4 Lessons from the masters! - The Hollands Family
Armenia, Colombia.
I love Cross-Cultural mission, because you meet people that you will never meet in another context, and in ways that you will never do in normal life. You have the opportunity to serve God and God´s people meanwhile you learn from others and others can learn from you! i love it!
On the 17th of January the Hollands Family (Dan and Katherine with Joshua(9) and Joel(6)) arrived to Bogotá to flight to Armenia, Colombia, three days later, to serve for one year in a local church.
After staying with them for one week I learned loads, meanwhile i was explaining the "orientation week"* to them. Here are the key points:
1. You have to push the Door
God speaks to you in different ways depending of your design. Sometimes God speaks clearly about your future and sometimes God gives you the instructions just for the next step. When we were talking about how they make the decision to come to Colombia, they felt that they just need to push the door, and if it opens, God will show the next door to push after that, and that was how they came.
When we ask God about our future or a specific decision to make, we want a straight, clear answer, but God, knowing us, just show us the door to push, because He knows that if we can´t see the path ahead, we will depend of His light to see, and we will need faith to keep advancing towards the place that God want for us to be, and like this we will grow in our relationship with him and with others.
2. It´s never enough
When you are in love with God, you do crazy things.They could stay serving in church and in their ministries, but they didn´t, because they believe that coming to Colombia they will see God in a different and deeper way, that we always can learn something new, and we are in a constant process to become more like Jesus. So, no matter our titles or how many years we have been at church, it will be never enough to learn something new from God and live Him in a deeper way.
3. Decide based in Faith, never in Fear
Going to another country for a year doesn´t happen just because you have faith. You have to make decisions intentionally. And actually DO things. Off course going to another place where you can´t communicate easily, the culture is different and the possibility for the things going wrong are high, will make you feel frightened, but if you take decisions based in fear you aren´t living in freedom what God wants for you to experience. Yes will be times where things go in a different way that the one we expected, yes, it will be risky, but yes, God will be with us.
I believe that faith is not absence of fear, but is believe that God is greater than it. and this time with the Hollands, i could see that in real live.
4. You don´t need language to communicate.
One of the worries for them and for most of the Striders that come is the language. "I´m coming to a relational culture and i can´t speak the language, therefore, I´m lost" they think, but actually for Colombians that doesn´t matter that much. The most important thing for Colombians is what they called the "attitude."
So if you are thinking to come, but you hesitate because you don´t speak Spanish, no worries, if you have the right attitude you will survive!!! and more than that, if you have a connection with God, people will feel that, and they could see and "hear" what you want to communicate with your spirit, and the Spirit of God in you. The living example of that was seeing the complete family introducing themselves and sharing their testimonies the first Sunday at the church.
For now i will leave you with this 4 points, but for sure i could write loads more.!
So please keep the Hollands family on your prayers! This Month Daniel and Katharine are studding Spanish meanwhile the kids are in a local school. Pray for their cultural adjustment and for their time learning how the church where they are serving works!!
* * * *
*Orientation Week: It is a week when the Striders learn from how to take a bus or a taxi, until how a culture of honor and shame works. It is a week for them to settle and to learn the tools and tips for living in Colombia and to have what is necessary for them to serve, be safe and enjoy their placement time.
