Isaac & Terry Smythia in Uruguay

Marcelo, Natalia, and Costa Azul

2012-01-23T16:29:00.001-05:00

Marcelo didn’t have a clue what was going on. He had brought his girlfriend, Natalia, to the meet and greet encounter at the local community center. Pastor Roberto Mairena and I had arrived at the beach community of Costa Azul, about 30 miles outside of Montevideo. We came to explore the possibility of making Costa Azul one of our new plants.

One of his lay-leaders began the work last August, going door to, praying for anyone who would give him a minute. Last month a group of 34 new believers climbed on to a rented bus to attend Christmas services at Roberto’s church in Montevideo.

Natalia was on that bus. When Roberto gave her a New Testament, she eagerly opened it, as if God had a special word for her. Her eyes fell upon Acts 10:33 “I sent for you immediately, and it was good of you to come. Now we are all here in the presence of God to listen to everything the Lord has commanded . . ”. Cornelius´ words to Peter resounded in her heart. She knew that God had sent for her.

That afternoon Pastor Roberto began by sharing Natalia’s story. Halfway through, Natalia and Marcelo arrived. They had trouble finding the small community building, and arrived a little late. The group usually meets in an open soccer field Sunday afternoons.

And Marcelo? All he knew was that something amazing had happened to Natalia, and his scooter was her ticket to the meeting. At the end we took time to pray with the people. I prayed for an elderly husband and wife before joining the young couple. Marcelo looked a little nervous.

“Marcelo, how can I pray with you?”, I began, never expecting his response.

“I . . . I would like to know Jesus.” Now I was nervous! I had to ask again just to make sure I was hearing him correctly.

After leading Marcelo in a simple prayer asking Jesus into his life, I watched the transformation wash across him. He began to rub his hands, and then his sides as his eyes opened wide. Natalia began to bounce a little. She understood what was going on even if Marcelo didn’t.

We are still praying for the cities of Costa Azul, Peñarol and other possible locations for our third church plant. But whether or not we build a church in Costa Azul, God is already building his kingdom there.

Best Friends

2011-09-21T11:27:00.001-04:00

Dale Johnson looked me in the eye beside the Sam’s gas pumps in Jackson, Tennessee, “Isaac, you have been my best friend.” Tears filled my eyes as we hugged our goodbyes. He and his wife, Nancy, had traveled from their retirement in Oklahoma to visit while I am ministering in Northside A/G’s missions convention. They had to cut their trip short after receiving news of a death in the family, and we didn’t know when we would see each other again.

Terry and I worked hand in hand with Dale and Nancy at the Uruguayan Bible School for 10 years. They took us to the emergency room over and over again during our first tumultuous months in our newly adopted country. Dale and I built bookcases for the Bible school library and for our house, the first of a myriad of projects we did together through the years.

Together we walked through our children’s graduations, the deaths of beloved parents, and in and out of hospitals, the stuff that life overseas is made of. I well remember that gut wrenching moment when I told Dale that the Lord had called us to leave the Bible school to plant churches. I remember well the moment when Nancy discovered that Terry and I began financially supporting them during a difficult time for them. (They began supporting us as soon as they retired.)

Dale and Nancy stayed with us for the first six weeks and the last month of their last term in Uruguay. We spent many evening playing “Rail Baron” and “Settlers of Catan. Dale brought the same board games with him to Tennessee. I won one game and Dale won one. I accused him of cheating . . . I had to ask forgiveness!

We promised to get over to Oklahoma to see them the next time that we are near. I have to try to win that third game!

Dale, you have been and still are my best friend. We love you and Nancy so much.

Marindia and Pastor Gaby!

2011-04-11T23:27:00.004-04:00

God is doing amazing things at Marindia! It was our very first church plant back in 2003, and we marvel at the continuing miracle that God is giving us.

Terry and I visited for the first time in a little over a year after we heard that the Pastor Gabriel Ricca and the congregation had just laid a new tile floor. They just adopted a new name, Oasis church, and we waned to see what the Lord was doing for a special reason.

We tied to arrive late enough to avoid being asked to preach, but Gaby announced from the pulpit that I would be sharing, and God gave us a wonderful service.

Gabriel has been a special friend since 1995 when his parents came to the Bible school to work with us as student supervisors. Gabriel and his twin Fabian were just 17 back then, and we watched them grow into men of God.

Gabriel, Fabian, and sister, Marina, graduated from the Bible school during our time there, and today all three are ministering, Gabriel and Fabian as pastors, Marina in worship ministry.

It’s absolutely incredible to see the hand of the Lord moving through their lives, especially at Oasis Church in Marindia. We thank Him daily for the privilege of having a part in planting the seeds that are bearing such an incredible harvest.

Pray for Gabriel and his wife, Gimena, and their children as they touch Uruguay with the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

At the Moment of Healing!

2011-03-19T19:58:00.001-04:00

God is doing Amazing things in Uruguay!

Last week young Ana Cesia approached me at the national youth camp.

"I just have to tell you about what happened to me last week!" Ana had been in a Sunday evening service at one of the churches we planted. Our construction team from Toledo Calvary Assembly of God was ministering in the service. During the altar call Ana went forward for prayer.

About 10 days before Ana found a lump on her breast. Her mother took her to the doctor who not only confirmed one lump but discovered several other smaller ones as well. Brest cancer runs in Ana's family. Everyone was worried that Ana would be the youngest victum in the family, and an ecogram was ordered for the following week.

"When the sister (Tina) prayed for me, I fell to floor. I got back up, and she raised my hands, and said, 'From head to toe!' " As Tina hugged Ana in the altar area, we caught their picture . . . just at the moment of healing!

The ecogram on the following Wednesday provided the evidence of God's handiwork. It was completely clear!

Thank you Jesus!

"My father hugged me for the first time in 25 years!", Ernestina's story

2011-01-29T09:11:00.004-05:00

“My father hugged me for the first time in 25 years!” Ernestina’s words to me yesterday set me back in my seat. Terry and I have watched this young woman, already mother of an 8-year-old daughter, as she has made her first halting steps in her new life in Christ.

Drugs and Spiritism were a double bondage that took everything from 25-year-old Ernestina. She had been troubled by horrible nightmares that she couldn’t fully explain to us. But Jesus Christ breaks all bonds! I will never forget the morning after her first week at the center. I asked her how were her dreams. A smile bloomed on her face as she replied, “¡Deliciosas! (Delicious)”

Students have their first family visit after a month at the Teen Challenge center. Yet while her mom and sister drove three hours to for the visit, Ernestina’s daughter and father didn’t show up for another month. Ernestina told me afterward that she was so upset and nervous before this visit that she wanted to leave the program. Escape, usually through drugs, had been her lifestyle for so long.

Incredibly amazing . . . it’s the only way I can describe what happened next. The family spent the day and then stayed through the evening arm in arm. “Everyone asked for forgiveness . . . my family was never this way before.” Ernestina began to cry as she told us of the healing that took place. We cried too.

Pray for Ernestina. She’s only been with us for a couple of months, and there is so much more in the Lord ahead for her. Pray for her daughter and especially for her dad, Ernesto, that the Lord would do the same work in him that he has done for her daughter.

And please, please pray for the next young woman who walks through our door!

The Best Picture!

2011-01-16T11:55:00.000-05:00

Do you like to pose for pictures? You ask a passing stranger to take your photo. The ladies check their hair, and the guys (at least in my case) pull their stomachs in and hold their breath. Then, of course you have to take their picture with their camera, grateful in the back of your mind that your photographer did run off with yours!

I remember writing in my younger days that pictures capture a fleeting reality that is soon gone forever. That's why I like the unexpected action pictures. While I am so thankful for the time we spent at Punta Ballena (above), I loved the time we spent hanging out at home this last Christmas. If we're going to catch a passing reality, I want it to mean something.

Our family was together in Uruguay for Christmas for the first time five years. It was wonderful!

Brianne brought in one fruit-letter game and received two more for Christmas (see below). Of course we all had to play. And of course Brianne would announce her victories in a shrill and loud voice, "I WEEN, I WEEN", especially if Jason was defeated in the process.

This is my family; this is how they are when no one is watching. Terry goes way beyond the call, and fixes everyone's favorite foods. Jason cleans his plate, and his wife, Andrea's, as well. Brianne tries to get us to call her the "favorite child". Andrea tries to get a little South American sun (it's a lot hotter down here!) or checks her Ebay store.

And me? I mostly just smile, crack my old jokes and try to capture the moments I want to remember.

OK, OK, the truth is that I fall asleep in my chair. Obviously, I couldn't pull my stomach in or smile, or make myself look better in the slightest. Oh well, it's family, and it's real. Lord, I am so blessed!

Little Miracles!

2010-12-12T13:20:00.000-05:00

Marcelo nervously sat beside me after the morning Teen Challenge class. "It's real hard for me to read," he blurted out. I soon found out the truth . . . Marcelo can't read. After spending the last five of his young twenty-one years in prison, Marcelo lived, bound by crack cocaine, on the streets of Montevideo until last week.

The only way his mother could show her love for very lost son was to bring him food. Some friends put her in touch with the center, and Marcelo arrived just in time for my class last week. I noticed that he wasn't filling out his study sheet like the rest of the 34 students, but I said nothing. The first week is usually tough. The TC center is a new and strange experience for young men just off the streets, and many struggle as their bodies detoxify.

Agustín, a TC student now in his seventh month) caught up with me me after class. "Brother Isaac, Marcelo is having a rough time in class, because he struggles reading."

"Maybe you can help him," I replied not knowing how soon my words would be acted on. The next day, Friday, I pulled Marcelo out of the test over the weeklong class. While the other boys worked inside, Marcelo and I walked outside to the paint stained concrete bench under the trees and away from our summer sun.

I began to read each question, helping Marcelo with the answers. Agustín soon arrived after finishing his test, and after a couple minutes had taken my place. Together they worked through the test, Agustín often spelling the words and helping Marcelo form the letters to the words. It took them three times as long as the other boys to finish, but together they did it.

As I watched, I realized that there were two miracles happening right before my eyes. Marcelo was learning how to read, working on what may have been the first writing he had attempted since dropping out of primary school. Agustín just months after coming out of drugs himself, was patiently helping a young man he didn´t really know, showing him the what the love of Christ was really all about.

I love it!

Mario Graduated Last Night

2010-11-07T10:39:00.003-05:00

As Mario hugged my neck last night at his Bible school graduation ceremony, tears came to both our eyes. Over the past six years Terry and I have watched this young man transform before our eyes. Graduation from Bible school was just another step in the miraculous makeover that God is preforming in Mario's life.

Crack cocaine had all put ruined Mario's life when we first met him at our Teen Challenge Center. Like many other young men, he only stayed with us a few months before going back home and to the drugs that were destroying him. But there was something inside Mario that still wanted to be free. He returned to the program and turned his back forever on the streets and drugs.

Fourteen months later, he went straight from our program into our Bible school where he began to distinguish himself as a student leader. Mario got involved with his home church and began an outreach to drug addicts. I have had him in classes for the last four months at the Bible school, and saw first hand the calm maturity mixed with a fiery motivation that now caracterizes his life.

He has found an unused building in Montevideo and is in negociations with the owners to use it rent free as an outreach center. It's a huge step, but Mario feels strongly that the Lord is calling him to reach young Uruguayans with the message of liberty from drugs in Jesus Christ. Pray for him as he puts together the proposal to finalize the agreement.

God is doing amazing things through Mario . . . amazing things in Uruguay. WHAT A RIDE!

P.S. Watch Mario's testimony from 2006 near the end of our video "The Smythia Family in Uruguay". You can find it just to the right of this posting.

Martín Married Nancy Tonight

2010-10-17T20:51:00.002-04:00

Martín and Nancy joined together in the holy bonds of matrimony tonight . . . after 10 years and three kids! Many of the young men in our program have children, and some were still living with the mother when they come into the program. As Martín has grown in his new walk with Christ, he wanted the Lord´s blessing on his family.

Everone in the family showed up for tonight´s service. They all heard the message that Jesus can change lives just like Martín. Lost and drug dependent, he came into the program seven months ago. He had no hope, and was afraid that he would loose his family. God has done an amazing work in Martín. He is a new man, and now has a new family.

Nancy´s eyes shown brightly as she spoke her vows, and then grabbed her husband when it was time for Martín to kiss his bride. But I was more touched by the other students´ reaction. Smiles, oo´s and awe´s bubbled out of the 35 young men as they saw how Jesus Christ restores not just one life, but an entire family.

Although their seven year daughter was at a retreat, but their young boys were thrilled to see Dad for this very special visit. What an amazing night! I can hardly wait until next when another young man marries the mother of his child.

What a ride!!!!!!!!!!!!

Something Wonderful is Happening!

2010-10-01T23:16:00.002-04:00

I rarely wear a tie any more when I minister, but I did last Sunday night! I did so to honor the 36 young Teen Challenge students (almost all in ties) that I was speaking to. As Terry and I sat in the back during the worship, I pointed out to her one and then another who raised their hands in worship. All were standing; all were singing; all were participating!

Just a few months ago that wouldn't have happened. We don't force our young men to take an active part in the services, just to attend and be respectful. Many would sit quietly on the benches. But something wonderful is happening!

They filled the altar area later that evening, pouring their hearts out to the Lord who is actively changing their lives. I can see the change in their eyes.

Now we have a wonderful problem . . . a waiting list of those who want to enter the program. Always in the past we saw alot of turn over as young men would come in off the streets for just a few days before returning to their drugs. Amost 50% did not stay through the first month. However, we've only lost one young man over the past month!

Something wonderful is happening. What a Ride!

I Love Teaching

2010-09-05T11:04:00.002-04:00

I love it! Teaching that is!

Tomorrow 14 Uruguayan Bible school students will take their final exam for General Psychology before we jump headlong into Pastoral Counseling next week.

I tell my students that I am the toughest, most exacting teacher at IBA (Instituto Biblico Asambleas). Typed class notes, lots of reading, term papers, and three tough exams, my goal is to make the students hustle while pouring life lessons into them without their realizing it.

Most people can find a class on line on any subject, but there is something almost magical about the interaction I get to have with the students who sit before me three hours on Mondays and another two hours on Thursdays. I can see wheels turning and lights coming on almost every time we’re together.

There is nothing very interesting for fourth year student Leticia about learning about the neurotransmitters in the synapses of the neurons in the brain until she makes the connection with the 94-year-old cook’s mother who is in the later stages of Alzheimer. Hands go up. Questions pop out.

Next quarter, we make more connections. I get to tell them about my favorite Bible hero, Barnabas. I get to lay the foundation for the first time that future pastor Samuel talks to a victim of abuse. Maybe I will be able to minister to someone in class who has kept a lid on their own pain for far too long. It has happened before.

Almost forty years ago, the Lord called me into ministry with the promise that I would have a part in seeing thousands come to Christ. I now see that is not so much about the people I touch directly, but more about those I can empower to take the great news to great numbers of unbelievers.

What an honor! I love it! What a ride!

Dedicating Gabriel!

2010-08-23T06:19:00.000-04:00

I got to do one of my funnest things ever last night, dedicate tiny Gabriel Parente. He made his appearance on Terry’s birthday on the 12th of August. It was a triple honor for me:

Pablo planted one of our first churches back in 2003. He was the youngest of the four pastors, just in his third year at Bible school. Terry thought that we were overloading him with the responsibility of the church. But the Lord helped him, giving him a wonderful helpmate in Veronica later that year.

They asked me to perform their wedding, a first for me in Uruguay. The Lord gave us a beautiful summer evening under the gazebo at the Bible school. Terry and I paid for their wedding night at a nice hotel, and off they went.

We were in the States when the Lord did a miracle in Veronica, healing her body after the doctors told her she would never conceive. Esteban came along almost three years ago. We watched him grow into an active little boy.

However, last night was the Triple Crown for us! Veronica had gone through a very difficult pregnancy, passing the last months bedfast as they struggled to get Gabriel here safely. Terry and I prayed and helped here and there along the way. They asked me to dedicate him just last Thursday when I dropped in to see how mom and baby were doing.

There are no words to describe the feeling of standing in the church we planted with the young couple we helped join together, dedicating their new addition to the family! It’s as if God gave us a little taste of how He feels when a little child makes Jesus his savior. Innocent joy . . . that’s the best I can do.

Thank you, Jesus. What a ride!

Cut the Limb!

2010-08-21T08:04:00.003-04:00

My good friend Pastor Randy Carter asked for a short devotion for his upcoming missions convention, and I thought I would share it you as well.

Jesus replied, "They don't have to leave. Why don't you give them something to eat?" Matthew 14:16 (From the Contemporary English Version of the feeding of the 5,000)

Every time I read Jesus’ words to his disciples at the end of a long day of ministry when everyone was tired, hungry, and probably a little cross, I just want to say, “What? Me? You’re the Savior, the Lord of Glory.” But I’ve learned that most of the miracles that come into my life usually appear at the end of my day, at the end of my efforts , and at the end of my rope.

So they went looking for food. Andrew found one little boy whose mom had thought ahead. I can see what happened in my mind’s eye: “Now Joshua ( that’s what I call him), I don’t want you asking anyone for food. Take this with you, but save it until supper time.” What a great mom! I do wonder just how willing little Joshua was to give up his meal. We will never know on this earth. But he did give his five fishes and two biscuits to the Master, and everyone is still talking about it today.

That’s what miracles are all about! Jesus gives us impossible tasks that take us to our limit. Then He steps in to do amazing things. It’s like you crawl out on a limb way, way up the tree, and the Lord yells from below, “Cut off the limb . . . between you and the tree”!

We just walked through another limb cutting miracle again in Uruguay at our Teen Challenge center. This month Terry and I took over our Teen Challenge farm. The farm was purchased to train our young men and to produce food and income to support the center. Planting season is just around the corner, and I am not a farmer. We had no extra funds to pay workers, buy seed, or the equipment needed to get started. So we prayed, and I must admit that I fretted and fumed some too.

We hired a young graduate on Monday to start planting the tomato, green pepper, and other vegetable seeds in our makeshift green house. I didn’t know how we were going to pay him. But without crops to sell, the center would be in trouble. On Tuesday, the very next day, an email arrived from a Christian brother with news of an unexpected offering large enough to pay our worker, buy seeds, purchase the equipment, and cover everything during the planting season . . . and then some!

We’ll use wooden produce boxes instead of 12 baskets to collect our harvest, but the amazement is the same. “Wow, Lord! You did it again!”

Now this is my story. You’ll never have yours until you get out there on that limb and start cutting . . .

To My Dad, Smitty the Barber

2010-06-20T22:15:00.001-04:00

Dear Dad,

My son, Jason, told me today that he hears my voice in his head when he works out with his wife at the gym or when he’s on the job. “Come on Jason, you can do it . . .” I had forgotten what a loudmouthed fool I made of myself when he was in sports at high school.

I know what’s he’s talking about. Even though you’ve been gone now for 10 years, I can still hear your voice on that still summer night a million years ago down on Clear Creek. I was pretending to be asleep while you and Frankie, my big brother, still had your fishin’ lines in the water. “You know, that Ikie is a good boy.”

I remember lying under I don’t know how many cars holding the light while you kept those old clunkers running just a little bit longer. I never knew we were poor until I qualified for all those college grants because we lived “beneath the poverty line”.

We weren’t poor. You worked 10 hours a day weekdays and four on Saturdays, on your feet cutting hair for a buck-twenty-five a head. There was always plenty of food on the table though a lot of it was from huntin’ and fishin’. We had good and clean clothes on our back. You fixed up “Beuhla”, the Maytag washer that someone gave us. We called her that because of the buzzing sound she made for over 15 years every time a load of clothes was done. “Beuhla’s callin’, Mom.”

I cry every time I remember those last bitter sweet days with you. I flew in from Uruguay just in time to help you get into bed for the last time at Ruthy’s house. My sister and her husband had welcomed you after you sold our home in El Doroado Springs. I wish Terry and I could’a bought it. I drive by there every time we get back that way.

Lung cancer is an awful thing, but I guess I’m grateful that you went so quickly. The last few days I slept beside you just so you wouldn’t be alone if you passed during the night. Two days before we were lying together our heads just inches apart. I asked if you were afraid. You couldn’t talk, but I understood the blink of your eyes.

“Pure joy, Dad”, that’s what I said, “Pure joy” to pass from this world into the presence of the Lord. I make it a point now-a-days to tell those believers who are near death the same thing.

I don’t have many regrets, Dad. I love Jason, Brianne, and Terry, and am so thankful for what we’ve been able to do here in Uruguay. But I do with all my heart wish that you could see the seven churches, the Teen Challenge Center, or the farm. I miss you, and just would like to hear you say, “You’ve done a good job, son.”

Love,

Your good boy, Ikie

Fernando's back

2010-06-12T20:03:00.001-04:00

Fernando leaned up from his bunk this afternoon to greet me, but there was no joy in his eyes. Not yet. Yesterday he came in off the streets . . . for the second time.

I knew that something was wrong when I saw him at his graduation from the program in March. Fernando had returned home after finishing the program, but I knew that he wasn’t ready. Just being free from crack cocaine is never enough, certainly not for Fernando.

As I watched him on the front row during the ceremony, I could see the struggle behind his eyes. The problems that had led to his drug addiction had not been addressed. His relationship with Christ lacked the stability needed for him to return to the same environment, the same friends, and the same temptations.

It wasn’t long before he was back on the streets, stealing from his family to support the habit Fernando thought he had left behind.

And so we prayed and waited, knowing that for some it takes extra time and growth. Martin is four months into his second stay with us, and growing. Christian is doing great, having finished his third stay at the center a few months ago. He is serving the Lord with a good job and a wonderful fiancée.

Standing by Fernando’s bunk I rejoiced inside myself as we talked and prayed together. This is a victory! There’s much hard work ahead, but the difficult and humbling decision to return to the program is behind him. He has to start from scratch, and this time under the leadership of the young men that he once counseled as a student leader. But Fernando’s back, and I am expecting great things from the Lord for him.

Please pray for Fernando, and I’ll keep you posted on this battle.

Happy Mother's Day Terry

2010-05-08T09:03:00.002-04:00

Terry is still asleep this morning, allowing me to slip in this unauthorized pre-Mother’s day thought. But she’ll probably open the door at any minute.

Just like my mom, she has built in radar that picks up on everything. All systems are up and running as we weave through Uruguayan traffic. “Isaac, do you see that stopped moped with the cracked left tail light two miles ahead?” Of course I don’t see it, and of course she has saved my life more times than I will ever tell her!

Then there’s the food . . . our latest visitors just returned to the States an average of 6.3 pounds heavier than when they arrived; all from Terry’s table. “You can come fill your plate.” Those words turn me into one of Palov’s slobbering dogs. The menu is right out of the recipe section of Good Housekeeping.

Oh yes . . . “Good" housekeeping is not good enough for my wife. Our home is a reflection of her mind, organized and clean enough to eat off the floor. For my soul’s good, I need to own up to the chimney soot that I vacuumed off the carpet in front of the fireplace while she was gone. I know that she will find it eventually, and I know that she will have to go back over it again until every atom of black carbon is gone. It’s that radar thing again.

In Uruguay Terry is known as the “Light of Isaac’s Life after Jesus Christ” among the pastors. She’s not an “out in front” missionary, but rather a “keep the fires burning behind the scenes” person. She gets upset when I tell people that she is the hardest working missionary that I know. But Terry’s done it all: from construction team organizer to international school nurse to who knows what will be next. The Lord knew what He was doing when he called her to missionary service when she was just 12.

Oops! I just heard the bedroom door open. Happy Mother’s day Terry! I love you.

Applause in the Cemetery

2010-04-01T20:09:00.004-04:00

There was applause in the cemetery this morning as we buried Lucia. I was surprised but joined in with the 30 or so mourners who gathered to honor to this wife and mother of five.

I first met Lucia at our Uruguay Teen Challenge church about a year ago. Their middle son, Martin, was one of our 30 young men in the program. I soon learned that Martin's father, Juan, had been a life-long atheist, but that both had made a commitment to Christ when they saw the miraculous change in Martin's life. They came to church faithfully every Sunday, making the 40 minute trip from downtown Montevideo without complaint.

As Martin neared graduation from our drug rehabilitation program, he began to talk about entering our residential Bible school. "I don't have a call to a specific ministry," he explained to me. "I just feel that the Lord wants me to prepare myself".

It was just after Martin began his first semester at IBA (Instituto Biblico Asambleas) in March that Lucia was admitted to the hospital with symptoms of congestive heart failure. For the next month she hovered between life and death, and the family's new found faith was stretched to the limit.

Juan called me one evening a couple of weeks ago. Martin was at the point of dropping out of school so that he could spend all his time with his dying mom. Honestly, we were all afraid of how he was handling the incredible strain. Years before, a similar crisis had thrown him into drug abuse. I prayed and talked to Martin, as did our TC director. The Bible school admistration gave him the flexibility to come and go as he needed, and Martin stayed in school.

The text message came to my cell phone last night. Lucia was gone. Burials in Uruguay come within 24 hours of death, and are usually preceded by an overnight wake. I picked up our TC pastor and his wife at 6:00 am this morning. We arrived at the funeral home for the last two hours of the wake. Just before leaving for the cemetery, the pastor shared a short message about the hope that Lucia had found in Christ Jesus.

The look I saw on Martin's and his dad's faces amazed me. The miracle of "peace that passeth understanding" poured out of them touching everyone there. They knew where Lucias was and who she was with!

At the cemetery I quickly looked around to see who had started clapping. It was Juan, his eyes red with tears, but a smile on his face. He wasn't saying "goodbye", but rather "Bon voyage. I'll see you soon."

What a way to celebrate Easter. What a way to celebrate life in Jesus. What a ride!

Angel and Sonia

2010-02-15T12:05:00.005-05:00

Angel got married Saturday night to Sonia, a wonderful young Christian woman. As I watched the beatiful ceremony, I pondered the miracle that Terry and I have witnessed over the past few years.

Angel was living on 8 de Octubre Avenue, Montevideo . . . literally. His crack addiction had left him with nothing but the clothes on his back. He ate out of the garbage cans, slept where he could, and showered occasionaly at a public bathroom. It was from the there he first called the center for help.

When he came to us, Angel was (and still is) loud, flamboyant, boisterous, and had no clue what-so-ever about the concept of work. After he accepted Christ and had been in the program a while, Pastor Edison asked me to put him on our construction team while were building three churches.

He almost lost his job the day I came by the construction site and found his two co-laborers busy at work while he was entertaining them with his songs and stories. But he listened. "Si, hermano. No lo hago otra vez." (Yes brother, I won't do it again.), he promised me. He was true to his word. In fact, Angel became one of our best workers, finished the program, got a good paying job, and also is now the principal salesman for our farm produce. Honestly, I would love to take him to Alaska to see if indeed he could sell the residents snow cones in January. I think he could!

When Angel and Sonia return from their honeymoon, she will begin work at Hogar Esperanza (Hope House), our girls' home. Angel will begin part time as one of our student supervisors until we can support them full time. He feels called to work with Teen Challenge, the boys respect him, and God is doing amazing things in his life. I love it. Woo! Woo!

Gabriel

2010-01-21T06:11:00.003-05:00

Gabriel is the 30+ year old son of the Uruguayan national director of immigration. His dad brought him to the center because he and his wife had already lost one son who hanged himself, and Gabriel had been on drugs for 20 years. They were desperate, but Gabriel took off after only a week. "I just wanted a little more drugs," he transparently told me later.

His father returned to the center and poured out his heart to our TC director, Pastor Edison Vergara. "I have over 300 employees who will do whatever I say, but I can't control my own son," he lamented. Edison listened, shared quietly about what God could do, and then led Gabriel's father in the sinner's prayer.

The young man unexpectedly showed up at a service a few days later, almost daring God to prove that He cared for him. He told me a couple of days ago what happened next: During the altar service he looked up, and saw something . . . he couldn't explain to me what it was, but something was there. He then felt three "Jolts", one following shortly after another, the last knocking him to the floor where he spent the next 45 minutes. They finally carried him off to bed. What a way to get back into the program!

His face glowed as he shared his story while standing between the tomato rows at our TC farm. He and four other students were weeding. He doesn't understand everything that happened, he just wants more of Jesus! I took this photo of him in the outdoor altar service last Saturday night. He's in the black shirt.

This is what it's all about. What a ride!!

The Pond

2009-11-29T11:19:00.006-05:00

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

2009-11-29T11:12:00.004-05:00

God is so good. What a RIDE!

The Orange Rind Theory

2009-11-09T08:49:00.006-05:00

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

2009-10-27T12:49:00.006-04:00

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

2009-10-15T17:52:00.002-04:00

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

2009-09-06T06:45:00.003-04:00

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

2009-08-09T08:10:00.004-04:00

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!!

GREAT LESSONS FROM TOAST!!

2009-07-25T14:11:00.009-04:00

If you want toast, you have to plug the toaster in, dummy*! It's one of the first great lessons about toast that I have learned over breakfast in Uruguay.

This morning I went back for seconds of Terry's amazing bacon and egg sandwiches, dropped two multigrain slices in the slots of the toaster, and pushed the plunger down. I walked back after a couple of minutes expecting to see the warm red glow of my bread crisping only to find the cold blackness of a dead toaster. Our 110v American toaster runs off a transformer in 220v Uruguay, and Terry unplugs it after each use.

First Great Lesson: If you want the power, ya gotta be plugged in. Of course it takes great effort to get and stay plugged in, and sometimes we expect the ole toaster to work just because we drop the bread in. Sometimes we expect the Lord to work just because we show up to minister. Stay plugged in.

Second Great Lesson: Make sure you don't burn the bread. I hated the toaster we had in the States. It either did nothing or spit out skinny black bricks for toast. I could never find that "sweet spot" on the toaster lever thingy that produced the rich brown, slightly crunchy toast like my mom used to make under the oven grill.

I struggle to find that sweet spot in minstry. I have had that doughy feeling that I am not getting enough done in Uruguay, but I don't ever want to burn out again like we did during our first term in Uruguay. It's hard work: I keep moving the little lever between more and less. But the key for me is to keep moving it . . . a little more to the right, a little more work . . . a little more to the left and a little more time at home with Terry.

Last Great Lesson: Butter will not melt on cold toast. We all know it's best to grab your toast in midair as it pops up and quickly slather it. Then you can watch the miracle of the butter (OK, it's really margarine!) disappearing into your golden masterpiece. If you want to see miracles, ya gotta stay hot. Yesterday's toast is yucky! The people to whom you minister deserve better, and so do you!

So how's that for toast? Get plugged in, avoid burn out, and stay hot. I can't wait to look in the fridge . . .

* I hope that the word "dummy" doesn't offend anyone. I was going to write "stupid", but it's already been overused this week . . .

Sing Joe, Sing!

2009-07-14T08:44:00.003-04:00

Last night our Teen Challenge choir rehearsed for three services this Sunday. One of the young men, let’s call him Joe, loves the Lord with all his heart. He just has a problem carrying a tune, and he doesn’t know it.

He sings at the top of his lungs because Jesus has changed his life. He doesn’t live on the streets any more. He is free from the crack cocaine that stole everything from him. Every time I see him he smiles from ear to ear. His eyes sparkle with vitality that comes from a pure heart.

Joe's always one of the first to volunteer, first to work, first to pray. Everything he does is 100% effort. He just struggles when it comes to singing. We have tried put him in the back row, sandwiched between two strong singers, but he out “sings” them all. And at times he leads everyone else off key.

So, as we approach our first set of multiple Teen Challenge services I’ve come to a decision: I want everyone to make as good an impression as possible on our local churches. But if it comes to a choice between “Good” and “Strong” (Strong coming from a heart on fire for Christ), then I choose “Strong”. Sing Joe, Sing!

I"am Bill

2009-07-04T16:28:00.002-04:00

Dear Isaac & Terry,

I"am Bill one of your supporter i just got a laptop computer
about 3 months ago. I"am 63 having a hard time with it don't
understand alot about it either.

Isaac I know I don't write to you but just to let you know I do
[PRAY] for you & Terry and I believe in the ministery God put
in you for Uruguary. I think I has been with you for about 17
years now. I read on your web seight about the things God is
doing there.

I am getting ready to retire next year and will keep on supporting
you there in Uruguay till the Lord takes me home. I read about
Maria touch my heart. I will pray for her & trust Jesus will save her.
Today is July 4th I hope this goes through to you like I said I'am
just learning. MAY GOD BLESS YOU & TERRY.

In Christ
Bill

I just received this email, and had to post it. We first met Bill during our first itineration in 1992. I believe that we went out to eat with a group from his church after a service. I remember him well because he shared his testimony of how the Lord maintained his family during some tough days as he stayed faithful in his giving. Over the years both Bill and the Lord have continued faithful!!

Thanks Bill. I know that you already received my reply to your email, but I just wanted everyone to know a little of what the Lord is doing in your life!!

What a ride!

The Side of Missions that They Don’t Tell You about!

2009-07-02T10:06:00.003-04:00

I picked up our brand new just arrived in our container GE stove from a local repair shop. There was a factory defect, and the GE representatives in Uruguay don’t work on stoves, just washers and dryers. We know because they worked on our washer and dryer about $500 worth last term.

Pedro, the repairman in downtown Montevideo, is an old pro who tinkers on just about anything. You just can’t find his 16 foot square storefront without getting lost two or three times. I finally did. So about $120 and a week and half later, and we had our stove back.

The only problem was that it still didn’t work! But it worked at the repair shop! I saw it in action. But it didn’t work now! We checked the connections and reconnected the new 13 kilogram LP gas tank: nothin’!

In desperation, I tried an old rusty LP tank that the owners of our rental home had left behind. It worked. So I hopped in the van, and took our tank back to the LP provider. “Oh yeah, I get two or three tanks back a week. Sometimes they over-charge them with LP gas, and you can’t get anything at all out of the tank.”

Images of what might have happened when I was fiddling with an overcharged 13 kilo LP tank that wasn’t working properly filled my head. However, I said nothing and gratefully accepted the replacement tank, all the while praying that it was properly charged.

At least our stove seems to be working for right now. Now I’m down to hanging the ceiling fan in our bedroom with the too-short brass extension pipe for our pitched ceiling (a longer extension costs as much as the fan), and, of course, the set up on the desktop computer that we brought in from the states.

There just isn’t enough space to detail our computer travails. Every couple of days I post a heartfelt “AARGH!” on our Facebook page. It’s a little like scream therapy, except that nothing really changes. The computer tech (another $40) tells me that my router is about to go out. I wish it would and end the drama. But of course then I would have to try to get another in from the States, and yes I am already working on it.

In the meantime, the main thing continues to be the main thing. God is changing lives at our Teen Challenge Center. I will tell you about Vicki and Ernesto in a couple of days. I have to keep that in mind as I hold myself back from kicking something. Anyway, it would just make things worse, especially for my twenty screw (none loose yet!) feet . . .

Maria

2009-06-23T08:27:00.003-04:00

“I don’t live at home anymore. I live with my boyfriend.” 14 year old Maria’s words broke my heart as she leaned against my car and spoke to me on the intersection of Routes 101 and 8 just outside of Pando.

I had gotten to know Maria and her three brothers when our last church planting effort got underway about four years ago. They staked out that intersection, asking for coins from drivers waiting for the lights to change. I usually saw them two or three times a day as I ran back and forth between our new outreaches.

After a while and many pesos, they would run up to my car as soon as they saw me. “We don’t like Jesus.” That was the oldest brother, Carlos’ response to my attempts to witness to them.

Soon after returning to Uruguay, I drove through the intersection looking for them, but they were nowhere to be seen. A few days later, I saw José. He is the youngest, and always the most mischievous. But not this time.

It was pouring rain, but José was still at his post. He stuck his head in my window, and I watched the rain run down his face and drip on my arm rest as we talked. I gave him 20 pesos that day, almost a dollar and much more than the normal two or three pesos. My hope was that he would have enough to get out of the rain and head for home. He was gone when I returned a little later.

I saw another brother a few days later. I had forgotten his name, but knew his face immediately. He had grown several inches taller and had learned to juggle six balls at once. Many of the street beggars learn some little trick to entice drivers to toss them a few coins. He showed me his new skill, but his eyes told me that he had started using drugs. My heart ached. I still haven’t seen Carlos.

It was a couple of weeks later that I ran into Maria. When she saw me, she smiled the same sad smile of resignation that I had seen so many times before. I had always tried to do a little extra for Maria, and I think that she recognized it. She was in more danger than her brothers. All the pretty young girls are.

The afternoon light was waning, and I was surprised to see her still on the street:

“Hola, Maria, how are you?”
“Fine.” She was always just fine.
“What grade are you in at school?”
“Ninth.” A year or so behind, but I wondered if she was even attending.
“It’s getting late, when are you headed home?”
“I don’t live at home anymore. I live with my boyfriend.” There was a note of defiance in her voice. I knew that she was still very young. But when she told me how old she was, I couldn’t help myself.
“That’s too young Maria!”

She gave me a half snort, and turned back to the street. The light changed, and I headed on towards home. Her words still haunt me. We have seen so many wonderful things happen to young Uruguayans. Why not Maria? . . . O GOD, TOUCH MARIA!

Nahir's Eyes

2009-06-06T18:05:00.003-04:00

Her eyes glistened with a mixture of innocent wonder and surprise. But Nahir was not a six year old just awakened on Christmas morn. She’s the director of Hogar Esperanza, our girls’ Teen Challenge home. Nahir is a pastor’s wife who has given literally all her energies to raising her family and to ministry at the church her husband and she founded 26 years ago. Today that includes our TC center with 20+ young men and a handful of young women.

Her wide open eyes glistened as Terry told her of another miracle of God’s provision, a new kitchen in addition to the makeover that will soon begin on her bathroom. Edison and Nahir Vergara begin their day 5:30 am in the summer, 7:00 am in the winter. The end of their day is usually the beginning of a new day, after midnight.

Imagine a kitchen area about the size a large bathroom. Built over forty years ago, water pipes run exposed along the wall, two spigots hanging over a shallow sink; a two by three ft. preparation table sits in the center of the room . . . no room for chairs; a small refrigerator blocks an unused door into the hallway.

Imagine knocks at the door four or five times an hour, and at times four or five times in three minutes. The church is 20 steps away; the center is 30 steps away, and the nerve center for the entire operation is Nahir’s kitchen.

Her eyes glistened as Terry related what had happened. Visitors from the US had toured the men’s and women’s centers and heard the incredible testimonies of changed lives. On the way to our Teen Challenge farm, Terry mentioned in passing her dream to do a make over of Nahir’s kitchen. One of the visitors, Randy, told her out of the blue, “Terry, you have the money.”

She held back tears as Terry finished, “Nahir, I just want you to know that the Lord hasn’t forgotten you.”

Sarah Aguiar

2009-05-29T09:25:00.004-04:00

I first met Sarah Aguiar in Cincinnati at the World Missions Summit II over New Years. Actually, she was looking for me. As we sat at one of the skinny round tables on the third floor of the Duke Energy Center, she shared her passion to work with Teen Challenge women in Uruguay.

Honestly, I was a little skeptical at first. She seemed so young, only 24, to be making a commitment to a battlefield like Uruguay. So I invited her to sit with me at the table I hosted for college age youth at the center. I put her on the spot with questions, asking for her opinion about missions ministry in front of about 15 of her peers.

Skepticism soon changed into wonder: Sarah was for real. A graduate from Zion Bible College, she had invested a summer of student ministry in the tiny south pacific island of Vanawatu without electricity or running water. She is currently working at Minnesota Teen Challenge. She showed the pictures of around 40 women from the center that she was working with and praying for. Sarah already has a basic command of Spanish, AND she can drive a stick shift (there are no automatic transmission vehicles in Uruguay)!

So Terry and I invited Sarah to come to Uruguay, all the while thinking, “This could all fall apart at any point.” But it didn’t . . . take a look at an Email that she recently sent me:

I have just been approved as a missionary associate with the Assemblies of God to work with Isaac and Terry Smythia at the women's Teen Challenge center in Uruguay! I connected with Isaac in December 2008 and he shared with me about the center in Uruguay. Through our conversation it became clear that this was the direction that God was leading.

I have been living in Minnesota and working at Teen Challenge for the past 3 years as direct care staff in one of the women's facilities. It is incredible to be part of the miracle of restoration that God is doing in the lives of the students -- I am humbled every day that God has entrusted me to work with these precious women.

As I prepare to make the transition to Uruguay I will be moving back to NY (where I am originally from) to raise my funds. I will be leaving (the first of June). During this time that I hope to have the opportunity to work on staff at the Brooklyn Teen Challenge center. Please join me in prayer that the door will open. I truly believe this is the direction God is leading!

God IS doing amazing things in Uruguay, and we are so honored to have Sarah join us. Please be in prayer for Sarah as she raises her funds for Uruguay.

Woo! Woo! What a ride!!

For more information about Sarah or to help her get to Uruguay, contact her at sarah.aguiar@ma.agmd.org.

Artwork and Memories

2009-05-23T15:42:00.005-04:00

I just put my favorite artwork on my office wall. Both drawings have been within eye’s reach of my chair for all four of our terms in Uruguay.

Jason made the first contribution, “Open Door”, when he was eight. We were pastoring in Weston, Ohio just beginning to work on the mountain of paperwork involved in becoming missionaries.

Near the end of our first term, 10 year old Brianne decided that it wasn’t fair that Jason had his work on the wall, but that she didn’t. And so came “Open Hands”.

They remind me . . . that church doors are to be open to the people; that God’s hands are always open receive us; and that we have children who are nor children anymore, but are still serving the same Lord that inspired them so many years ago.

Memories form deep foundations in our lives. Positive memories give us stability through hard and lonely times. Good memories give us platforms from which we launch ourselves anew; new ministries based on old blessings, new growth springing from deep roots.

So I look at my drawings, and get ready for whatever the Lord has for us this term in Uruguay. Thanks Jason. Thanks Bri. Your dad is so grateful for your drawings.

Unpacking 101

2009-05-17T10:04:00.004-04:00

Silently stacked and crowded into dark storage, our mattresses and fridge, pillows and pots gathered dust and awaited our return while we lived as gypsies for almost three years. From Springfield, MO to Dayton then to Toledo, we moved and depended on the kindness of churches and friends.

Suddenly, doors flung open and sunlight rushed in followed by our Teen Challenge students who helped us install ourselves in Uruguay for now the fourth time. Amazingly, everything seems to be in good shape. Two notable exceptions: The burners and oven on the stove refuse to cooperate. However, we anticipated this rebellion, and a replacement stove is on its way in our soon to arrive container. And somewhere our blender has disappeared. It will probably show up when we pack up in another four years.

I promised Terry not to rush off into ministry until everything is set up. (I was only a couple of days around the house before diving into church planting last time.) So I built a platform for our washer and dryer, a deck in the attic for our luggage, hung curtains and the like . . . all the while Terry has worked circles around me.

Tonight we minister at a church planted by one of our first Bible school graduates about sixty miles away. Tomorrow, a little more around the house to be done, and then, and then . . . stay tuned!

Oh by the way, we get to do all this again in about a month when our container from the US arrives with a few replacement items for us, and a ton of stuff for our Teen Challenge Center.

Safe and Almost Sound

2009-04-25T09:44:00.003-04:00

It’s early Saturday, and I am sitting in my Speed the Light (thanks Ohio youth!) van in the parking lot of our Bible school. I am “stealing” internet from the library wireless as I don’t want to wake anyone to get into an office.

Terry and I arrived safely in Montevideo Tuesday morning with all our luggage and just one scare. As we were headed to the airport Monday the trucker who was to pick up our container at 8:00 am with everything that we are sending to Uruguay called. It was near 10:00 am.

“I can’t find the place.” The place was a barn located down a ½ mile gravel drive just off a county road.

“OK,” I replied, “turn around and look for the three green mailboxes on your right.” He passed them again.

“OK, turn around in the Baptist church parking and watch for the pile of wood on the left.” He saw the woodpile.

“OK, look for the 50 mile an hour speed limit sign on your right. The mailboxes are on your left. Turn into the drive and follow it to the end.” He found the drive but turned off at the first house on the right.

“OK, turn around and follow the drive. It will curve to the right.” He turned off at the next house on the left.

“OK, turn around and then turn to the left and follow the drive to the right.” He got lost. The only problem is that you can’t get lost on that drive; there was now no place else to go but to the barn.

Fortunately, our driver, Pastor Josh Plaisance, had the phone number of the daughter of the owner of the barn. So he called Hannah and asked her to call her mom to go out and look for the driver. He was just up the drive.

So by our container is supposed to be on a train headed for NYC to catch a boat next week for Uruguay.

OK, just pray that the driver found the train!!

Terry arrived with a bad cold and has passed the past three days in bed. She improved enough by yesterday to head to downtown Montevideo with me to work on our resident visas. We will move into our rental house sometime next week.

There is so much to do, and please know that we could never do it without you!!

Packing Up

2009-04-19T20:27:00.002-04:00

We board the plane to return to Uruguay in less than 24 hours. Packing up this time has been different. Three times we have boxed up our lives: in 1992, 1997, and 2002. The routine was always the same. Purchase everything that we might not be able to find in Uruguay (enough to last four years), itemize, box it up, and send it down by ship to Uruguay in a 20 foot container.

It’s been a learning curve. We had heard prior to our first shipment, that there were no paper products in Uruguay. So Terry tallied up the monthly use of ALL our paper products and multiplied it by our 48 month term. We purchased and shipped cases and cases of facial tissues, paper towels, and TP (yes, that’s toilet paper!). It was either a miraculous multiplication of the paper products, or that she was a little off on her figures, but we finally finished off the last of the paper towels in 2004, 12 years later! (And yes Uruguay has all kinds of paper products, including soft TP!)

This time we return alone, without Jason and Brianne. Our focus has changed from boxing up clothes, bedroom furniture, and Christmas gifts, to things like a commercial refrigerator, a post hole digger, a garden tiller, and other needed items for our Teen Challenge center, farm, and for our new church plants.

There have been multiple miracles of provision. We needed to raise $8,000 for a new well on our TC farm. Much more came in, enabling us to buy kitchen and other equipment for the center. I attended a reunion of a team that had just returned from building one of our TC dorms, and wound up with cordless drill batteries, volley balls, and basket balls.

Nine brand new casement windows, a beautiful door, an industrial table saw; donations came in like animals queuing up to enter the ark. The day before we were to load the container, a brother showed up with a tile saw and a foosball table!

I was left scratching my head wondering why this burst of generosity on the part of so many. Then I realized once again that this is God’s time for Uruguay. He is doing something amazing in our country, and these tools are just His resources placed by His people to accomplish His purposes . . . and He has entrusted us to help. Thanks for you part, for what you have done and for what God is about to do through you! What a Ride!

It's a Gusher!

2009-04-05T22:43:00.006-04:00

Well, maybe not a gusher, but our new well will provide all the water we need for our Teen Challenge farm.

At 134 feet down our driller struck an underground aquifer. We will soon run the power and water lines that will allow us to use the water that you have helped us reach. The next step will be to dig a holding pond.

The well and pond will give us water to irrigate our crops, providing a steady income for our young men and women in our drug rehabilitation program.

And that’s not all. Your response last January went far beyond what we had imagined. Terry and I have been able to purchase equipment for the farm and for our Teen Challenge kitchen that we will ship to Uruguay in the next two weeks. We can’t thank you enough!

I am so aware of the sacred connection that God has established between you and Uruguay. He is doing amazing things in our adopted country. You provide the resources. Terry and I are so honored to be the conduits. The bottom line is that lives are changed and the Kingdom is built in Uruguay.

What a Ride!!

My Hot Parents

2009-03-27T21:47:00.005-04:00

I made two discoveries today as I went through some family pictures rescued from my sister’s attic. A small box with a sample Christmas card on the top was labeled in my mom’s hand writing, “Your daddy’s pictures before we were married.” First discovery: My daddy dated a lot of good lookin’ women before mom! Picture after picture appeared of WWII Sergeant Raymond Smythia with his arm around one, then another, then another woman that I didn’t recognize.

Then I came across the pictures of Dad with Dorotha Ruth. Second discovery: My mom was hot! Terry’s comment on my mom's posing in the closest thing to a 1940’s bikini was, “I can’t believe that she saved that one!” She probably didn’t. My guess is that it was Dad’s snapshot.

It’s taken me most of my life to see Smitty and Dot as anything more than Dad and Mom. They met during the war, were married by a justice of the peace, and were turned down for a VA home loan. They finally signed a note at the local bank for $6,500 to be paid back over the next 25 years for the only home I ever knew.

They weren’t particularly spiritual till my mom began her battle with MS. God healed her, and more importantly changed her life. Dad made an early commitment to Christ, but never went to church like my mom. When I was a boy I used to draw pictures of hell and hide them in his easy chair for him to find.

It wasn’t until I was a pastor in Ohio that I began to pray with Dad, every time I called him in Missouri. When we got the news in Uruguay that Dad was about to give into the cancer he had battled for over a year, I rushed back to Missouri to pray one more time with Dad. He joined Mom in heaven seven days later.

You know that in heaven we are ageless, our perfect selves. Oh . . I just made another discovery: When I get there, I gotta look for a guy who could’ve stepped off the cover of GQ magazine, and my hot mom. But what’s most important is that I will find them there.

I can’t leave this without two final words to you, “Be there!” No matter what it takes; no matter what it costs, “Be there!” There is nothing more important, nothing more vital than making it to heaven. “Be there!”

I Hate to Lose.

2009-03-19T20:09:00.007-04:00

Oh, I don’t mean things like board or card games. Memories of won or lost games quickly fade from my mind like ice cubes on an August sidewalk.

But other memories haunt me. Casandra left our Teen Challenge center on Sunday. Every time I think about her (see previous posting), I stare off into space and shake my head.

Then other names and faces run through my mind: Rodrigo, Fabiana, Dario. Each touched my life as they lived, struggled, and experienced the grace and mercy of God at the center. All are back in different degrees of bondage to drugs, far from the liberty and peace that God had given them.

Our Teen Challenge directors, friends and others encourage me to focus on the over 70% of our graduates who today are drug free and serving Jesus Christ. We just handed out Study Bibles to ten brand new graduates, each with a miraculous story.

But what about Casandra? What about the others? I can only pray for them, “Oh God, protect them. Draw them back to you. Break the chains that are now binding them stronger than ever! And don’t let me forget them Lord, ever. Wake me up in the night to call out their names.”

“And Father, I do thank you for the miracle stories from Andres, Angel, Estefani, Daniel, Sergio, and for Mario . . .”

Oh, I almost forgot to tell you about Mario. He was one of our first graduates three years ago. Today Mario is working with a local pastor, founding their own rehab center. They have taken six young men off the streets so far. We will keep you updated on this ongoing miracle.

So please pray for Mario, and please, please pray for Casandra.

Casandra didn’t leave today . . .

2009-03-14T20:58:00.003-04:00

. . . and that’s an amazing miracle from God!

I met her my first Sunday in Uruguay this trip. Her smile hid the cruel realities behind her being in our Teen Challenge program. Though only 22 years old, Casandra had already experienced the dregs of the international sex-slave industry.

She first went to Spain on a promise of easy money as a prostitute. Yet, soon after her arrival, she was locked in her room, raped by five men, and forced to eat food thrown to her on the floor. All was designed to break her will and turn Casandra into a money making machine for her handlers.

Between last Christmas and New Years, she managed to escape (“a miracle from God.” she told me) and return to Uruguay, and her family. Yet, it was not long before she back on the streets to support her drug habit.

The reappearance of one of her handlers in her hometown in the interior of Uruguay finally drove her to us. She wasn’t really looking to change, just for a safe haven. But God began to work on her life.

I have never seen anyone in our program with a greater battle during her first month in the program. Casandra was always in the altars, hungry for God to work in her life, always glowing after services. But during the week, she was moody, manipulative, always trying to stretch the house rules to fit her wants and desires.

One night she snuck into the kitchen, cut her arm, and drank a little cleaning solution. Neither act was life-threatening, and did not bring the result she wanted: a trip to the doctor for prescrition meds. So she threatened to leave. That brought our first talk and new doors and locks on the kitchen.

Casandra didn’t really want to leave. She just didn’t want to walk the difficult path to wholeness. A few days later, she called me over, and told me that she was sure that when her parents came for their first visit today, that they would insist on taking her home. That’s when I asked our visiting Ohio construction (Thank you Dayspring!) to begin praying. I knew that if she left, she would return to the streets and probably soon be back in Spain or worse.

So we prayed. This afternoon when I was visiting the Teen Challenge center, she called me over to meet her family with these words, “Me quedo.”, I’m staying! What an important first miracle!

Please help us pray for Casandra. She needs many more miracles in the days and weeks to come. This battle is not nearly over, but we know that God is more than able, and more than willing to give her as many miracles as she needs.

By the way, Casandra is not her real name, but God will know who you’re talking about.

Team Dayspring

2009-03-07T18:01:00.002-05:00

“I guess I was always interested in missions. I just didn’t want to have anything to do with Jesus!” Dave Baker explained to me why he came to Uruguay as we walked to supper at the Uruguay Bible School. “I wasted 23 years on alcohol and drugs before coming to Christ.”

Today was a continuation of many firsts in Dave’s life: First time on a plane, first overseas missions trip, first taste of Uruguayan food (very good!). His trip here in itself was a miracle. The home group that he attends at Dayspring with his wife surprised him with money enough to cover his flight and more.

Dave arrived today with 10 other men from Dayspring Assembly of God, Bowling Green to add three rooms onto men’s dormitory at our Teen Challenge Center, home to 20 young men and three young women who are in various stages of deliverance from drug addiction. Over the next week, I want to share some of the team members’ stories; stories of provision, of miracles, and always of God’s faithfulness.

I asked Dave what he personally hoped to accomplish on this trip. “I hope that I can share a little of what the Lord has done in my life to make a difference in one of the young students at the center.”

You already have, Dave. Just by coming from so far to be here with our young men and women, you already have.

2009-03-06T17:35:00.000-05:00

And the Doctor Said . . . by Brianne Smythia

2009-02-14T22:28:00.008-05:00

. . . “Go forth and buy shoes!”

I was off like a shot, dragging my precious parents around two towns and in and out or six shoe stores. Soon victory was mine, a pair of oh-so comfy slippers and a pair of #500 purple and silver New Balance tennies!

It’s been 18 months since I found myself lying on the grass looking at my foot, yelling out, “I’m broken!” Four surgeries, three wheelchairs, one beloved leg caddy (scooter), a walker, and two canes later, I am free. All that is ahead of me now is about a month of physical therapy to strengthen my weakened leg and fused ankle.

Now for the best part. The winners of the “You make me cry every time I think of you award” are the following:
- Every one of you who have prayed for me.
- Precious doctors and hospital staff who put me back together.
- My boss, Kathy, and co-workers who have been so gracious to me.
- My incredible friends who have looked out for me.
- My amazing parents – Dad who let me borrow Mom for so long and my mom who gave a huge chunk of her life to make sure I would be OK (Love them!)
- Jesus, whose faithfulness and compassion blows me away. He taught me about perseverance (James 1:2-4).

Brianne Smythia

Rain

2009-02-03T12:11:00.003-05:00

“Flat-out miracle!” That’s what my mom would have called God’s recent provision for our Teen Challenge farm and for all of Uruguay.

For the past several months Uruguay has suffered one of the worst droughts on record. Sheep and cattle have been dropping like flies. Ninety-five percent of pasture had been completely destroyed in the Uruguayan State of Flores. Milk plants closed because dairy cattle were not producing enough milk to keep the doors open.

Our Teen Challenge (TC) farm had weathered the crisis until our irrigation pond was all but drained. TC students began to water our five acres of squash, peppers, and tomatoes by hand, literally giving each plant a drink every couple of days.

At the time I was in Uruguay for a week of meetings. Thursday afternoon before my overnight return flight I turned to the Lord and to you by email for help. If we could quickly raise the funds to drill a well, we might save our crops and our income for the Teen Challenge center.

I couldn’t believe my eyes as I checked my email the next morning between connecting flights in Chicago. Several had immediately responded including David Boyd, the director of Boys and Girls Missionary Challenge, a missions program for children. “Isaac, BGMC will match the money for the well” up to half of what we needed! By the Sunday, all the funds and more had come in! It was incredible, but God wasn’t finished.

The following Monday, just four days after my first communication I wrote in a thank you email, “We do ask that you keep praying for rain. Although the well meets our immediate need, Uruguay continues to suffer this horrendous drought. Pray that God will send heavy rain clouds with long slow rains that will replenish Uruguay's soil without floods or mudslides.” I kept watching the forecasts for Uruguay, nothing on the horizon.

Tuesday, I received the following from one of our contacts who had been interceding for Uruguay: “Is it raining yet? I can see the streams flowing and children playing in the rain.” I checked again, only a 30% chance of showers in Uruguay on Thursday, and nothing thereafter.

Then it happened! A colleague called from Uruguay on Thursday with the first news, and then I received an email on Friday from the president of our Teen Challenge board, “The Lord has responded. It’s raining, for two days now (long, slow, and steady), and they say that it will continue for several days more. This is a concentrated, liquid blessing.”

Our pond is full again, and we will soon begin drilling our new well and expanding the pond that will free our farm from dependence on contrary climate conditions.

Thank you so much! Your generosity will soon give us a well. Your prayers have touched an entire nation.

Pray for Sebastian

2009-01-28T19:35:00.002-05:00

Sebastian returned to our Teen Challenge center the same Saturday that I did. But he was not the same young man that I remembered from two and a half years before.

I never learned how it was that Sebastian found himself back on the streets, once again dependent on crack cocaine. I only saw the gauntness in his face, the huge blisters and open sores on his feet from months on the streets of Montevideo.

He was still high when he arrived. I quickly prayed for our returnee and waited till later to talk with him. Mostly he was exhausted from four days without sleep. The next morning (Sunday) he sat quietly during worship and my message. He stayed put as other residents came forward for prayer. Yet at the end of the service, he began to sing along with our closing chorus . . . our first positive sign.

I wish I could tell you that he has already made the breakthrough that I know Sebastian so desperately needs. But I pray for him . . . as I pray for Fabiana, Rodrigo, and Dario. Most of our Teen Challenge graduates leave the center, move on with their lives, returning to families, finding jobs, serving Christ. But I pray for those few who return to drugs and the streets. And I pray especially for Sebastian. It’s always harder the second time.

Will you pray with me? I will keep you updated.

Lessons to Learn

2009-01-24T20:40:00.005-05:00

I have much to learn about serving Christ and touching his people. Tomorrow I will share the two morning services at Toledo Calvary Assembly (Ohio) with Pastor Chad Gilligan; the topic is “Compassion”. Just days back from a week in Uruguay, my heart is still full from my latest lesson.

I stumbled onto this one last week after the Sunday morning service at Abundant Life Church, our Teen Challenge church just outside of Montevideo. Although Sunday school is closed for the Uruguayan summer, several children were playing outside. They stopped suddenly and filed orderly into the sanctuary.

It was lunch time and the children were about to receive what may well have been their only meal of the day. They came from a nearby squatters’ village. That’s not unusual. Many churches all over Uruguay are feeding the hungry.

But this lesson wasn’t to be found by feeding small children. It lay a little deeper. Abundant Life church is sustaining these children while struggling to stay afloat itself. Just last September, our Pastor/Director Edison Vergara didn’t have enough funds to feed the Teen Challenge residents or his family. God provided a miracle then, and still does daily.

Today our center is struggling with the rest of the country through a killer drought. Our farm cash crops are hanging by a thread. Pastor Edison is just catching up back pay to staff members.

And yet . . . and yet last Sunday there was enough pasta left over to send some home to the parents of the children who ate. How do they do it? Where did the pasta come from? Why, from the Lord of Compassion of course. . . and through the hands of a few who understand and are willing to pass that compassion along to others who most need it.

I have so much to learn.

Back to Uruguay!

2009-01-20T13:11:00.002-05:00

The heat hit me like a blast furnace. The sun above and the pavement below combined in an attempt to broil everything in their reach. . .and I loved it! I had boarded the plane in the subzero temperatures of Ohio, and just 17 hours later I was back in middle of summer in Uruguay.

Andres, one of our student supervisors, was waiting to take me to our Teen Challenge (TC) truck. It was too big for the airport parking, so we walked to the side of the road where a smiling Pastor Edison was waiting. Much has changed; work has begun on the last half of our men’s dorm. Foundation pillars have been poured for a new pavilion where TC students can visit with family members.

More importantly, life changing work continues in our center. Hope House has two young ladies, both new to me. Claudia has been here for six months, seven months for Erica. The men’s center has 16 young men in the program right now. Some are nearing the end of their 14 months of drug rehab. Others have been here a just a few months, and some have just come off the streets of Montevideo, drugs, and the hopelessness in which they were trapped.

All share a new hope, that there is a way out of the prison of crack cocaine, life on the streets, and a far too early death. I preached to them this morning, and they responded in the altars, pouring out their souls, asking the Lord to penetrate a little deeper through the hardness of their hearts to give them His peace, joy, and hope.

I return to the US in just a few days, but already I remember where our heart is. God is doing amazing things in Uruguay, and we are so honored to be included. WHAT A RIDE!

Blown Away by the Next Generation of Kingdom Builders

2009-01-06T15:23:00.005-05:00

I didn’t want to go. The World Missions Summit II would take me away from my family for three days out of the short time I had with them over the New Year’s holiday, and more importantly over Terry’s and my anniversary.

But God was about to blow me away and settle my concerns about the next generation of Kingdom builders. Over 4000 young people representing hundreds of universities, churches and ministries from all over the U.S. showed up for the three day summit. My job was to host a table during four “Meals with a Missionary”. Four times my table quickly filled with students, each with a passion to reach the world with the Good News of Jesus Christ. As two or three would leave, another two or three would sit down.

One had already been to Egypt. Another invested three months of her life in Vanawatu with no lights or running water on this tiny South Pacific Island. She spoke with me about the possibility of working a year in our Uruguay Women’s Teen Challenge Center. Country after country, student after student, all had been matched up by the Lord of the Harvest.

Ariel sat at my table with Grace (see photo below) during our last meal. She was full of questions, concerns, even a few doubts. But nothing took away from her flint-like determination to serve the Lord overseas. When I learned that she was headed to Argentina over the next few months, I invited her to visit us in Uruguay. The following is part of an Email she just sent me:

Dear Pastor Isaac,

I wanted to tell you what an amazing blessing it was to meet you at the World Missions Summit 2. It was truly an act of God the way everything happened.

I am excited for what God's doing in my life and more so for what God has planned in Uruguay. I really want to be a part of building God's kingdom there and I ask that you pray for me to be strong and to listen to what God is telling me to do.

I have been praying that God break any fear or embarrassment I may have and to give me more faith. I believe that by going to Uruguay I will strengthen my relationship with Jesus and be able to touch others with the love of Christ.

(While in Argentina next year), I would love (to come over to Uruguay) to volunteer some weekends, or when I have extended time off from class. God bless you and the work He has called you to do in Uruguay.
Sincerely,
Ariel

The World Missions Summit II brought over 4000 students from all over the United States together with hundreds of world and US missionaries in Cincinnati over the New Year's holiday. Inspired worship, powerful preaching, and life changing presentations from around the world made the event unforgetable. The 2005-6 World Missions Summit resulted in over 700 people committing at least a year of their lives in missions service.

Unexpected Christmas Gift!

2008-12-24T20:44:00.004-05:00

The voice on my cell phone this morning spoke Spanish. The distinctive accent with the hard “LL’s” and “Y’s” told me the speaker was Uruguayan. After a couple more sentences I recognized our Teen Challenge director on the other end of the line. Edison never calls me from Uruguay! His unbridled excitement had masked his normally low and gravelly voice.

“Have you heard the news?! Have you heard the news?!” I hadn’t heard anything for a couple of days, but lately good news about our drug rehab program had been coming like welcome summer rain. Our farm just began producing a harvest and an income for the first time in four years (see below). Our Uruguay Teen Challenge had just been highlighted by the office of the President of Uruguay as one of the few “successful” drug rehab programs at a national review of every religious and secular outreach in the country. God is doing amazing things in our country!

So how could Edison top that? “¡Hemos recibido un regalo de diez mil dólares!” A gift of $10,000! The owner of a major Uruguayan milk company had taken an interest in the center, had visited, and asked how much it would cost to finish construction of our half completed men’s dorm. Edison told him and the check soon arrived!

What a miracle! Generosity, while a hallmark of so many in the States, is almost unheard of in Uruguay. A gift of $10,000 in Uruguay is right up there with the parting of the Red Sea! But then again God is doing amazing things in Uruguay.

We have a team coming (Thanks Dayspring!) to Uruguay in March to help finish our men’s dorm. Now, we will be able to add a much needed pantry for our kitchen, begin work on the garage for our truck, and much more.

What a ride!

Excited about Onions

2008-12-11T01:15:00.005-05:00

Only a farmer would jump up and down over a ceiling full of onions, or perhaps some Teen Challenge students who depend on the sale of the onions that they planted, cultivated and harvested.

Terry and I had wondered if the farm was going to wind up more like an onion for our center. Except for a short time just after we had purchased the 15 acres four years ago, the farm hasn’t produced any crops or income until now.

Drought, fungus, bugs, they came at always the wrong times. Tomatoes shriveled and peppers just plain refused to do what they were supposed to do. But we prayed, the boys kept working, and sometime this last spring (October in Uruguay) something wonderful began to happen. Our farm began to produce in abundance.

Every pound of onions, kilo of carrots not only helps feed our 20 hungry young men and four young ladies, but provides an income that is beginning to cover the myriad costs of housing, feeding and ministering to our students.

And just like our plants, students change and grow into what God created them to be. So I get excited over onions, in fact sometimes I even cry a little.

(Uruguay Teen Challenge is a 14 month residential drug rehabilitation program consisting of a men’s dorm, women’s home and a 15 acre farm. Since 2004, over 60 young men and women have come through the program, experiencing the life changing power of Jesus Christ.)

A Half Step Forward - Update on Brianne

2008-12-03T14:42:00.007-05:00

Terry spoke on the phone to me in her nursing tone, serious, clear, and matter of fact. She slips into that tone whenever we deal with difficult issues, usually a doctor’s report. Bri and Terry had just met with her ankle surgeon.

“Brianne’s ankle still hasn’t healed completely. She is out of the cast and into a walking boot (again), but can place no more than 25% of her weight on it until her next appointment the 30th of December.”

I sighed, and my eyes clouded a little. It’s been such a long battle for Brianne, and this is the second recent set-back for her. We had expected her to begin walking by the first of November.

Questions tumbled through my mind. When will Brianne be able to walk, drive, or be able to take care of herself? How will she handle this? When will Terry be able to come back to Ohio? Will this again push back our return to Uruguay? For the moment we just don’t know.

That’s when divine assurances began to shine through my uncertainty like beams from a distant light house cutting through the thick fog. God is in control; always has been. He knows not only our circumstances, but the best path forward as well.

There is still much for which we give thanks. Brianne is improving, just more slowly that we had hoped.

Brianne’s supervisor and colleagues have been wonderfully flexible to allow her to take the time she has needed off, make doctors’ appointments, even do some of her work at home.

Thanks to the generosity of Christian Life Center in Dayton, and now Calvary Assembly in Toledo we have enjoyed wonderful mission homes and open arms. Importantly, Terry has been able to invest herself in Brianne’s recovery.

We are surrounded by so many wonderful friends: all of you who have called, emailed, and continue to pray. Thank you so much!

Brianne has been wonderful through it all. She called last night, and said that she was decorating her scooter (that she had hoped to give up) for the holidays. She’s had her down moments, but I think my best description of her attitude is, “When life throws you a December curveball, paint it red and green, and add a Christmas bow!”

So we turn the page, and read on a little further. The best authors always lead us through twists and turns that keep us guessing how the story will turn out. But somewhere in the back of our minds rests the assurance that everything will turn out. That’s what we love about this Author.

Lost

2008-11-28T19:01:00.009-05:00

I wish I was writing today about the joys of spending Thanksgiving with my family in Missouri, or about all that God is doing in Uruguay and around the world. But I can’t. You see I got lost; lost in the Detroit Metropolitan Airport Parking Garage.

I should have known that something was up as I shut my car door, hurrying to catch the early bird flight out short days ago. Three different shuttles stopped to pick me up. . .five feet from the elevator. I climbed in the last. Ten minutes later I was dropped off fifteen feet from the elevator. I know now that it was all a clever ploy to make me forget that I had parked on the first floor in Section D2. First floor, Section D2; First floor, Section D2. And no, Terry my love, I didn’t write it down.

Five days later I was back, off the plane and out of the parking garage elevator, confident that I would soon be on my way back to Toledo. But everything had changed. Parts of the garage were walled off for renovation, but most importantly there was no Section D2 on the first floor. I know. I walked through Section A, past the forbidden walled off zone, through Section B, and on to the very end of Section C. Just beyond, open sky and 31 degree weather mocked me, “What First floor, Section D2?!”

As I retraced my 20 minute march through the garage, I heard the raucous squealing call of something echoing off the cold cavernous walls. It may have just been nesting gulls, but images of feeding Pterodactyls flooded my mind. That’s when I realized that I hadn’t seen A SINGLE SHUTTLE in my now 30+ minute trek. Cue the Psycho shower scene music!

I went up to the second floor, back to the end of the garage, and even peeked through the plywood slabs into the forbidden construction zone. Section D2 didn’t exist on either floor. Thoroughly defeated, and checking over my shoulder continuously, I plodded back towards the shuttle pick-up area. Now four shuttles passed me as I paralleled the access road nearing the elevator and the awaiting drivers.

Deep breath, smile and, “Hi, I’m lost and I can’t get out.” The driver smiled back, and hopped out of his shuttle. “That’s no problem. We’ll find your car.” But as he blinked his eyes, I distinctly could hear another sound, “$Cha-Ching!$”

“Oh yeah, D2 is right over there.” And three minutes later, we pulled up beside my ride. There was a Section D2 on the first floor! You just couldn’t get there from anywhere. I kissed the car. I kissed the ground. I gave the shuttle driver a big tip. Money didn’t matter anymore. I was free! I was . . . I was . . .charged $80.00 for parking as I drove out. Prices had gone way up to pay for the renovations, and to feed the Pterodactyls!

Hair

2008-11-17T09:44:00.001-05:00

When I was growing up in the 60’s the rock musical “Hair” hit America. “Flow it, Show it, Long as God can Grow it, My Hair!” I hate that song! It’s just not fair. Part of Adam’s curse was that a predestined number of men, some starting far too early, would loose it . . . hair, dignity, and sanity.

I first realized my fate years ago when I bent over to tie my three year old daughter’s shoe who exclaimed, “Look Mommy, Daddy has a hole in his head!” Successive missionary photos mark the progression (or regression) of something they say my mother’s father gave me. Thanks for nothin’ Grandpa Pace!

My wife, Terry, makes it worse every time she makes me walk the aisles of Walmart with her looking for some exhilarating suds shampoo with extra PH balance enhancer and vitamin E for moderately dry hair. Hundreds of bottles of shampoos of all shapes and sizes glare at me from the shelves like starving vultures.

Of course there are options.

OPTION 1: Hair transplant. I would love to do that, but I don’t have enough money to pay for it, and for sure don’t have enough head hair to relocate. I can hear the doctor’s voice now, “Now don’t worry Mr. Smythia, I am sure we can take some from your back, but it will be a little curlier than before.”

OPTION 2: Shave head. I actually tried that one. I had seen so many great looking guys with their heads shaved. I saw one guy walking out of a Best Buy at night. He glowed. What I didn’t realize until after I passed under the razor (and you can confirm this for yourself) is that all those guys who look so good all share one anatomical attribute, small ears! My ears stick out like, like . . . well, when I went outside for the first time after shaving my head, the wind was blowing, and I had lift.

OPTION 3: “In whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. (Phil 4:11 KJV)” I have an amazing wife, two wonderful kids, and a great daughter-in-law. We are involved in incredible life changing ministry in Uruguay, South America. What a blessing. What a ride!

So what do I need with a head full of hair? “Shining, gleaming, flaxen, waxen.”, God, gimme some hair!

Changing Lives - An Update from Hope House, Uruguay

2008-11-11T13:45:00.012-05:00

With tears I read this just arrived letter to Terry, and knew that we had to share it with you. Hope House (Hogar Esperanza) is our women's Teen Challenge Cenger in Uruguay founded by the hard work of Terry and Nair Vergara, pastor's wife and co-director of the program.

Hello Terry,

It’s been a long time since we have communicated, and I wanted to give you news from Hope House (Hogar Esperanza).

Hope House is beautiful with much life and now many girls.

Just this last Wednesday Nelly left the program. She was a 53 year old student who had come into the program because of alcoholism. When she arrived, Nelly was being treated with 11 pills three times a day. She was heavily drugged and had the shakes. After seven months with us she leaves lucid, completely free from every vice, without the need for any pills, even healed from her asthma. She and her husband have promised to return for our Christmas get-together on the 21st of December.

Right now we have five students:
Cinthia (15 years old) She’s been with us 11 months (she’s still a little conflicted)
Erika (17) Five months in the program, we are very happy with her progress. She has been baptized in water, changed by the Holy Spirit, and is very helpful.
Claudia (32) Four months in the program, she has also had a marvelous change and is doing well. She has a four year old girl and a baby two years old.
Marina (21) Arrived the 4th of November.
Fiorella (26) Enrolled the 6th of November. She is the mother of two children.

This next Thursday, another young woman, Maria (18) will enter the program, and we have an interview with a 13 year old young girl.

All of the girls know about you, your love, your care for the home, and dedication that you poured into the preparing a place for them to come to.

We want so much for you to get back soon. You and your family are always in our prayers.

With much love,

Nair

Note: Terry has yet to meet any of the ladies who have been touched by this amazing ministry. We returned to the States for furlough before the first students arrived at Hope House.

Broadcasting the Gospel

2008-11-07T13:46:00.005-05:00

Radio DelCentro 87.7 was licensed by the Uruguayan Federal Broadcasting Commission to broadcast Christian programming on Friday, October 31st. Less than three years ago there was no radio, no church, no outreach until our church plant in the city of Pando.

Pastor Claudio Lapidus began broadcasting 24 hour as a public community radio station even before construction was finished on his church. The low power station began under a law that permitted community stations to broadcast without licensing. The station soon won recognition and awards that led Pastor Claudio to seek a license for a full fledged radio station.

Chosen as one of a very few stations granted licenses this year, Radio DelCentro covers an 24 square miles and several hundred thousand residents with the good news of Jesus Christ. That coverage will increase as power is increased in the future.

The station is manned by Pastor Claudio, his two daughters, and members in the church. The church continues to grow, now running two Sunday services.

God is doing amazing things in Uruguay, and we are honored to be a part of what He is doing!

Tears and Heaven

2008-10-30T18:03:00.008-04:00

Tears clouded my eyes until I couldn’t read the words on the page. Trying to fulfill a promise to reread The Last Battle, the last installment of The Chronicles of Narnia to my 23 year old daughter brought a tsunami wave of feelings I had forgotten.

Brianne and Terry had come up to Ohio from Missouri between follow-up visits to the surgeon. She will learn to walk a third time this December, this time with her left ankle fused with bone and marrow taken from her hip. After each of her four recoveries Bri has experienced periods of extreme light sensitivity. Unable to look at a computer monitor or watch TV for weeks at a time, Terry and I have spent hours reading to our youngest.

I had postponed reading The Last Battle as long as I could. Twenty years ago, Brianne and Jason sat at my feet as we shared the amazing word pictures of the Kingdom of God expertly woven into seven children’s books by C.S. Lewis. The concluding story includes the most beautiful description of heaven that I have found outside of the Bible, and at the time my mom had just gone to heaven after a 12 year battle with cancer.

As I slowly worked through the now yellowed pages of the book, it all came back. Brianne waited patiently between blurry paragraphs and half-swallowed sobs. God has called us to give part of our lives to Uruguay, but “woe is me” if we reach the entire nation with the Gospel, but loose those who are closest to Terry and me. So I read and cried, cried for my mom, my dad, and my brother who are already with Christ, and for my kids, spouses and my grandkids to come who I want to be in heaven with the Lord, with Terry, and with me. Nothing is more important; nothing.

Leaving the Toilet Seat Up is not all it's Cracked Up to Be!

2008-09-30T16:53:00.009-04:00

This is the second time that I’ve been on my own since July. Terry spent five weeks in Missouri taking care of Brianne last time, and is now in the middle of a several week stint after Bri’s fourth operation on her ankle.

I am gone a lot, but home alone here in Ohio more. Here’s the discoveries I’ve made so far:

1. It’s much more practical to fold the comforter over on your wife’s side of the bed than to take it off every night . . . making the bed daily is over-rated too.

2. The average queen sized bed will hold a minimum of 14 books without disturbing sound sleep. Almost as important, the reason that the bed side lampshade is hinged is so that you can tilt and leave it at an angle to aid reading till you fall asleep.

3. You can keep clean-up to a minimum by establishing a survival path from the bedroom to the bathroom to the kitchen to the family room, and out the door. By making the other areas of the house off limits, you can honestly say that you didn’t get them dirty.

4. Separating clothes to be washed is a plot by wives to convince you that you can’t survive without them. There is no real reason why towels and underwear can’t be washed together.

5. Bread kept in the freezer can easily be peeled off and quickly thawed for use . . .sliced ham not so much . . . fruit is worse.

6. The toilet seat has a natural position, upright . . . Ok, enough about the bathroom, and yes it will be cleaned before my wife gets home.

7. Finally, there is nothing wrong with talking to yourself or even answering yourself. Yet I knew I was in trouble today in the Wal-Mart parking lot when the fella in the next car over kept staring. I was getting a little loud and loosing the argument to boot!

Come home soon Terry!

Scott Fletcher, A Portrait in Faithfulness

2008-09-26T23:42:00.003-04:00

Twenty-three years ago Scott Fletcher picked Terry’s and my name out of a pile of resumes from prospective pastors. He was one of three deacons at Weston Assembly of God, and still remembers my first sermon as Weston’s pastor. Every time I see him he reminds me of when as a novice pastor I invited him to our rented trailer for coffee only to hear Terry remind me that we didn’t have any coffee because we didn’t drink coffee.

Together we cooked hundreds of New York Strips for our annual Light for the Lost fund raiser. Light for the Lost provides gospel literature that has been used around the world. We appropriated a rectangular stainless steel parts drum from his dad’s fabrication shop for our first grill, and filled it with charcoal to cook 50+ steaks at a time.

Terry and I left Weston to begin our missionary career. Scott and his wife Nancy continued grilling, and continued working with young boys in the Ohio Royal Ranger program, a Christian youth discipleship program. He is now a state leader and trainer.

Tonight I attended another Light for the Lost banquet. There were Scott and Nancy as always. They have traded the old grill in for a large wood fired chuck wagon. Over the years they have fed thousands of people who have given thousands of dollars . . .dollars that purchased over a million pieces of literature for our Uruguay-wide outreach in 2001 . . .dollars that bought Bibles, gospel tracts, and new convert study lessons that we used as part of planting seven churches between 2003 and 2006 . . . dollars that we will soon be using again to plant three more churches.

Scott tells me that he will visit us in Uruguay someday, just so long as he doesn’t have to fly! He has never flown in an airplane, and claims that he never will. So I have my doubts that he will ever see my country, but I know that he has touched it.

How would you paint a picture of faithfulness? What would it look like? For me it would be stocky, slightly bald, with a thick Fu-Manchu beard. And it would probably be cutting big chunk of meat!

It's All About Relationships - Kathy and Randy Trowbridge

2008-09-13T13:29:00.007-04:00

Simply stating that last Tuesday evening the Women’s Ministries group of Norwest Ohio gave us $3000 for library books would be like explaining the Bible after reading just the last chapter of Revelation.

I had called Kathy Trowbridge to ask for help purchasing books for Teen Challenge students in Uruguay. Kathy is the area leader for Women’s Ministries, and told me that her group could help raise at least half of our $2000 goal.

“Ohio Miss Equip”, a girl’s teen ministry, and the Women’s Ministries group from Dayton Christian Life Center donated the remaining funds (Thanks ladies!). All that remained was to meet with Kathy’s group.

Over 140 women gathered for a meal, and ended the evening with a special service, a stirring message by Kathy, and an amazing offering. Waiting after the service while funds were totaled, I mused about the long history that lay behind this offering.

We first met Randy and Kathy in 1985 when both our families began pastoral ministry in Northwest Ohio. Our churches were a half an hour apart in two rural communities. Our kids were the same ages. Over the next five years of ministry our friendship grew.

When we began our missionary career, Randy and Kathy’s church was one of the first to support us. Terry and I contributed to their new church building fund when we sold our home. Under Kathy’s leadership, the Northwest Ohio Women’s Ministries group twice showered our family with Christmas gifts during our furloughs.

Randy came to Uruguay with a group of pastors a couple of years ago. He left a generous offering behind for a church he had visited and soon sent another to help plant one of our new churches. Last year I attended their daughter’s wedding.

The library offering more than met the goal. The additional funds will purchase bookcases, study tables, and even computers for our Teen Challenge students. And of course, there’s more. As we were parting ways that evening, Randy told me that he’s thinking about returning to Uruguay with a construction team this March.

Missionary ministry is never just about the missionary. It’s all about the incredible relationships that empower and support, that encourage and sustain us in all that we do.

Thanks Kathy and Randy! We love you.

Miracles from Uruguay - Veronica's story!

2008-08-30T12:33:00.008-04:00

Miracles come in many packages! This morning I received this picture from Pablo and Veronica Parente. They planted a church with us that is now prospering and ministering to their community. Last year she shared her testimony with me.

(Last) year the doctors diagnosed me with a (ovarian) tumor. We did not know what was going to happen. I got together with Pablo and we prayed. I said, ‘If this is the time for me to go to be with God then I am thankful that I have lived for Him.’

Veronica shared that while she and Pablo were sharing a song in a worship service, she felt the Lord speak to her that He was going to heal her.

Thanks to the Lord and His mercy I can say that today I am completely healed! There was a test that was done to make sure that the tumor was gone. I thank God because He healed me. He gave me the opportunity to continue serving with my husband in this marvelous place with all of the things that the Lord continues to do in our church, Center for Christian Faith.

Miracle upon miracle, Veronica’s doctor told her that she would not be able to have children. However, no one told Esteban, her firstborn son! God is doing amazing things in Uruguay!

Update on Brianne

2008-08-21T11:54:00.005-04:00

As my mom battled cancer for 12 years, she often said, “Some people ask the Lord for help to make it one day at a time. Sometimes I have to ask for one minute at a time.” We have asked the Lord for special grace to walk minute by minute with Brianne. And God has been there for us.

Another surgery took out the hardware that was screwed on to her ankle 12 months ago. She has been slowly recovering under Terry’s care for about a month now. Brianne is working half days, graduating from the wheel chair to using a walker to walk the 100 yards to her desk. Terry will stay at least another week until Bri is able to walk better and drive herself to work.

The next and hopefully last surgery is scheduled for middle of September. Surgeons will take a bone graft from her hip to fuse her ankle. The doctor’s prognosis is positive. Our girl should be able to walk near normally after another 10 weeks off her ankle and more physical therapy. However, we continue to pray for her total healing.

We have so many reasons to say thanks to the Lord, and to you! Our missions leaders have bent over backwards to help us. Brianne’s boss and co-workers have been amazingly gracious. A washer and dryer for her apartment and other gifts have surprised Brianne and her mom and dad.

So many of you have communicated with us, telling us that you continue to pray for Brianne. Thank you! You have been a tremendous blessing for us, and we will keep you posted.

All things work together for good . . . in Montes de Solymar

2008-08-18T18:10:00.004-04:00

“All things work together for good. . .” There are times when that scripture from Romans chapter eight seems so far away. However, that doesn’t change its ironclad truth.

Our campaign at Montes de Solymar seemed to always stand in need of a miracle. The fourth of our first church plants in 2003, everything that we tried was like wading through half-hardened concrete. The scheduled construction team had to cancel its trip, and the $10,000 we had counted on disappeared. However, God provided a miracle offering from my boyhood church in Missouri in just five days, and suddenly we were back on track.

The church went up quickly. But another disaster was waiting to hit us like a tsunami. With the construction all but finished, we learned that because of an architectural error, our building was sitting 16 feet over the set back line. We were located on the major highway leading into Montevideo, so there would be no exception. We had to correct the error, but how could we move a block and steel building? Would we have to tear down and start all over? We wondered and prayed.

Yet God once again proved Himself faithful. We were allowed slice off the front of the church, and add on to the back. The floor and foundation could remain as a patio. Then a church member showed up every day for a week with a pick-hammer, literally recycling 90% of our materials. We were able finish the construction with a minimum of additional cost, and the church has continually amazed us as it has grown.

“All things. . .” The photos provide the ironclad proof. Montes de Solymar just celebrated a special outreach for children. There were games and gifts, human videos and a presentation of Gospel to over 100 children from the area. Our “patio” has become a stage, playground, and gathering point for special services, and outreaches time and again.

Jesus is building his Kingdom in Uruguay. What an honor! What a ride!!

(Muchas gracias a Pastor Alberto y a su iglesia!)

RoseMari - 20 years in preparation!

2008-08-09T18:11:00.005-04:00

Terry and I thought it was our idea. When Terry began work on Hope House (Hogar Esperanza), we knew that our girls’ home would be the only Teen Challenge center for women from Brazil to the tip of Argentina. We needed a supervisor with more than just a heart for drug dependent young women.

A host of problems challenged Terry. Many of the girls we wanted to help had supported their drug habit by prostitution. Most were scarred from emotional, physical, and sexual abuse. We needed someone who would be a very special mix of counselor, mother, and protector to minister to our girls.

RoseMari first felt called to minister to drug dependent women over 20 years ago after reading “The Cross and the Switchblade”. She went to Bible school, but nothing opened up. So she continued her education. Home economics, crafts, she studied everything that help her work with the girls God had called her to reach.

Year after year passed. Year after year nothing happened. RoseMari questioned her call. She worked in her local church, and eventually began to think about working in another country. By the time we met her, RoseMari had all but given up on what she had felt so many years ago.

When Terry and I first talked to RoseMari about working with our girls, she was hesitant. It had been so long. We asked her to pray and get back to us in a week. That was over two years ago.

Today, RoseMari is the anchor of Hogar Esperanza. Two young ladies have already graduated from the program, one of whom is now attending Bible school. Four more are under RoseMari’s special care: a mix of love and boundaries, understanding and prayer.

We thought it was our idea, but the Lord began preparing RoseMari long before we planned or even dreamed about reaching Uruguay’s drug dependent young women. We continue rediscover daily that Christ is building His Kingdom in Uruguay.

Small Steps that Speak Loudly

2008-07-25T14:20:00.002-04:00

Buried in the middle of a recent communiqué from the Uruguayan national church I read a short line that made me jump. Two of our new church plants, New Awakening Church in Capitan Juan Artigas and The Christian Center of Pando, took their places alongside the growing number of mature churches reaching Uruguay.

Just two years ago, in the middle of birthing these churches, we wondered when or if this moment would come.

Two years ago Claudio and Sara Lapidus (pastors at Pando) held Sunday services for months with often no one in attendance but the Lapidus family. They brought their only convert, a 15 year old young man to our first new believers’ retreat. Today, the church reaches almost 200.

Just two years ago, I spent a long night at the emergency room at the public hospital with Pastors Marcelo and Natalia Vazquez waiting again for the pediatrician to see their six year old daughter Belén. Born prematurely, she suffered every winter with bronchial problems. The church had grown a little, but then leveled off. Lack of financial support would soon force Marcelo to find a job to supplement his meager salary. It was low, lonely moment.

About ten months ago, God began to reward the Vazquez' hard work. Today, New Awakening Church has a congregation of well over 100. Marcelo has been able leave his second job to dedicate himself to his congregation. Belén had her best winter without a single return to the emergency room.

Of our seven church plants, four have now been recognized as fully autonomous churches. Instead of receiving help to establish themselves, each is hard at work building the kingdom in Uruguay.

Lord spoke to me to plant 10 churches eight years ago. Seven are now established. The last three are still just dreams; no property, no buildings, no pastors. More importantly, no kids running up and down the isles, no little ole couples always sitting two rows back and three seats over, no youth whispering on the back row, no worship leaders tuning their guitars before the service. But I can already see them. They may be a couple of years away yet, but they are just as real to me as any of the seven, as real as any of those who are now fully functioning. WHAT A RIDE!

Edison Vergara

2008-07-11T16:24:00.005-04:00

Open heart, open home. That’s how Edison Vergara and his wife Nair jumped out of the box of “just” pastoring in Uruguay, and launched themselves into Teen Challenge.

They took a young drug abuser, Sergio, into their home after he made a commitment to Christ. Sergio was living on the streets with no place to go, so they made room for him in a small room that sat atop of their small home. Immediately, Sergio began sharing his new faith with his street friends. Four left their drugs and the streets, finding freedom in Christ. Edison and Nair took them in as well.

When I first got involved with the center, Edison continued as pastor of the church, ran a mowing service, and was a surrogate father for 10 young men. All had come to Christ; none had a place to live other than the little room above the parsonage and another small building.

Edison’s trip to New York for the 50th anniversary of Teen Challenge was his first plane ride as well as his first visit to the U.S. I acted as Edison’s host, guide, and interpreter. We visited the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, the Empire State building, and got to know the amazing New York City subway system.

As we headed to J.F. Kennedy Airport for our respective return flights, I asked him what had most impressed him while in New York. He said little about the skyscrapers or other wonders he saw in a world class city. It was what he learned from the Teen Challenge directors from around the world that he had met, but not for the reason that I had imagined. “I learned that our home (the Uruguay Teen Challenge Center) is really no different than any of the others. We all have the same struggles.” . . . and the same victories.

Sergio is now married and a deacon in Edison’s church. Today many of those first four converts are workers in the Teen Challenge Center. The center has grown to include a men’s dorm, a home for women, and a 15 acre farm. Today there are 18 young men and two young women in the Uruguay Teen Challenge program. Finally, there are three Teen Challenge graduates attending Bible school preparing for future ministry.

Dr. Varghese, a Study in Sacrificial Ministry

2008-07-05T16:48:00.003-04:00

Strength of character often comes in unassuming packages. I met Abraham Varghese on the streets of Manhattan just outside of David Wilkerson’s Times Square Church as we waited to enter for the Teen Challenge 50th anniversary services. He spoke to me with a humble warmth that belied his incredible story.

A medical doctor, Dr. Varghese had abused drugs for eight years before being freed by Jesus Christ. He and his wife arrived at the city of Lucknow, India 12 years ago with a burden to reach the almost 2.5 million drug addicts of Northern India with the same Good News that had changed his life.

He told me that he had worked for the next four years before seeing any fruit. Then God began to reward Dr. Varghese’s stubborn faithfulness. Today, 67 drug addicts have encountered Christ through the Lucknow Teen Challenge Center. Nine of those graduates are now pastors in North India, and 12 more are in preparation in Bible School!

Malcolm - with a death sentence, but ALIVE!

2008-07-03T23:37:00.002-04:00

Malcolm walked into our provided dorm room looking disconcerted. Malcolm was in charge of receiving and housing many of the international Teen Challenge directors and students during the 50th anniversary celebrations. He was looking for an open bunk as he had lost his to a large group from Kazakhstan. We only saw Malcolm in the mornings. His night always ended after we were asleep. Malcolm, eyes still bleary from too little sleep, told me his story the second morning.

Born in Liberia, West Africa, 14 year old Malcolm came to New York with his parents. It wasn’t long before he followed the way of many immigrants who struggle adapting to life in a new culture. Drug use led to a homosexual lifestyle that produced a deadly fruit, HIV.

Malcolm’s hopelessness was broken by the power of Jesus Christ through Brooklyn Teen Challenge. Now he is healthy . . . in many ways. Physically, he feels great. Emotionally, Malcolm wants to get married and have children. Spiritually, Malcolm continues to serve the Son of God who set him free.

Fifty Years of Miracles at Teen Challenge!

2008-07-01T23:08:00.005-04:00

Fifty years ago a skinny preacher named David Wilkerson hit the streets of New York City with the powerful message of Christ. Last week I was in New York celebrating with over 500 Teen Challenge graduates and workers from 32 countries.

I was amazed to see the first reunion of the four key characters from "The Cross and the Switchblade" Nicky Cruz was the young gang leader who became an international known evangelist. Sonny Arguinzoni, the first heroin addict redeemed by Jesus, has founded over 600 churches around the world. And of course David Wilkerson founded what has become a international movement in 82 countries with over 1000 Teen Challenge Drug Rehab Centers.

Israel Narvaez's appearance was a surprise to everyone. He made a commitment to Christ with Nicky, but later returned to the gangs, eventually spending five years in prison for murder before coming back to the Lord. He had lost contact with Pastor Dave and Teen Challenge. Israel is a testimony to the power of Christ to change lives regardless of the circumstances.

Yet their historic meeting took a backseat to the hundreds of walking miracles who filled Times Square Church for three days.

A combined choir of 150+ Teen Challenge students and graduates filled the building with praise that shook us with its fervency, empowered by the knowledge that each young man and woman represented an amazing story of deliverance.

It was a life changing experience for me: the services and the people . . . like the young mother I met on the subway who brought her fourteen year old daughter from Wisconsin to be a part of the miraculous history that had freed her mom from years of bondage to drugs.

Over the next few days, I want to introduce you to Malcolm, Roma, Salomawit, and maybe a few others who touched my life in New York.

To Jason

2008-06-14T17:39:00.004-04:00

It’s the day before Father’s day, Son, and we won’t see each other for a while. I miss Grandpa Smythia so much, and I sure miss you too.

Do you remember wrestling when you were a little boy when we pastored in Weston, or you climbing in and out of the windows of the church? Mom and I never learned until years later that you raided the church kitchen on Wednesday nights to eat sugar bread.

How about our vacation while we were at language school in Costa Rica? Swimming in the hot springs running down the volcano, spotting caiman in the river, or later missing the earthquake because we were swimming in the Pacific Ocean and couldn’t feel the tremors. Mom called us in from shore, afraid that something worse was coming.

Or what about growing up in Uruguay? I would lie (and fall asleep!) on your bed watching you play video games. And every morning you’d wake up when I jumped on your bed. Then you graduated and left for the States. Mom and I cried.

Yet my fondest memories always take me back to the six months when you returned to Uruguay to help us plant our first four churches. You went from being my boy to being my best friend.

How long were those days? 16-18 hours a day, up and down the road between the four church plants, construction in the mornings and services at night. Remember when Mom tried to keep you from jumping off the roof of the unfinished church building? Those wonderful days ended all too quickly, and you were gone again.

Well, you’re married now. You and Andrea have your own life together. Mom and I are proud of you both for so many things, but more than anything for your commitment to Christ. My dad’s in heaven with Mom and Uncle Frank, and there is nothing, nothing more important than all of us being there together. How many times have you heard that?

Son, I love you and I’ll see soon.

Dad

Antonella

2008-06-02T21:31:00.006-04:00

Antonella came to Christ when she was just 16 years old during our nation-wide outreach, Invasion 2001, Uruguay for Christ. Almost immediately she began talking to her pastor about sharing her new found faith.

He sent Antonella to Empalme Olmos, a small community of 4,000 an hour and a half away by bus, instructed to simply tell people about Jesus. She soon found four little old ladies who loved Jesus scattered among the population. Although Antonella had no support or resources, the Holy Spirit used her sincere enthusiasm to change lives.

In the meantime, Antonella met Deigo at our next outreach, Hope 2003. She came to help with our church planting effort. He played the keyboard for the worship services. By the time I met them, they were engaged and planning to work with me to plant a church at Empalme Olmos. Antonella’s group of four little old ladies had now grown to 18 believers.

They even moved their wedding date up by three months so they could begin pastoring with me. The only problem was that I had no idea of their plans! I scrambled quickly to incorporate the young couple into our Hope 2006 outreach. (story continues below)

As the newly-weds threw themselves into founding a brand new church, the Lord blessed their efforts in amazing ways. Young people were especially drawn to the young couple’s infectious love. Then Antonella turned up pregnant.

Just a month before delivering her son, Antonella lead their new youth group in a human drama at an outdoor outreach. As they danced through the choreography, her belly-bound baby bounced like a little beach ball tethered to a pole! Esteban was born just fine, but has continued bouncing all over the place!

Today, our work at Empalme Olmos is a thriving church of over 130 new and mostly young believers. Birthed in the heart of a young 16 year old, nurtured with the energy and love of a young couple, the congregation is evidence of the amazing things God is doing in Uruguay. And by the way, Antonella is expecting again!

(Hear from Diego and Antonella in person by clicking on "The Smythia Family in Uruguay" under Videos on the right)

More than just Money

2008-05-17T18:42:00.000-04:00

Every day we receive a report of the offerings that come from the churches and donors that financially support us. All told about 160 support us with monthly offerings. Every day I look at their names, and thank the Lord for each one. It's much more than just money. Each offering, each name represents a relationship, some going back many years.

This Friday, offerings came in from six churches. Time and space won't allow me to tell you about Thursday's, Wednesday's or the previous days' offerings. But let me tell you about the people behind Friday's offerings:

Lima Calvary Temple is pastored by Mark Seenarine. Terry grew up at Calvary Temple, Lima, OH. She first went to Bible school when a couple at Calvary gave her a savings book in her name with her first year's tuition.

Russ Witkowski pastors Cornerstone Assembly of God in North Lima, OH. He approached me a week or so ago, asking me to visit his church while we are in the States. Usually, we have to contact pastors to schedule services. Thanks Russ!

Cary Wadle and Lighthouse Christian Assembly, Cuyahoga Falls, OH. He first came to Uruguay 10 years ago with a construction team. We've been friends ever since. By the way Cary, congratulations on your new bride, Rose (just last September)! They are expecting twins in a few months!

Rex King and New Beginnings Church in Tiffin, OH just purchased a new building for their growing congregation. Our service with them fell on the Sunday the day after a tremendous winter blizzard. It took me longer to get to Tiffin than it takes to get to Uruguay. Roads were closed, driving speeds were often reduced to 20 mph or less. Yet I made it, and the Lord gave us a great morning with Rex and his people.

Tri-County Assembly of God, Fairfield OH pastored by Brad Rosenberg is one of our anchor churches in Ohio. This church has helped us time and again since we began ministry in Uruguay. Tri-County was the first church to help us with our first construction project in 1995.

Jim Palmer planted Capital City Church in Columbus, OH several years ago, but Terry and I know him from years before when we attended Bible college together. For the past year, Jim has been our state missions director, organizing meetings for the missionaries home off the field, and much more. He was just elected to state leadership, but we hope that he will be able to continue working with the missionaries!

Thanks, Jim and Brad, Rex and Cary, Mark and Russ! Thanks to your churches. We are an extension of your outreach to the world. Thanks to all of you who faithfully support us.

BRIANNE GRADUATES!

2008-05-05T11:05:00.000-04:00

Terry and I are so proud of our girl, especially in light of all that has happened over the past year. Just last August, Brianne was facing the second operation for her fractured ankle.

That began six months of struggle as Bri worked to finish her studies at Central Bible College while recuperating. Much credit goes to her mom. In the beginning, Terry did almost everything from reading textbooks out loud to helping Brianne in and out of the tub.

Then as Bri began to slowly improve Terry stayed in Missouri acting as taxi driver, helping our girl to stay on course to finish her studies by December.

Brianne did her part not only with her classes, but also with physical therapy and exercises. She even made the Dean's list for academic excellence her last semester.

There are challenges ahead. Brianne continues to have problems with her ankle. But that doesn't take away from the joy that we feel at this milestone in her life.

She is now putting her education and her Spanish to work at the Resource and Development Center for Latin America, part of our missions department in Springfield, MO.

Thank you so much for your prayers for Bri over the past months. We could not have made to this point without your faithfulness.

Daniel

2008-04-17T09:49:00.000-04:00

I first met Daniel soon after he entered our Teen Challenge Men's Center. His story of being jailed four times for drug use and trafficking intrigued me. Drugs had stripped him of everything, a good job in a machine shop, his family, even his friends.

"In order to get money I began to cheat and steal from friends and family until I got to the point of not having anyone by my side. I was alone. I began looking for ways to kill myself."

But God had something very special for Daniel. He met Pastor Alberto Ricca, one of the seven church planters we worked with last term. Pastor Alberto shared the Good News of Jesus Christ with Daniel.

"The very next day, I lost my desire to consume, having found this unexplainable peace inside of me that also brought me great joy. I was amazed that the emptiness that I had felt in my heart was gone. I tried to reason out what had happened, but could not explain it. But I really didn’t care because for the first time in my life, I wanted to live. I felt really alive, and wanted to share it with the whole world.

In a couple of days I came to live at the Abundant Life (Teen Challenge) Home, and began growing spiritually. Today I have goals, desires, and dreams that the Lord has placed in me. I know that God has a purpose for my life, and I strive to walk in His will. I know that I can count on the Lord to help with every decision in my life."

Daniel was one of our first Teen Challenge graduates, and today is following his dreams at our Bible school. His next dream, return to our Center as a counselor!

Connections

2008-04-08T23:03:00.000-04:00

As Terry and I finished a service recently in Kenton, Ohio, a young father with tears in his eyes grabbed me by the arm. He told me an amazing story of a connection we had unknowingly made years ago.

About three years before, Andres, one of our Uruguay Teen Challenge Graduates, was visiting Toledo Calvary Assembly of God, and had shared his testimony at YES FM, a Christian Radio Station.

Keith Preston had come to Christ from a life given to witchcraft, drug use, and drug dealing. He had been walking through a year and a half of struggles in what he called “the desert” when he heard Andres’ testimony.

“I was on my way to work, listening to the radio at a very low level, when all of a sudden a man (Isaac) spoke words that caught my attention. I turned up the radio as he introduced Andres. As this young man shared his testimony (of deliverance from drug addiction) it seemed as if it was me sharing my testimony!

I was overwhelmed and began to weep because of all the Lord had imparted in both our lives. I continued to cry out to the Lord after the broadcast. I had nearly forgotten about the events that had touched my life so greatly in my past. He brought me out and gave me hope for others by encouraging me, and for the future that He has in store for my family.”

From that moment, God began to work in a new way in Keith’s life as well as in the lives of his wife and children. Keith feels that God has given him a special burden for Uruguay, and we are working on a trip so that he can visit Andres.

God is doing amazing things in Uruguay, and in Northwest Ohio, and in Kenton, and in the lives of people like Keith!

Our Little Satanist is off to school!

2008-03-13T10:11:00.000-04:00

Estefani leads worship at our local Teen Challenge Center

Don't it make you want to cry when you kids head off to school for the first time? That's how Terry and I feel about Estefani.

She was our little satanist who showed up at Hope House, our Teen Challenge Drug Rehab Home for girls, about a year and a half ago. Estefani began using drugs at age 12, and by 15 she had committed her life to Satan, sleeping in cemeteries, painting her room black with glaring eyeballs to represent the demons that she was inviting into her life.

It was only after a near fatal drug overdose that she decided that she needed the help she found at Hope House.

"Everything was so strange. Everyone hugged me, and worried about me. This surprised me. I went from living on the street without love, without anything to having people around me who were really interested in me. God changed my live completely. He took my fears and my inability to trust. He filled my emptiness. Coming to know God was the best thing that ever happened in my life."

Yet Estefani struggled with horrible nightmares for several months that would cause her to run like a 10 year old from her bed and jump in bed with our supervisor in terror. Then just last Easter, God touched her in a special way setting her free from her past. The nightmares disappeared and much more. Estefani began talking to us about wanting to follow the Lord in service at our Bible school.

We were able to get a Teen Challenge scholarship for Estefani, and on the first week of March she was off to our Bible school as an off-campus student, attending classes in the morning and returning to Hope House every evening. I just called her a couple of days ago. Still new in her faith, she has only a shadow of an idea of the ongoing miracle in her life. She just knows that Jesus changed her, and she wants to serve him.

So we cry a little, and then laugh a little, and then just smile and pray for the next Estefani.

Tales from the Road

2008-02-06T14:13:00.000-05:00

Wednesday, 8:00 am Bob Evans Restaurant just off Highway 35, Dayton, Ohio:

Ron sits across the table. He began ministering at Bethel Christian Assembly of God about 14 years ago after 30+ years of teaching high school physical science.

After getting to know each other for a few minutes, he tells me that he will be teaching tonight on the Acts story of Paul’s Macedonian Call, and asks for my thoughts on knowing God’s will.

Two hours later we both dry our tears, having shared hearts, hopes and hugs. I pour my stories out to him: Our challenges with Brianne’s accident, and the faith lessons that God is taking me through over and over again. I have to remind myself to tell him about the amazing things God is doing in Uruguay.

Ron tells me about his family, his son in his first pastorate in Holland, Michigan, his trip to Russia a few years ago, his ministry as a Christian teacher in the public school system, and fulfilling his own dream by moving into ministry at Bethel Christian.

The warmth of his open friendship lingers as I climb back into my car, and we both take the entrance onto Highway 35. Ron waves as he takes the exit toward the church while I pass him and continue on home.

“Missions” is all about relationships. I am so privileged to get to know so many incredible people all over America with servants’ hearts and passion for building the Kingdom of God here and around the world.

It's for Real!

2008-01-09T18:11:00.000-05:00

There are times, years, even decades when the church advances one soul at a time. My pastor from years ago used to describe times like this as “carving souls from rock”. Then come times of harvest, incredible sovereign moves of God. Stories of salvations come not by ones or even tens, but by hundreds and thousands.

Uruguay is going through such a time. In my last blog, I reported that 28,000 Uruguayans had come to Christ last fall. That number is now up over to 30,000! But how do you wrap your mind around 30,000 people? How ‘bout this? Where are those 30,000 people today?

I was back in Uruguay the first week of December, visiting many of our newly planted churches. Everywhere I went, I heard of baptism services. Four here, six there, pastors and churches were busy incorporating new believers into their congregations.

A friend and I showed up unexpectedly at what we thought would be a small youth group meeting. We were amazed to find the building packed out with youth representing five churches. The altars filled at the end of the service with young people hungry for the life changing power of God.

It’s a new day for Uruguay!

Incredible News from Uruguay!

2007-11-15T10:28:00.000-05:00

28,000 Uruguayans have made commitments to Christ since September! We first told you about this amazing harvest October 9th.

Many of our churches are seeing tremendous growth in their services. Pastor Diego Garcia (pastor of one of our churches planted in 2006) reports over 30 new converts attending church and being discipled. Another pastor tells us of over 50 brand new baby christians in his church.

For many years Uruguay was known as the graveyard of Latin American Missions. A hard country, difficult to reach Uruguayans, Missionaries often spent little more than one term or less in the country.

Uruguay has changed in a dramatic way. We saw many good results over the past few years. Missionaries have come and stayed. New churches have been planted and have grown.

Yet a harvest of this magnitude is unprecidented! Pray with us that we can continue to reach out and disciple these new brothers and sisters in the Lord.

Brianne's First Steps (again!)

2007-11-09T13:56:00.000-05:00

Brianne walks again under the watchfull eye

of her physical therapist, Melinda

It's a rare thing to watch your daughter's first steps. . . .when she's 22 years old!

It's been three months now since that midnight call followed by two surgeries and days and many long nights of recovery. Brianne's shattered ankle began a daily battle for her as she struggled to return to what she calls being "normal".

Yet God has once again proved himself faithful. Bri has been able to continue with her studies, and is still on track to graduate this December. Many victories have been seemingly small: learning to sit on the sink to brush her teeth, getting in and out of the tub without help, getting something to eat out of the fridge and into the microwave.

We thank you so much for your prayers, and covet your continued intercession on Bri's part. At this point walking (with a walker) is a slow and painful process as Brianne builds strength in her leg, and her foot gets used to working again.

Terry will move to Ohio after Thanksgiving, leaving Brianne to finish rehabilitation on her own. We probably won't see her again until Christmas. Please keep her and us bathed in prayer during this time.

The Best and Worst of Times2

2007-10-12T08:31:00.000-04:00

In the face of the amazing conversions that we are now seeing in Uruguay, we are also witnessing growing governmental opposition that is threatening to close our churches down.

Uruguay is a socialistic country with a leftist government now in power. Our local churches have been hit with a exponential increase in the mandatory social security tax, and we have lost all past tax exemptions.

This change affects all religious groups, Evangelicals, Catholics, Jews with one exception, the Spiritists who are considered part of Uruguay's cultural heritage.

Our leaders tell us that the net effect of these changes is to bankrupt our national churches. We feel that we are in the middle of a spiritual battle. While national leaders have tried to speak to governmental leaders, talks have had little effect so far.

We desperately need your prayers. Pray that God would enable us to continue build his kingdom in Uruguay. Pray specifically for our churches, pastors, and national leaders as they struggle under the mountain of taxes.

For me the great news is that as we face great battles, doors open for great miracles!

The Best and Worst of Times1

2007-10-09T15:44:00.000-04:00

Uruguay is the midst of an incredible spiritual battle!

The great news is that we have just finished an evangelistic outreach, Mi Eperanza (My Hope) sponsored by the Billy Grahm Association. All told 1700 evangelical churches opened 17,000 thousand homes for a special evangelistic satellite broadcast in September.

Participants were encouraged to invite unsaved neighbors in to watch the program. However, permission to use local broadcast stations and cable companies was blocked. At the last minute approximately 10,000 DVD's were quickly produced and distributed.

The results were breathtaking! So far 1002 churches representing 7,717 homes have reported that we had 45,145 people in attendance with 21,578 people who gave their lives to Jesus!

This is clearly something historic for our country, and we must follow up and disciple these new converts. But great things are happening in Uruguay!

Please be in prayer for Uruguay. My next blog will address the tremendous opposition that we are now facing from the national government.

Worth the Investment

2007-10-02T13:29:00.000-04:00

A colleague recently asked me my opinion about mission trips. Were the results worth the investment of time and money?

I think that Richard perfectly illustrates our experience. He came to Uruguay last year with Toledo Calvary A/G's team to remodel Hope House, our Teen Challenge girls' home. A dry-waller by trade, Richard worked with other team members building cabinets, hanging drywall, making curtains, and putting in a fence.

Yet their greatest work didn’t involve plaster or cabinets or curtains. The most lasting impact took place in their hearts. They fell in love with our Teen Challenge students as they worked, ate, and worshiped side by side. I ran into the team members at Calvary's mission last week. 18 months after their trip, each spoke of the change that took place inside as a result of going to Uruguay. They tearfully watched the video that showed the long lasting results of their investment.

As for Richard. . .He proudly carried the Uruguayan flag during Calvary's parade of flags Sunday morning. He loves the country. He loves the people. He loves missions!

P.S. Thanks Vonda, Lance, Jane, Carl, Caroline, Deb, and Richard, Uruguay Girls’ Home remodeling team!

Update on Brianne

2007-09-26T15:19:00.000-04:00

Another day, another challenge. . .but God is faithful!

After two surgeries, wheel chair, walker, scooter, cast, boot, and physical therapy we thought that we had seen it all. The latest prayer need is a dark spot about the size of a half-a-dollar located on the bottom of Brianne's heel.

During the two months of recovery before she could move her foot, blood pooled in her heel. The doctor tells us that eventually, this spot will "slough" off, but that it may mean more time before our daughter can begin walking.

Please keep Bri in prayer for a speedy healing!