Pixels for Jesus

Today we are traveling back to the US. I have my final class next week since the timing is so close to Christmas, we are staying for the whole Holiday season. We are very excited, well to be honest, Katie is very excited. I have my final doctoral class and I always approach it with a healthy sense of trepidation.

When we are home, we are going to see our families. We will celebrate the Holidays with them. When we leave, we will all cry, and miss one another because we know what it means. When we say goodbye this time, it will be for a decent amount of time. For all of our family and friends, they have to accept pixels for Jesus.

This saying refers to our relationship with them and theirs with us, especially Hannah. Over the Thanksgiving holiday break, pixels became very important to us. We spoke with family and saw them through an electronic device with their faces displayed by millions of pixels.

These pixels represent a significant sacrifice and heartache for the parents/grandparents. Since we live in another country, their relationship is relegated to pixels. For them, these pixels are pixels for Jesus.

“And he (Jesus) said to them (his disciples), “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not receive many times more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life.”” (Luke 18:29–30, ESV)

These pixels that we see of our loved ones are really for Jesus. So as we visit friends and especially family, my heart really goes out to them because this decision is not theirs. It is ours. The pixels were forced on them. It hasn’t been easy but it is necessary. And we are so thankful that we live in a time that pixels are an option. There have been many who have gone before that the saying would have been parchment for Jesus.

What do you do if you are stuck with in a similar predicament? What do you do if your children or your friend is considering missionary service? These answers will come in a post tomorrow. 

Blind Spots

The first two months here have been difficult to say the least. Katie spent a week in the hospital and still needs a couple more tests. We are in a new country, learning a new language, and meeting new people. Maybe one of the greatest challenges is being a parent during this whole process.

We have had ups and downs of language. At first, Hannah did not like her school. They only spoke to her in Spanish and she knew only English. She finally started catching on and has now surpassed us! Just this last weekend she was not being obedient at all. In order to get her to come I had to speak in Spanish, “Venga aqui!” When I told her to “come here” she came immediately.

It has been a little different as we navigate Costa Rican sicknesses. She had a virus. It was similar to viruses in the US but it was stronger and lasted longer. She had a fever for a week and a three day rash followed. She now has a lingering cough. Other kids have been sick with other things and I’m praying it passes without another trip to the doctor.

What has been most difficult here is my hidden blind spots. Well, that was being too positive. This has challenged my prayer life and my faith like nothing before. Over the past two months as we have went from one difficulty to another, I have prayed like the man in the Bible whose child needed to be healed by Jesus. Jesus told the man all things were possible for the one who believes. In a moment where the depths of his soul were peered into by the Lord, he prayed, “I believe, help my unbelief” (Mk 9:24).

I don’t know what it is but when someone you love is sick it is bad. But it seems when your child is sick it is the worst thing ever. My reference point for sicknesses in Costa Rica has been things at a week-long interval. It seems that with each day there is a new depth of my heart that is being exposed and revealed. When NASA released pictures form the Hubble telescope everyone (including myself) was amazed at seeing the deepest pictures of space. I feel like those pictures are a Polaroid compared to intense gaze of the Lord upon my heart. So I pray, “I believe, help my unbelief.”  

Has God failed?

Has God failed?

Hannah woke up this morning with a cough. Today, it was a little more pronounced than yesterday. So yet again, we are missing another day of school to keep her home. Katie is feeling much better so we are alternating during the day. What gets me about Hannah being sick is that Katie and I have prayed for her to be well and not get sick. She is sick. Has God failed?

In one sense, yes. God has failed. He just hasn’t failed as you may think of it. God has not failed to be good, righteous, just, loving, or sovereign. In other words, he has not stopped being God. But he has failed to be a get well genie for us.

Two years ago, John Piper said, “God is always doing 10,000 in your life, and you may be aware of three of them.” Ouch! So Hannah is sick. I am not sure why she is sick. I would love her to never get sick, ever. What I don’t know is what God knows. He knows each virus and bacteria she will face in her life. He knows that for her to have a strong immune system later she has to have these little coughs and sicknesses. Sicknesses build immune system strength.

I’m staying at home first. We will probably take her to the doctor tomorrow. We will have extra tea parties. She will take an extra nap. I will continue to pray she gets well but in my prayers I will pray to God who is always good, always righteous, always, just, always loving, always sovereign, and has seen his own Son in far worse shape than my daughter with a cough. 

There is more than just Spanish being taught in our classes.

Our day is broken into four sections. The first part of my day consists of Spanish babbling. The class is Fonetica and the focus is on the vocalization of letters, words, and sentences. If you have ever heard someone speak Spanish, you should have noticed they do so very quickly, and that their mouth seems to barely move when they are rapidly moving from word to word and syllable to syllable. There is a reason for this, some words are combined due to the first or last letter in opposing words. While I finish my cup of coffee (and usually pour another one in class), I repeat the teacher in a group, and then we do it individually. No one in our group is from the Deep South or Texas so everyone does pretty well. The class isn’t as important for me but it is a good way to wake my mind up to Spanish plus the coffee is good!

The second class is all speaking. This class is great because I really learn by doing. In order for me to connect the grammar rules, I need to speak them in a sentence. Since there are only four of us, I get many opportunities to speak. Today in class, we were given card with verbs written on them and told to use them to ask a question to another student. Well my brain works different. It works much different. I looked at my verbs and immediately had two questions I wanted to ask but knew I couldn’t lead with them. I saved them for the end and tried to play nice. My last two questions were, “Why do you show your children your muscles?” My verb was mostrar meaning “to show” and it was all I could think of at the time. It was followed with several muscle poses by the teacher and students, we are all guys. It was perfect with several of us doing our best Arnold impersonation. It was great. The last question I had to use cortar meaning “to cut.” So I asked, “Quien corta el queso?” which means, “Who cut the cheese?” All the students laughed. The teacher started talking about the white cheese popular here in Costa Rica.  We explained that it was a phrase used in English with two meanings, a literal one and then it was used to talk about farting. He loved it. We followed this by several people making farting noises and using the question in English and Spanish. It was great to teach him something! Plus who doesn’t like doing a muscle pose and making fart noises in class? Well most women probably (hopefully) don’t but us guys, we always enjoy a good muscle pose and any noise that sounds like someone passing gas.

After a break, I go to Grammatica. Tuesdays and Thursdays there is chapel so break is filled with English worship and a sermon but then it all gets real when we sit down to learn grammar. Grammar is a tough class. There is more instruction and less talking. Learning the rules is no problem for me but I struggle putting it together in a class with eleven people. There are some people in class that have full conversations in Spanish. I’m not there. I’m not even close. Even though the class is difficult, this is my favorite teacher. She is excellent. She is animated and uses different teaching methods to help every student. While she may teach me everything I know about Spanish grammar, this week I learned something more important than grammar.

I looked at her resume. She used to teach in the University. She is the most educated at the school and has great credentials. This week on Tuesday, the chapel service was a QandA with the teachers. Now to be honest, I had no idea what any of them said. I did notice that my teacher cried when she was asked a question and I noticed several other students moved by the teachers’ responses. After asking my teacher to tell us what the questions were I learned more of what was said. There was one question that asked them why they taught at the school. All four of them said they taught at the school because they knew missionaries were needed in Latin America. They view their job as a ministry. While they get paid for what they do, they do it because they love it and because it has Kingdom impact. My teacher took a pay cut and a less prestigious position because she can have greater Kingdom impact teaching missionaries how to communicate in Spanish. That lesson is better than any rule for a preposition!

Now what if you viewed your job that way? What if you viewed your job as a ministry? You probably aren’t teaching a second language to missionaries but what if you viewed your job as a missionary? What if you set out for work tomorrow looking to make an impact in the Kingdom? When you are approached about a new job or promotion ask yourself, will I have a greater opportunity to impact the Kingdom of God? Live your life in such a way that the Kingdom of God pushes back the darkness.

You Win Some You Lose Some

One of the challenges of living in another country is buying food. Some things are pretty easy to discern, apples are apples no matter where you live. They do have water apples here. They look like a shriveled read pear but alas Granny Smiths are Granny Smiths wherever you go and you use them to bake an apple pie. There are other uses for Granny Smith apples but none are as good as an apple pie. Rice looks like rice. Beans look like beans, their “musical nature” is also present in Latin America.

However, there are somethings that are not similar. Spices are new and have different names. There are some similarities but more differences. Product descriptions are all in Spanish which we are learning. The most difficult is meat. The cuts of meat are much different and the names of fish differ between Latin American countries. For instance, the name for a fish here in Costa Rica is small type of snapper whereas in Mexico it is an eel so using Google Translate is no help.

Then there are things without names. This comes when we go to the market. It is typically busy and very few signs. We ran into a bit of a problem when we tried out a new stand that was selling leafy items. Katie wanted a go at it so she ventured into the ladies stall. She was surrounded by leafy green edible plants and people. The sales lady talks fast so Katie did her best to understand. She returned with a couple of bags of green leafy things. We came home, soaked them, spun them (in a salad spinner to decrease the drying time), and stored them. While I was looking at the items, I asked Katie what she got. Well, what she thought she bought was not what she bought. She did successfully buy some spinach but failed on the arugula. We now have an immense amount of mint. I mean we have a lot of mint.

I’m not sure what will come of it. I can’t drink anymore mint tea and she’s not allowed to sneak anymore of it into a salad. There is nothing like brushing your teach as you eat a salad let me tell you! So we will chalk that one up to a loss.

Our motto grocery shopping is, “You win some you lose some.” While Katie’s story was more recent, the first week here I attempted to buy some sausage. I had just had some delicious chorizo. So I bought two different types. The first was a Costa Rican chorizo and the other came as a package in a long sausage link with red lining. The first night I cooked part of the big link and one of the Costa Rican chorizos. I was so excited to taste them, if they were anything like what I had earlier I had hit the jackpot. Well instead of hitting the jack pot, I swung and missed horribly. The Costa Rican chorizo was the worst sausage I had ever had in my life. It was slimy, bland, and bad all at the same time. It was worst sausage I had ever eaten until I took a bite of the other one. What was in the nice large link of sausage? Bologna. Yep, you’re every old day bologna. Now if you are a person who like bologna two things. First, I feel sorry for you. Food is so good and meat tastes so great there is no reason to put it in your mouth. Secondly, I bet if you eat it, you probably don’t eat a two inch thick piece of it. You probably mask it with mayonnaise, lettuce, cheese, mustard, bread, or some combination therein. It was a big letdown, far worse than drinking unsweet tea when you are expecting sweet tea. So we still have some mint in our refrigerator, we got rid of all that sausage.

While we do win some and lose some, you only do if you play the game or in our case, go to the market. But if this is all about nasty sausage and enormous amount of mint I have wasted your time. However, I think about us sharing the gospel. The motto is true, you will win some (to Christ) and lose some (they are already lost) but you can only win someone to Christ if you step out and share the gospel. As a comfort to you, remember sharing the gospel is not about your convincing someone. No one has ever been won to Christ because you came with polished arguments and defending the gospel like a seasoned pro. People come to Christ because God draws them to himself. How does he do this? Through your faithful obedience and by your stepping out in faith by sharing the gospel. Sharing the gospel is primarily your bragging on God and what he has done in Christ. The gospel is the good news. The good news is that no one is too lost to save, no sin is too great, and everyone is welcome. So get out there and share the gospel!

Stop and Hear the Parrots

Living in another country is full of challenges.

In Latin America, there is the challenge to remember toilet paper goes in the trash can not the toilet. That is really a thing here. The struggle to remember that is real! There is the challenge of a new schedule. Here the sun creeps over the mountains a little after 5am. In case you were wondering, that was not our normal time to wake up. It was definitely not Hannah’s normal time to wake up.

Here we are loaded up. Hannah is 30 pounds and our three backpacks are a little more than that in total weight. 

Even though there are many difficulties, there are great experiences too. In order to acclimate well, sometimes we just need to stop and smell the roses.

Take this morning for example, we are in the middle of rainy season which means the ants (hormigas) invade. A couple of days a week while I wait for hot water to boil for my coffee, I kill ants. It is me verses them. I’m not about peace treaties with them. I want them to die slowly so they can tell their friends. To be honest, they don’t bother me too much. I view it as a challenge to eradicate them. Since we have a fifteen minute walk to school, we put Hannah in a stroller (graciously given to us by a church before we left and life is easier with it). However, this morning, the ants found her stroller. Her stroller is like every other toddler’s stroller or car seat – absolutely disgusting. The ants found Hannah’s little buffet for them.

We were already running late so Katie put her baby carrier on and I loaded up with three back packs. We thought about catching a taxi to school but the traffic was pretty bad which meant we could walk about as fast as a taxi. Looking back, I’m so glad we walked. Because we were without a stroller, we entered into the school through a different gate which allowed us a new site and sound, parrots! As we approached the school, we were greeted with the screeches. Parrots aren’t exactly song birds!

Acclimating to a new culture is difficult but if you will live with the “glass is half full” mentality it gets easier. This was a good morning to stop, see, and hear the parrots. How glorious! 

So I’m learning español. People ask how it is going. To be honest, I do not know enough to tell you. In class, I do not understand enough to ask questions! There are some people in class that are having complete conversations and I am completely lost. I’m not without hope in the process. God has called me and he will equip me. This doesn’t mean I don’t need to study it just means he is with me when I am.

There are three ways to say give a demonstrative pronoun in Spanish. They are éste, ése, áquell. These are masculine forms. For you grammar types, there are also masculine plural (éstos, ésos, aquéllos), feminine/plural (ésta/s, ésa/s, áquella/s), there is also a neuter form (ésto, éso, áquello). Now that I have satisfied the grammar nerd in all of you and figured out how to do accents on letters, which was no small feat. Let me tell you why this is comforting to me.

In English we use, “this” or “that” as demonstrative pronouns. These words represent things that are in our hand (this) or things that are far away (that). In español, it is different. They add a different degree of distance. They use éste, ésta, and ésto for something at hand. They use ése, ésa, and ésto for something close but not in hand. They use áquell, áquella, and áquello for something far away.

So while studying this for class, I began to think about how there are some people close at hand. I can talk to them on a daily basis, get to know them, and share the love of Christ with them. There are others who are a little farther away. I may see them occasionally or I may speak to them on social media. There is yet another group of people, those who are far away. Those people, I will never meet. I will never get to know them. They are too far. Even though someone may be too far for me to reach, they are not beyond the reach of God. God is omnipresent. He is everywhere. No one can hide from him.

It makes me think about the people Sentinelese people. They are uncontacted. They live on an island in the Bay of Bengal. When contact has been attempted they have shot arrows and killed anyone who comes close. For this reason, India has imposed a three mile buffer zone around the island. The Sentinelese people are too far for me but not for God. I’m praying that these far off people would be open to the Gospel and those who are far off would be brought near. 

Lord, anything but my dogs.

Today is a hard day for my family. We have, for almost five years, enjoyed two great dogs. Sadie WalkerTexasRanger and Howitzer JackBowitzer whom we affectionately call, “Howie.” Sadie is a boxer and Howie is a Heinz 57 mutt. They are great, a little overweight, well trained, great with kids, the consummate guard dogs, big babies, and grocery destroyers. When Katie and I followed the Lord in our call to missions, we never knew all it would cost. We are giving away many of our goods, selling our house, and today, giving our dogs away.

Now some of you might go online and look at the requirements for bringing dogs overseas. Before you do, let me assure you, it is possible that Sadie and Howie come with us. However, we are not thrilled about them spending time in quarantine or living in an apartment. Even worse, would be putting them through this twice in one calendar year.

For us, our dogs served as children place holders. For several years, we were trying any avenue to have a child. While we were there waiting, Sadie and Howie were there. When we had multiple failed adoptions, Sadie was there trying to lick Katie’s tears away. Howie, well he is a special dog and is perfectly happy to just lay around and be pet or to just lay around. Now with Hannah they are no longer place holders but are child protection and friend. One of Hannah’s greatest joys after she is finished eating her food is to drop her food on the ground for her two patiently waiting friends. I saw it (and without attempting correction) yesterday and I have no idea how much food Hannah eats. I also know why Howie is overweight!

Things have not always been great with Sadie and Howie. A couple of years ago, they decided to make a break for it and take a vacation in the nature preserve. Howie came home after five days and Sadie eight (she is a bit more stubborn).

All in all, today is a sad day because we love those two dogs. They are going to a great home with new owners who love dogs and will have time for them. Today is tough because it is another loss we are experiencing as we follow Christ.

Paul writes to a church and recounts who he used to be and what he had and says, “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead (Philippians 3:8–11).”

Today, we are experiencing another loss but we will gain more. It is incredibly sad to see these two dogs go. But we praise God for the time we had with them and for how He made them. God made animals, dogs especially, (the verdict is still out on cats), with an innate ability for love and relationship. This ability is how God created them and for that He is praise worthy. A dog is a man’s best friend. I prayed the other day and it ended with, “Lord anything but my dogs.” But I don’t want to settle for a “best friend” when I can have a Savior and Heavenly Father. When I see the love these dogs have, it is infinitely better in Jesus. These days make us focus on loving our Creator not his creation because what we love in creation is really what we love about him. It just hurts to see it sometimes.

 

Today is an important day, it is St. Patrick’s Day. Irish pubs will be full with drunkenness (not good). Savannah, GA will dye their river green (a little weird). Many people will wear green and get pinched if not wearing green (a bit odd). The lucky few will eat a meal with corned beef, cabbage, and potatoes (a favorite of mine). I like to joke that today is the day everyone pretends to be me.

St. Patrick was raised in a Christian home but in his teenage years was captured by Celtic pirates. He was enslaved, abused, and taunted by his captors. He was forced to tend sheep. He was lonely, often hungry. Finally, after six years, he escaped back to his family back in Britain.

He did not remain in Britain for long. He secured a license to return to Ireland as an evangelist. He went back to the very people who persecuted him. God changed his heart to love his captors. God used him to share the Gospel. Most people will talk about Patrick removing the snakes from Ireland, in a sense, this is true. Because of the cold climate, snakes are not found in Ireland. However, they were staunchly pagan in the fifth century, until Patrick came. Patrick came declaring the Gospel, that message which removes the Serpent, the snake from the Garden.

The Gospel is the message that Jesus came to crush the head of the serpent. Now the serpent bruised his heal but Christ crushed his head. When Patrick came to tell Ireland about Jesus, he was removing the power of the snake.

This message is not unique to me and my family. Several months ago, when my grandmother passed away, I read her testimony. My grandmother came to faith in Christ when an American missionary came to Ireland to preach the Gospel. I don’t know his name but I am so thankful for him. My grandmother had a huge impact on my coming to faith in Christ. My life is changed because someone, like Patrick, went to a land not his own and shared the good news of Jesus.

Katie and I are planning on going to a land not our own to share the good news of Jesus. Would you be willing to partner with us? Would you help send us and pray that God would use the Gospel to change a life, family, and nation? 

If you have any questions about partnering with us please email or call. You can visit here to financially partner with us. If you would like to be added to our email list email us at kerrfamily@reachingandteaching.org

When did your family change direction? We would love to hear who your "Patrick" is for your family!

Plodding Along

William Carey is called the Father of Modern Day Missions. He was one of the founders of the Baptist Mission Society. They were a group of pastors and theology students who committed to work together. They committed to collect funds together to send missionaries. John Thomas and William Carey were elected to go to India.

While there, William Carey suffered extreme hardships. There were fires that destroyed his translation, his wife lost her mind, he buried children, and he was kicked out of English controlled area forcing him into the Dutch controlled Serampore. To make things more plain concerning his hardships, it was over seven years before he baptized his first convert!

Can you imagine, working for seven years without anything to show? Let’s be clear, getting conversions is not the goal of missions – the glory of God is the goal. God is glorified if people are converted or not. But let’s also be clear – God is glorified when men who are dead are made alive, when spiritually blind men are given sight.

Carey received much fame for his work in Serampore. Even today his story inspires others to follow his famous saying, “Expect great things from God. Attempt great things for God.” Don’t be fooled, Carey did amazing things. He was an absolute trailblazer. When he was reflecting on his life, he knew someone would one day write a biography about him. He told his nephew, “Eustace, if after my removal any one should think it worth his while to write my Life, I will give you a criterion by which you may judge of its correctness. If he give me credit for being a plodder he will describe me justly. Anything beyond this will be too much. I can plod. I can persevere in any definite pursuit. To this I owe everything.” What was the mark of Carey’s life? He persevered. Regardless of what difficulty came his way, he plodded through.

How could Carey plod through such difficulty? How could Carey keep his faith through trial after trial? Did he have amazing gifts? Maybe, but most linguists say he was not that gifted as a linguist. Was he a super duper Christian? Maybe, but the Holy Spirit living in him is the same in me and you. What was it?

In order for us to know the power behind Carey, we need to go look at the beginning of his mission work. Right after the forming of the Baptist Missionary Society, Carey went to each man involved and got them to commit to the work. Andrew Fuller remembers the moment this way,

“Our undertaking to India really appeared to me, on its commencement, to be somewhat like a few men, who were deliberating about the importance of penetrating into a deep mine, which had never before been explored. We had no one to guide us; and, while we were thus deliberating, Carey, as it were, said, ‘Well, I will go down if you will hold the rope.’ But, before he went down, he, as it seemed to me, took an oath from each of us at the mouth of the pit to this effect, that while we lived we should never let go the rope. You understand me. There was great responsibility attached to us who began the business.”

The strength to plodding hard ground is not in the exceptional qualities of the individual but on those petitioning God on behalf of the individual. Missions is never dependent on us. Missions is God’s work.

So seek Him. Hold the rope. If you are one of our “rope holders” thank you. If you want to become a rope holder, email us at kerrfamily@reachingandteaching.org