Here We Go

Hello World Cup aficionados! For a few months now I've been helping a Venezuelan friend coach a young boys soccer team, and it's been a blast.

Also, my wife Alejandra and I are currently helping a young hard working Venezuelan lady start up a coffee shop, and that too, is pretty fun.

While we have opportunity, Alejandra and I try to do good to all people, but there are some friends that we help more than others. In most cases we give priority to those who are of the family of believers (Galatians 6:10), but there are also times when we give freely to whomever, just like we have freely recieved (Matthew 10:8)... Those who are especially close to our hearts are those whom Alejandra and I first shared the gospel with and discipled, and are now serving within the churches that we've been a part of starting. We believe that the hardworking farmer should be the first to recieve a share of the crops (2 Timothy 2:6); and so we try to take into account those who are being used by God within His church, and are proving themselves faithful with very little even as they start becoming faithful in much (Luke 16:10).

Sometimes we've been naive in the way we've tried to help, and we've gotten conned into giving a helpful hand only to later see that our friends had false motives from the start. But then again, why not be wronged? (1 Corinthians 6:7). Alejandra and I would rather be generous than stingy, and we'd rather keep believing that God can transform people from the inside out, and that even if someone has sinned against us 7 times, we still want to forgive them another 77... The bummer is that usually when people do mess up, they often feel so ashamed that they distance themselves even more from God and from us, which is worse than whatever they felt ashamed about to begin with... We only hope that whatever love we were able to transmit when we were with our friends for the time being - that somehow it would have pointed to God's love which knows no bounds (Lamentations 3:22).

The churches that Alejandra and I have been a part of starting are hanging in there, and we feel like this next year especially, if we keep trusting in Jesus and don't let our ego's get in the way - it's likely that they'll really take off. Just about a month ago we had a united camp where one of my good Venezuelan friends got baptized (Yalinxon), and just a couple weeks ago Alejandra and I got to help lead a high scool missions team to encourage the Refuge Church on the border of Colombia with Venezuela...

It was pretty fun to reach out and encourage many Venezuelan immigrants there in the great city of Cucuta, along with a bunch of teenagers from my alma matter who have soooo much energy.

1 Corinthians 4:7 says, "What do you have that you did not recieve, and if you did recieve it, why do you boast as though you did not?" Alejandra and I love serving the Lord here in Colombia, and any good thing that we have or have done, has come from God the Father to whom we give all praise (James 1:17). Thanks so much to many of you who have prayed for us and encouraged us and supported us on multiple ocassions. We are unworthy servants who have only done what was our duty (Luke 17:10).

I hope that you are doing really well! And that you have a wonderful Christmas and happy New Year. ALejandra just got her driver's liscence, and we're flying to the U.S. tomorrow, so beware of an amazing new driver cruising the States of America on a highway near you.

- Sam and Alejandra Killins