of three back to back construction teams at our Teen Challenge farm, and nothing was ready. None of the preparation work had been done: not the foundation and cement floor for the new building, neither the clearing for the new fence, nor the foundation for our water tower. Time was running out.

My Uruguayan church construction team members from three years ago were gone, most with good jobs that paid more than what I could offer. I especially felt the loss of Delmi Correa. He had been my foreman, my right-hand man on whom I had relied for all seven of our church construction projects.

As I looked for his replacement over the past few months, I would see Delmi’s smiling face on the side of the road every few days as he worked on a major four lane highway project. I was glad for him. He had sacrificed so much to build the churches, working long hours, training and then supervising the Teen Challenge students who had made up our team.

So I prayed and looked, but it seemed that everyone who might have been qualified was already working. So I prayed harder and slept a little less. The thought of having to start all over with a new foreman scared me . . . Would I have invest extra time that I didn’t have training him? Would I be able to trust him with construction funds? How would he work with our TC students that I was counting to do most of the labor?

Out of desperation, I called Delmi thinking that perhaps he knew of someone who might be qualified. “Brother Isaac, I do know of someone who could step in and do all that you are asking. Me!” In an instant a 40 ton load rolled off my shoulders. Tears filled my eyes. Delmi had been let go the day before in a second round of layoffs as the highway project was finishing.

When we met at the farm that afternoon to lay out the work he told me, “You know my wife was wondering if you were praying that I would be laid off from my highway job so that I could work for you.” Of course not . . . no way . . . out of the question . . . OK, so maybe it crossed my mind. But I think the Lord knew what this missionary, and more importantly what our Teen Challenge center needed.

This coming Monday morning we unpack the tools, saws, and other machinery that I brought down from the States. We lay out our dorm building, and get started. Pray for us, and especially for Delmi. He’s my miracle. What a ride!!!

Virginia

Virginia's eyes had the glazed-over look of someone who is heavily sedated the Sunday evening I first met her. She had just entered our program. Only 17 years old, she came to us out of desperation and addiction to crack cocaine.

I watched her slowly wake up over the next few weeks. Every day her eyes focused more, her words formed more easily, a light switched on in her mind. Like many who come to Hogar Experanza (Hope House), she had been prescribed prescription drugs to take the place of the illegal drugs that plagued her life: 11 pills a day when Virginia arrived. Today she is free from all of them!

This weekend, she had her first family visit. Usually family visits begin after a month at the center, but her family didn't have money for the trip to the outskirts of Montevideo where our centers are located. Virginia has now been with us two months.

We ask for your prayers for Virginia and also for Erica. Erica finishes the fourteen month program this week, but will probably be staying with us for a while loner. Going home is not an option for her,and we want to see her continue to grow in the Lord.

Hogar Esperanza continues to be the only wormen's Teen Challenge center in the Southen Cone of South America. We are reaching young ladies, often just one at a time. Yet every Virginia, every Erica, all of the them are precious to us and so much more so to the Lord. WHAT A RIDE!!