Veiw from the top of Cold Water
Brett and Sergio discussing religion
Gran Sabana, and the tepuys
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Spirituality in the Lost World
by Brett Klingenberg
Carefully we walked barefoot through the shallows, one eye on our guide, Sergio, and another on the slippery rock below. As we neared the top of the falls, our senses were filled with the beauty of the Great Savanna - an immense sea of rolling green hills, valleys of scattered palm trees, and the ocasional glimpse of the mystical tepuy´s – gigantic flat topped mountains found nowhere else on earth.
We were only on the first leg of our two day tour of the Great Savanna, located in southern Venezuela, and already I was beginning to understand why the local town of 17,000 had a Hindu congregation, Buddist and Mormon temple, and several UFO sightings...this place brings out the spiritual side of life.
The next day as Sergio and I sat visiting underneath another perfect waterfall, I in my swimsuit and he in his underwear, he began to speak about how his entire family is Christian, but he is not. When I asked why, he explained that he likes to take the best of all religions, combine them, and seek to live a good life. He said he likes Buddism and Christianity, and reads the Bible a lot. He said he believes in forgiveness, and that being able to forgive the people who hurt you is the path to a fulfilling life. I couldn´t disagree. Then he said that it´s not just what you know about faith, it´s also about feeling it. "And living it," I added. I told him about my desire not only to know Jesus, but live out his commands and teachings. I mentioned how some of the men of the Mennonite Church had refused to go into the military because they desired to live out Jesus words to love without exception, and how some of them were persecuted and even killed in prison; how my own father had refused to fight in Vietnam and instead chose to serve in a hospital. I also mentioned my calling to be a pastor and how this was leading my wife and I to attend seminary and follow the Lord´s call wherever it may be. Then we changed the subject.
Did I evangelize? Did I do enough to point him to God? I think so. But I think more than these words, it was how our team interacted together...how we had fun, marveled at the land, and treated each other with kindness...that was what stuck out the most to Sergio, something he voiced more than once. I am finding that being a good listener is the key to witnessing - something Jesus taught, and that if our team had not been an example of Christian community, nothing I said would have had any weight. You´ve got to live the call.
Prayer Requests: That the Lord will empower us and lead us without fear into the Amazonas on Saturday, where we will live for a month.
That we will not be afraid when we encounter spiritual warfare, and that we will be bold in claiming the victory of Christ.
Praises - We were meant for an 8 month term, and already our team is beginning to bear even greater fruit in terms of unity, the desire to serve, and becoming completely immersed and present in Venezuela.
by Brett Klingenberg
Carefully we walked barefoot through the shallows, one eye on our guide, Sergio, and another on the slippery rock below. As we neared the top of the falls, our senses were filled with the beauty of the Great Savanna - an immense sea of rolling green hills, valleys of scattered palm trees, and the ocasional glimpse of the mystical tepuy´s – gigantic flat topped mountains found nowhere else on earth.
We were only on the first leg of our two day tour of the Great Savanna, located in southern Venezuela, and already I was beginning to understand why the local town of 17,000 had a Hindu congregation, Buddist and Mormon temple, and several UFO sightings...this place brings out the spiritual side of life.
The next day as Sergio and I sat visiting underneath another perfect waterfall, I in my swimsuit and he in his underwear, he began to speak about how his entire family is Christian, but he is not. When I asked why, he explained that he likes to take the best of all religions, combine them, and seek to live a good life. He said he likes Buddism and Christianity, and reads the Bible a lot. He said he believes in forgiveness, and that being able to forgive the people who hurt you is the path to a fulfilling life. I couldn´t disagree. Then he said that it´s not just what you know about faith, it´s also about feeling it. "And living it," I added. I told him about my desire not only to know Jesus, but live out his commands and teachings. I mentioned how some of the men of the Mennonite Church had refused to go into the military because they desired to live out Jesus words to love without exception, and how some of them were persecuted and even killed in prison; how my own father had refused to fight in Vietnam and instead chose to serve in a hospital. I also mentioned my calling to be a pastor and how this was leading my wife and I to attend seminary and follow the Lord´s call wherever it may be. Then we changed the subject.
Did I evangelize? Did I do enough to point him to God? I think so. But I think more than these words, it was how our team interacted together...how we had fun, marveled at the land, and treated each other with kindness...that was what stuck out the most to Sergio, something he voiced more than once. I am finding that being a good listener is the key to witnessing - something Jesus taught, and that if our team had not been an example of Christian community, nothing I said would have had any weight. You´ve got to live the call.
Prayer Requests: That the Lord will empower us and lead us without fear into the Amazonas on Saturday, where we will live for a month.
That we will not be afraid when we encounter spiritual warfare, and that we will be bold in claiming the victory of Christ.
Praises - We were meant for an 8 month term, and already our team is beginning to bear even greater fruit in terms of unity, the desire to serve, and becoming completely immersed and present in Venezuela.
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Good morning America!
Its almost nine in the morning in Charallave and already I'm sweating and frankly, smell bad. The days and nights are pretty much always incredibly hot but we are now entering the rainy season so now things are wet and hot. Somehow the rain does not cool the temperature and the heat doesn't dry anything. I did laundry yesterday and now have clean clothes, unfortunately none of them are dry and my host mother said I'm going to have to wait until tomorrow. Might as well wear dirty ones, I'm going to sweat through them anyway.
My team returned to Charallave last saturday from niños de la luz. It was incredibly hard to leave these boys with whom we had built relationships and will always have a foothold in our hearts. The boys come from various situations: most have parents, only their parents cannot support them, they do not know where their parents are, the parents have drug or alcohol addictions or missing mental facilities. The boys have been in and out of group homes and the streets of Caracas. As a result, a few do not know how to read or even know their alphabet. The farm on which niños is located has a small school for the boys who are too far behind to go to real school, but there is no teacher. In our six weeks at the farm, we taught school. Praise God! One boy, who struggles with retaining information and is 11, now knows his alaphabet and simple math and substraction! Another boy, can read simple sentences! We saw incredible growth in these boys while we were there, but it took a lot of time, perseverance and pouring into these boys. Pray for a teacher for these boys. Unfortunately, the host parents are either exhausted from the time they have dedicated to these kids or are fairly new and untrained. So a lot of things fall between the cracks of complete exhaustion and inexperience. All I want for those boys, is that they would be able to just be boys but circumstances have not allowed that. Niños de la Luz is an awesome ministry but they need help. There are three houses: El Camino, Manatial and Esperanza. Pray for them. There are three sets of host parents (called uncles and aunts by the kids): Omar and Josephina, Jose and Mirtha, and Soltela. Pray for rejuvenation of their bodies and minds. Also please pray for more staff. At one time there used to be six sets of aunts and uncles, that would rotate when one set needed time off. Please pray for them, your brothers and sisters in christ.
Only through the love of God above,
Alyse Haldeman
Praises:
- For the time we spent with the boys at the farm. For what we learned and what we taught them.
Prayer requests:
- For the needs of Niños de la Luz
-We are leaving for Brazil this coming monday to renew our visas. Then at the end of May until the beginning of July, we are going to be in the Amazonas. Please pray that God will prepare the way for us and go before us. Especially with all the fish (including eyes and heads), yuca (otherwise known as yucka), monkey brain and snake (don't worry, I think these were jokes) that we are going to eat.
Its almost nine in the morning in Charallave and already I'm sweating and frankly, smell bad. The days and nights are pretty much always incredibly hot but we are now entering the rainy season so now things are wet and hot. Somehow the rain does not cool the temperature and the heat doesn't dry anything. I did laundry yesterday and now have clean clothes, unfortunately none of them are dry and my host mother said I'm going to have to wait until tomorrow. Might as well wear dirty ones, I'm going to sweat through them anyway.
My team returned to Charallave last saturday from niños de la luz. It was incredibly hard to leave these boys with whom we had built relationships and will always have a foothold in our hearts. The boys come from various situations: most have parents, only their parents cannot support them, they do not know where their parents are, the parents have drug or alcohol addictions or missing mental facilities. The boys have been in and out of group homes and the streets of Caracas. As a result, a few do not know how to read or even know their alphabet. The farm on which niños is located has a small school for the boys who are too far behind to go to real school, but there is no teacher. In our six weeks at the farm, we taught school. Praise God! One boy, who struggles with retaining information and is 11, now knows his alaphabet and simple math and substraction! Another boy, can read simple sentences! We saw incredible growth in these boys while we were there, but it took a lot of time, perseverance and pouring into these boys. Pray for a teacher for these boys. Unfortunately, the host parents are either exhausted from the time they have dedicated to these kids or are fairly new and untrained. So a lot of things fall between the cracks of complete exhaustion and inexperience. All I want for those boys, is that they would be able to just be boys but circumstances have not allowed that. Niños de la Luz is an awesome ministry but they need help. There are three houses: El Camino, Manatial and Esperanza. Pray for them. There are three sets of host parents (called uncles and aunts by the kids): Omar and Josephina, Jose and Mirtha, and Soltela. Pray for rejuvenation of their bodies and minds. Also please pray for more staff. At one time there used to be six sets of aunts and uncles, that would rotate when one set needed time off. Please pray for them, your brothers and sisters in christ.
Only through the love of God above,
Alyse Haldeman
Praises:
- For the time we spent with the boys at the farm. For what we learned and what we taught them.
Prayer requests:
- For the needs of Niños de la Luz
-We are leaving for Brazil this coming monday to renew our visas. Then at the end of May until the beginning of July, we are going to be in the Amazonas. Please pray that God will prepare the way for us and go before us. Especially with all the fish (including eyes and heads), yuca (otherwise known as yucka), monkey brain and snake (don't worry, I think these were jokes) that we are going to eat.
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