What's the Difference?....

What's the difference?

An I really making a difference?

I think lots of people spend at least a portion of their lives asking those very questions.

We all get to the place where we wonder if the things we are doing are actually making a difference....

Chris & I are no different & honestly ask that question A LOT!

Missions... Venezuela.... Teams... Sacrifices... Stress... Craziness

Is it all worth it?

We are coming to the end of a second team. Right now as I type & ponder, our team is 

ministering in a nearby church while I stay home on Mommie Duty taking care of a young 

one who feels bad.

I have been doing a lot of thinking & soul searching recently as life has been a bit more 

on the crazy & frustrating side.

God brought my mind back to a story... a testimony, really... of a special couple in Pavia.

Three years ago, we welcomed our very first team to Venezuela.

The team was an AIM team of mostly teenagers from Raleigh led by their youth pastor... 

Ashley Penley (who by the way is now with his family in Costa Rica learning spanish before they head out to be missionaries in Ecuador!)

The team went well & we learned a lot. We learned things that worked, & things that needed to be changed.

We always look back on that team experience fondly & our friends in Pavia have often even compared every team since to that very first team.

The reality, is that the team wasn't perfect & there was lots of room for improvement all the way around...

Yet we hold that team in a special place & look back on them with great nostalgia.

Three years have passed.

We have hosted around 7 teams, went through Chris's accident, itinerated again, & have been back in Venezuela for a year.

The whole time we have still asked...

Did it make a difference?

All the way back to the first team.... Did it matter?

We have received report after report of specifically teenagers, who felt that God confirmed their calling in to ministry or missions during their time here.

Kids whose lives were radically transformed despite of the craziness with the bank, a transportation mix up, food shortages, or an outreach that went crazy.

Last month, we hosted the team from Burlington, NC. 

We sat down with the leadership team in Pavia on our first day there as we always do.

In the midst of the introductions, something caught our attention....

A young couple, the children's pastors in the church, began to share about who they were, what they do, & why they were there.

As Cheo (his real name is Jose but no one calls him that) began to speak, he began to share 

that 3 years ago he was a pretty bad guy & was running with a gang in Pavia.

He had been in & out of the church as a kid but had never really made any commitments to God.

He had just started showing back up at the church & then our first team came.

During one of the services, Cheo decided to turn his life around.

Because of the investments of teenagers, a youth pastor, us missionaries, & the pastors in Pavia, a kid's life was forever changed.

Today, Cheo is 20 years old & is the children's pastor at the church in Pavia & ministers to hundreds of children each week.

His fiance, Jaikel, who also grew up in the church serves beside him in ministry.

So...

Did it matter?

Are we making a difference?

Sometimes we ask those questions & look for immediate affirmation.

But when we invest in people...

the fruit is not always instant.

However, once they begin to show fruit, we realize...

We are indeed making an eternal difference.

...an investment into souls

Then the fog lifts & we know in our hearts that we are exactly where God wants us to be.